Former IDF general: Bombing AP tower in Gaza in May conflict was an ‘own goal’

A thick column of smoke rises from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city

Judah Ari Gross writes in Times of Israel, “A former Israeli general on Sunday said the Israel Defense Forces’ bombing of a tower that housed The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip during May’s conflict amounted to an “own goal,” causing more damage to Israel’s image than it provided operational benefit. “Bringing down the tower with the AP offices was equivalent to a self-inflicted ‘public relations terror attack’ and an own goal, in our view,” said Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, the former head of IDF Operations.”

“Alon, who led the military’s investigation into the public relations-related issues connected to the recent conflict, was referring to a May 15 strike on the 12-story Al-Jalaa tower in Gaza City, which sparked immediate criticism from around the world, including from American lawmakers who have long been staunch advocates for Israel.”…

“Israel claimed the tower was used by Hamas to set up equipment to block GPS signals in order to interfere with the military’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which Israel was using to intercept the rockets, mortar shells, and drones being launched from Gaza.”…

A damaged building which was hit by a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod,

“Israel fought a punishing 11-day conflict with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terror groups, in the Gaza Strip in May, after Hamas fired six rockets toward Jerusalem in response to clashes that took place in the city at the time. Thirteen people were killed in Israel during the fighting — 12 civilians and one soldier — and some 250 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, roughly half of them terrorist operatives.”

“A key feature of the IDF’s tactics during the conflict was the targeting of multi-story towers in the Gaza Strip, each of which it said was used by the Hamas terror group and was thus a legitimate military target.” (more…)