The Israeli military pushed back on Friday against an investigation by the newspaper Haaretz that quoted mostly unnamed soldiers serving in Gaza describing indiscriminate killings of civilians in the territory's Netzarim Corridor.
"All activities and operations conducted by (Israeli army) forces in the Gaza Strip, including in the Netzarim Corridor, are carried out in accordance with structured combat procedures, plans and operational orders approved by the highest ranks in the (army)," the military told AFP in a statement.
On Thursday, Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli daily that has faced severe criticism from the country's right-wing government, quoted soldiers, career officers and reservists who said commanders were given unprecedented authority to operate in the Palestinian territory.
They alleged that commanders had ordered or allowed the killing of unarmed women, children and men in the Netzarim Corridor, a seven-kilometre-wide strip of land that cuts across Gaza from Israel to the Mediterranean, and which has been turned into a military zone.
The report quoted an officer who recalled an incident in which a commander had announced that 200 militants were killed, when actually "only 10 were confirmed as known Hamas operatives".
Soldiers told the newspaper that they received questionable orders to open fire on "anyone who enters" Netzarim.
They also described how division commanders received "expanded powers" allowing them to bomb buildings or launch air strikes that previously required approval from the army's top echelons.
The allegations contained in the Haaretz report could not be independently verified.
- 'No innocents in Gaza' -
Rejecting the report, the military said that "all strikes in the area (of Netzarim) are conducted in accordance with the mandatory procedures and protocols, including targets that are struck in an urgent time frame due to essential operational circumstances where ground forces face immediate threats".
"Incidents that give rise to concerns of deviations from IDF's orders or ethical standards are thoroughly examined and addressed."
Many who spoke to Haaretz pointed a finger at a specific commander, Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, who last summer took charge of Division 252, which has been based in Netzarim.
One of the soldiers interviewed by Haaretz said of Vach -- who was born in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba -- that "his worldview and political positions were clearly driving his operational decisions".
Another soldier said Vach had declared "there are no innocents in Gaza".
The military told AFP that the "statements attributed to him... were not made by him".
"Any claim asserting otherwise is entirely baseless."
Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the current war, also reacted to the Haaretz report.
It said that the testimonies offered "new evidence of unprecedented war crimes and full-fledged ethnic cleansing operations, carried out in an organised manner".
Hamas, which has also been accused of indiscriminate killings of Israelis and other civilians on October 7 last year, demanded that the UN and the ICJ "document these testimonies and take the necessary steps to stop the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip".