JERUSALEM — One of America’s top urban warfare experts says Israeli forces are taking unprecedented steps beyond what most militaries would take to avoid harm to Palestinian civilians as they fight the Islamist terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. I believe that we are taking the following steps.
He added that the intensity of the war four months ago cannot be compared to other recent conflicts.
As Israel prepares for its fiercest and most complex battle in Rafah, the southernmost city on the Strip, John, director of the Modern War Institute for Urban War Studies at West Point and author of several books on the subject of urban warfare, Mr Spencer said: “The steps Israel has taken to prevent casualties are historic compared to all other wars,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Israel has taken more steps to avoid harm to civilians than any military in history,” said Spencer, who served in the U.S. Army for more than 25 years and rose to the rank of major. He said such lengths would set a new standard that other Western militaries would have a hard time following in the future.
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An IDF member examines a map in Khan Yunis, Gaza. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
Israel launched a war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and killed about 240 people, including infants, children, women and the elderly. became a hostage. But since launching a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli military has come under heavy criticism, with even close allies including the United States citing Hamas-based death tolls.
The death toll is more than 28,000, both civilians and fighters, according to daily figures released by the Hamas-run Health Ministry. On Tuesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Helj Halevi said at least a third of the approximately 10,000 people killed were Hamas terrorists, including many of the Iranian-backed group’s commanders. He said that
“What really struck my mind is that Israel issued maps to civilians. [in Gaza] We told them where they would be working each day. …I’ve never seen the military do that. ”
“Despite the numbers, Israel has set the bar very high for mitigation measures against civilians,” Spencer said. Spencer is also the host of the podcast Urban Warfare Project and chair of urban warfare research at the New York-based institute. Madison Policy Forum.
Israeli Defense Forces unit in Khan Yunis. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
He cited other militaries, including the U.S., for their efforts during the war, including warning individuals by phone or email about upcoming airstrikes and sharing maps with plans for military exercises in specific areas. It outlined how the Israeli military took measures that had not been taken.
“We’ve never called everyone in a war environment. We’ve actually had thousands of soldiers sitting in call centers and going into combat zones trying to reach imams and mayors to get everyone out of harm’s way.” I never let them call me,”’ Spencer pointed out.
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Aerial view of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency tent camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza, November 27, 2023. There, hundreds of Gazan families fleeing Israeli attacks are trying to survive with limited means and difficult conditions. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Typically, the element of surprise is paramount in war, but Israel is abandoning it all to prevent civilian casualties.”
“As someone who teaches urban warfare at the division level, what really struck me was that Israel issued maps to civilians. [in Gaza] We told them where they would be working each day. … I’ve never seen the military do something like that,” said Spencer, who visited Israel last month and toured the Gaza Strip and surrounding combat zones.
“Doing this puts the attacking troops at a disadvantage because they are letting the defending troops know what they are doing,” he said. “Normally in war, the element of surprise is paramount, but Israel has abandoned all of that to prevent civilian casualties.
“If that becomes the standard going forward, I don’t know how the U.S. military or any other country is going to do it. We’re not going to send text messages. We’re not going to send text messages. Even if you decide to issue a warning, the map will not be displayed. ”
IDF activities in Gaza (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
Spencer, who has researched U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and multiple other modern conflicts, believes that critics of Israel, including the media and countries such as South Africa, are ignorant of past conflicts and do not fully understand the laws of war. He said he didn’t understand. .
South Africa recently filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
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“There are several camps of people observing the war in Gaza,” he said. “Some groups consider everything that Israel does wrong because they believe that Israel is the oppressor and that the Palestinians are oppressed. Everything Israel does is malicious, regardless of the hostages.”
A photo taken from the Israel-Gaza border shows leaflets dropped by Israeli forces over Gaza City on November 16, 2023, asking people to evacuate the area. Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP, Getty Images (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
“The other camp, especially the United States, is made up of people who are bad at history, even our own history,” Spencer said, adding that few people have studied the details of modern urban warfare. I pointed out that it wasn’t there.
“It’s hard to find people who actually know what the military did in our own conflicts like Fallujah and Mosul. [in Iraq]”, he said, noting that using Google or Wikipedia references to learn more about conflicts that are considered similar to Gaza does not provide adequate information.
This photo, taken in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 20, 2024, shows one of the leaflets with the portrait of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas. The photo shows a man holding it. The leaflets were dropped by the Israeli military into the city. Southern Israel. The flyer (lower right) says, “Are you going home? If you know anything, please report it.” (AFP via Getty Images)
“For example, when the war in Gaza started, people Googled articles about Gaza being the most densely populated place on earth, and that just became a global slogan,” Spencer said. . “You have to weigh whether people are really trying to understand honestly or are they just grasping for things that make Israel look bad. But that’s not the case. [other military] I have never faced anything like this. ”
Spencer emphasized that the reality of war in the Palestinian enclave is different than anywhere else, citing Hamas’ vast network of terror tunnels that snake beneath many urban centers in the Gaza Strip.
“Tunnels are not new, but building tunnels under civilian buildings for the sole purpose of using the laws of war against the military is new,” he said. He added that general ignorance about urban warfare and Israel’s endemic warfare in Gaza, combined with a lack of knowledge about the laws of war, meant that Israel was being held to unfair standards.
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Smoke rises above buildings as Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighborhood on October 9, 2023. (Ali Jadala/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“There are a lot of myths even among the people who took Israel to the ICJ,” Spencer said. “The case against Israel involved a lot of myths, not just about what happened, but what was legal, what were the historical precedents, what had happened in the past.”
Series discussing the Geneva Conventions international humanitarian law The document, written after World War II to set legal standards for humane treatment in war, is designed to never repeat what happened in Europe, Spencer said.
“I think the Geneva Conventions were great and good to enforce, but the problem is that people don’t understand what it’s like to actually follow the rules what they’re seeing. ” he said. “We are building a system where people like Hamas who don’t want to follow the rules want to use them against people who do.
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“I wish the world would do more to stop people from disobeying the law,” Spencer said. “Israel is not only being held to ridiculous standards that no one has ever held before, but it is also facing a situation that no one has ever faced before, and it is actually being forced to adapt to the nature of war after World War II.” I’m trying.”
