07/12/24 07/12/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: and now i want to handed over to the president of ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. ladies and gentlemen, president putin. president putin. going to beat president putin. president zelenskyy. i'm so focused on beating putin.

amy: president biden mistakenly referring to president zelenskyy as russian president putin before correcting himself. later in his solo news conference of the year, biden was questioned repeatedly about his mental fitness and ability to win. pres. biden: i have taken three significant and intense neurological exams by neuro--- neurologist. in each case, as recent as february. they say i am in good shape, k? amy: biden went on to defend his record on foreign policy, nato, gaza, and more. we will get a response from a roundtable of guest. then "'i'm bored, so i shoot': the israeli army'approval of free-for-all violence in gaza." >> the first time somebody soldiers -- so many soldiers can decide.

there is no innocents in gaza. official policy. amy: under report by +972 magazine interview six israeli soldiers following the release from active duty in gaza. they describing authorize to open fire on palestinians, virtually at will. we will speak with the reporter who broke the story. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden took to the podium thursday evening for his first solo conference this year. as debate over whether biden should remain the democratic nominee reaches a fever pitch. biden remained defiant saying he is going to "finish the job" and

re-asserting he is best positioned to beat donald trump. pres. biden: i have taken three significant and intense neurological exams by a neuro -- a neurologist. in each case, as recently as february. they say i am in good shape, ok? amy: but biden's performance was far from smooth as he accidentally called vice president kamala harris "vice president trump." pres. biden: look, i would not have picked vice president trump to be vice president if she wasn't qualified to be president. that's number one. the fact is, the consideration is that i think i'm the most qualified person to run for president. i beat him once and i will beat him again. amy: just hours earlier, biden mistakenly referred to ukrainian president zelenskyy as

"president putin" as the three-day nato summit came to a close. pres. biden: and now i want to hated over to the president of ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. ladies and gentlemen, president putin. president putin. he's going to beat president putin, president zelenskyy. i'm so focused on beating putin. amy: three morse house kratz called on biden to step aside following the news conference. more news from the nato summit, the u.s. approved a new $225 million military aid package for ukraine, including a patriot missile system. president zelenskyy again urged nato allies to lift all restrictions on ukraine's use of long-range weapons to strike targets inside russia, saying the move would be a game changer. meanwhile, spanish prime minister pedro sánchez criticized nato's double standard when it comes to support for ukraine vs. gaza.

>> what spain has done has been to the same manner in the same firmness and respect of international law. i believe our strength lies in our unity and also in our coherence. we cannot and should not allow ourselves to be accused by anyone at having double standards in the defense of international law. amy: in may, spain formally recognized the state of palestine. in related news, hungarian prime minister viktor orban traveled to meet with donald trump at his mar-a-lago resort thursday after leaving the nato summit in washington. orban, who also visited president putin in moscow, as well as beijing in recent weeks, says he is on a "peace mission 5.0." in gaza, rescue workers are recovering dozens of dead bodies following two days of non-stop israeli attacks in western gaza city, much of which has now been left in ruins. survivors say their buildings

were attacked in the middle of the night. one man, musa al-dahdouh, says his family was forced from their shelter in the middle of the night by israeli forces. >> my mother is in a wheelchair. my wife has metal support in her arms and looks. my grandson is paralyzed. amy: in more news from gaza, at least 70 media organizations are urging israel to give reporters unfettered access to the besieged territory. media outlets, including the associated press, the bbc, cnn, "the guardian," "the new york times," and "the washington post," said in a letter -- "the effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living. more than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of the war and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation." in israel, the first results of the military's investigation into its response to the october 7 attack by hamas were published thursday.

