Israel-Hamas war continues since October 7, 2023
Israeli soldiers have been posting photos and videos of themselves playing with underwear found in Palestinian homes, creating a jarring visual record of the war in Gaza as looming famine intensifies world attention on Israel’s offensive.
In one video, an Israeli soldier sits in an armchair in a Gaza room, grinning, holding a gun in one hand and white satin underwear in the other, covering the open arms of his comrades lying on the sofa Q.
Elsewhere, another soldier, sitting atop a tank holding a female mannequin wearing a black bra and helmet, said: “I found a beautiful wife in Gaza, serious relationship, great woman.”
Two videos shot by Israeli soldiers are part of dozens of posts showing Gaza troops showing off underwear, mannequins and sometimes both. After being retweeted by Younis Tirawi, who claims to be a Palestinian journalist, the underwear images have been viewed tens of thousands of times, including nearly 500,000 times in one instance.
When Tiravi retweeted the image to his more than 100,000 followers on X between February 23 and March 1, he provided a link to the IDF soldier’s original post. Subsequently, Reuters independently verified eight pieces of content posted on Instagram or YouTube.
“The publication of such images is an insult to Palestinian women and to all women,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Reuters sent details of eight verified posts on YouTube or Instagram to the IDF requesting comment.
In response, the spokesperson issued a statement saying that the IDF is investigating incidents that deviate from the orders and expected values of IDF soldiers, as well as video reports uploaded to social networks.
“If a criminal offense is suspected and an investigation is required, the investigation is carried out by the military police,” the statement said.
“To be clear, in some of the cases reviewed, it was concluded that the soldier’s expression or behavior in the video was inappropriate and dealt with accordingly,” the statement said.
The IDF declined to say whether it was referring to any of the images highlighted by Reuters or whether any of the soldiers responsible had been disciplined.
Israeli soldiers who could be identified by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment sent through their social media accounts.
Mannequins and lingerie
Verified posts include a photo of a soldier holding a naked female model from behind with his hands on the model’s breasts, and another photo of a soldier holding a half-naked doll.
In one photo, a soldier poses with a gun and gives a thumbs up in front of a double bed strewn with women’s underwear.
YouTube said it had removed a video flagged by Reuters for violating the platform’s harassment policy, which prohibits content that reveals someone’s personally identifiable information. Instagram had no comment.
According to Israel, the Israeli military operation in Gaza was in response to the October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in which Hamas agents killed approximately 1,200 people and took 253 hostages.
The posts come as both Hamas and Israel have been accused of serious war crimes. A U.N. panel of experts said in a report this month that there were reasonable grounds to believe sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred at multiple locations during the October 7 Hamas attack.
Experts also say there is compelling information that some Israeli hostages taken to Gaza have been subjected to sexual violence and that this violence may still be ongoing.
Israel is accused of pushing Gaza towards famine. The U.N. expert panel also said in its recent report that it had received information about sexual violence against Palestinians by the IDF from institutional and civil society sources and from direct interviews in the West Bank.
Both parties deny the accusations of sexual violence.
These posts of lingerie and mannequins do not compare to the seriousness of alleged crimes against women reported since October 7. However, two legal experts said the posts may have violated international law.
Adi Imseth, an assistant professor of law at Queen’s University in Canada, said the posts violated Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the treatment of civilians in wartime.
Article 27 states that civilians have the right to respect for their honor, family rights, rites and customs and must be protected from insult and public curiosity. Women in particular must be protected from any attacks on their honor.
Oren Persico of the Israeli media website Seventh Eye said the underwear posts attracted little attention within Israel. In contrast, posts about weapons or Hamas flags said to have been found in homes in Gaza have gone viral, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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