IDF official: Deadly Gaza strike targeted spotter, wasn’t aimed at collapsing building
Dozens, including women and children, were reported killed when 5-story apartment complex came down; IDF says it did not know it was being used as a shelter
A military official said Wednesday that an attack on a five-story building in which Gaza health officials said scores of deaths took place was aimed at a binoculars-holding spotter in the building and that the intent was not to destroy the structure.
The admission came after a widespread international outcry over the strike that appeared to kill dozens of Palestinians, many of them women and children.
The Israel Defense Forces official agreed to provide details only on condition of anonymity, citing military protocol and the ongoing investigation into the incident.
The official said the building was not known to be a shelter for civilians, and that it collapsed as a result of the strike on the spotter.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed Tuesday that at least 70 people were killed in the first of two strikes on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, asserting that more than half of the victims were women and children. The ministry’s casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and terror operatives.
The military has said it is investigating the strike, initially urging skepticism of Hamas’s claims. However, images and photos from the scene appeared to show widespread carnage.
The official said there are discrepancies between the numbers of victims reported by authorities in Gaza and what Israeli intelligence indicates, and that the victims included known terror operatives. The official did not provide detailed evidence to support that assertion.
The US State Department described the bombing as “a horrifying incident with a horrifying result” and a spokesman said Washington had asked Israel for an explanation.
The United Nations aid coordination agency UNOCHA said the strike was only one of at least seven mass casualty incidents over the past week in the enclave, adding that medical facilities in the area were struggling to deal with the casualties.
“Only two… out of 20 health service points and two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda, remain functional, although partially, hampering the delivery of life-saving health services,” UNOCHA said.
“Across the Gaza Strip, October has seen very limited food distribution due to severe supply shortages,” it warned, adding that 1.7 million people, 80 percent of the population, did not receive rations.
The army has repeatedly said it targets military targets and terror operatives, accusing Hamas of operating among civilians and using them as human shields. It has highlighted numerous steps it takes to mitigate harm to civilians while acknowledging that errors have occurred.
The Beit Lahiya area had been given an evacuation order earlier this month as the IDF launched a new offensive in northern Gaza. Israel says its campaign aims to destroy Hamas, whose terror operatives had returned to the area in the yearlong war. The military has repeatedly emphasized the area is a combat zone.
Dr. Eid Sabbah of Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan Hospital told Reuters that bodies and injured people remained trapped under rubble.
He said the destruction of hospitals and lack of medical supplies meant doctors and nurses mostly had no chance of saving people who came in with injuries from airstrikes and gunfire.
“Whoever is injured, just lies there on the ground and whoever is killed can’t be transported, except by mule-drawn cart,” he said.
The IDF said Monday troops had withdrawn from the Kamal Adwan Hospital, having wrapped up a raid launched Friday against Hamas operatives it said were using the hospital as a command and control base.
Image shows Palestinians fleeing Jabalia stripped, held for hours
Israel also faced criticism for an image taken Friday of Palestinian men, many of them stripped down to their underwear in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp. The image sparked outrage online after being posted on an Israeli group on the Telegram messaging app.
CNN interviewed five people in the photo, some of whom described being stripped and mocked by IDF troops for several hours as they tried to evacuate from the area per the military’s instructions, amid the ongoing offensive there.
Muhannad Khalaf told the network he was fleeing with his family when troops stopped them, held them with a group of others from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., then allowed the women and children to leave with their belongings before forcing all the men to strip down to their underwear.
"הוחזקנו שעות בקור בתחתונים, החיילים צחקו וצילמו": התמונה והעדויות מג'באליהhttps://t.co/xgYGOBTrXa pic.twitter.com/xTtNmIKoLl
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) October 30, 2024
“We complied. We sat in the cold for several more hours and the weather was frigid. They were insulting us during that time, calling us names, laughing, and taking pictures,” he said, adding that after being screened one by one, they were allowed to continue on to Gaza City.
“Some individuals were selected for detention while others were released. Most of us ended up in Gaza City. The situation was terrifying and deeply saddening as we witnessed elderly men and injured individuals in distress, with no one showing them compassion or mercy,” he said.
CNN identified a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in the image as Jouri Abu Ward. Her father Mohamad told CNN he too was forced to strip and was detained for eight hours without food or water.
His wife and other children left in the morning and continued to Gaza City, he told CNN.
Similar images taken by troops and spread online have sparked concern throughout the war over possible rights violations or humiliating treatment. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, said in December such pictures “serve nobody” and expected the distribution of them would cease.
US failing to adhere to own policies investigating misuse of weapons
According to a report by The Washington Post Wednesday, the US State Department has failed to follow its own policies in investigating allegations of its weapons being used by Israel unnecessarily against civilians.
Current and former US officials told The Post that almost 500 reports from within the US government and various international agencies have been made, but no case has reached the “action stage,” while at least two-thirds of cases have not been solved.
While a majority reach the “verification stage,” where the Israeli government is asked to respond to the case, “many” are still pending answers, the report said.
“We ask the [government of Israel] about the cases: Did you forewarn? Why did you hit this school or safe road or safe zone?” a former official told The Post.
The report added that US officials and Democratic representatives in Congress are frustrated by the State Department’s reliance on Israel to back up the allegations, while the credibility of accusations made by Palestinians and NGOs is put into question.
Many of the cases feature documentation of US-made bomb parts in areas where “scores of children were killed,” human rights advocates briefed on the process told The Post. Sources familiar with the matter said some of the cases could constitute a violation of US and international law.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops in Rafah on Wednesday that bringing home the hostages is the most important mission currently in the Gaza Strip.
“Our echelon, the political… need to bring about that we make a deal. So the deal with us is simple, you apply pressure, do what is necessary, and we bring about a deal because you create the conditions for us to carry it out, and I hope we will do it,” he said.
“This is our most important mission in Gaza at this time. We have regular tasks, one is to maintain the defense of the communities and the forces, and the second is to maintain the freedom of action to do whatever is necessary inside Gaza,” Gallant added.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 42,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 367.
Talks led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to broker a ceasefire resumed this week after multiple abortive attempts. Egypt’s president proposed a two-day truce in exchange for a few of the 97 October 7 hostages still held by Hamas for Palestinian security prisoners, followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.
Israel has repeatedly said the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated while the Palestinian terror group has ruled out any end to fighting until IDF forces leave Gaza.