the report finds the military was unprepared for the incursion into kibbutz be'eri and was slow and disorganized in its response. over 100 israelis were killed, and another 30 were taken hostage from be'eri. the report, however, denied that hostages killed during a standoff between hamas and israeli soldiers were killed in friendly fire, as some have suggested, though it did not offer evidence that hamas killed them. members of kibbutz be'eri expressed dissatisfaction with the military assessment. >> we know some conclusions, but not like the big picture conclusions. what could have done differently and what they're going to do on the next steps, how can we feel secure again, safe again, how can we come back to live in the kibbutz be'eri. amy: in texas, one million people in the houston area remain without power and water after hurricane beryl slammed into the region amid a

monday protracted heatwave. hospitals report a surge in patients with heat-related conditions and are unable to swiftly discharge patients if they do not have electricity at home to stay cool. extreme heat has killed at least 28 people in the united states over the past week, most of those in california where wildfires have burned five times the average area this year according to state officials. las vegas recently reported a new record high of 120 degrees fahrenheit and is on a record-breaking streak of at least six straight days of temperatures topping 115 degrees. last week, the biden administration proposed a new rule that would require employers to provide regular rest breaks and water to workers during high temperatures. the rule, which is facing opposition from industry and republicans, could offer relief to some 500,000 agricultural workers and over 4 million construction workers nationwide, many of whom are immigrants. in nepal, over 60 people are missing after landslides swept two buses into a river earlier

today. over 90 people have been killed in monsoon-triggered landslides and floods in nepal over the past month. in kenya, president william ruto has fired nearly all his cabinet members amid continued unrest and two weeks after ruto scrapped a highly tax bill -- highly contested tax bill following mass protests. at least 41 people were killed as police violently cracked down on demonstrations. on thursday, the kenya human rights commission called on ruto to prosecute security chiefs responsible for the killings. in saudi arabia, a man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for charges related to his social media activity. asaad al-ghamdi, a 47-year-old teacher, was arrested in november. he was convicted up publishing false information" challenging the religion and justice of the crown prince." he was held incommunicado and placed in solitary confinement in a jeddah prison. he has also been denied medical attention for his epilepsy, suffering multiple seizures

while in custody according to human rights watch. one of his brothers was sentenced to death last year over his tweets, some of which called for the release of political prisoners. in the united arab emirates, over 40 lawyers, academics, and political dissidents were sentenced to between 10 years to life in prison this week following a mass trial human rights groups are denouncing as a sham. more than 80 people were tried, many of whom had already been convicted years ago and were serving prison sentences for the same or similar offenses. human rights watch said the proceedings were marred by serious due process and fair trial violations, including the use of torture. back in the united states federal court has ruled that , a black lives matters activist deray mckesson cannot be held responsible for injuries inflicted by someone else while attending a protest that mckesson had organized following the 2016 police killing of alton sterling in baton rouge, louisiana.

the ruling came after the u.s. supreme court in april declined to take the case. the aclu hailed thursday's decision in favor of mckesson as a crucial win for the first amendment right to protest. and reproductive rights advocates vowed to challenge a move by arkansas secretary of state john thurston to disqualify a grassroots ballot initiative that seeks to enshrine abortion access in arkansas' constitution. thurston argued the group behind the proposed ballot amendment, arkansans for limited government, failed to identify paid canvassers, tossing 14,000 of the more than 100,000 signatures collected. voters in nearly a dozen states could see abortion-related amendments on the ballot in november. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, president

biden holds his first solo news conference this year. questioned repeatedly about his mental fitness as he defended his record on foreign policy, nato, gaza, and more. we will have a roundtable discussion. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "cruel summer." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as the world watched thursday evening, president biden held his first solo news conference this year after hosting a nato conference in washington, d.c., in which he accidentally referred to ukrainian president zelenskyy as russian president putin before quickly correcting himself. pres. biden: russia will not

prevail in this war. ukraine will prevail. we will stand with him every single step of the way. that is what the compact says, loudly and clearly. and now i want to handed over to the president of ukraine who has as much courage as he has determination. ladies and gentlemen, president putin. president putin -- he is going to beat president putin. president zelenskyy. i'm so focused on beating putin. anyway. >> i am better. amy: later thursday amid mounting calls for president biden to end his presidential campaign due to concerns about his physical and mental fitness for office, biden vowed to stay in the race and finish the job to defeat donald trump in november. as biden spoke, former president trump was meeting with the far right prime minister viktor orbán in mar-a-lago, who is now

head of the european union, and has vowed to "make europe great again." after biden started his news conference nearly an hour late, the first question came from jeff mason of reuters. >> mr. president, your political future has hung over the nato summit a little this week. speaker pelosi made a decision your -- your decision was to stay open. a handful of lawmakers and george clooney have called on you to step aside for supporters is reporting uaw leadership is concerned about your ability to win. pres. biden: the uaw just endorsed me, the go-ahead. >> my question for you, how are you incorporating the development into your decision to stay? and separately, what concerns do you have about vice president harris's ability to beat donald trump if she were at the top of the ticket?

pres. biden: look, i would not have picked vice president trump to be vice president if i didn't think she wasn't qualified to be president. let's start there. number one. the fact is that the consideration is that i think i'm the most qualified person to run for president. i beat him once and i will beat him again. secondly, the idea -- the idea that senators and congressmen running for office worry about the ticket is not unusual. and i might add, for at least five presidents running or incoming presidents who had lower numbers than i have now later in the campaign. so it is a long way to go in this campaign. and so i am just going to keep moving.

keep moving. amy: as president biden noted, the uaw did endorse him. but reuters is also reporting that the uaw president shawn fain met with the union's executive board thursday to discuss his deep concerns with biden's ability to beat trump. after thursday night's key press conference, which a bloomberg reporter had called his "big boy press conference" -- a term later used by biden's white house press secretary and national security spokesperson john kirby -- three more house democrats called on biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. congressmember jim himes, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, issued a statement that -- "the stakes are high, and we are on a losing course. my conscience requires me to speak up and put loyalty to the country and to democracy ahead of my great affection for, and loyalty to, the president and those around him." this comes after "the new york times" editorial board published a piece this week headlined "the democratic party must speak the

plain truth to the president" in which it argued "donald trump's candidacy for a second term poses a grave threat to american democracy" but that biden "does not seem to understand that he is not the problem -- and that the best hope for democrats to retain the white house is for him to step aside," "the times" wrote. in a minute, we'll talk more about nato, ukraine, and gaza. but we are going to begin with a roundtable of three guests to discuss the calls for biden to drop out or stay in the worries -- in the race. in washington, d.c., medea benjamin is the co-founder of codepink, and co-author of the books "nato: what you need to know" and "war in ukraine: making sense of a senseless conflict." joining us from maryland is bill fletcher, longtime labor, racial justice, and international activist who is on the editorial board of the nation magazine and co-founder of the ukrainian solidarity network. and in los angeles, david dayen is executive editor of the american prospect, who has been

following all of this closely and has a recent piece headlined "why the bid to push out biden is losing." david, let's begin with you in california. what was your assessment? we played some of the gaffes of president biden. he spent an hour talking about foreign policy. but that beginning where he was talking about kamala harris and why couldn't she be president or could she be president and the whole issue of passing the torch, the next generation come as president biden said when he was running less time that he some place on himself as a bridge to the next generation. take it all on, david. >> i don't go in for theater criticism a whole lot, so i don't know that i am super interested in addressing the

theatrics of the whole thing. i think people were looking for a sign out of this that maybe was unreasonable us to people were looking for him to either follow the podium or recite the gettysburg address from memory. neither of those things happen. there was no clear signal -- the problem is that when you lose faith with not just america people but the democratic party, it is hard to restore that. the guy is not going to age backwards. people saw what they saw in the debate. i don't know that there is a good way to unsee that, i don't care how many appearances publicly that he does, scripted or unscripted. he articulated his foreign policies. our other guests may have problems with that foreign policy. but he certainly knew the details.

substantively gave a performance that would be not unlike other performances by other presidents at press conferences. out of the context of all that has been happening for the last two weeks, i think this would have been quite uneventful. but because of that context, everything is looked at finely grained and things that would not be a headline at all from you or anybody else are now turned into headlines. that actually speaks to the problem of his candidacy. at this point, the media is out for blood. they are looking for every gafee, every misspeak, anything to reinforce his argument and then they can go to a member of congress and say, hey, he said this, what do you think now?

