What statements have Israeli and Western leaders made on the pictures and videos posted by IDF soldiers during the 2023 war?

Question

During the Israel–Hamas war, numerous videos and images were taken and posted to social media by IDF soldiers, capturing their own questionable behavior. Some examples include soldiers posing with the underwear of killed or displaced women, posing beside cuffed blindfolded Palestinian men, destroying civilian infrastructure, looting, spraying racist graffiti, etc.

I would like to know if these images and videos were addressed directly at all by senior government officials (i.e., ministers, top leaders, government spokespersons) in Israel or its Western allies, and what was stated.

Answer 1

Easily found:

IDF’s top lawyer warns against ‘cases of unacceptable conduct’ by troops in Gaza

Halevi’s and Tomer-Yerushalmi’s comments come weeks after The New York Times published an article titled “What Israeli Soldiers’ Videos Reveal: Cheering Destruction and Mocking Gazans,” which showed photos and videos of Israeli soldiers making derogatory comments about Palestinians, vandalizing civilian property and smiling for the cameras while driving bulldozers and using explosives.

The report cited an IDF statement condemning the soldiers’ posts as “deplorable.”

The gravity of the acts in question matter too. Compared to the, alleged war crimes by one side, and the certain atrocities by the other. These are not war crimes as such.

Why non-Israeli, Western, politicians will steer clear:

Western soldiers have, on numerous occasions, behaved in such disgraceful manner. Lack of discipline, lack of clear moral leadership, combat stress, gallows humor, revenge, the very nature of these wars against irregular armies?

Those events are not what many would find most worrying. I would reserve that for allegations like Special forces blocked UK resettlement applications from elite Afghan troops. Or the Abu Ghraib scandal. Or summary executions on the battlefield.

In past wars, when Western soldiers were caught doing the kinda of crap this question refers to, other allied nations generally publicly avoided saying much about it, letting the national equivalents of those IDF lawyers take the lead in condemning it. And that was mostly the case even in the much more serious second type of actions I mention above: we expect our peer nations to mostly behave and clean their dirty laundry themselves.

There may have been more pressure behind the scenes but I can't recall it being that public (maybe with Abu Ghraib?).

So it is unclear why Western officials would get too involved, on this particular matter. They'll dodge the question as much as they can.

Last, while it is easy to condemn images of men bound and stripped to their underwear, one also needs to remember there may be valid operational security reasons for that, at least right after capture: this is a region rife with the use of suicide vests.

This kind of subject is also somewhat of a lose-lose proposition for politicians to address:

(which is why the lawyers had that job)

• if "they" admit and criticize it => "hah! even they admit it!"

• if "they" don't criticize it => "see! they don't think it's a problem!".

Answer 2

First result I found, close second quotes it, referring to a picture matching one of your descriptions ("posing beside cuffed blindfolded Palestinian men in their underwear"):

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel says footage of an IDF soldier standing over a stripped, bound and wounded Palestinian in Gaza is “deeply troubling.”

The IDF spokesman also referred to similar reports:

"IDF forces operate according to the values and spirit of the IDF," he said. "Soldiers on the battlefield are required to act professionally and ethically, and we will not compromise on this. In any event... [the videos do not] align with IDF values, command and disciplinary steps will be taken - this is the way in the IDF."

and again:

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari comments on footage published on social media showing Israeli troops vandalizing Palestinian property in the Gaza Strip.

“IDF troops operate according to the IDF’s values and spirit. Troops on the battlefield are required to act with professionalism and with morals. We will not compromise on this,” Hagari says.

He says that soldiers who participate in any incidents which violate the IDF’s values will be reprimanded or punished.

On leaked footage showing IDF troops detaining Palestinian men in northern Gaza, Hagari says the photos were not distributed by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

“We tell people to undress to make sure they don’t have explosive belts on,” he says, adding that dozens of the detained men are Hamas operatives, while many others are uninvolved civilians.

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You tagged your question with a war-crime tag which does show some bias on your side. Most of such images capture a moment of time out of context, and are hardly evidence of a war crime on their own. Stripping detainees is a common practice almost anywhere, and especially in the Middle East where suicide bombers are quite common. Graffiti and posing with underwear may be a bad taste, but hardly a war crime (or any crime). Claims of destroying infrastructure or looting need to be investigated, but without seeing the specific pictures and knowing the context - also not something anyone would refer to explicitly.

So the response quoted above is probably as close as you can get as an official statement.