Hamas’s murder of Jewish civilians in the Kfar Aza kibbutz on 7 October was “without doubt a war crime”, the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen concluded in his report from southern Israel this week. But what, Bowen then asked, about the lives of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who now face bombing and siege – and possibly an imminent ground war – as Israel retaliates.
Bowen asked a fundamental wartime question. In response, the Israeli commander in Kfar Aza, Maj Gen Itai Veruv, gave him an impeccable and restrained reply. “You fight with [your] values and you keep your values at the same time,” he replied. “I know we will be very aggressive and very strong, but we will keep our morals and values.”