i don't see that subsiding. i think that will only grow. it speaks to whether this president -- it is not necessarily about fitness for office, but it is about whether or not he can withstand that in the rigors of a presidential campaign given that this is just going to snowball and snowball. amy: talk about the congressmembers, the insiders, the biden team members -- shawn fain, who early on, the uaw endorsed president biden. the significance of what they are saying? and george clooney, this very well known in this op-ed in "the new york times" saying that he loves president biden, one of the largest fundraisers, race something like $26 million, he said president biden is simply not the same and can't beat trump. name the names and

the significance of the people who are saying get out to biden. >> fain, if you were to come forward, it would be the first labor leader to have anything to say regarding president biden's candidacy. labor has been pretty silent. they backed him up. president biden spoke at the convention wednesday and got overwhelming support. labor is kind of the only mass membership organization that we have on the democratic left anymore. most of these are foundation funded. his kind of push to move biden aside has largely -- at least in the perception, been driven by donors, by people like george clooney, lead donors and rich people -- biden said corporate

profits were too high. that is true. they have elevated since the pandemic. and the donor class that is desperate to get him out of the race is probably unlikely to favor a substitute that would say something like that. i think that is a consideration that people need to think about. i think in this case the donor class and large segments of the democratic party, ordinary people, are aligned -- that is what the polls say -- but there is perception that this is being driven from this sort of elite group of people that certainly what biden has wanted to play up and rebutting it saying, this is out of touch people who have always come to me out, who don't like me, and look down upon me, think i'm stupid, or whatever. that has been his go to way to perry this. and it has been somewhat successful, although we will see if the dam breaks now that the

nato summit is over. other members of congress might come out. i think if fain did, that might give courage to other labor leaders who speak firmly to people to actually do the same. amy: what about the significance of another shawn, sean o'brien, head of the teamsters, asking both the democrats and the republicans if he can address the convention? the republican said, yes. we will be in milwaukee next week. he will be speaking. he has not gotten ok from the democrats in chicago in august. >> sean o'brien will be speaking i believe in primetime at the republican national convention. it is very rare for a labor leader to speak before the republicans. o'brien trying to position himself no matter what party comes out of the presidential

election, i suppose. it is very unique. it certainly has been criticized internally. it has been criticized from folks on the democratic left. i don't know that he is going to get that democratic nod because he is speaking at the republican convention. it would be almost unprecedented for someone to speak at both conventions. i think it is certainly interesting and fascinating. there is this campaign the teamsters are fighting against amazon where they're trying to organize amazon warehouse has amazon delivery drivers, people of that nature. you know, i prefer to focus on that. the way he is getting wrapped up politically, you know, it is bound to disappoint one side or the other. amy: i want to bring bill fletcher into this conversation,

longtime labor, racial justice, international activist, on the editorial board of the nation magazine. as we talk about labor and the positions it is taking and the significance of shawn fain, who embraced president biden early on, has been at the white house. now the questions about -- the significance of that to the teamsters? >> good morning. thank you for having me on. i think what fain is doing, or reportedly doing come is bringing to the surface a debate that has been going on very quietly within the ranks of the leadership of organized labor. there is concern about the situation. so i am glad that fain is raising this, absolutely.

