Gaza: 60-Minute Warning | Al Jazeera World Documentary

is foreign on may 11, 2021 israel launched a military operation against the

gaza

strip, called operation guardian of the walls, it followed weeks of rising tension in occupied east jerusalem and in palestinian towns and cities across israel israel participated in several provocations before any rocket directed from

gaza

to israel those provocations involve the evictions of the neighborhood of sheikh jarrah in east jerusalem and then there were the right-wing demonstrations that received police protection in israel and who marched through the neighborhoods of east jerusalem shouting slogans with the effect of death to the Arabs and very provocative for leading to the Palestinian resistance and then, finally and perhaps most importantly, the entry of the Israeli security forces to the Aksa complex and mosque in the last days of Ramadan, interfering with worship at this place which is considered a sacred site as part As a result of this operation, Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed four tower blocks in Gaza City, where Palestinians lived and had their businesses.

These towers were in the busy Rumal neighborhood of Gaza. Rimal is a commercial district and a residential area where international media organizations and agencies also have their offices. The Cassam and Sariah Goods brigades have an underground network under the Gaza Strip at this point that has been built for 15 years. They have the ability to keep their military operations and planning separate from the larger civilian area of ​​the Gaza Strip with the smallest number of military forces. benefit because rimal is the area furthest from the border, it is the most densely populated area of ​​an urban environment, militarily it does not make sense, the demolished towers were attractive to companies because of the services they provided, companies that required stability rented space for offices there knowing that electricity, water and other essential services were relatively reliable day and night the hanadi tower was known for its ocean view housed hotel style apartments with services a health club media organizations technology companies and residential apartments the tower al Jauhara housed the headquarters of several media organizations, including the Palestinian national news agency and other television stations, there were also restaurants, offices and apartments, it was in the middle of the busiest street in Gaza, there were dozens of shops, offices of import and export and some local media, and there was the Al-jalaa tower with the Al Jazeera office. media network and the American media agency Associated Press were headquartered on its lower floors there were a number of commercial offices, while the upper floors housed residential apartments all of these towers no longer exist rami abdo heads the euro-mediterranean human rights monitor based in Geneva carried out an investigation into these attacks in Gaza and came to the same conclusion as people on the ground at the time: the four towers had no military purpose;

However, the Israeli military disagreed stating that the buildings were being used for military purposes, so where is the truth? If these towers were bombed and destroyed, this is exactly one of the questions that must be asked in any investigation that must be carried out. What was the main objective of these attacks? Was it really damaging the military objects that were in those towers? buildings or rather a show of force to intimidate the population of Gaza and if the latter seems to be the latter and if the latter is an illegal attack and the fact that missiles from Israeli planes hit the towers could constitute a war crime are indisputable, but what is not clear is the reason behind the attacks or the process of how exactly a building is selected for destruction.

One man who may have an idea is Yaron, a retired Israeli military commander who worked as a special operations officer in the Israeli army's central command when we know in the first place we know that there is a terrorist organization or that there is terrorist activity and that one of buildings or structures there is a terrorist structure in Gaza, so first we start with our intelligence unit and we want to know if there are civilians and not involve civilians in the building, or around the building, secondly, if we know that there is a civilian there , we use many kinds of ways to check this, so we warn you first. we all call them and ask them to leave the house so that the only ones who will be hated are only the terrorists in the place and not the civilians or any other person who is not involved. foreigners foreigners Israel has always presented its military operations as those carried out by the most moral army in the

world

, but anyone who has examined its behavior from an objective point of view understands that it is propaganda or public relations designed to convince the

world

of something that is essentially not true or that is actually The opposite is true my foreigner a caller from the Israeli army gave a

warning

of the imminent bombing of al-jala a tower with the deadline approaching the owner pleaded by phone for more time to evacuate hello foreigner foreigner foreigner the israeli military often produces videos about hamas, the palestinian group that has ruled gaza since 2006. these videos say that hamas uses civilian facilities in gaza as what it calls human shields and this claim is used by israel to justify attacks such as those on the four towers in gaza and other palestinian targets. the first responsibility lies on Hamas once Hamas uses the people there as a human shield once it hides behind the people so the most important thing you need to know is that maybe the bomb is smart, we use a smart bomb but The bomb has no values ​​and no morals and does not want to distinguish between terrorists and non-terrorists, especially when terrorists use people as human shields and hide behind them.

There is a broader argument that Israeli spokesmen are making and that is, Gaza in general was taken hostage by Hamas and that, you know, and that we are fighting an enemy that is hiding in civilian areas, let's take that argument at face value. the lyrics, let's talk about a hostage situation. If the Guzmanes are hostages, then you should be allowed to do what you would do if the Israelis were hostages. Would you target an entire house with several fighters or terrorists and kill all the Israelis who are hostage there? I mean, if Israel really wants to do it.

