> The third is “power targets,” which includes high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks, and government offices. The idea behind hitting such targets, say three intelligence sources who were involved in planning or conducting strikes on power targets in the past, is that a deliberate attack on Palestinian society will exert “civil pressure” on Hamas.
[..]
> “We are asked to look for high-rise buildings with half a floor that can be attributed to Hamas,” said one source who took part in previous Israeli offensives in Gaza. “Sometimes it is a militant group’s spokesperson’s office, or a point where operatives meet. I understood that the floor is an excuse that allows the army to cause a lot of destruction in Gaza. That is what they told us.
> “If they would tell the whole world that the [Islamic Jihad] offices on the 10th floor are not important as a target, but that its existence is a justification to bring down the entire high-rise with the aim of pressuring civilian families who live in it in order to put pressure on terrorist organizations, this would itself be seen as terrorism. So they do not say it,” the source added.
That fairy tale about the most moral army in the world doing "surgical strikes" (when it's not called "mowing the lawn" I guess) contributes as much to peace, and has as much to do with reality, as some hypothetical Hamas fanatic saying "after Allah guided our hand to punish exactly those people who were evil or would have done something evil later in life". It is the other side of the exact same coin. Two groups of murderous, chauvinistic fanatics hiding behind the other.
https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-cal...
> The third is “power targets,” which includes high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks, and government offices. The idea behind hitting such targets, say three intelligence sources who were involved in planning or conducting strikes on power targets in the past, is that a deliberate attack on Palestinian society will exert “civil pressure” on Hamas.
[..]
> “We are asked to look for high-rise buildings with half a floor that can be attributed to Hamas,” said one source who took part in previous Israeli offensives in Gaza. “Sometimes it is a militant group’s spokesperson’s office, or a point where operatives meet. I understood that the floor is an excuse that allows the army to cause a lot of destruction in Gaza. That is what they told us.
> “If they would tell the whole world that the [Islamic Jihad] offices on the 10th floor are not important as a target, but that its existence is a justification to bring down the entire high-rise with the aim of pressuring civilian families who live in it in order to put pressure on terrorist organizations, this would itself be seen as terrorism. So they do not say it,” the source added.
That fairy tale about the most moral army in the world doing "surgical strikes" (when it's not called "mowing the lawn" I guess) contributes as much to peace, and has as much to do with reality, as some hypothetical Hamas fanatic saying "after Allah guided our hand to punish exactly those people who were evil or would have done something evil later in life". It is the other side of the exact same coin. Two groups of murderous, chauvinistic fanatics hiding behind the other.