amy: bill, you're breaking up. go ahead. just come very close to the computer. >> ok. the focus on biden's screw ups in terms of forgetting names, etc., i think it has been an exaggeration of that. it is like republicans want to remember ronald reagan forgot the name of his own secretary of hud. republicans can do that all the time and he gets no press attention. republicans could make -- google would accept that. i think the deeper problem is that biden is an old man needs to step aside. that the original commitment to be the transitional candidate,

which many people, including organized labor, embraced was the right one. but as chris hayes said last night on msnbc, the key phrasing last night by biden was he had to finish the job and reminded chris of how a picture in baseball -- pitcher in baseball will want to finish a game even when they don't have the ability to complete it is when that happened that the manager needs to say, no, we will finish it. we. that is what the democratic party leadership and pays has to say. president biden, we will finish the game. we are going to ask you to step aside. amy: there was an interesting part of the news conference yesterday where president biden seemed to leave open the door if

his closest aides told him to go. let's play that clip. pres. biden: the second question related -- >> can you reassure the merrick people you won't have more bad nights whether it is on the debate stage or foreign policy? pres. biden: the best way to assure them is the way i assure myself and that is that in my getting the job done. in my getting the job done. can you name we meet someone who has more legislation passed 3.5 years? i created 2000 jobs last week. if i slow down, i can't get the job done. that is assigned a should be doing it. but there's no indication of that yet. amy: "no indication of that yet" in his answer to the associated press. if you could respond to that and

talk about who is sticking with him? very interesting that the squad is sticking with him. alexandria ocasio-cortez, very critical on issues like gaza, ilhan omar -- they are sticking with him. the congressional black caucus are sticking with him at this point. talk about all of this. >> i think, amy, that -- this is not a 25th amendment situation. i don't think biden has lost it. i actually do think there needs to be a constitutional amendment that says no past the age of 80 can run for president. but i think we are looking at the person who is declining. and that is different. i have been asking myself the same question, particularly the black caucus. i think it is similar to what

they were often thinking in 2020, which is they're not confident there is another candidate that actually can bring together the right kind of base in order to win against trump. i think that is the wrong argument. i think that going back to something that david said, i think it is very profound, that what happened and was very evident in the debate led to a crack in his core. the people he needs to count on to be out in the field in the 100 degree weather knocking on doors, the people he needs to raise money, the people he needs to speak on his behalf -- when their confidence is shaken, that is, at this point, more critical

than what the poll numbers say. particularly after we were told hillary clinton was going to win in 2016, i don't trust the polls. but i do worry about is the crack in confidence among the people that really need to move the campaign. and i think that is what congressional black caucus is missing. i can't speak about the squad. i suspect it is something very similar. amy: i want to pivot to the content of the news conference. donald trump has repeatedly criticized biden over the amount of funding the u.s. has approved for nato and ukraine. biden and his news conference addressed his unconditional support for both in his opening remarks thursday as he read off a teleprompter, appealing to u.s. voters. pres. biden: for those who thought nato's time had passed, they got a rude awakening when

putin invaded ukraine. some of the oldest and deepest fears in europe for brought back to life. once again, murderous madman was on the march. but this time no one cowered in appeasement, especially the united states. we collected intelligence that rush was planning to invade ukraine months before the invasion. i directed the intelligence community -- to be declassified so i could start opposing the invasion. in february, some of you remember, i warned the world the invasion was imminent. i rallied the coalition of 50 nations from europe to asia to help ukraine defend itself. amy: that was president biden opening his news conference, 59 minute news conference last night. i want to bring medea benjamin as well into this conversation.

she is co-author of the new book "nato: what you need to know" and also co-author of book "war in ukraine: making sense of a senseless conflict." your response to president biden last night? >> he also said, amy, does nato make the world safer? he put that forward as a question. i would say we should say a resounding no, nato is an aggressive, secretive, military/nuclear alliance that has led us into wars around the world, that is a cover for u.s. aggression around the world, that keeps the war in going, guarantees it will be going on for years to come, and has put its tentacles all over the world, has called china a threat to the nato alliance. and i think the bragging of biden that since he came in,

there were only nine members of nato that have fulfilled the goal of spending more money on the military, now there are 23. he and trump are vying for who is responsible for that. but i think we should question, do the people of the nato countries really want to spend more money on the military? if they were given a chance at a democratic fashion to answer that, they would say no. i think trump's and biden are both supporting nato despite the things that trump my say once in a while, both are militarists. i also have to say when i look at biden, i do see a very old caught ring man but i also see babies that have been bombed and mutilated and starved in gaza and let's remember there has been a grassroots campaign, uncommitted votes in key states, abandoned biden for many months

