“The dehumanisation of Palestinians is a process that goes back decades,” Grassiani of the University of Amsterdam said. “But I’d say it’s now complete.

“We’ve seen incredibly cruel acts from the first day to now, with Israeli soldiers seeking revenge for [the Hamas-led attack of] October 7,” she said.

“It’s like a snowball running down a hill to which there’s no bottom,” Haim Bresheeth, author of An Army Like No Other, a book about the Israeli military.

“Every year, the violence is ratcheted up,” he said. “The idea of using civilians as target practice is the logical outcome.

“It’s a new sport, a blood sport, and these sports always develop from the bottom up,” he said of Israel’s infantry.

“It’s twisted, murderous, and it’s sick.”