Last Updated on October 16, 2023
An Israeli military officer told CNN that his country is not just at war with Hamas, “but with all the civilians of Gaza,” who he says do not see Israeli troops as human beings and want to kill them.
“The war is not just with Hamas but with all the civilians that cannot see us as human beings that want to kill us,” said Israeli military officer Betzalel Taljah, during a live CNN interview.
According to polling conducted in recent years, support among Palestinian civilians for Hamas has skyrocketed, and support for violence against Israel hovers around 80% on average.
Watch the interview clip below:
https://twitter.com/marionawfal/status/1713864877024940067
In both Israel and Gaza, the death of civilians has been a major component of the conflict between Israel and Hamas since it began last week with an unprecedented Hamas terror attack that killed an estimated 1,300 Israelis, including women and children, with dozens more people being taken hostage by the Hamas attackers.
Shockingly, as Hamas fighters raided Israeli kibbutzes and slaughtered music festival attendees, the Israeli military was nowhere to be found, with some sources reporting that it took the Israeli Defense Forces a whopping 6 hours to reach the attack sites. This is despite Israel usually having what’s often described as the most secure national borders on the face of the earth and a fighting force that is constantly at the ready for war, given the Jewish state’s precarious position in the middle of the Islamic world.
REPORT: Israel Ignored Intel Warnings that Predicted Hamas Attack
As Israel began launching strikes into Gaza, a small sliver of Palestinian land with an extremely dense population, widespread civilian casualties were reported almost immediately. Additionally, Israel has cut off water, electricity, and other amenities to the Gaza Strip, in a move that international watchdogs say will lead to more civilian deaths as hospitals lose the ability to operate.
Making matters in Gaza worse is the long-true fact that Hamas uses the local population as human shields, launching attacks on Israeli forces before blending back into the civilian world.
Much like the Ukrainians, from whom Hamas claims to have purchased weapons, the Islamic terror group is known to stash weaponry and plant operations posts both in and beneath schools full of children, as well as densely packed residential areas. Doing so makes it virtually impossible for the Israelis to avoid civilian deaths during military strikes, whether by air or by ground.
Read More: Hamas Thanks Ukraine for Selling Them Weapons
