Al Jazeera reveals full names and units of hundreds of IDF soldiers in newly released documentary

In a documentary released by Al Jazeera on Thursday, in which the Qatari-run news agency makes an effort to prove Israeli war crimes in Gaza, full names and units of IDF soldiers were revealed while showing videos published on the soldiers’ social media accounts.

The one-hour Al Jazeera film shows the videos published to the identified IDF soldiers’ social media accounts, accuses the IDF soldiers of war crimes, and claims that this footage can be used in the International Court of Justice to prove that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. 

The documentary begins with Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa telling Al Jazeera, “We live in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first live-streamed genocide in history.”

Another speaker in the documentary, Youmna Elsayed, who is a reporter at Al Jazeera’s English bureau and a Gaza resident, said that they did not expect Israel’s retaliation to “be what it turned out to be.”

“The fact that there are Israeli captives in the Strip. Wouldn’t that be a red line for Israel? That it would be afraid for its captives,” she speculated. “Even if Israel wanted to cross these red lines, we were sure that the rest of the world would stand and say no,” pointing to the US, German, and British aid Israel has received throughout the conflict. 

Several of the speakers in the documentary claim that the IDF systematically attacks Palestinian civilians, journalists, and human rights workers. Human Rights Watch’s Bill Van Esveld claimed that after Human Rights Watch gave the IDF their coordinates so that the IDF could ensure that they would not strike the rights workers, the IDF purposefully struck those precise coordinates. 

Depiction of IDF soldiers

The videos displayed in the film depict IDF soldiers ransacking homes in Gaza gleefully and celebrating explosions. 

“These videos don’t show a professional army. They show an army that, at times, appears to show a lack of any self-discipline to the point where one thinks it's not just a personal lack of self-discipline, but rather thinks it's an institutional lack of self-discipline," British army Retired Major General Charlie Herbert stated. 

International law expert Rodney Dixon KC said that Israel could be charged in the International Court for destroying ordinary civilian property where there were no military objectives. 

Among additional instances discussed were instances of soldiers going through underwear drawers of Gazan women, photographing themselves with their underwear, and, in some cases, trying them on. 

They also discuss IDF torturing terrorists in Israeli prisons and the possibility of using obtained video footage to incriminate Israel in the International Court. 

Human shields

Towards the end of the film, US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer are shown discussing Hamas using civilians as human shields. Following these clips, Esveld claims that there is no evidence that “Palestinian armed groups are hiding next to civilians and not allowing the civilians to leave.” The film argues that since Gaza is such a small strip of land, it would be nearly impossible for Hamas not to be close to civilian residences. 

Then, the film claims that the IDF does use Gazans as human shields, claiming that they send Gazans first into booby-trapped buildings before the IDF enters. 

At the end of the documentary, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, Dr. Basem Naim, discusses Hamas’s terror tunnels, which he said enable Hamas to “move underground to plan and to attack the enemy." He asserts that the IDF has "lost the ability to control the field.”

One of the concluding voices of the film is Chatham House professor of International Relations Yossi Mekelberg. 

“At the beginning of the war, it was about destroying Hamas and bringing the hostages home. But right now, 120 hostages are still there, and Hamas is still fighting. So the problem from the beginning was setting an objective that was not achievable,” he said.  

No statement from the IDF was shared in the film, and no criticism was leveled at Hamas throughout. Although the documentary did mention the October 7 attacks, there was no mention of the perpetrators. 

Israel's cabinet voted unanimously to shut down Al Jazeera's operations in Israel in May, citing security concerns related to the Israel-Hamas war. Critics of the decision have argued that this move is undemocratic and limits the free press in Israel. The ban was extended in July to November 30.