They argue that this line that Gazans the civilian population of Gaza was taken hostage by Hamas should treat this situation as a hostage situation after bombing the Hanadi al-jala and al-johara towers the Israeli army gave its justification for the action that claimed those towers housed Hamas intelligence officers. He also accused Hamas of using the Al-Sharok tower for what he called terrorist purposes. Foreign Israel has claimed in at least one case that I know of that Hamas offices and to be precise, Hamas intelligence was housed in one of the towers, however, there is another principle of the international laws of war and that is the principle of proportionality, it is not enough that the objective is legitimate, if the expected result of an attack is massive damage to civilians and civilian objects that exceeds the military advantage of erasing the military objective then the attack is also illegal in military terms The principle of proportionality refers to the obligation to weigh military objectives against the risk of harm to civilians.

Armies around the world use advanced weapons technology. Some guided missiles can limit the damage they cause, while others are highly destructive. and that includes those used to bomb residential and commercial towers in Gaza. This choice of missile gives the attacker the option of creating a targeted explosion on a portion of a building or launching a high-impact missile attack capable of destroying an entire tower. Israel has precise ammunition and bombs that make the notion of an attack wrong is almost impossible to believe. In other words, these missiles and bombs are so sophisticated in their guidance and linked to GPS systems.

To guide them precisely toward their intended targets, Israel has in the past demonstrated that it has this capability in assassination attacks or what Israel calls targeted assassinations. We had seen cases where missiles were fired at a specific window, at a specific apartment, at specific rooms abroad, at one of One of the most important aspects of the principle of proportionality is the test that asks whether the same can be achieved target with a more selective, more focused and more restricted use of force that would put far fewer civilians and civilian and civilian objects, etc., at risk. If, for example, the Israeli forces concluded that there are Hamas military offices in an apartment building in a tower and they are located on one or two floors and they can only attack those floors, then of course if they target every building that would be blown out of proportion if they knew that militarily relevant strategic military equipment was in the building that they must have known where in the building it was, I mean it would be difficult to have one type of knowledge without the other type I have no knowledge and I think a The most reasonable interpretation is that this military operation was directed not only at Hamas but at the entire population of Gaza.

They had a hybrid motivation of deterring and destroying what they could of Hamas' capabilities but also

warning

people that if they tolerate Hamas leadership they should expect to suffer consequences at the same time I have lived there for several years and if there is no safe place in gaza they are using large weapons as a spectacle to create an image that appears on television um that's what it's for to make everyone in Gaza gasp and say oh my god, that's the point, that's the military objective, is to mark the civilians, is to terrorize civilians, is to create a punitive cost, a penalty for resisting. for not just staying in your ghetto with the level of starvation, uh, Israeli subsidies through the checkpoints and not saying anything about it and as soon as you fight back, they want the cost to be as high as possible, while Israel and Israeli lawyers have been referring to the Hamas offices as justification for the attack.

Other Israeli spokesmen have said different things. They have talked about the damage to the towers as an advantage to convince the Palestinian population that the way Hamas conducts its affairs will cause an economic collapse that the collapse of buildings is intimidating and you know it is a show of force, now these types of statements give rise to even deeper suspicions that it is not only a disproportionate attack but actually the target of the attack was not a legitimate objective, the objective of The attack was not legitimate because to intimidate civil society, the pub, the population is not a legitimate objective.

In the laws of war. They wouldn't protect their own families, they wouldn't put a military installation in the same building as their families because that's not logical, as a family member, so we have to think about these things in human terms, the Israelis managed to dehumanize the conflict, but no one in Hamas is establishing a dangerous application next to a civilian environment in 2014 in the protective era operation that when they used a dense area when they hid behind civilians they will be protected and um they will be immune in immune. There will be immunity behind these people and I can tell you that in the case of a gelal building that they abused, they actually abused Al Jazeera and other media because they knew that we will not attack this building, we will not bomb this building after Al Jalaar tower. was demolished the president and CEO of the Associated Press news agency spoke to the media We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building that houses the AP office and other news organizations in Gaza.

They have known the location of our office for a long time. and there were new journalists there as we pressed for evidence of allegations that Hamas was inside the same building as the AP and Al Jazeera offices. Let me bring in AP senior editor Sally Busby, if you were ever informed before yesterday that Hamas could be operating there in the building no, we have heard the Israelis say they have evidence, we don't know what that evidence is, we believe that it is appropriate at this time that there be an independent look at what happened yesterday, an independent investigation into what happened yesterday, department of safety and security used um um I think the military should present its case and evidence to the general public it is inconceivable that a civilian residential tower is being torn down and the army that does it does not explain what was there that would justify such a horrendous um brutal attack on the people who need to have this evidence, the people who have the evidence and all the details that they should have about Hamas and we have it, but we can't always expose the details to everyone. the world because some of the tests are based on smart drives, so we can't expose everything,but we do expose it to the United States as an example and to the people who need it and we want them to know and see that.

