According to a report by the Hebrew newspaper “Haaretz”, which collected testimonies from officers and soldiers who fought in Gaza during the ongoing war on the strip.

Crossing a fictitious line drawn by the occupation

According to the testimonies of officers and soldiers, about 9000 Palestinian martyrs in Gaza were classified by the occupation army as “terrorists”, but in reality, most of them were civilians and did not pose any threat.

The officers and soldiers explained that the only fault of these victims is crossing a fictitious line drawn by the occupation army, and if crossed, the forces are authorized to open fire on them.

One soldier said: “We were specifically told that even if a suspect flees into a building, fire is opened at the building, even at the expense of injuring civilians.”

Extermination zones defined by the occupation

The testimonies of officers and soldiers confirmed that the occupation army fires at anyone entering the “extermination zone” it defined, whether they are armed or civilians.

A reserve officer said: “In short… a terrorist to the army is anyone killed by the forces inside the combat zone… it cannot be said for sure who the terrorist is and who was targeted because they entered the combat zone for one reason or another.”

Hamas comments on extermination zones

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) affirmed that the revelations made by the Israeli media about the occupation army’s establishment of “execution/extermination zones” throughout the Gaza Strip, where anyone moving in them is killed without discrimination, constitute a heinous war crime.

The movement added in a statement that these Israeli practices represent a violation of all norms and laws of war by targeting isolated civilians in continuous incidents, some of which were revealed by video clips previously aired by Al Jazeera channel.