IDF soldiers filmed celebrating Gaza destruction NYT

Death. Destruction. Light-hearted memes. The war in Gaza has taken a turn for the strange after the New York Times documented several videos of Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers mocking the destruction of Gaza and making meme-worthy TikTok videos, even as they committed some rather questionable acts. In one video, an IDF soldier can be seen laughing and giving a thumbs up to the camera as he bulldozes an entire road worth of cars, and the entire neighborhood. The caption read ‘I stopped counting how many neighborhoods I’ve erased.’ Other videos show soldiers reveling in the destruction around them set to up-tempo music, dancing like they’re nurses during the pandemic. The IDF has released a statement condemning these videos, specifically that they violated rules banning conduct that ‘affects the image of the IDF and its perceptions in the eyes of the public,’ and ‘harms human dignity.’ ‘The conduct of the force that emerges from the footage is deplorable and does not comply with the army’s orders,’ the statement continued. In other words, if you’re going to do this stuff, don’t broadcast it for everyone to see.