Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces, told Newsmax Friday that Israel has been dropping leaflets printed in Arabic in Gaza because "we listen" to our allies and their concerns about civilian casualties.
"The leaflets are the last stage of basically a big process in the IDF, which is also influenced by the U.S. administration and us listening to what our friends around the world are saying," Conricus said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "They're saying that yes, you should defeat Hamas and you should create a new security situation in the south and you're well within your rights to do so, but we want you to do it with less civilian casualties. And we listen."
"What we're trying to do by dropping these leaflets and what's on the leaflet, which is really the important thing, is basically a high-resolution map where each neighborhood in Gaza has a number. And then we want to communicate to the people who live there who are in a certain area — it's a few blocks of an area — telling people that they have to evacuate ahead of time and telling them where they need to go," he added.
During his most recent trip to the Middle East this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel that it must adhere to international laws of war as it continues its offensive to eradicate Palestinian militant group Hamas, The Associated Press reported.
"We saw Israel take steps immediately today to start to get information to people about where safe areas are, how they can get out of harm's way," Blinken said Friday, referring to leaflets dropped by Israel informing Palestinians in Gaza that they should leave because their neighborhoods would be targeted.
"I saw the plans that Israel has in a multiplicity of ways to do everything possible to protect civilians, including making sure that they have the information they need and there are ways to accommodate them," he continued. "This is going to be very important going forward. It's something we're going to be looking at very closely."
Conricus said communicating with Palestinian civilians through the leaflets is "part of what we're offering here as a solution to minimize the effect on noncombatants, on civilians there."
"We want to focus our firepower on Hamas — and on them alone," he said. "They are the enemy. They are the ones who we want to defeat, and we want to keep civilians as far away from harm as we possibly can.
"We hope that we will have the active cooperation and help of humanitarian organizations in Gaza ... in getting that message out and helping people to go into the safe humanitarian zone that we have designated."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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