IDF soldier celebrates daughter’s 2nd birthday by detonating Gaza building

A screengrab taken from a video showing an IDF soldier surrounded by servicemen as he celebrated his daughter’s 2nd birthday by detonating a house in Gaza in a controversial clip that went viral across social media on Saturday. (X)

• ‘I dedicate this explosion to my daughter ‘princess Ayala’ on her birthday as she turns two today,’ IDF soldier heard saying in clip
• Building was reportedly home to Palestinian family

BEIRUT: A clip which appears to show an Israeli Defense Force soldier celebrating his daughter’s second birthday by detonating a house in Gaza went viral across websites and social media on Saturday.
“I dedicate this explosion to my daughter ‘princess Ayala’ on her birthday as she turns two today,” the IDF soldier is heard saying in Hebrew in the 43-second undated, unverified video that was shared and posted thousands of times by Internet users.
Different media outlets, in Arabic and English, reported the soldier had obtained a permission from the Israeli army before he blew up a Palestinian family’s home, an entire building, in Gaza.
“I miss you,” he is also heard as telling his daughter.
In the video, several IDF servicemen are seen surrounding the unnamed soldier while he gives “directions” to detonate the building.
The clip shows more than four IDF members surrounding the soldier who knelt down to the ground, picked up a walkie talkie phone and said: “Here is the reception station … in 10 seconds.”
All the soldiers start the countdown in Hebrew, and when they reach zero, a loud blast is heard while the video shows a building being detonated in the background.
The footage has prompted condemnation and criticism online as it happened during the ongoing war between IDF and Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip.
An X user said: “While the pathetic shameless world watches helplessly! Criminals!”
Another wrote: “Israel is a terrorist state.”