In a press release yesterday from the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior and National Security, residents of Gaza were told to ignore communication from Israel that warned residents of an imminent attack. Communications to be ignored included telephone calls Israel routinely makes to warn civilians to vacate the area for their own safety.
For instance, as reported by the NY Times
The call came to the cellphone of his brother’s wife, Salah Kaware said Tuesday. Mr. Kaware lives in Khan Younis, in southeast Gaza, and the caller said that everyone in the house must leave within five minutes, because it was going to be bombed.
A further warning came as the occupants were leaving, he said in a telephone interview, when an Israeli drone apparently fired a flare at the roof of the three-story home.
According the the press release from the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior and National Security, Mr. Kaware should have ignored that warning:
First, the ministry calling all our people not to deal or pay attention to the psychological warfare carried out by the occupation through rumors that broadcast across his media and delivering publications and communications on the phones of citizens, and the lack of response for each of these means, which aims to weaken the domestic front in light of great steadfastness of our people to face the aggression.
In my opinion, I disagree with the Israeli policy of bombing the homes of militants suspected to be responsible for terrorist attacks. I also disagree with the policy of the government of the Palestinian people to purposely mis-lead its citizenry about these attacks and by doing so put their lives in mortal danger.
I am very glad Mr. Kaware paid heed to the warning from Israel and ignored the misleading information provided by his government. If he had not, he would have perished with some of the others that had rushed to the building to act as human shields.
“Our neighbors came in to form a human shield,” he said, with some even going to the roof to try to prevent a bombing. Others were in the stairway when the house was bombed not long afterward.
Seven people died, Mr. Kaware said, a figure also stated by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, which also said that 25 people were wounded.