Commanders of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered soldiers to use Palestinians as human shields and urged them to shoot first, worry later in Gaza War, according to Israeli soldiers' testimonies revealed Wednesday by activist group Breaking the Silence.

The group, called itself an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers, published 54 testimonies of Israeli combat soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead half a year ago.

Among the testimonies "are stories revealing the use of 'accepted practices,' the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms," said the organization in its website.

One soldier said in the testimony that they were told to fulfill a practice called "the neighbor procedure", in which civilians were forced to enter suspect buildings ahead of troops.

He said, he was told by his commanders, though without seeing it himself, of some instances in which Palestinian civilians were used as human shields. One time, for example, a Palestinian was put at the front of an IDF force with a gun pointed at him from behind, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported, citing the booklet of Breaking the Silence.

Many soldiers said, they were told to fire without seeing "the enemy before their eyes." "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them," one of the soldiers testified, quoted by the group's website.

"Most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions," the group said.

The IDF responded that the testimonies are general, anonymous, and unreliable. The report contains "general and anonymous testimonies without ascertaining their details or reliability and without allowing the IDF a chance to probe the affairs prior to the publication," IDF spokesperson's office was quoted by local news service Ynet as saying.

Israeli army launched the Gaza offensive from December 27, 2008 to January 18 2009. The army put the death toll of Palestinians at 1166 and 295 dead were civilians by estimate. But the Palestinian side said 1417 people were killed, 926 of them were civilians.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2009)