Another Untold Story: Friendly Fire on October 7th
Evidence is mounting that the IDF killed and wounded numerous Israeli civilians
Expect a major news story via the NYT and other outlets breaking soon that will substantiate this assertion:
Collateral damage caused by the IDF in Israel in response to the October 7th attacks was significant, and has been under-reported/covered up.
Let’s start with a few substantiated observations:
- The IDF response to the attacks was slow. Israelis were huddled in their “safe rooms” and hiding for hours and hours while Hamas militants rampaged unimpeded.
- Hamas used civilians as human shields. A strategy employed in Gaza with their own civilians, and one used in Israel with Israeli civilians as the IDF fought back.
- Footage from the attacks remains confusing. The overall level of destruction in Israel seems inconsistent with the force strength wrought by the Hamas invaders.
Now let’s add these up to make a few reasonable assumptions:
- The IDF response to the attacks was reckless. Given the excessive delays, storming infantry and airborne IDF forces were disorganized, desperate, and facing a ready foe.
- The IDF inflicting collateral damage was strategic. Israeli military policy, under such extreme circumstances, is to neutralize terrorists at all costs first, save hostages second.
- Hamas had time to take defensive positions. Given the excessive delays, Hamas could take cover within civilian homes and cars, and force Israeli civilians to join them.
All that said, one can imagine the IDF rushing to attack entrenched Hamas militants, unintentionally killing many Israelis in the process.
Such collateral damage, as mentioned, is a controversial IDF policy, one known as the “Hannibal Directive”.
Israeli eyewitness testimony has been circulating of survivors who describe IDF infantry and helicopter attacks killing Israelis.
The damage at attack sites is also of a magnitude that seems beyond Hamas’ arsenal of only machine guns, hand grenades, and RPGs.
For example, consider the drone footage from the Nova Festival: hundreds of cars, completely burned out and destroyed.
Easy to imagine the festival goers taking cover in the cars; much harder to imagine Hamas being able to inflict that level of damage.
Much easier to imagine Hamas taking cover in those cars as the IDF approached, and IDF air and ground power blasting away.
Other likely scenarios abound, such as Hamas militants taking cover in civilian-occupied homes, infrastructure, etc.
In all of these instances, the IDF goal was to neutralize Hamas, and do so under extreme circumstances, arguably at the expense of civilians.
The IDF response in Israel on October 7th — and the following days it took to completely eliminate the in-country threat — remains opaque.
That secrecy and its enveloping confusion is in stark contrast to the Gaza bombings and land invasion, which have been front page news.
The IDF has also been surprisingly forthcoming in releasing tactical information about the ongoing Gaza offensive, including detailed reports.
We still know next to nothing not only why the IDF response in Israel took so long, but how that response was carried out.
Why? To me, the answer is becoming evident: The collateral damage was broad and severe enough to be embarassing — and damning.
Cover Ups, Conspiracy Theories, and Attack Strategies
If the above is true, Israel is using the fog of war to cover up extensive collateral damage.
And whether or not it’s true, Hamas supporters have been denying their atrocities while alleging exaggerated Israeli damage reports.
So before Militant Zionists blame me for being a conspiracy theorist, I’m citing facts and reasonably speculating here. Israel is not infallible.
And before pro-Palestinians leap on this as another example of Israeli fake news, remember: Hamas wanted Israel to attack with fury.
The goal of Operation Al Aqsa Storm was to trigger Israel to bomb and invade Gaza to win global opinion, so far accomplished.
That makes minimizing/denying Hamas’ atrocities disingenuous, and defending/covering up Israel’s mistakes and abuses equally irrational.
But minimize and defend both sides do, each for their own strong reasons:
- Hamas wants to appear “just” — a group that only wishes a free Palestine — and not the eradication of Israel and all Jews; while
- Israel knows that if the IDF can be blamed for any collateral damage, then Israel will be accused of fabicating the entire attack
Despite all this, the essential, incontestable facts remain true: Hamas attacked to trigger Israel, Israel was triggered, and war now rages.
Each tribe has its own agenda, and each prioritizes certain data points over others, ignoring and distorting along the way.
But the need for an accurate accounting of exactly what happened on October 7th, and what precipitated it, is essential.
Let’s stay rational and stay sane. A bad situation is getting worse because vengeance is stampeding reason.
So much information and misformation is swirling that understanding the key elements is difficult.
Understanding them we must, as the only viable way to get out of this mess, and somehow create peace in the future.
If Israel doesn’t ‘fess up to what happened in Israel, then how can anyone believe what they claim is happening in Gaza?
Peace isn’t possible without trust, and trust is impossible without honesty. The Palestinians need to ‘fess up — as do the Israelis.
Note the date of this post, and expect the American mainstream press to feature such a story soon. If they don’t, then allegations of extreme bias are sound.
