Israeli forces deliberately fired an artillery cannon over the head of a female soldier, videos shared online show, prompting an investigation by the IDF.
Footage shows the young woman standing in front of the self-propelled howitzer as it fires a round, causing her to fall to the ground.
The reckless incident prompted a swift response from the Israeli military, which stressed that no one was injured in the stunt.
“The incident shown in the video is serious and completely deviates from IDF security regulations,” an IDF spokesman said.
“A thorough investigation into the matter will be conducted as soon as possible and punishment will be appropriate. No one was injured in the incident.”
Israeli forces deliberately fire an artillery cannon over a female soldier's head, according to a video (photo) shared online, prompting an IDF investigation
The short clip starts with the woman standing on a pile of dirt.
On the right, with the hill for cover, is an Israeli self-propelled howitzer gun, while a row of trees can be seen in the background.
The gun is believed to be firing from Israel into the Gaza Strip, which is currently under siege by the Israeli army.
The soldier has her hands over her ears and waits for the cannon to fire.
There is a shout, probably telling the artillery crew to fire.
Then there is a loud bang as the bullet is launched from the end of the gun. The gun recoils, blowing dust into the air and simultaneously causing the woman's hair to wave.
The force of the bullet being fired causes her to stumble backwards to the left of the hill, away from where the mobile artillery gun is positioned, and out of view.
It was not immediately clear from the footage which model of artillery was used, but it appeared to be the powerful Sholef (Slammer), a self-propelled howitzer using a modified chassis from an Israeli Merkava – the IDF's main battle tank.
Sholfs fire 155mm, 52 caliber ammunition at a rate of up to nine rounds per minute.
Footage shows the young woman standing in front of the self-propelled howitzer as it fires a bullet, causing her to fall to the ground
The reckless incident (pictured) prompted a swift response from the Israeli military, which stressed that no one was injured in the stunt.
The footage is the latest to show Israeli soldiers in an unfavorable light, after clips earlier this month showed IDF forces attempting to set fire to aid supplies in Gaza and loot the homes of displaced civilians.
This came to the fore as Israeli forces launched more deadly attacks on Tuesday and overran the last functioning hospital in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council postponed the vote on an Arab-backed resolution for an urgent cessation of hostilities.
An attack on a house in Rafah where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 28 people, including women and children, and another attack killed at least three people.
This was said by Associated Press journalists, who reported seeing the bodies arriving at two local hospitals early Tuesday.
Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Thousands more are buried under the rubble of Gaza, the UN estimates.
Israel says 127 of its soldiers were killed in the ground offensive launched after Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and returning about 240 hostages to Gaza.
Pictured: An Israeli soldier leads an artillery unit near the border with Lebanon on December 19, 2023 on the northern border, Israel
The video also came as the Israeli army suspended a group of soldiers who were smoking a hookah and joking in front of Palestinians who were being held and blindfolded, in another incident involving poor discipline.
The video, uploaded to social media and viewed millions of times in the past two days, shows soldiers laughing and eating snacks as at least seven Palestinians sit blindfolded in the same room in the West Bank city of Jenin.
“The behavior of the soldiers in the videos is deplorable and stands in stark contrast to the values of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces),” an Israeli army spokesperson said.
After a disciplinary hearing, the reserve soldiers were suspended until further notice, the spokesperson said.
And last week, the IDF vowed to crack down on the behavior of its soldiers after videos of them setting fire to Gaza's food supplies, ransacking lingerie and singing racist songs went viral.
The videos, apparently filmed and shared by IDF soldiers themselves (as with the artillery gun video), show them behaving in derogatory and offensive ways amid the army's ground assault on the enclave.
One video shows soldiers cycling through the rubble.
In another film, a soldier films boxes of lingerie found in a house in Gaza. In another, a soldier moved Muslim prayer rugs into a bathroom.
On December 10, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army spokesman, condemned some of the actions seen in the recent videos: “In any case, that this is not in line with the values of the IDF, commandos will and disciplinary action will be taken.”
But critics have said the videos reflect a sentiment across Israel that, they argue, cares little about the Palestinians killed in the conflict.
“The dehumanization from above really reaches down to the soldiers,” said Dror Sadot, spokesman for the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, which has long documented Israeli abuses against Palestinians.
Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian minister, said he cannot remember a time when both sides were so unwilling to consider the other's pain.
