Senior IAF commander: Hamas use of human shields endangers Israeli lives

The IAF commander in charge of intelligence gathering says that Hamas' embedding itself among the civilian population of Gaza has resulted in the loss of Israeli lives.

"We don’t have bombs on our planes; we have cameras that do intelligence work, and our job is to make sure that the bombs hit the right targets and only the right targets," said Lt. Col. Y, commander of the squadron, as reported by the IDF Blog this Monday.

The commander admitted "sometimes it’s very frustrating because you actually see rockets being launched from mosques, schoolyards - from places you can’t attack. And a lot of the time, it’s from the vicinity of these facilities. When it’s nearby, we try to clear the place."

"If the situation is unclear, the attack will be aborted. Maybe we would return to strike the target at a different time, or maybe not hit the site at all," added Lt. Col. Y, noting how Hamas's callous use of the Gaza populace is harming the IDF's ability to defend Israel.

Noting on the effect of the strike abortions, Lt. Col. Y added "it's not easy during battle, because you sabotage your operational achievement. Nevertheless, we do it because we believe its important."

At least one MK describes Israel's aborting strikes to avoid civilian casualties as 'misplaced pity.'

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) has blamed Israel's "misplaced pity" for Gaza residents as being responsible for the deaths of IDF soldiers. In one case, reports indicated that a strike was called off on a booby-trapped UN clinic, forcing soldiers to go in without air cover; three soldiers were killed as the building exploded, and seven more were wounded.

And you thought things had changed since the IDF got 23 boys killed in 2002 going house to house in Jenin to avoid civilian casualties, only to be accused of a 'massacre' afterward?

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