Weekly Commentary: Preparing to shock and awe Hamas by neutralizing hospital
shielded targets?
Dr. Aaron Lerner 13 July 2016

"..there is a difference between a hospital where civilians are present and
an infrastructure facility."
PM Netanyahu's spokesman, Boaz Stambler - quoted by by Ariel Kahaneh in
Makor Rishon 1.7.16

Until now the only Israeli response to hospital shielded Hamas military
targets was to whine about it.

That's military command posts, weapons factories, you-name-it.

And Hamas has no reason to expect this policy to change.

And if Hamas doesn't expect Israel to lift a finger to neutralize military
targets shielded by hospitals there is every reason to expect that they have
increased their reliance on hospital shielded military facilities.

There has been a lot of talk about about Israeli investments in technology
and training to address the tunnel threat.

I very much hope that we are investing in whatever gizmos and special
training is required so that we can indeed neutralize military targets
shielded by hospitals without significant civilian casualties.

Yes. It's a tall order. And I'm not claiming that there's some expensive
off the shelf solution just there for the asking.

But there are a lot of very smart Israelis - both in technology and special
forces operations.

And I most certainly hope that when the day comes that we have another war
in the Gaza Strip that in the first hours of the operation those military
targets shielded by hospitals are neutralized.

Because the shock and awe effect of such a development could both
dramatically shorten the fighting and put Israel in a very advantageous
position at the end of the operation.

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