There is a terrorist infrastructure in this building. Gaza was bombed over the weekend hosting a US media organization. Do you think that was justified? Have you received information about that? Do you want to receive information about that right now? as a big mistake on the part of the Israelis, and I appreciate the contrary information, but this is part of the reason why we need to achieve a ceasefire very soon. Israel is not going to provide any kind of adequate evidence that these towers were used for military purposes. Buildings. themselves areCommercial buildings The Al Jalal building is a media building that has media offices running all the time, people come and go all the time, more than any building in the entire Gaza Strip, apart from maybe a hospital, people come and go. of that building all the time the idea that you have a secret facility in that building just doesn't convince me the so-called dahia doctrine that was developed in the war against Lebanon in I think in 2006 the gea doctrine was explained by the IDF commander in chief at the time deliberately inflicted disproportionate harm on the civilian population as a way to discourage Hezbollah provocations and in my opinion and in the opinion of the Goldstone commission uh that investigated the 2008-2009 uh military operation in gaza la dahia Israel has systematically practiced this doctrine;

In other words, it has included in its policy the adoption of disproportionate responses to what it considers a provocation. I think that Israel's attacks on residential buildings against media targets against health care facilities in the Gaza Strip helped change American public opinion against Israel because it was a very dramatic and very visible affirmation of the war crimes that Israel was committing and it was broadcast in real time on social networks through the media. I have never heard the United States criticize El Jalal. building as what I know is unity, Israel gave them the information they needed about the Hamas structures that they have in the building and from what I know, they guess as they get it, but I don't need, I don't need to hear about This news I know , I know this because I know I know the IDF and I was serving in the IDF.

We will never hit any target or infrastructure that we do not know with certainty whether it is used by Hamas or any level. organization that is in madison in solidarity to press for an end to the violence that occurred tonight hundreds of people marched through downtown Chicago as the bloody conflict in the Middle East the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine met in March this night Israel has been exposed, it has been exposed Tonight the city center attracted thousands of people in support of Palestine. I think it's largely the result of popular pressure and pressure from members of Congress that resulted in a change in the Biden administration and I think it was especially important the statement that Senator Bob Menendez, who the chairman of the relations committee outside the senate got angry after israel demolished that residential building in gaza that housed all the media offices and said that israel needed to be held accountable for what it did and that was very significant because senator menéndez has been a supporter of israel for many decades into his career in Congress, so the fact that someone so prominent in such a high position in Congress and who is so pro-Israel said these things, I think it definitely had a lot of consideration in terms of changing the dynamic. internal. of the politics around him is using his right to self-defense, international human rights organizations have also criticized the actions of both the Israeli military and Hamas since Human Rights Watch said the violence cited rocket and mortar attacks during the fighting May 2021 in the Gaza Strip, which The civilians killed and injured in Israel and Gaza violated the laws of war and constitute war crimes.

In a separate report, Human Rights Watch said it found no evidence that members of Palestinian groups involved in military operations had a current or long-term presence at any of the towers at the time they were attacked, although Israel took a number of actions. precautions, such as giving advance warning of attacks, in some cases airstrikes in such densely populated areas resulted in high levels of civilian casualties and injuries, as well as widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure. Such attacks raise serious concerns about Israel's compliance with the principles of this distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law and proportionality under international humanitarian law is considered to be indiscriminate and disproportionate in its impact on civilians and civilian objects.

Such attacks may constitute war crimes that Israel promotes. The top united nations human rights official condemned israel's expulsion of the country's united nations special rapporteur, calling it unprecedented and deeply regrettable on monday israeli authorities detained richard falk and held him for 20 hours before to put him back on a plane to geneva Israel has understood that their legal arguments are not persuasive, so they have tended to attack the person or the institution, for example, they called the ICC decision pure anti-Semitism, you know, instead to say that it was wrong by legal concession, they did not bother with the argument.

And the same thing, in my experience, they want to hurt the messenger instead of addressing the message because their arguments are too weak now and that's why I've been saying that the Palestinians are winning the legitimacy war and their grievances are winning more. public support and understanding that Israel's prop propaganda, even though it is heavily subsidized and has all kinds of ideological motives such as the bombing and destruction of its offices by the Israeli army in Gaza, said that it saw this as an act clear to prevent journalists from reporting on events on the ground. Efforts to rebuild gaza after the may 2021 attacks are slow two months after the bombings the world bank the eu and the un concluded a rapid damage and needs assessment report for gaza estimated that the recovery cost will be up to 485 million US dollars over the next two years the human cost was the deaths of at least 253 Palestinians, including 65 children, killed in the Israeli bombardment on the Israeli side 12 people, including two children, were killed by rocket fire hamas despite the bombing of its offices press associated with Jazeera and other media organizations Continue reporting on events in Gaza.