GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – A former Zionist general has said that his investigation into the Zionist regime’s airstrike attack on a tower housing media offices in the Gaza Strip in May caused more damage to the Zionist regime’s already tarnished image than it provided operational benefit.
Retired Major General Nitzan Alon, who led an investigation into the incident before leaving the military, said the bombing, which destroyed offices used by the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye and at least four other agencies, amounted to an “own goal”, a term used to describe a player kicking the ball into their own team’s net in football.
“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 Alon during a conference hosted by Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies about the importance of public perception during military conflicts.
Alon, who, according to the Times of Israel, led the military’s investigation into the public relations-related issues connected to the Zionist regime’s recent bombardment, noted the immediate international criticism garnered by the strike on the 11-storey al-Jalaa tower in Gaza City.
The attack drew worldwide condemnation, including from American lawmakers.
“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,” said Alon.
Tel Aviv initially claimed that the building housed offices for the Hamas resistance movement.
After it came under fire for targeting civilian property, the Zionist regime claimed the building contained “special” Hamas equipment.
Sally Buzbee, the AP’s executive editor, said that the news agency had had offices in the tower for 15 years and was never informed or had any indication that Hamas might be operating in the structure.
Tel Aviv launched a brutal bombing campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip on May 10, following Palestinian retaliation against violent raids on worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque and the regime’s plans to force a number of Palestinian families out of their homes at the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Al-Quds.
About 260 Palestinians were killed in the occupying regime’s offensive, including 66 children, and thousands more were injured.
In response, Palestinian resistance movements, chief among them Hamas, launched Operation al-Quds Sword and fired more than 4,000 rockets and missiles into the occupied territories, killing 12 Israelis.