When they entered Gaza on October 27, after three weeks of aerial bombardment following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli troops took their iPhones with them.
“We live in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first livestreamed genocide in history,” Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa told Al Jazeera’s investigative unit (I-Unit).
In the year since, Israeli soldiers have posted thousands of videos and photos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
These videos and photos form the foundation of the I-Unit’s new film, which investigates Israeli war crimes primarily through the medium of the evidence Israeli soldiers themselves have provided.
It is, according to Rodney Dixon, an international law expert featured in the film, “a treasure trove which you very seldom come across … something which I think prosecutors will be licking their lips at”.
As journalists in the West sought to portray the war on Gaza as complex and nuanced, a flood of social media posts from Israeli soldiers suggested they regarded it as anything but.
A slick, high-priced television production. Speeches from top officials. A live audience of thousands. A unified...
