Israel’s bombing of media building in Gaza last May was ‘own goal’, says ex-army general

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- A former Israeli general on Sunday said Israel’s bombing of a tower that housed The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip during its May aggression amounted to an “own goal” and was a “mistake.”
“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 Nitzan Alon, the former head of IOF Operations, Israeli media reported.
“Not everyone in the IDF believes this, but I am convinced that this was a mistake. The operational benefit was not worth the damage that it caused diplomatically and in terms of perception,” he said.
“I think that the IDF’s success in terms of public relations was very, very limited. There is a long list of lessons, many that have to do with intra-organizational communication,” Alon said, citing breakdowns in communications within the IOF and between the military and government ministries.
Alon made his comments at a conference hosted by Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies about the importance of public perception during military conflicts.
‘Israel’ destroyed the 12-story Al Jalaa Tower in Gaza, which housed the offices of AP and Al Jazeera, during its latest aggression on the Gaza Strip last May, when it killed at least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly people and wounded more than 1,900, including 380 children, 540 women, and 91 elderly people.
Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip started on May 10 and ended with a ceasefire brokered by mediator Egypt on May 21.
Between May 11 and 15, Israeli occupation forces attacked the Hanadi, al-Jawhara, al-Shorouk, and al-Jalaa towers in the densely populated al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.
Three buildings were immediately leveled while the fourth, al-Jawhara, sustained extensive damage and is slated to be demolished.
Israeli occupation authorities “contend that Palestinian armed groups were using the towers for military purposes, but have provided no evidence to support those allegations,” the Human Rights Watch said in a report.
Human Rights Watch said it found no evidence that members of Palestinian factions involved in military operations had a current or long-term presence in any of the towers at the time they were attacked.
“Even if there were such a presence, the attacks appeared to cause foreseeably disproportionate harm to civilian property,” it added.