War on Gaza: Video shows Israeli soldier forcing detained Palestinians to say 'we want to be slaves'

A video has been shared on social media appearing to show an Israeli soldier coercing detained Palestinians to describe themselves as slaves.

The clip shows blindfolded detainees sitting on a coach, repeating words in Hebrew after a man speaking from behind the camera. 

"We'd like to congratulate the Azoulai family, lots of love and great success. We, the terrorists from Gaza are very afraid of the entire Azoulai family," the men repeat. 

"The Azoulai family is very, very, very, very respectable, important and we want to be slaves of the Azoulai family forever and ever. [We want] to work for them in sewage and gardening and a do a very good job," they continue. 

It is not clear who the Azoulai family refers to in this context. The name is of Sephardi Jewish origin, and often belongs to Jewish people of Moroccan descent. 

It is also not clear exactly where or when the video was taken. It was first posted on the far-right Israeli "Without Limits" Telegram channel on Tuesday. 

Middle East Eye has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. 

In the Telegram channel, the video is posted with the caption: "Great Azoulai family - wait for the end," with a laughing emoji. 

The video has hundreds of laughing emoji reactions, as well as poo-face emojis, salute emojis and smiley face emojis, among others. 

One of the top comments under the video states: "Proud to be Azoulai". 

Another says: "Let them say thank you for not taking their heads off with a machete... fuck the Hague, fuck the whole world."

Abuse of Palestinian detainees

Since war broke out between Israel and Palestinian groups on 7 October, Israeli forces have detained scores of Palestinians in both the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. 

In December, MEE spoke to the relatives of detained Palestinian men in Gaza who were stripped to their underwear and made to sit on the streets with their hands covering their heads. 

"They took them from the house, beat them, and forced them to take off their clothes. They handcuffed them, and from 7am to 2am they were left on the street in the cold without any clothes," one family member said.

A month earlier, footage shared in the same "Without Limits" Telegram channel appeared to show graphic videos of Palestinian workers in the West Bank being abused by Israeli soldiers. 

The Israeli military told MEE at the time: "The conduct of the force that emerges from the footage is deplorable and does not comply with the army's orders."