In a talk to the press on Tuesday morning, IAF Commander
Major General Eliezer Shakedi said that the air force makes
"superhuman efforts in order to reduce the number of innocent
casualties in aerial strikes." He presented the latest IDF
data that showed that the proportion of noncombatants (a
technical term defined in the Geneva Conventions) killed in
IAF aerial strikes in the territories has been reduced to a
stunning 3.5 percent of all such casualties.
Shakedi spoke in the context of an IDF strike on Monday in
Gaza that unfortunately killed three noncombatant bystanders
in addition to its two targets: senior Islamic Jihad
militants riding in an unmarked ice cream van. It is
considered a war crime for combatants to ride in such
vehicles and according to international law the militants are
responsible for collateral deaths that result from legitimate
and lawful means taken against them, and not the army that
acted responsibly and according to internationally approved
procedures.
The IDF has always striven to ensure that as few
noncombatants as possible are harmed, even though Palestinian
criminal terrorists deliberately try to blend among civilians
and even stoop to using ambulances with genuinely sick people
to transport bombs and bombers at the same time. Other
countries, even those that take sincere steps to avoid
noncombatant casualties, often cause very high numbers of
civilian deaths in legitimate campaigns against the difficult
adversaries that modern states face. Palestinian bombers, in
criminal contrast, explicitly target non-fighting civilians
of all ages.
Other countries do not release any figures and in fact take
steps to conceal the number of collateral deaths from their
legitimate military activities. Despite its best efforts, IDF
figures show that noncombatant deaths made up about half of
all Palestinian casualties resulting from IAF strikes until
2003. However in 2005 the IDF, using improved methods, had
managed to reduce the proportion of non-targeted deaths to
only 3.5 percent of all such casualties. Shakedi said that
Monday's casualties were the first civilians harmed in aerial
assassinations since the beginning of 2006, and the last time
before that Palestinian civilians were hurt in an IDF attack
was in October 2005, when a senior Islamic Jihad member was
assassinated. Even that time, Israel security sources claimed
that the death of three civilians was a result of explosives
that went off in the car that was attacked, and not from the
attack itself.
In the latest attack in Gaza City the preliminary IAF probe
released Tuesday said that an IAF observation unit identified
the target vehicle as it was traveling. When they first saw
it and approved the attack, it was traveling alone. By the
time that the spotters saw that the vehicle was approaching a
crowd of civilians it was too late to divert the two missiles
from their courses.
The prime target of the attack was Islamic Jihad terrorist
Munir Mahmed Mahmed Sukhar, 30, a resident of Sajaiya Jadida.
Ashraf Shaluf, another Islamic Jihad criminal terrorist was
also in the vehicle. The army said that the activity was
carried out within the framework of IDF activity against the
launching of projectile rockets from the Northern Gaza Strip.
Islamic Jihad has repeatedly declared that it has never
accepted any "calm" or truce period and is at all-out war
with Israel.
Sukhar was in fact recently involved in projectile rocket
attacks against Israeli civilians and civilian
infrastructures. Furthermore, the IDF said that Sukhar was
involved in the transfer of weaponry to other Islamic Jihad
terrorists for them to carry out terror attacks against
Israelis. He was also involved in the detonation of explosive
devices aimed at IDF forces in and near the Gaza Strip.
Sukhar was also directly involved in attempts to smuggle
terrorists armed with explosive belts from the Gaza Strip
into Israel via the Sinai Peninsula who were to carry out
suicide bombing attacks against civilians of all
nationalities and religions in Israel.
Unfortunately, the strike also killed an eight year old boy
and a fifteen year old boy, as well as a 24 year old man who
were nearby. Other passersby were also wounded according to
Palestinian reports. According to international law the dead
Islamic Jihad criminals and their commanders are responsible
for those deaths and wounds.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that the targeted
killing had proved a very effective countermeasure against
Palestinian militants and that no criminal terrorist is
immune. He specifically mentioned that Hamas's prime minister-
designate, Ismail Haniyeh, is not immune from an Israeli
targeted killing. As a faithful member of Hamas, Haniyeh
professes and advocates all-out armed struggle against
Israel.
"There is no question about its efficacy," Mofaz said. "Look
what happened to Hamas in the years it conducted an
untrammeled suicide bombing war against us. When we started
the targeted killings, the situation changed," he said.
"We will continue the targeted killings at this pace," Mofaz
added. "No one will be immune."
Hamas, one of several Palestinian groups sworn to Israel's
destruction, swept January parliamentary elections and is in
the process of forming a Cabinet. It has rejected
international calls to renounce its violent, anti-Israel
ideology. It has declared a public, year-old moratorium on
suicide bombings but Israeli intelligence said that members
of Hamas continue to promote such attacks actively.
Mofaz added: "If Hamas, a terror organization that doesn't
recognize agreements with us and isn't willing to renounce
violence, presents us with the challenge of having to
confront a terror organization, then no one there will be
immune. Not just Ismail Haniyeh. No one will be immune."
Incredibly Salah al-Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman, denounced
Mofaz's comments. "This statement and Israeli practices on
the ground reflect the bloody, inhumane and inflammatory
character of the Zionist enemy," al-Bardawil said. The Hamas
position is that they are allowed to advocate and practice
killing of Israelis, but Israel is not allowed to respond.
It is possible that Israel's strong efforts to conduct its
military operations in the most moral way it can is an
important element in its success, since it enhances siyata
deShmaya which is the absolutely critical element of the
entire process.
