Top air force official: No one warns enemy to evacuate before attacking

Israel is the only country that warns the enemy where it is attacking hours before it does so, a senior IAF officer said Tuesday in response to claims that Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon are illegal.

Prior to massive IAF airstrikes in Lebanon on Monday, the IDF issued many location-specific warnings to all local residents to evacuate those areas.

Such warnings go completely against the central military principle of trying to take the enemy by surprise, the senior IAF officer said.

Criticism has focused on the notion that the IAF has attacked large numbers of civilian structures in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, causing the deaths of more than 550 Lebanese.

The vast majority of those killed have been Hezbollah members, because the targeted locations have Hezbollah rockets and other weapons inside, multiple senior IDF officers have said.

Hezbollah hides weapons 

Part of the problem has been that Hezbollah has systematically hidden almost all of its weapons in civilian areas throughout Lebanon, the IDF has said, citing videos as evidence.

This has meant that Hezbollah operatives remained nearby these locations, waiting for orders to fire the rockets on Israeli civilians, even as civilians have evacuated, the IDF has said.

Aircraft, drones, and other means of surveillance have enabled the IAF to refrain from attacking in real-time situations where civilians had not yet evacuated, the senior IAF officer.

Furthermore, the IAF has operational tactics to convince civilians to leave once attacks are about to start, even if they did not leave after earlier warnings, he said.

Other techniques

In past military operations, the IDF has fired nonexplosive missiles at such locations to make loud noises on the rooftops of areas it plans to attack but where civilians have failed to evacuate despite prior warnings. This technique is called “roof-knocking.”

There are also other operational ways the IDF could fire various warning shots or create loud sounds nearby to convince civilians to evacuate when they initially refuse to do so.

The senior IAF officer did not cite statistics for how many of the estimated 550 killed Lebanese were Hezbollah fighters and not civilians, but intelligence anecdotally has shown most of them to be Hezbollah members, he said. The world should show greater appreciation for the IDF going against its own military interests by warning Hezbollah where it is about to attack, he added.

Furthermore, the IAF could have carried out its attacks much faster and killed many more Hezbollah operatives if it had not issued the warnings, the senior IAF officer said.