Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Saturday, October 21, 2023
From the Liveblog of
Saturday, October 21, 2023
IDF says private homes harboring terrorists are legitimate targets
Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)
A senior Israel Defense Forces official says the military will try not to strike zones in Gaza where humanitarian aid is being distributed unless rockets are fired from the area.
“It’s a safe zone. We have a system in which every time we decide that an area…is a safe zone, we declare no attack in this area. We won’t attack them,” he tells a group of foreign journalists.
He adds that the definition of what constitutes a “legitimate target” has changed, because the use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas “turns a private home into a legitimate target. And anyone who supports that home is a legitimate target.”
He acknowledges that the IDF has attacked houses where there are civilians living among terrorists.
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