[News] 21 Israeli Troops Killed While Planting Explosives for a Controlled Demolition in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/23/israeli-idf-demolition-gaza/>
21 Israeli Troops Killed While Planting Explosives for a Controlled
Demolition in Gaza
Jeremy Scahill
January 23, 2024

Israeli military forces suffered their single largest known loss of troops
on Monday when 21 reserve soldiers died as they tried to rig two buildings
in southern Gaza with mines to perform a controlled demolition. According
to the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, Hamas commandos fired a
rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, at an Israeli tank that was deployed to
protect the soldiers rigging the buildings with bombs, causing a chain
reaction that led to the structures collapsing on top of the Israeli
soldiers.

“At around 4 p.m., an RPG was fired by gunmen at a tank securing the
forces, and simultaneously, an explosion occurred in two two-story
buildings. The buildings collapsed due to this explosion, while most of the
forces were inside and near them,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israel
Defense Forces spokesperson. “One of the missiles apparently hit a mine,
which exploded and caused the buildings to collapse with the soldiers
inside them.”

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released a statement
Tuesday describing an attack that was consistent with the time and nature
of the Israeli military’s description. While the IDF statement was unclear
about the exact cause of the explosion inside the buildings, the Qassam
Brigades said its operatives “targeted” the structure, leading to the
“explosion of the [IDF’s] ammunition and engineering equipment,”
“completely blowing [it] up.”

Such controlled demolitions have become an increasingly common tactic used
by Israeli forces in Gaza. The Israeli military has justified its
destruction of civilian housing and other infrastructure by claiming it
houses Hamas facilities or leaders or to gain access to subterranean
tunnels. In Monday’s incident, however, Hagari said the buildings were
marked for demolition because they were situated in an area of Gaza that
Israel unilaterally declaredOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/mattduss/status/1749794139615432906> a “buffer zone”
between Gaza and Israel. He said the purpose was to protect an Israeli
kibbutz located a half mile from Gaza against possible future attacks.

This appears to be the first time the Israeli military has publicly
admitted that its systematic destruction of whole areasOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/wesleysmorgan/status/1745512081514766712> of eastern
Gaza are not entirely aimed at destroying tunnels or other Hamas
infrastructure, but at depopulating more areas of Gaza in the name of
security for nearby Israeli settlements. “The IDF systematically demolishes
Palestinian buildings that enable surveillance and firing capabilities
toward Israel, leading to the destruction of hundreds of buildings to
date,” the IDF said in a statementOpens in a new tab
<https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkajm23yp>.

Controlled demolitions against the property within an occupied territory
are generally prohibited under international humanitarian lawOpens in a new
tab
<https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/hague-conv-iv-1907/regulations-art-23>
unless they are “imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.”

But IDF soldiers have posted multiple videosOpens in a new tab
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240103-israeli-soldiers-tiktok-videos-make-light-of-demolition-in-gaza/>
on TikTok and other social media sites of themselves gleefully hitting the
trigger button sparking massive controlled explosions in Palestinian
neighborhoods, as well as educational, cultural, and government
institutions. In a TikTok videoOpens in a new tab
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiC4ApANLwg> showing a military bulldozer
knocking down houses in Khan Younis, an Israeli soldier jokes that he and
his colleagues are setting up a real estate company. “This field is
definitely worth investing in,” he says. “For those who have money, this is
the time to invest. Make an offer.”

On January 17, Israeli forces blew upOpens in a new tab
<https://x.com/WAFANewsEnglish/status/1747968622398439782?s=20> Al-Isra
University, reportedly rigging it with more than 300 mines before
conducting a triggering strike that leveled the entire campus. “The
explosion occurred 70 days after the Israeli military transformed the
school into barracks and, later, into a temporary detention facility,”
according to the humanitarian organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters he had seen the
video of the demolition of the privately owned school, but refused to
comment on the legality or justification for the operation.

“It looks like a controlled demolition,” said Associated Press
correspondent Matt Lee during the briefingOpens in a new tab
<https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-january-18-2024/>.
“It looks like what we do here in this country, when we’re taking down an
old hotel or a stadium. And you have nothing to say? You have nothing to
say about this?”

Miller responded that the Biden administration had made inquiries with the
Israeli government about the bombing, “But I’m not able to characterize the
actual facts on the ground before hearing that response.” Echoing Israeli
inferences that Hamas used the university for military purposes or had an
underground facility, Miller added, “I don’t know what was under that
building. I don’t know what was inside, inside that building.”

