‘They try to connect the people killed to Hamas’: Israeli soldier reveals Gaza policy
The Palestine Chronicle reports on 26 August 2026:
Key Takeaways
- An Israeli soldier told The Independent that the military uses what he called “retrospective reframing” after high-profile attacks involving large numbers of civilian casualties or sensitive sites.
- The whistleblower said officials attempt to connect Palestinians killed or wounded in such attacks to Hamas because identifying victims as “terrorists” makes the attack “look better in the eyes of the world.”
- He said the process was used following Israel’s August 25, 2025 attack on Nasser Medical Complex, which killed 22 Palestinians, including five journalists.
An Israeli military whistleblower has described what he says is a de facto policy of retrospectively seeking to incriminate Palestinians killed in controversial Israeli attacks in Gaza, in an effort to justify the military’s actions after the fact.
The soldier, who was connected with The Independent by the Israeli veterans’ organization Breaking the Silence, described the practice as “retrospective reframing.” According to his testimony, the mechanism is activated particularly following high-profile attacks involving significant civilian casualties or strikes on sensitive and protected locations such as hospitals and schools.
“When (the military) understands there is a crisis, they try to connect the people that were killed or harmed to Hamas,” the whistleblower told The Independent. “Because if they can say the people who killed them were a Hamas terrorist, that would look better in the eyes of the world.”
“They call this process retrospective reframing,” he said.
‘A Tool to Handle the Narrative’
The whistleblower described intense pressure within the Israeli military to defend its conduct publicly following controversial attacks. “It’s a tool to handle the narrative and twist it like they are the good guys,” he said.
He also pointed to the reliance of international news organizations on statements issued by the Israeli military. “The international media is very reliant on the IDF… messages and announcements, it usually gets all over the world, so it’s the best that they can do.”
Breaking the Silence said the soldier’s testimony had been corroborated by other accounts collected by the organization. Its executive director, Nadav Weiman, said Israel’s rules of engagement and what he called “de facto procedures of retroactive incrimination” have functioned as a “near-automatic justification for every bullet, shell or missile fired” and as a means of avoiding genuine investigations.
Nasser Hospital Attack