An extraordinary warning call to a Palestinian dentist starts the panicked evacuation of a Gazan neighbourhood.

By Alice Cuddy BBC News, Jerusalem

The call to Mahmoud Shaheen came at dawn.

It was Thursday 19 October at about 06:30, and Israel had been bombing Gaza for 12 days straight.

He’d been in his third-floor, three-bedroom flat in al-Zahra, a middle-class area in the north of the Gaza Strip. Until now, it had been largely untouched by air strikes.

He’d heard a rising clamour outside. People were screaming. “You need to escape,” somebody in the street shouted, “because they will bomb the towers”.

  • dontcarebear English
    -1•8 months ago

    Yes Hamas is a terror organization, no, that does not allow you to behave like a terror organization when fighting them.

    I agree.

    If you have read the article this is not about innocents which where at the wrong place a the wrong time. This article is about deliberate destruction of civilian buildings without giving any justification besides ‘There are some things that we see that you don’t see.’ in some cases evacuation was allowed, in some cases no time for evacuation was given. There is in my eyes no justification for this.

    I respect your sentiment that you can’t justify killing innocents no matter the cause. I also respectfully disagree, and I accept “There are somethings that we see that you don’t” as tactical reasoning. I don’t do this with a happy heart, or a sense of conviction. It is a sad to thing to recognize.

    You don’t let your enemy know how you know where to hit, because that would expose your intelligence - be it collaborators, equipment or units - to your enemy.

    I do agree though, that it leaves you with doubt that the IDF isn’t just murdering people. However I don’t think they’d go to such trouble to sometimes notify and sometimes not. It doesn’t make sense.

    Yesterday a group of refugees ran across the corridor from the north to the south holding white flags. The Palestinians here are suffering, and require humanitarian aid, but they were let through. They weren’t executed or attacked. Source is from the guardian, which is center-left in bias.

    I never said that Israel should stand idle. So don’t push that opinion on me.

    I apologize for putting words in your mouth or assuming your opinion for you. I was wrong here to a fault.

    What could be done? Attack military targets only, give civilians time to evacuate. (Yes a civilian home becomes a military target if it is used as weapons stash/factory, but there was no indication at all in the cases listed in the article),

    Hamas doesn’t follow the Geneva Convention. It’s fighters don’t dress as a military, they dress in civilian clothing. Maybe not as a rule, but there’s definitely footage that Hamas itself released with their fighters wearing Jeans and T Shirts.

    Regarding allowing civilians to evacuate - This is again the issue of tactical reasoning from before.

    support the more moderate Fatah in regaining control. Support new democratic elections.

    I’ll add - remove the Likud and Netanyahu from power, add the Palestinians into the Abraham accords. All worthy things to do AFTER the war, and should be done. No doubt.

    Destroying peoples homes and basic utilities will only ensure that hate on Israel grows and support for Hamas remains steady.

    I whole-heatedly agree with you on this one. Both sides are losing right now. I think this war will mean that Fatah will disappear and the west bank will become Hamas too. And then the situation is twice as fucked.