IDF reservist soldier who refuses to continue serving in Gaza speaks out

Yuval Green, an Israeli reservist who was called up to fight in southern Gaza, decided to leave the Israel Defense Forces when his unit was ordered to burn down a Palestinian house, claiming he was not given valid reasoning from his commander, according to an interview with ABC News.

"They gave us an order to burn down a house. I went to my commander and asked him, 'Why are we doing that?'" Green said in an interview with ABC News last week. "The answers he gave me were just not satisfying enough, they were not even close to being satisfying enough. And I said, 'I'm not willing to participate in that. If we're doing that, I'm leaving.'"

IDF says actions follow international law

In a statement to ABC News, the IDF said that its "actions are based on military necessity and in accordance to international law", and that they avoid damage to civilian infrastructures to the best of their ability regardless of military necessity.

While very few IDF soldiers serving in Gaza have spoken out against the war, those who have spoken out have done so anonymously. Green is one of the only soldiers to do so publicly.

Along with 40 other anonymous reservists, Green cosigned a letter in June refusing to serve in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. He stated that his point of view on the war vastly differs from his social circle and fellow soldiers. Additionally, Green noted that Israeli support for enlisting and fighting against Hamas remains staunch, and that his impactful experience in Gaza moved him to speak publicly on behalf of both Israelis and Palestinians, he said.

Civilian infrastructures allegedly taken over for military activity 

Hamas immerses itself into densely populated civilian areas and infrastructure and booby-traps homes. Green recalled witnessing fellow soldiers deface and burn Palestinian homes and mishandle the belongings left behind.

"In certain cases, entire neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip are converted into combat complexes that are utilized for military activity, housing command and control centers and weapon warehouses, combat tunnels, observation posts, firing positions, booby-trapped houses, and for setting explosives in the streets," the IDF said.

Soldiers steal Palestinian belongings from evacuated homes

In response to Green's accusations, the IDF stated, "Defacing homes with graffiti and stealing household personal objects is against the IDF’s code of conduct and values. The IDF has acted, and continues to act, to identify unusual cases that deviate from what is expected of IDF soldiers. Those cases will be arbitrated, and significant command measures will be taken against the soldiers involved."

Late last year, Green served in Khan Yunis as a combat medic, where he said IDF soldiers engaged in guerrilla warfare tactics, moving from house to house in Gaza. He also said that soldiers had been ordered to stop demolishing homes in "some cases," but it continued to go against his morals. "You have to really think through about the amount of damage you're inflicting upon the poor person that will lose everything he has," Green said regarding this matter.

Disagreements over West Bank policy 

Before October 7, Green had been planning on leaving the IDF because of his discontentment with Israel’s policies regarding the West Bank.

Despite these disagreements, Green abided by his call to the reserves after Hamas launched its surprise attack on October 7. He said he believed that some of the soldier’s actions in Gaza were attributed to the massacres committed by Hamas and other Palestinian-armed groups on October 7, which killed over 1,200 people.

"I think the horrible things that have happened have caused many Israelis to be very, very furious with the Palestinians," Green said. 

Alleged unjustified destruction taking place in Gaza

Green said the IDF is going inside Palestinian houses and utilizing them for military purposes and that soldiers take “souvenirs, vandalize the homes, and destroy things for no reason.”

"You have to understand that, first of all, the military is a big system, and sometimes, if there are rules, different commanders could interpret them in different ways so things could change, depending on the person that is there,” he told the outlet.

Green said they were able to do “whatever we wanted inside the houses” for the most part, continuing to say the scale of destruction he saw in Gaza was "unimaginable."

When questioned about his decision to speak out publicly, he said he hopes to advocate for a cease-fire deal to end the suffering of Palestinians and rescue the remaining hostages in Gaza.