There are humiliations and displays of contempt for the inhabitants of Gaza, like soldiers having fun riding bikes in the ruins of a neighborhood pulverized by bombardments. Or one laughing as he types on the keyboard of an outdated computer in a ravaged school. Or other service members in a private home pretending to be on a date with a Palestinian woman embodied by a doll.

Then there are the victory scenes full of bravado, showing the extensive destruction caused to civilian infrastructure, like the video where infantrymen fly an Israeli flag on the roof of a building, filmed zoomed out, revealing a sea of pale, smoking ruins. Finally, there are moments of pure vandalism, like troops delighting in ransacking and blasting an empty mosque that presents no risk, or a soldier going behind the counter of a stall to smash the few remaining goods there.

All these videos were posted on social media by Israeli forces deployed in the Gaza Strip, with a preference for TikTok, a platform that takes down less content than Facebook, X or Instagram. This incessant flow of images bears witness to the sense of impunity that drives the soldiers operating in Gaza and to a form of dehumanizing the Palestinian population.

Take for example the soldier Izidor Elgrabli, who plays a real estate agent in the ruins of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood, then praises the beauty of Gaza's coast, before threatening, on camera: "We're going to crush you." There are also those who are adept at looting, such as this man who attacks a Gazan's trunk with an angle grinder. Another brandishes a pair of pumps, still in the original box, which he intends to give to his future fiancée.

Other scenes are darker. A gunner bombs Gaza, disguised as a dinosaur. An infantryman sets fire to a shipment of foods, as Gaza teeters on the brink of starvation. Another waves a banner advertising his barber shop next to Palestinian corpses, whom song lyrics compare to "animals" and "Amalek." The former comparison was expressed on October 13, 2023, by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who likened the perpetrators of the October 7 massacre to "human animals," giving the signal for a major dehumanization campaign.

The second refers to a quote from Benjamin Netanyahu – "Remember what Amalek did to you" – a reference to the Biblical enemy of the Jewish people. A commandment in the Book of Deuteronomy calls for the memory of the Amalek to be "utterly wiped out." This statement by the Israeli prime minister is part of the case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. In the same vein, a number of videos show the humiliation of naked Palestinian prisoners, condemned to sit or stand for hours in the middle of the street, or crammed into trucks.

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