Did Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announce the abolition of "all rules of war," following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: There is no evidence or reporting to suggest Gallant said this. A quote attributed to Russian state-owned news agency Sputnik, purportedly backing the assertion, does not appear on the agency's website.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by Sprinter @Sprinter99800 on X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 10, 2023. The post's caption said:
Israeli Defense Minister announced the abolition of 'all rules of war' during the clearing of Gaza
The head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Yoav Gallant, addressed the soldiers and population of Israel and stated that he relieves the IDF soldiers of any responsibility for everything that will happen in the Gaza Strip. In other words, Gallant gave the troops carte blanche for any violence and the most prohibited methods of warfare.
'We have abolished all the rules of war. Our soldiers will not be held responsible for anything. There will be no military courts,' Sputnik quotes Gallant.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Oct 11 18:05:45 2023 UTC)
Sputnik
The social media post attributes Gallant's quote to the Russian news service Sputnik. To recap, the post on X said:
'We have abolished all the rules of war. Our soldiers will not be held responsible for anything. There will be no military courts,' Sputnik quotes Gallant.
However, those words did not show up on the Sputnik website (archived here) when searching for the terms "We have abolished all the rules of war" and "Yoav Gallant." A screenshot of the search appears below:
(Source: Sputnik screenshot taken on Wed Oct 11 20:33:07 2023 UTC)
A similar search (archived here) on the Haaretz website, an Israeli newspaper, also produced no results for "We have abolished all the rules of war" and "Gallant."
However, the Sputnik website (archived here) did feature reporting on the defense minister as he addressed troops on October 10, 2023, along the Gaza border with Israel following the attack by Hamas. While Gallant's words were strong, they did not include the statement 'We have abolished all the rules of war." Instead, he is quoted as saying:
(Source: Sputnik screenshot taken on Wed Oct 11 20:33:07 2023 UTC)
The Times of Israel
The same reporting could be found on The Times of Israel website (archived here). Their story, published on October 10, 2023, said:
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces is moving to a 'full offense' against the Gaza Strip, as sporadic clashes with Hamas terrorists in southern Israel continued for the fourth day.
'I have released all the restraints, we have [regained] control of the area, and we are moving to a full offense,' Gallant said in an address to troops along the Gaza border.
'You will have the ability to change the reality here. You have seen the prices [being paid], and you will get to see the change. Hamas wanted a change in Gaza; it will change 180 degrees from what it thought,' he said.
In Hebrew
Lead Stories also did a Google search for the claim in Hebrew, the most common language spoken in Israel. "We have abolished all the rules of war" translates to "ביטלנו את כל כללי המלחמה." A search (archived here) using that term also produced no results:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Wed Oct 11 22:51:21 2023 UTC)
The rules of war
The rules of war, or international humanitarian law, are a set of international rules that set out what can and cannot be done during an armed conflict.
Other Lead Stories articles on claims related to the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict are here.
