Sébastien Le Belzic / Photo credits: Ahmad Hasaballah / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP
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10:37 a.m., November 6, 2023
While fighting rages in the Gaza Strip, bombings have caused 9,770 Palestinian casualties, mainly civilians. Hamas accuses Israel of targeting public buildings and homes, but for the IDF, terrorists voluntarily use civilians as human shields.
Nearly a month after Hamas’s attack on Israel, the Jewish state’s response continues in the Gaza Strip. The bombings left 9,770 Palestinian victims, mainly civilians, according to Hamas figures. Violent fighting has been raging for several days in northern Gaza, where there are still between 300,000 and 400,000 Palestinian civilians. Hamas accuses Israel of targeting public buildings, such as hospitals.
But the Israeli army assures that terrorists fire missiles from these areas full of refugees, using them as human shields. According to Omer Levi, a veteran of the elite IDF commandos who was seriously injured during the fighting, hiding behind civilians and in tunnels is a well-established Hamas strategy.
“The Israeli army does not want to harm civilians”
“Hamas locks up its population around the tunnels and tells them to stay there. They tell them not to leave their homes. The tunnels are located in these houses, in the cellars, in the basement of residential buildings,” explains this former Israeli fighter at the microphone of Europe 1.
“That’s why the Israeli army is moving slowly. They don’t want to hit civilians. I saw a woman with three children who had to stay at home as a human shield, while in the apartment, just next to her, Hamas terrorists were shooting at us and we had to face this situation,” testifies Omer Levi.