IAF: Hurting civilians was inevitable

VIDEO - Only in the last seconds before the second missile barrage hit the Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza, the Israel Air Force noticed that many civilians had gathered around the car. But it was too late to do anything, and 11 Palestinians were killed, eight of them civilians. A senior Air Force officer told Ynet on Tuesday night that the fact that so many civilians arrived at the area in such a short time was "an amazing coincidence." Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz referred to the incident during a press conference, in which they presented the findings of the commission of inquiry which ruled that the Israel Defense Forces was not involved in the killing of the family on a Gaza beach on Friday. "I want to express my regret over the fact that today, during an incident in which our forces were operating against an attempt to prepare for launching Grad Missiles at Israel, innocent civilians who were not involved in the incident were also hurt," Peretz said. Gaza: Family killed outside home Abbas: Israel trying to wipe Palestinians out IDF admits strike hit civilians An initial inquiry reveals that the time that passed between the first rocket barrage and the second barrage by aircrafts toward the Islamic Jihad cell was one minute and 30 seconds. "Only in the last seconds before the rocket barrage hit, we detected Palestinians gathering in the place, but there it was too late to do anything to prevent the hit," the senior officer explained. According to the officer, the Air Force launched a comprehensive inquiry into the operation. However, the senior officer made it clear that there is no plan to stop the operations. "Also tonight we will continue to operate as needed. We are continuing in the same operation," he said. The IDF has been targeting those involved in the firing of the long-range Grad rockets for some time now. “They do not waste the Grads on Sderot for this they have the Qassams,” a senior officer said. “It is safe to assume that this rocket was meant for Ashkelon.” 'This is war' The officer said the army followed the vehicle and waited for the right time to strike it. “At 11:40 a.m. the vehicle arrived at a densely-populated area perhaps there was another vehicle in the area,” he said. “During the first salvo two missiles were fired toward the vehicle, and one fell close to it – perhaps 3 meters away. The car hit an electricity pole and three people stepped out of it. A decision was made to fire another round, and two more missiles were fired at the car in an attempt to hit the Grad. The intersection appeared to be empty, apart from the one vehicle whose driver ignore the blast.” The officer continued: “Only after the missiles were in mid-air, about 6-7 seconds before the explosion, did we notice the people who had gathered there. If we had an additional 20 seconds we may have been able to steer the missiles in such a way that they would not cause the damage that they did. But in this case it was impossible – if we would have tried, it could have resulted in more casualties.” Following the strike a Palestinian was seen fleeing the scene with the Grad rocket in hand. “This shows how important the rockets are to them they don’t have many,” the officer said, adding that this was not the first time a decision as made to launch a second round of missiles. “We act with extreme caution,” he said. IAF Chief Eliezer Shkedy said after the operation “we cannot reach 100 percent accuracy. This is a war, and in war you succeed most of the time, but there are also incidents in which civilians who are not involved in terror get hurt. “The Air Force is making a great effort to harm terrorists and refrain from harming innocent civilians, but on the other side the approach is different – the terrorists want to harm children in Sderot,” he said.

IAF: Hurting civilians was inevitable

(VIDEO) Senior Air Force officer defines fact that many Palestinians gathered around Gaza terrorists' car after second missile was fired as 'amazing coincidence'; result was grave: 11 Palestinians were killed, among them eight civilians