By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 16 Apr 202516 Apr 2025

Despite a ceasefire agreed upon in January, Israeli forces have resumed bombing Gaza. On March 19, a day after the bombing resumed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the latest air strikes, which have killed hundreds of people, were “only the beginning.”

Eighteen months into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, more than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been confirmed killed. At least 10,000 more are missing, buried under the rubble and presumed dead.

The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit’s feature documentary GAZA exposes Israeli war crimes through the use of videos and photographs posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves.

Here we present the database that lies behind that film, described by international law expert Rodney Dixon as “a treasure trove you very seldom come across, … something which I think prosecutors will be licking their lips at.”

In GAZA, Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa says: “We live in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first livestreamed genocide in history.”

Israeli soldiers have posted videos on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube showcasing their activities in Gaza, using their own names, often with details of when and where the incidents depicted have taken place. But what may have been intended as bravado has become a damning digital dossier.

The behaviour displayed in the photos and videos ranges from crass jokes and soldiers rifling through women’s underwear drawers to what appears to be the killings of unarmed civilians.

Below are just some of the soldiers identified by the I-Unit along with evidence of their actions.

Legal experts said these videos provide an unprecedented level of real-time documentation. Unlike past conflicts in which war crimes were investigated after the fact, here, the perpetrators are providing contemporaneous evidence of their own actions.

Footage clearly documents violations of international law, such as the destruction of civilian infrastructure, looting, targeting of civilians and inhumane war tactics.

Some have already taken cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In October, Dutch lawyer Harun Reda filed a complaint to the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers accusing them of war crimes in Gaza. Reda said the complaint is based on evidence from video clips collected on social media as well as documentation from the United Nations and human rights organisations with some videos showing Israeli soldiers admitting to their participation in inhumane and unnecessary practices.

The I-Unit’s findings paint a harrowing picture: homes and entire neighbourhoods demolished without military necessity, Palestinian detainees stripped and tortured, civilians used as human shields, and unarmed individuals, including children, gunned down. These incidents are now catalogued and categorised by Al Jazeera under potential war crimes. Explore the database and table below.

It will be for prosecutors to decide the guilt or otherwise of soldiers, but legal and human rights experts told Al Jazeera that several of the incidents documented merited investigation by international investigators. They said they may violate international humanitarian law and be war crimes under the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.

Wanton destruction

Video after video captures soldiers gleefully detonating homes, schools and places of worship – acts that violate both the Geneva Conventions and The Hague Regulations. There is an abundance of footage that shows soldiers laughing while destroying property, turning Palestinian homes into makeshift entertainment venues and even setting buildings on fire.

Destruction of homes, hospitals and educational facilities

Bill Van Esveld, associate director at Human Rights Watch, noted that much of the destruction appears to lack any legitimate military justification, making it a clear violation of international law.

Abuse and mistreatment of detainees

Some of the most disturbing footage depicts detainees stripped, blindfolded and bound and being mocked, kicked and forced into stress positions for hours.

In one video, a French-Israeli soldier points to a detainee and boasts: “Look, he pissed himself. Look, I’ll show you his back. You’re going to laugh. Look, they tortured him to make him talk. Did you see his back? Son of a whore.” Such treatment is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, which protect prisoners of war from inhumane treatment.

Other evidence

Israeli soldiers have also been filmed looting shops as well as entering homes in Gaza. In some cases, they have gone as far as trying on women’s lingerie and making crass comments about Palestinian women.

This behaviour has continued into the present day with videos showing soldiers wearing women’s lingerie during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

A spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights declared such posts to be “demeaning to Palestinian women and all women”.

Looting homes and displaying lingerie

While Israeli soldiers have since been told not to publish war videos after one holidaying soldier was forced to flee Brazil after a judge ordered an investigation into his wartime conduct in Gaza, a trail of self-incrimination remains.

Making crass jokes

Expressing genocidal intent

Often soldiers have shown genocidal intent, for example, by making statements on camera of their intent to destroy all of Gaza.

While such an intention is usually difficult to prove because, in the language of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” must be proven, many videos collected by the I-Unit show clear examples of intention.

The I-Unit’s investigation has also featured reporting by Declassified UK showing the role played by the British base at RAF Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. The British have been running surveillance flights over Gaza since early December 2023, supposedly to facilitate the rescue of Israeli captives.

The support of governments such as the United States, United Kingdom and Germany has provided Israel the means to continue its genocide.

“When you start acting in a conflict to a level that the people on the ground who are doing the fighting are using your information as they fight”, you may become “a party to the conflict”, Van Esveld explained.

Israel did not provide answers to any of the allegations put to it by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.

The UK government stated: “The UK is not a participant in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. Only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”

Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit approached everyone else who featured in the documentary but received no response.