OPINION: CAN ISRAEL JUSTIFY ITS AIRSTRIKES IN GAZA AS CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL GROWS?
- Aviation Features
- OPINION: Can Israel justify its airstrikes in Gaza as civilian death toll grows?
By
Alan Warnes 20th October 2023
FEATURE
Israel is attacking Hamas in Gaza like it has never done before. This comes after the deadly attacks by Hamas on October 7, which claimed up to 1,400 Israeli lives. There is no denying that Israel has the right to defend itself against terror groups, like Hamas and Hezbollah, but did it really have to kill so many innocent Palestinians – many of them children – in going after the extremists?
As much as both those groups and other like-minded terrorist factions are despised, history will not treat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu well for what has unfolded in the aftermath of the attacks.
One wonders what the pilots and aircrews of the
Israeli Air Force fighters and attack helicopters are thinking after seeing the carnage on the ground. I know when I spoke to F-16 pilots at Ramat David in the late 1990s, they admitted they were not happy about killing innocent civilians, with some even resigning from the Israeli Air Force shortly afterwards. Undoubtedly, the aircrews were full of vengeance after the October 7 attacks, but how are they feeling ten days on?
An Israeli F-16C Barak (506) from No 101 'The First Fighter' Squadron, presumably departing Ramat David on another bombing mission over Gaza. IAF via Facebook
Israel is continually threatened by players in the region – terrorist groups supported by
Syria and
Iran – and the
bombardment of Gaza is undoubtedly fuelling that fire. So it is not surprising the Israeli Air and Space Force (IASF), as it is officially known, is one of the slickest operators in the world, with a very high level of interoperability. They train at home and all over the world continuously to ensure they are in tip-top shape.
By comparison, the aging and underfunded Iranian and Syrian air forces are unlikely to fare well if war in the region escalates. Even so, the
US government, which backs Israel, has deployed some of its most capable jets to the region. The
US Navy has
dispatched two aircraft carriers, housing around 100
F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, while the
USAF has deployed
F-15E Strike Eagles and
A-10C Warthogs.
We can only hope that current allies like the
United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia, appalled quite rightly at the loss of Palestinian life in Gaza, don’t end up siding with Iran and Syria, particularly as both sides despise those regimes. If they do, the consequences don’t bear thinking about.
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Originally published in Combat Aircraft Journal