Official Military Source to IMRA: IDF will continue to honor human shields

Aaron Lerner Date: 3 August 2006

According to the IDF Spokesperson announcement "Completion of inquiry into
July 30th incident in Qana" (see below), even though "The residents of Qana
and the villages surrounding it were warned several times, through various
media, to evacuate the area.". "Had the information indicated that civilians
were present in the building the attack would not have been carried out."

IMRA asked the IDF Spokesperson's Office if this means that if the IDF had
known that the building was indeed packed with rockets and also "civilians"
that the IDF would not have hit it.

An "official security source" replied: "Yes. The IDF does not target
innocent civilians."

IMRA asked the IDF Spokesperson's Office if this means that if Hezbollah
organizes a group of "civilians" to ring a rocket launcher as the rocket is
prepared for launch and then launches the rocket towards Israel that the IDF
won't attack the target.

An "official security source" replied: "Yes. The IDF will not attack a
target where innocent civilians are known to be present. Hezbollah is
already doing this and the IDF is not attacking targets under those
circumstances."

----
August 3rd 2006
IDF SPOKESPERSON ANNOUNCEMENT
Completion of inquiry into July 30th incident in Qana

Today, August 2nd 2006, the IDF Chief of Staff was presented with the
findings of the inquiry conducted into the incident in Qana on July 30th.

The inquiry confirms the information provided in the press briefing held by
the IDF on the day of the incident, according to which the IDF targeted the
building in an aerial attack on July 30th at 00:52 with two missiles, the
first of which exploded and the second was apparently a dud.

The building was targeted in accordance with the military's guidelines
regarding the use of fire against suspicious structures inside villages
whose residents have been warned to evacuate, and which were adjacent to
areas from where rockets are fired towards Israel. The guidelines were
drafted based on surveillance and study of the behavior of the terrorists,
who use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in
after launching rockets attacks.

Since July 12th over 150 rockets were launched from within the village of
Qana itself and the immediate surrounding area. The residents of Qana and
the villages surrounding it were warned several times, through various
media, to evacuate the area.

The IDF operated according to information that the building was not
inhabited by civilians and was being used as a hiding place for terrorists.

Had the information indicated that civilians were present in the building
the attack would not have been carried out.

Prior to the attack on the aforementioned building several other buildings
which were part of the infrastructure for terror activity in the area were
targeted.

In his summary the Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz again expressed his
sorrow for the deaths of civilians, among them children, in the incident in
Qana. He stated that the fight against terror, which cynically uses
civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian
villages and infrastructure, is much more difficult than traditional
military combat and presents us with both operational and value oriented
challenges.

The Chief of Staff emphasized that "The Hezbollah organization places
Lebanese civilians as a defensive shield between itself and us while IDF
places itself as a defensive shield between the citizens of Israel and
Hezbollah's terror. That is the principle difference between us."

The Chief of Staff instructed that guidelines for opening fire against
suspicious targets be evaluated and updated immediately, while staying
relevant with operational needs and the dynamic nature of the information
received, as is done on a regular basis.

The findings of the inquiry were also presented to the Minister of Defense.

-----

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il