Several confessions and violent incidents were detailed, including the beating of a 4-year-old boy by an Israeli officer. Yishai-Karin cites that “At one point or another of their service, the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of danger.”

One soldier stated that he enjoyed it when there was “chaos”, likening it to a drug and saying he would “go nuts” when there was relative calm. Another soldier was more drawn to having absolute authority. “As though from the moment you leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God,” he said.

This dangerous combination of unchecked power and a thrill-seeking mentality often leads to innocent Palestinian civilians being abused or even killed for no reason. One soldier described such an incident: “We were in a weapons carrier when this guy, around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason - he didn’t throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look.”

Violence against women is also rather common. “With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke everything there. She can’t have children. Next time she won’t throw clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the rifle butt in the face. She doesn’t have what to spit with any more.”

The soldiers described how the violence was encouraged by some commanders. One soldier recalled: ‘After two months in Rafah, a [new] commanding officer arrived… So we do a first patrol with him. It’s 6am, Rafah is under curfew, there isn’t so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from the combat engineers.

‘He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock…

‘The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers are already starting to do the same thing.”

It was shown that the longer a unit was in the field, the more violent it became. Yishai-Karin, who had served herself as a soldier in the Gaza Strip, concluded that the main reason for such unprovoked violence was due to soldiers developing their own way of behaving since their training failed to teach them what was expected of them. A spokeswoman from the IDF reassured the public that soldiers deviating from the norm could be investigated or face criminal investigation. However, abuse and murder IS the norm. Clear evidence of such activity is routinely covered-up by the IDF, and investigations are usually only done for show.

Treatment of prisoners is unsurprisingly tantamount to torture. One case describes a bus full of Palestinian men arrested from their beds, and made to sit on the floor of a bus, barely clothed, in below zero weather. To add to their freezing discomfort, the windows of the bus were open and water was poured on them. The men were also trampled on by the soldiers and beaten for the entire bus ride.

Yishai-Karin’s report has sparked debate into the legitimacy of the IDF, where soldiers are indoctrinated with the belief that the Israeli army is “the most ethical army in the world”. This obviously false refrain is echoed throughout Israeli society as a source of national pride. However, this study is but one part of a growing shift inside Israel, where conscientious objection and draft-dodging has increased, particularly within the occupied territories.