Israeli Commander: Civilian Toll Will Be Even Higher in Next Gaza War

Insists Hamas Tactics Require Change to Rules of War

Amid talk of Israeli soldiers ordered to deliberately murder Gaza civilians, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israeli Army commander during last summer’s invasion, talked up an even bigger civilian toll next time.

It’s going to be worse next time,” Gantz said, insisting that Hamas’ tactics require a dramatic change to the “rules of war” and that Israel will have to attack civilians knowing Hamas is likely hiding behind them.

Gantz presented this with the claim that four-year-old Daniel Tragerman, one of the few israeli civilians killed during the war, was killed by a mortar fired from a UN building. He provided no evidence to back this claim up.

The allegations of fire from a UN site reflect the IDF’s attempts to try to weasel their way out of UN complaints about the deliberate attacking of other UN sites, which the Israelis knew to be full of civilian refugees they had ordered from their homes.

Gantz went on to insist that there needs to be a dramatic rethink to international law to “limit the bad guys” without limiting the ability of Israel and other countries to attack civilians during conflicts.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.