Former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus pushed back against a suggestion by BBC news anchor Helena Humphrey Sunday after she said the Israeli military should have given Palestinians advance warning on Saturday's hostage rescue operation.
"Of course, we cannot anticipate Israel to be warning ahead of a raid to extract or to save hostages because then what the terrorists would do is to kill the hostages, and that would defeat the purpose," Conricus rebuffed.
I was asked at @bbc whether the @idf should have warned Palestinians before launching the rescue operation today. What do you think? pic.twitter.com/9zjh2Gp6Zo
— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) June 9, 2024
The covert operation saw the release of four hostages – Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv – who were abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. They were held hostage for nearly eight months in harrowing conditions.
Conricus acknowledged the civilian toll was regrettable but said an investigation was required into the role Palestinian civilians may have played in being "complicit" by allowing the hostages to be held captive in residential areas for months. "According to the reports that I have gotten...the Israeli hostages were held and jailed by Palestinian civilians in a Palestinian civilian area. As regrettable as any loss of life is, I think that we would have to investigate really who were the people who jailed these Israeli civilians for eight months," he said.
He added that "there was a significant firefight" between the IDF and Hamas terrorists during the operation.
"According to testimonies of Israeli soldiers, there were RPG rockets, heavy machine gun fire, and grenades being thrown. And I think we cannot rule out that at least some of the alleged Palestinian casualties were the result of a reckless Palestinian fire. They may have been the result of Israeli fire, we don't know. But the bottom line ... that again, just like we saw in Rafah about three months ago, Israeli civilians were held hostage by Palestinian civilians," he said.
When Humphrey suggested that the raid could jeopardize ceasefire talks with Hamas, Conricus stressed, "The ceasefire is not an aim to aspire to, but victory is what Israel aspires to. Victory in order to defend Israeli civilians back home. Victory in order to get the hostages back. And the ceasefire, in my humble opinion, is defeat for Israel and a victory for Hamas."
The BBC has a history of anti-Israel sentiment, with its reporters often accused of being slanted toward Hamas.