now and there are many people who say we cannot vote for a man who not only green lead but has been a partner in the genocide in gaza. amy: let me bring bill fletcher back in, labor activist and cofounder of the ukrainian solidarity network. your response to president biden's positions on ukraine and nato, which she continually talked about last night, his great pride in increasing the size of nato? most recently, bringing in sweden and norway. >> let me just divide that into two. one, my opinion, nato should never have been formed in the first place. that at the end of the cold war, nato should have been dissolved. that there should not have been the inclusion of any other countries in nato.

and so i do not look at nato as a force for peace. in general, i agree with medea's overall comments about nato. nato is not keeping the ukraine war going. putin is. those people that are suggesting that a cessation of military assistance to ukraine would bring about peace, love, when the putin republicans decided to withhold or restrict money going to ukraine, that would have been a marvelous moment for putin to have stepped forward and said, "ok, let's not talk peace." instead, it was clear, now that he had ukraine, let's go for the gold. i think we've got to get our positions clear on this. i think that biden is stuck in

an old frame, an old cold war frame when it comes to nato. amy: we are losing you again. respond on the issue of ukraine, bill. >> i'm sorry. i'm not sure what part was lost. i'm saying that it was putin who is extending the war in ukraine. that when the republicans -- money, that was an excellent opportunity for putin to have said, "all right, let's negotiate a settlement." he did not. so he has his own objectives. should not misunderstand those. that is separate from whether nato is an instrument of peace. which it is not. it is not. and ultimately, there will need to be different kinds of

arrangement -- security arrangements and it should not involve the united states. amy: i want to ask medea benjamin about what is happening at the republican and democratic conventions. by the way, democracy now! will be in milwaukee next week, expanded to two hours monday through friday each day to cover the republican national convention. and in chicago next month to cover the democratic national convention. a major editorial from "the new york times" editorial board says "donald trump is unfit for second term." they just publish this. it says he is dangerous in word, deed, action. he puts self over country. he puts himself over country. he loathes the laws we live by. he loathes the laws we live by. medea benjamin, what are the protest plans for next week and next month? >> first i have to respond to

bill because i think that it is important to note that biden said last night he would not talk to putin and that has been his position for the last two years. the only way to solve the war in ukraine is by negotiations. and this is directly connected to nato because nato has said ukraine has an irreversible path toward membership in nato, which is something that russia has been entirely against. and that means this war will keep escalating instead of looking for a solution. and in the nato declaration statement that it came out that the end of the summit, there is not a word about diplomacy. in terms of the conventions. yes, trump is not fit for office. trump is a danger for us and the world. and so codepink and many other organizations will be at the convention in milwaukee on the streets and hopefully, if

possible, on the inside protesting the platforms of the republican convention, protesting trump as a candidate, just as we will be at the democratic convention protesting the platform -- well, we don't know who the candidate will be there. amy: on the inside, david dayen, talking about this latest news about nancy pelosi who wields great power still as the house speaker emerita, clearly, will not accept biden saying he won't step aside though he said it is definitive and done and she says we are waiting for them to make the position. the latest news is her and obama speaking together. obama, who biden and president obama -- there is tension going back to when president biden said, what, back in 2015, that obama pushed him not to run and then hillary ran and lost her

president trump. he feels he could have won. but the significance of do you feel this is going to make a difference at this point? >> certainly significant. i also think it is little unseemly that the powerbrokers of the democratic party are getting in a room and trying to come up with some machinations to throw out a sitting president . i don't think anybody looks good here. i don't think biden certainly with his denial of certain realities about polling, realities about his mental acuity i think doesn't look great. and i think this elite class of the democratic party looks terribly great trying to basically spooked by polls and trying to push out somebody who was voted for in a number of primaries -- although, there wasn't really much of a primary process. i think the problem is larger. i think the problem is that there is no sort of ability for

