I fundamentally disagree with the way in which the Israel Defense Forces are portrayed in your article (‘The grey zone’: how IDF views some journalists in Gaza as legitimate targets, 25 June). The article says “some in the Israel Defense Forces appear to have viewed journalists working in Gaza for outlets controlled by or affiliated with Hamas to be legitimate military targets”.
Yet Israel never intentionally targets innocents. War is hellish and, tragically, in war civilian casualties are sadly unavoidable. My country goes to great lengths to warn civilians of impending strikes, including by making thousands of phone calls, sending texts, dropping leaflets, and also by providing clear and safe evacuation routes. The minimisation of civilian harm is a priority for us.
We are fighting Hamas, an anti-democratic, anti-British, anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ terrorist group. A terror group that embeds itself within densely populated areas and key civilian infrastructure, such as schools, universities, homes, hospitals, UN buildings and mosques. Hamas’s cynical use of innocent Palestinians as human shields is heartbreaking; in recent months, we have even seen undeniable evidence of Hamas terrorists using children’s beds and cots in Gaza as weapons storage facilities as well as concealing tunnel shaft entrances.
If Hamas truly cared about Palestinians and truly wanted an end to the fighting, this could have ended yesterday. Indeed, 7 October never needed to happen in the first instance – we did not want this war or any such suffering. Hamas continues to play a cynical game against Palestinian and Israeli civilians. The Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve a government that invests in them, not in terror.
The people of Israel continue to aspire to live alongside our Palestinian neighbours in peace, just as we have done with many of our Arab neighbours across the region.
Orly Goldschmidt
Spokesperson, embassy of Israel
