What is interesting in both cases, the stripping and the toy store incident, is that someone took time to film them, and others had no problem in distributing them widely. Why?
The only explanation that one can surmise from these actions is that they were carried out to show to the Israeli public, which felt that their army, intelligence, and civilians were humiliated on October 7, that their army could carry out the desired revenge. Ever since October 7, Israeli officials have been making dehumanizing statements about Palestinians. An IDF spokesperson said early on that the Air Force will emphasize “maximum damage not accuracy.” Israel’s defense minister said that Israel will treat Palestinians as animals, and the president of Israel denied the existence of any innocent Palestinian civilian.
Out-of-control Israeli shelling resulted in around 18,000 Palestinians killed, most of them children and women, as well as the destruction of hospitals, churches, mosques, bakeries, schools, and other institutions. But all of that is not enough. The Israeli army needs to show its public back home that it was in control and that the IDF had succeeded in subjugating and, yes, humiliating Palestinians in revenge for an act that some of them (Hamas) perpetrated.