John Spencer is a 25-year veteran of the American military, and a professor at West Point, where he heads the Department of Urban Warfare. He has been following closely how the IDF operates in Gaza, and Israel’s methods to mitigate harm to civilians have left a deep impression. More on what he found from his study of the IDF in Gaza — he has visited the battlefield several times — can be found here: “Israel Defense Forces work to protect civilians — not kill them,” by
April 4, 2024:The world mourns the tragic loss of World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza this week.
The investigation into the event is ongoing, but we do know Israel took immediate responsibility, initiated a national-level investigation and admitted the grave error very quickly.
Israel not only took immediate responsibility for the killing of the aid workers, but discharged two senior officers involved in the incident.
This is what law-abiding, moral, ethical military forces do even when they make mistakes in the fog and friction of urban combat.
But despite this tragic event, the overwhelming narrative of Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza has been negative, when in fact it has taken extraordinary measures to follow international humanitarian law and prevent civilian casualties and civilian harm.
As John Kirby, White House national-security communications adviser, emphasized in a press conference this week, the State Department has “not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.”
The Israel Defense Forces recently concluded an operation at al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas terrorists, once again taking unique precautions as they entered the facility to protect the innocent; Israeli media reported doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed.
They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside.
As soon as the operation began, Israel’s critics, of course, immediately pounced.
The critics, as usual, didn’t call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity. Nor did they mention the IDF’s effort to minimize civilian casualties.
When the operation concluded, the overwhelming story was of the damage the battle caused the hospital and not the fact that, according to Israel, 200 Hamas terrorists were killed and more than 500 detained from inside the hospital, nor how the IDF was able to defeat the enemy with minimum if any harm to civilians.
In fact, as IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari announced at the end of the battle against Hamas operative at Al-Shifa, not a single patient, member of the medical personnel, or any other civilian was killed during the operation.
As for the damage to the hospital, much of it was caused by Hamas combatants who shot up every place they were hiding, including MRI rooms, and even through the hospital’s exterior walls, to hit IDF troops inside.
In their criticism, Israel’s opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set.
In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the US military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings.
In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history — above and beyond what international law requires and more than the United States did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians — even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage.
Instead, America and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF’s tactics for protecting civilians, though these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas….
Of course, the true number of Gaza civilian deaths is unknown.
The Hamas-supplied estimate of more than 31,000 does not acknowledge a single combatant death (nor any deaths due to the misfiring of its own rockets or other friendly fire).
Nor do the Hamas figures indicate how many of those were natural deaths, from disease, old age, and accidents. Prior to the Gaza War, about 500 Gazans a month died from those causes, which would mean 3000 of those “civilian casualties” that Hamas attributes to the IDF are in fact natural deaths.
The IDF estimates it has killed about 13,000 Hamas operatives [as of late January], a number I believe credible partly because I believe the armed forces of a democratic American ally over a terrorist regime but also because of the size of Hamas fighters assigned to areas that were cleared and having observed the weapons used, the state of Hamas’ tunnels and other aspects of the combat….
The figure of 13,000 Hamas combatants killed was calculated by the IDF as of late January, after four months of fighting; in the two months following, it is reasonable to estimate that at least 4,000 more Hamas combatants must have been killed, which would mean a total of 17,000 Hamas deaths.
If by the end of March there were 17,000 Hamas deaths, out of a total of 31,000 “civilian deaths” in Gaza declared by Hamas, that would mean a ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths of 14:17, or even less than 1:1. That’s a calculation John Spencer did not make, but it reinforces the point he has already made – that the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in Gaza has been unbelievably low.
Israel has managed to bring down the civilian-to-combatant ratio to an unheard-of and scarcely believable 1:1 (or given the latest figures, the even more amazing 14:17). What’s more, this was accomplished in an environment of urban warfare, in one of the most densely-populated places on earth. Those who insist that Israel bring that ratio down even lower are demanding what no army in the history of modern warfare has ever achieved. These critics need, too, to take into account the special difficulties of war-making in an urban setting, the tactics of the enemy, in having its soldiers wear civilian clothes and embedding them with civilians, while hiding weapons in civilian buildings such as schools, mosques, and hospitals, from which they also fire on the IDF soldiers. And then there is the vast network of terror tunnels under Gaza, some 500 miles long, with thousands of entry points, where Hamas terrorists can still hide in those the IDF has not yet destroyed, and suddenly emerge to shoot at the IDF before again disappearing back to their underground lairs. The American army, as Professor Spencer says, could learn a lot from how the IDF has conducted its campaign in Gaza. But it is unlikely to do as long as the Bidenites keep berating the IDF for what they should be praising.
Walter Sieruk says
John Spencer has a very good point. For example,, in the newspaper The Epoch Times April 3-6, 2024, A14 the reader in informed about “Civilian Casualties.” For it reads, “Israel risks the lives of its soldiers to prevent civilians deaths. Hamas risks the lives of civilians to prevent terrorist’s death. Israel considers it a failure, and Hamas considers it a globally advantageous when civilians die than its soldiers.”
The Israel Defense Force is an outstanding example for the United States military to follow.
R_not says
why? So they can continue pushing islam? They have been a big part of the whole problem too! THey give their children to thugs to learn to hate and kill. Basically to teach what islam – allah and ol’ moe – wants them to do so they think they will get to heaven on that fast path and the ones just giving birth think they will be named as one of the saved too.
No, sickness is bred into those people and I can’t even trust those that pretend to be ‘moderates’!
Viki Norman says
Can you just pour cement into the tunnels from both sides to block those hiding there?