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Gantz knew Israeli soldiers would suffer heavy losses in Gaza

April 30, 2020 at 11:50 am

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz on 2 March on 18 February 2020 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]

Former Israeli Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, the current Speaker of the Knesset, has revealed that when he watched his soldiers entering Gaza in 2014 he knew that they would suffer heavy losses, Safa News Agency reported on Wednesday. Gantz made his comments in an interview with Hebrew language newspaper Maariv.

When asked about the lessons to be learnt from Israel’s military offensives against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in 2008/9, 2012 and 2014, Gantz replied: “We must be strong, otherwise, we will not live here. We must have morals. Why should we live if we don’t have morals?”

In the 51-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in 2014, the Israeli occupation army lost 67 soldiers in addition to having 469 wounded. Gantz’s “moral” army, however, killed 2,310 Palestinians, including 500 children and more than 400 women. A further 10,626 were wounded, many with life-changing injuries.

Most of the Palestinian casualties were in civilian facilities, with many killed as their homes were blown up as they sheltered inside.

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