As an IDF Commander, I know how dangerous unrestricted rules of engagement are
A protest encampment of veterans with combat trauma outside the Knesset in 2025.
Anonymous writes in Haaretz on 6 July 2026:
I don’t usually hide behind anonymity, but hiding one’s identity often enables one to reveal what needs to be uncovered.
I’m the commander of a unit doing reserve duty in the Gaza Strip, and I’m writing these words while on active duty, across the border. Since October 7, we’ve done more than 300 days of reserve duty. I don’t want to write about the hardship of repeated reserve duty or about the damage it does to one’s body and soul, even though these important topics should be discussed more often.
Rather, I want to discuss values, a problem I’m regrettably contending with as I witness a moral deterioration playing out within the army. Morality is the essence of our human nature and of our link to the divine.
The current nature of our operations is defensive. We are fighting an ongoing battle of trench warfare that is never satiated. The objective of our mission is no longer clear, not even defined, leaving us no criteria with which to measure success. Because we are on a defensive mission, there is a high state of alert and fear of an enemy that might catch us by surprise. This mindset leads to many moral dilemmas.
The state of alert and the memories of October 7 lead to soldiers shooting Gazans who approach (or are sent toward) our line. Sometimes the shooting is justified, sometimes less so. In any event, opening fire happens because the individual soldier on the front line feels threatened or insecure. The blazing sun, the fatigue and the futility augment these feelings even when they are baseless. Even if it’s easy to judge them harshly while sitting in an air-conditioned office at the headquarters in Tel Aviv, one must recognize that these feelings exist.
The wounding and killing of so many unarmed human beings is taking its toll on our combatants’ souls. It’s taking a toll on mine. In our last conversation, the brigade mental health officer told us that besides physical and mental injury, the army now recognizes something called “moral injury” – an area that began to be studied in the 1990s and was officially recognized in the early 2000s.
However, the mental health assistance the army provides retroactively after almost three years of combat is insufficient. We need the army to set legal boundaries and to enforce them effectively. The Military Advocate General’s Office, the body that is supposed to set the limits, is paralyzed, not performing its duties since the Sde Teiman detention center affair, possibly since the earlier Elor Azaria affair.
The conduct of the Military Advocate General’s Office reminds me of an overzealous secular person who decides to turn religious, moving from one extreme position to another. Prior to October 7, the strict rules of engagement allowed Gazans to hold their demonstrations along the border fence, protests that led to disturbances that ended with the death of Barel Shmueli.
In my opinion, our restraint at those demonstrations was one of the causes of the October 7 massacre, in response to which all restraints were suspended. Now, everything is permitted, and we have light fingers – too light – on the trigger. The unrestricted rules of engagement guarantee that no Gazan will reach the border fence, but they’re taking an increasing toll on us, on our values and on our mental state.
If someone from the advocate general’s office were to investigate the latest shooting incident we were involved in, I would, as a commander, fully back my soldiers. I’d tell that investigator that the Gazan who was shot had crossed the Yellow Line (even if that didn’t happen), and I’d say that we had felt threatened (which was the case).
I might even do more, lashing out at the advocate general’s office. I’d cry out and ask: “How can officials wearing ties come here from their air-conditioned offices and dare question combatants who have done hundreds of days of reserve duty?” But deep inside, I’d be happy that he had come to investigate and to put an end to the recklessness. Please, set us some boundaries.
The writer is a reserve captain and a combat commander.
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