Hamas Calls for ICC Probe in Israeli Genocide on Palestinians

Hamas made the plea on Wednesday, two days after Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call published detailed accounts by former Israeli troops describing how they fired their weapons out of "boredom" and designated any Palestinians in sight as a threat.

“The confessions of the Zionist occupation soldiers … and their confirmation that they were given a green-light by the leaders of the terrorist occupation army to commit the most heinous crimes, such as shooting at unarmed civilians, burning and destroying homes” in Gaza require “serious follow-up by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,” the Resistance group said in a statement.

The six Israeli soldiers, who had fought in the Gaza Strip, recounted "routinely" executing civilians mainly because they had entered an area defined as a "no-go zone" by the regime’s military. The soldiers said their surroundings were "littered with civilian corpses, which are left to rot or be eaten by stray animals." They noted that the Israeli military only hides bodies ahead of the arrival of international aid convoys.

If troops see a person approaching and do not know whether they are armed or pose a threat, "it is permissible to shoot at their center of mass (their body), not into the air... It's permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman," said a soldier identified as B.

Hamas said the Israeli force’s criminal practices make unarmed civilians “targets for amusement” and remain “a stain on humanity.”