The Israel Defense Forces is being "very intentional" about its efforts to mitigate harm to civilians in northern Gaza before an invasion of the region starts, Lt. Fay Goldstein, an IDF spokesperson, told Newsmax, Friday.
However, Hamas is blocking Gazan citizens from leaving because they want the world to see that civilians are being killed, Goldstein said on Newsmax's "National Report."
"The IDF is very intentional about its efforts to mitigate harm to civilians, and things such as dropping leaflets is something that you might have seen," Goldstein said. "Hamas intentionally embeds their missiles, their rockets, their terror infrastructure within civilian areas, and ... are intentionally blocking Gazan civilians from leaving those areas."
And, she said, "Not only do they want to harm Israeli civilians but they intentionally put their civilians in active harm's way, and we are doing what we can to prevent that from happening and prevent unnecessary civilian casualties."
Goldstein also commented on a call from a former Hamas leader for global protests and a day of Jihad on Friday. Thousands of people gathered in Yemen and other locations around the world to protest against Israel.
"I think it's very clear that Hamas has called for the annihilation of Jews," she said. "Hamas called for the annihilation of Israel, and the idea is to protect Israelis from this same hate that is espoused again within Gaza, from Hamas leaders and is also shared around the world.
"This is just another indication of Hamas' intent to destroy Israel, to harm and kill and mutilate and massacre Israelis. The worldwide support for that is quite shocking, but not surprising."
Meanwhile, there are reports about fighting in the north of Israel as well, with a soldier being killed along the country's border with Lebanon, but Goldstein said she could not go into specified details.
"What I can say is that we, the IDF, are prepared for any escalation on any of our borders, wherever that may come from," she said. "We are ensuring that Israeli citizens, wherever they live within Israel, are protected and are secure, and we are making every effort to ensure that remains."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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