Monday’s mass casualty incident among the ranks of the IDF comes as Israel
has become increasingly mired in a morass in its military battle
<https://theintercept.com/2023/12/20/gaza-israel-biden-netanyahu-war-strategy/>against
Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas. Israel has, to date, confirmed the
deaths of 219 soldiers in Gaza ground operations. Significantly, major U.S.
and Israeli media outlets have begun to raise questions about the prospects
of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decisively achieving any of the stated
goals of the war. “Israel’s limited progress in dismantling Hamas has
raised doubts within the military’s high command about the near-term
feasibility of achieving the country’s principal wartime objectives,”
reported the New York TimesOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/20/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-hostages-strategy.html>
on January 20. Haaretz’s defense correspondent Amos Harel penned a January
19 columnOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-19/ty-article/.premium/netanyahus-government-gets-more-delusional-as-israels-campaign-in-gaza-grinds-on/0000018d-1e3d-dd75-addd-fefd93760000>
warning of “clear signs that Israel is getting bogged down in the Gaza
quagmire” and saying Netanyahu’s government is increasingly “delusional.”

Netanyahu responded to the deaths of the 21 soldiers killed in the
attempted demolition operation, and an additional three IDF soldiers killed
Monday, with a pugilistic declaration. “While we bow our heads in memory of
our fallen, we are not relenting — even for a moment — in striving for the
goal that has no alternative — achieving total victory,” he saidOpens in a
new tab <https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/spoke-statement230124>. “We
are in the midst of a war, the justification of which is without parallel.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant echoed those sentiments, saying,
“This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to
come. The loss of these soldiers is an imperative for achieving the goals
of this war.”

While Israel is struggling in its stated aims of eliminating Hamas and
freeing the Israeli hostages, the IDF continues to prove murderously adept
at killing large numbers of Palestinian civilians. Its ground operations in
Khan Younis has seen IDF forces attack numerous shelters, including those run
by the U.N.
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/23/israeli-idf-demolition-gaza/six>,
where the Israeli government had instructed Palestinians to flee to remain
safe. It has also laid siege to more hospitals and medical facilitiesOpens
in a new tab <https://twitter.com/PalestineRCS/status/1749331809395958042>.
A mass graveOpens in a new tab
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israel-intensifies-khan-younis-attacks-killing-dozens-civilians-and-besieging#:~:text=Israeli%20soldiers%20stormed%20homes%20in,30%2C000%20people%20have%20sought%20refuge.>
has now been dug on the grounds of Nasser Hospital to bury Palestinians
killed in the intense Israeli attacks on Khan Younis.

This week, the conservative death figures published by the Gaza health
ministry reported that the number of fatalities in the enclave had
surpassed 25,000 Palestinians, with another 63,000 wounded. These numbers
only include cases where deaths have been officially recorded by Gaza’s
hospital and mortuary system. They do not include the thousands of
Palestinians unaccounted for and trapped under rubble caused by Israeli
bombardment and fighting.

Israeli media outlets are focused on the loss of lives of their nation’s
soldiers in Monday’s incident, displaying photographs of the dead and
describing the efforts to retrieve any possible survivors. “Rescue forces
described the scene as reminiscent of the aftermath of an earthquake,”
reportedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-says-it-is-probing-demolition-of-campus-in-gaza-last-week-after-us-voiced-ire/>
The Times of Israel. “For several hours, a large number of troops from the
IDF’s search and rescue units, as well as members of the Israel Fire and
Rescue Services, worked to extract the casualties from the collapsed
buildings.”

The estimated 7,000 PalestiniansOpens in a new tab
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2023/12/28/under-the-rubble-the-missing-in-gaza>
trapped under the rubble of their former homes and other structures receive
no such media coverage. They are simply nameless statistics often omitted
from the descriptions of the carnage in Gaza, a mass destruction enabled
primarily by U.S.-supplied and manufactured bombs. The vast majority of
these victims have no official search-and-rescue operation and no fire
department to respond to their desperate, muffled pleas for help. Often
their only hope is that their neighbors might somehow claw their way
through the heavy concrete wreckage using whatever tools they can find. Or
they are left, trapped, spending their last moments desperately scraping
their own hands raw and bloody in an effort to dig their way out.

*Correction: January 23, 2024, 1:45 p.m. ET*
*Al-Isra University in Gaza was blown up on January 17, not January 18, as
previously reported.* *The piece was also updated to include more details
from Hamas’s statement on the incident.*
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