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B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, published a screenshot of one of the IDF's deleted tweets. The leading human rights organization's international advocacy officer Sarit Michaeli noted, "Israeli army takes full responsibility for the killing of all unarmed protesters and the injuring of hundreds with live ammunition."
The progressive U.S. Jewish group IfNotNow, which campaigns against Israel's illegal five-decade-long military occupation of the Palestinian territories, commented on Twitter: "This is how the Israeli army brags about shooting 773 Palestinians with live fire. Thanks to @btselem for capturing this deleted tweet, revealing the pride the IDF feels about the casualties they inflicted on unarmed protesters yesterday."
The text of the six deleted IDF tweets follows in full below:
"Yesterday's riot was an organized terrorist operation behind which stand Hamas, its leaders, its military wing, terrorist organizations such as the PIJ and others
What we saw yesterday were attempts to launch rockets, attempts to carry out live attacks, Molotov cocktails, attempts to set fire to the security fence, and a lot of terrorist activity -- not a quiet protest in the center of Gaza
They send children or disabled people to the fence so they can say that we hurt them
Yesterday we saw 30,000 people; we arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed
The citizens of Gaza are not the enemy, certainly not the women and children. We have no intention of harming the residents of Gaza who want to live their lives despite their misfortune under the failed rule of Hamas
We are only interested in terrorists who are trying to disrupt Israeli life; we only act against them"
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