IDF chief pans Channel 14 for ‘false’ claim army’s top lawyer vetoed strike on building where 4 troops were killed

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir hits back at the far-right Channel 14 news station for claiming this evening that a booby-trapped building that killed four troops in Khan Younis last week was not struck because of an order given by the Military Advocate General.

“The chief of staff condemns the false, repeated, and baseless attacks regarding the conduct of the Military Advocate General,” Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, says Zamir in a statement.

“There was no directive from the Military Advocate General not to strike the building that collapsed and led to the deaths of four IDF soldiers in Khan Younis on Friday,” he continues.

“The claims made in this context are false, malicious, and entirely unfounded,” Zamir says, referring to the Channel 14 report.

“The safety of IDF soldiers is a central consideration in all operations carried out in the Gaza Strip, and the forces on the ground have operational freedom to remove threats,” he says.

“The chief of staff strongly condemns the defamation of IDF officers who work day and night for the security of the state and the protection of its citizens,” the statement adds.

Channel 14’s report claimed that the building was not targeted in an airstrike because Tomer-Yerushalmi ostensibly changed army protocol that prohibited striking the structure.

The IDF has said that the troops entered the building to search it for possible tunnel entrances. Despite efforts by the IDF to locate booby-traps, Hamas set off a bomb as the soldiers entered the building, which collapsed on them, killing four and wounding five.