You could posit that the chief is speaking out of his ass, but the more probable theory is that higher up on the hierarchy some officers are sincerely convinced that they are leading the charge of the Most Moral Army in the World™, and meanwhile some hefty portion of the boots on the ground have decided to, like you’ve phrased it, kill everything that moves and fuck the rules of engagement.

No way. This is the Hannibal directive at play, at least indirectly.

The Israel military command can scream and shout “We don’t target civilians indiscriminately”, “we are minimizing civilian casualties”, “we didn’t mean to target xyz”, “we are giving them safe places to refuge”, “we are giving aid” all they want but that doesn’t change the situation on the ground.

1% of the entire population of Gaza killed, nearly all hospitals destroyed, hunger rampant throughout, settlers with military escort razing farms, stealing land and ransacking people’s homes, deliberately targeting clearly marked unarmed journalists, launching attacks against areas civilians were told were safe, on and on.

Virtually all of this has happened without any real punishment from Israel’s military command. This is tacit endorsement in my books.

This feels like overthinking it.

Of course the IDF chief of staff quoted is going to say their policy is not to shoot people surrendering. That’s a war crime. You don’t say that’s your policy.

No one at the top of a military thinks their forces are free from misconduct.

If rules of engagement are being ignored large scale with no repercussions, the IDF has severe problems. But it’s been reported since the start that use of force rules seem to be much looser.

And let’s not forget that the defense minister is an openly pro-genocide murderous right wing lunatic.

The most obvious explanation for Israeli soldiers continually killing so many civilians, including on their own side, is that the IDF lets them.