Israeli Drone Operator Tells Haaretz: Officer Said 'You Have Two Million Targets in Gaza'

An Israeli reservist who operated drones in Gaza told Haaretz that when he asked an intelligence officer for targets to upload to his attack system, the answer was blunt.

"You have two million targets in Gaza."

The reservist, speaking to the Israeli newspaper on condition of anonymity in an article published Thursday, said the officer meant Gaza's entire civilian population. He described serving in an army drone attack cell after joining in 2008, saying he had killed at least 54 Palestinians before October 2023, including unarmed civilians, and continued serving through the current war until leaving in July.

"In the first days, there were no rules," he said, describing the absence of clear rules of engagement toward Palestinians once the campaign began.

The reservist said he witnessed the Israeli army's attack on a clearly marked ambulance convoy in the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah in March 2025, which killed 15 Palestinian aid and medical workers. "These were clearly identifiable as emergency vehicles, even when ground fire opened on them," he told Haaretz. "Without any apparent reason, the ground troops stormed the convoy. They shot at the first vehicle. The medical staff exited, hid behind the ambulances and pleaded for their lives, and the soldiers shot them, one after another."

The Israeli army initially denied wrongdoing over the Rafah killings. After a mass grave containing the victims was discovered, it promised an investigation. No Israeli soldier has been put on trial.

"After this incident, I realised that anyone could kill whoever they wanted, as much as they wanted, and they wouldn't be held accountable for it," the reservist said.

He returned to duty in Gaza in late April after leave, and said the atmosphere in his unit had shifted further. He described senior commanders moving the ceasefire-era "Yellow Line" demarcation on their own authority, sometimes by hundreds of metres, without any way for Palestinians to know where the new boundary lay. He said commanders encouraged soldiers to kill anyone who approached it, and that intelligence justifications were sometimes constructed after the fact. "They try to incriminate people without intelligence and without proof, retroactively, just to create a justification for an attack," he said.

He compared the mood inside his attack cell to a stadium. "Just like they shout to a player, 'Come on, score a goal', they shout to a soldier, 'Kill him, attack him'," he said, adding that consideration of "collateral damage" had largely disappeared.

The reservist also said he watched, without intervention, as army-backed militias burned and looted Palestinian homes. "They burn rows of houses, and we watch them from above. Arson, looting, shooting," he said. Haaretz reported last month that the Israeli army has allowed mercenaries, criminal gangs and drug dealers to commit war crimes in Gaza, conduct the paper described as "reminiscent of the Sabra and Shatila massacre."

Palestinian authorities say Israeli forces have killed at least 73,658 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, with more than 1,300 killed since a ceasefire was signed last October. The reservist's testimony has not been independently corroborated beyond the Rafah incident, where a mass grave was found and an army investigation was promised.