The Sun
ISRAEL is using a “roof knocking” procedure which tips off residents that their neighbourhood is about to be bombed.
Intel officers call up people living in doomed buildings to warn them before drones fire off three warnings shots, minutes before it is blown up.
The fighting broke out late Monday when Hamas fired a long-range rocket at Jerusalem in support of Palestinian protests there.
Since then, Israel has attacked hundreds of targets in Gaza, causing earth-shaking explosions across densely populated areas, where Hamas has been firing rockets targeting Israel.
But to avoid casualties or committing a war crime, Israel fires “warning rockets” — often sent from drones — to alert residents to flee before the building is pulverised.
The warning rocket has no warhead. Instead it is meant only to shake the building before armed missiles hit it three to 15 minutes later.
Roof-knock munitions have also been used as part of our warnings on residents to get out in advance.
Israeli Official
An Israeli official, who spoke to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said careful intelligence was used before any strikes.
He said: “We select warheads with the necessary lethality to hit those who need to be hit, and to reduce the impact on others.
“Roof-knock munitions have also been used as part of our warnings on residents to get out in advance.
“Operations by Hamas turn the buildings into legitimate targets.”
The Israeli military has deployed the tactic during its bombing raids including its strike on a 13-storey residential building in Gaza City.
Palestinians living in the Al-Sharouk Tower in the enclave’s al-Rimal neighbourhood received several warnings, including phone calls and messages informing them of the imminent strike.
Resident Jamal Nasman said an Israeli intelligence officer called him to give an advance warning that the 13-storey block he looked after would be the target of an air strike.
Israel said Hamas militants used the building.
Building watchman Jamal Nasman said he was told a drone would hit once with the warning rocket, and then hit three more times before the block is bombed.
‘TERRIFYING WARNINGS STRIKES’
The building, which housed various media outlets as well as shops and flats, was previously hit by a missile during Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2014.
But the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported “no clear reason was seen for the bombing of high rises other than inflicting damage and hurting the population,” the Middle East Eye reported.
Earlier this week, Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Matthias Schmale, tweeted: “Residents of a building near my Gaza apartment have been warned it will be taken down and evacuated.
“Over the last minutes a number of terrifying loud warning strikes and just now the big one taking it down.”
Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International Philip Luther has previously condemned the “roof-knocking” tactic as dangerous and ineffective.
“There is no way that firing a missile at a civilian home can constitute an effective ‘warning’.”
“Amnesty International has documented cases of civilians killed or injured by such missiles in previous Israeli military operations on the Gaza Strip.
“Unless the Israeli authorities can provide specific information to show how a home is being used to make an effective contribution to military actions, deliberately attacking civilian homes constitutes a war crime and also amounts to collective punishment against the families.”
This story first appeared in The Sun