the mass voice of the democratic base to get involved in these kinds of conversations. maybe by through shawn fain and mass membership organization like the uaw we can see a difference there, but ultimately, this is an insider conversation being driven by insiders and the public continue this discussion. next week, two hours a day. milwaukee time 7:00 to 9:00. from the 15th to the 19th. david dayen, thank you for being with us, executive editor of the american prospect medea benjamin , is the co-founder of codepink. and bill fletcher, labor, racial

justice, and international activist. we want to thank you all joining us. coming up, "'i'm bored, so i shoot': the israeli army's approval of free-for-all violence in gaza." +972 magazine interview six is really soldiers following their release from active duty in gaza. they describe the authorized open fire on palestinians, virtually come at will. we will speak with a reporter who broke the story. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "tallat al baroudeh," palestinian protest song from the 1930's adapted by sanaa moussa. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in early june, al jazeera aired a series of videos showing israeli soldiers shooting dead several palestinians walking near a coastal road in gaza. this is an excerpt of that

report. >> we're going to begin with videos emerging out of gaza appearing to show some of the executions of palestinians by israeli soldiers. al jazeera has obtained the videos. let me give you a warning, some may be disturbing. we are choosing not to show the moment of death. they were taken on the coastal road connecting north and south gaza. israel has designated it as a safe zone for palestinians wanted to move between the areas. this footage is from june 1 showing the person walking along the beach. israeli soldiers appear to have stopped them and moments later, the person is shot. the next video is that you show a group of palestinians walking north on may 17. one of them steps out of the group and racist their hands in the air. apparently showing they are unarmed. they are shot within moments. soldiers coming to take the person's body away.

in this footage, another person is standing in the same area with their hands in the air shortly before they are shot by israeli soldiers. the same thing happens to another person later. amy: in each incident shown in that al jazeera report, the palestinians shot dead by israeli soldiers appear to be unarmed and are at a distance from the soldiers. according to a new investigative article by israeli news outlets +972 magazine and local call, these executions are consistent with the testimonies of six israeli soldiers following their release from active duty in gaza in recent months. the six soldiers describe being authorized to open fire on palestinians, virtually, at will. the sources describe the near-total absence of firing regulations in gaza with israeli troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets, all with their commanders' permission.

the article is headlined "i'm bored, so i shoot': the israeli army's approval of free-for-all violence in gaza." we are joined now by the journalist who broke the story. oren zeev is a reporter and photographer for +972 magazine. he is joining us today from outside venice, italy. welcome to democracy now! "i'm bored, so i shoot." first talk about that al jazeera footage we are seeing, the footage that was taken on the coastal road in gaza, and then that quote. >> thank you so much for having me. first of all, the footage is aligned with any testimonies we have been hearing from palestinians over the last months that there are not -- they prevented from going back north, palestinians that had to run away as the israeli army

ordered. this is also aligned with what we're hearing during our investigation from the six soldiers. basically, they're saying they had almost complete freedom to open fire. doing investigators -- investigations, from the air, using ai machine learning. we talked to soldiers who were deployed in different units on the ground. what they're saying basically is whatever they had a since a few or danger, they could shoot. nobody would limit them. even sensitive targets -- schools, hospitals, public institutions that officially they had to get approval. it was almost always approved. in addition, one of the soldiers describe -- actually, two -- in some areas, when the soldiers

were deployed in a specific neighborhood inside the gaza strip, they would have a redline, specific point, 100 meters from them. that if a palestinian, even unarmed, even women or child, would cross, they were allowed to shoot in order to kill. not to arrest or warn them. they said every man between the age of 16 and 50, even in civilian clothes, even unarmed, were considered a collaborator with hamas and they were allowed to shoot them. amy: and the quote, the headline of your piece in +972 magazine, "'i'm bored, so i shoot': the israeli army's approval of free-for-all violence in gaza." " >> many of the times, it seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or military reason, just out of being bored.

to pass the time or just because they could. some of the soldiers spoke about the quote "regular fire" meaning shoot and after you shoot, you say on the army radio it is normal or regular fire so other units in the area -- and there were many soldiers deployed the beginning of the war inside the gaza strip -- will know the shooting is by the israeli army and not hamas fighters. this term "regular" shooting was also to state in other words, just shooting for fun. one of the soldiers said on the jewish holiday of hanukkah, stopped unit in the gaza strip, ready to shoot -- they were just shooting for minutes just for fun. i think this is one aspect but it also teaches us that this was a very wide policy. it wasn't just an erratic

problem here or there. soldiers felt they could do whatever they wanted and they won't be accountable. in all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders. from day one of the war, we heard horrific statements of netanyahu, senior ministers of the israeli government talking about revenge, talking about civilians in gaza. this went down to the commanders and down to the simple soldiers. the soldiers that spoke to us in our investigation said these kinds of phrases, there are no innocent people in gaza come everybody -- they were all celebrating october 7. it was widely common. this is why the soldiers who talked to us explained the vandalism, looting was very common.

amy: all but one of the six israeli soldiers you interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity. a 26-year-old reservist from jerusalem named yuval green. in november and december, yuval served in the 55th paratroopers brigade. he recently signed a letter by 41 reservists declaring their refusal to fight in gaza after the israeli army's invasion of rafah. green said -- "there were no restrictions on ammunition. people were shooting just to relieve the boredom." well, on thursday evening, democracy now! reached yuval green in jerusalem and asked him what he is calling for now. >> i believe continuing this war and continuing the deaths of palestinians and israeli soldiers is not right. i believe right now he right thing to do is to sign the treaty that is going to release the hostages and end this war.

i know the israeli government is not yet willing to sign it. amy: that is yuval green, reservist who is refusing to fight in gaza. all of the six you interviewed were reservists there. you also write the testimonies paint a landscape littered with civilian corpses which are left to rot or be eaten by stray animals. the army only hides them from view ahead of the arrival of international aid convoys so that images of people in advanced stages of decay don't come out. go from yuval to this picture of gaza. >> i think what several soldiers told us, that the army was not dealing with dead palestinians and it was common to see them on the side of the road when they're moving from one place to

another. and also yuval and other soldiers told that when the army was moving -- when israeli soldiers were deployed inside palestinian homes and houses and they had to move to a new position, the official policy was to burn the house down. the soldiers would gather the mattresses and furniture and like the house on fire and move on. the official expo nation by the commanders to yuval and other soldiers was the fact they don't want anything sensitive to be left, mitary equipment, or things like that. also hamas will not use the houses. between the lines you can understand it was an act of revenge into palace -- punished palestinians and make sure they could not be back to those areas, areas that some people in the army believed would stay in israeli control.

amy: yuval green also told you, the only want to be named in your piece, about the army's deep indifference to the fate of the hostages. can you elaborate further? as we know in december, the israeli soldiers shot and killed three israeli hostages as they approached troops in gaza city with their arms up, stripped down so the israeli military would clearly see they were not armed. these were hostages. >> thank you for the question. the official line of the israeli government and is really army commanders is the operation in gaza, the war in gaza is in order to bring back the hostages alive. in nine months of work, they managed to rescue very small number of hostages. most of the hostages were

released in november. not only yuval green, but in general, regarding hostages and the way the army was using force , for them it was clear the hostages might get hurt or even killed. i yuval think in addition to yuval, there was another soldier on the regular army service that said they did not have any cell phones. he heard about the three hostages being killed only when he got back home from a short vacation. after the killing of the three hostages by the israeli army, the army said in its statement they would make it more clear for soldiers. according to the soldier we spoke to who was on the front line, they did not hear even about the incident. amy: i want to thank you so much for being with us. oren ziv is a reporter and photographer for +972 magazine.

we will link to your piece "'i'm bored, so i shoot': the israeli army's approval of free-for-all violence in gaza." that does it for our show. next week democracy now! will be in milwaukee at the republican national convention and will bring you an extended daily two-hour broadcast "breaking with convention: war, peace and the presidency." [captioning made