Gaza videos show Israeli soldiers blowing up Palestinian homes in revenge for dead troops

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Videos showed Israeli soldiers blowing up Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in revenge for dead troops amid a deadly offensive on the war-battered enclave.

“This is in revenge for my younger brother,” an Israeli soldier is heard saying in a video clip shared on social media platforms.

After a countdown, an explosion struck a large building in a neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. No date or locations were provided in the video.

Another clip shows a soldier preparing to blow up a building “in memory of his older brother who was killed in a battle in Gaza.”

Since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, dozens of Israeli soldiers have appeared in videos documenting retaliatory actions, including the demolition and burning of homes and sabotaging houses and shops.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 29,092 victims and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara