The Israeli navy didn’t know {that a} constructing within the Gaza Strip contained international media retailers earlier than it was destroyed within the battle in Might, however didn’t cancel the strike as soon as they discovered, a report has revealed.
The Al-Jalaa constructing was destroyed by an Israeli strike within the main assault on Gaza on 15 Might, drawing a flurry of criticism towards the occupation state’s focusing on of infrastructure internet hosting media retailers and civilians. Israel has lengthy justified such assaults as focusing on websites which it alleges Hamas makes use of.
In a report by the Israeli information outlet Haaretz, nevertheless, it’s revealed that the Israeli navy had no data that Related Press and Al Jazeera had places of work within the constructing previous to the strike. It discovered the media retailers had been within the constructing solely after finishing up the ‘knock on the roof’ process, through which a small missile assaults to warn inhabitants earlier than the ultimate strike.
Citing nameless sources concerned within the occasion, the paper revealed that the international journalists inside knowledgeable their Israeli colleagues and defence officers of what was occurring, prompting a number of of these officers to attempt to forestall the strike.
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Regardless of these efforts, and after repeated calls to the constructing’s inhabitants to evacuate, the Israeli navy’s senior officers ordered the strike to proceed on the grounds that Hamas was intentionally utilizing the journalists and retailers as human shields.
Following the strike and the following outcry, the navy continued with that stance, insisting that Hamas “intentionally locates its navy belongings within the coronary heart of the Gaza Strip’s civilian inhabitants. We have double-checked and are 100% sure that there have been Hamas navy belongings on this communications constructing.”
Vital criticism of the strike additionally got here from the US and, extra not too long ago, from a former common of the Israeli navy, lamenting the incident particularly as a mistake and an influence on public relations. Considered one of Haaretz‘s sources mentioned that, whereas “the assault might have been stopped at a number of factors,” Israeli politicians and senior navy officers “had been searching for a victory image.”
As they had been each extra involved with the Hamas rockets from Gaza and the potential for Hamas profitable the propaganda battle, they needed to conduct the strike and present the general public a profitable assault on Hamas. One other of the sources acknowledged that they “did not perceive the implications of this incident and launched the images of the constructing’s ruins as a public relations victory.”
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