While journalists and activists continue to discuss the Gaza war as if it is an unparallelled atrocity, John Spencer—a combat veteran and one of America’s leading urban-warfare experts—concludes that the IDF’s campaign is without parallel for a very different reason.
Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation that’s fought an urban war. . . . [O]ne of the best ways to prevent civilian casualties in urban warfare is to provide warning and evacuate urban areas before the full combined air and ground attack commences. This tactic is unpopular for obvious reasons: it alerts the enemy defenders and provides them the military advantage to prepare for the attack. The United States did not do this ahead of its initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, which involved major urban battles to include in Baghdad. It did not do this before its April 2004 Battle of Fallujah (though it did send civilian warnings before the Second Battle of Fallujah six months later).
By contrast, Israel provided days and then weeks of warnings, as well as time for civilians to evacuate multiple cities in northern Gaza before starting the main air-ground attack on urban areas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) employed their practice of calling and texting ahead of an air strike as well as roof-knocking, where they drop small munitions on the roof of a building notifying everyone to evacuate the building before a strike.
No military has ever implemented any of these practices in war before.
Read more on Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/israel-implemented-more-measures-prevent-civilian-casualties-any-other-nation-history-opinion-1865613