by TOI Staff
Mahmoud Shaheen tells BBC intel agents called him, urged him to get hundreds of residents to leave 22 buildings identified by IDF as housing Hamas infrastructure; all said survived
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Buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ali Mahmoud) |
A Palestinian dentist in Gaza has recounted to the BBC how Israeli intelligence agents spent hours on the phone with him, urging him to evacuate and save hundreds of his neighbors ahead of a series of airstrikes that destroyed a wide swath of apartment buildings in a Gaza City neighborhood.
In the dramatic account published Wednesday, Mahmoud Shaheen, 40, told the UK news service how on the morning of October 19 he suddenly heard a commotion outside his apartment in the middle-class neighborhood of al-Zahra.
“You need to escape because they will bomb the towers,” he recounted someone in the street shouting.
Then his phone rang; it was an unidentified number.
“I’m speaking with you from Israeli intelligence,” Shaheen recounted being told, adding that the man addressed him in flawless Arabic and identified himself as “Abu Khaled.”
“He told me he wanted to bomb three towers… and ordered me to evacuate the surrounding area,” Shaheen said.
"Israeli military has phoned Gazans sometimes to warn them ahead of air strikes - Mahmoud's account gives an insight into one such phone call in an unprecedented level of detail.
— Dr. Mike Walsh MIC #FBPE (@drmpwalsh) November 8, 2023
The BBC contacted Mahmoud after multiple al-Zahra residents identified him"https://t.co/FaW01By6ju
Shaheen said he doubted the call was real as there had been widespread cautions on social media warning of fake calls from Israel, so he asked the man to fire a warning shot, hoping both for proof and that the noise would alert anybody who had not yet evacuated.
A warning shot seemingly from nowhere, but perhaps from a drone, hit one of the apartment buildings under threat, he said
“I asked him to ‘shoot another warning shot before you bomb,'” Shaheen said. One more rang out.
Israel sometimes uses missiles without warheads as warnings in a move commonly known as “roof knocking.” However, the practice has been less commonly utilized in the current war.
Shaheen said he then ran around the neighborhood frantically urging all those in the three apartment buildings to evacuate. His building was nearby, but not one of those targeted.
The Israeli caller spent over an hour on the phone with Shaheen reportedly telling him that he would give him time as he did not want anyone to die.
Shaheen said he then asked the caller why Israel wanted to bomb the area as they were just residential apartments.
“He said, ‘There are some things that we see that you don’t see,'” Shaheen said, adding that the caller did not elaborate.
Shaheen said that once he confirmed the area was clear, the man told him they would now bomb the first one, which they did, then all three buildings specified were hit as Israeli aircraft circled overhead.
“This is the tower that we want, stay away,” Abu Khaled said.
When the bombing was over, the Israeli told Shaheen. “We’ve finished… you can go back.”
Israel declared war following the deadly assaults on October 7 when some 3,000 Hamas and other terrorists broke through the Gaza fence under the cover of thousands of rockets fired all over Israel, and rampaged murderously through border communities. Amid cases of horrific brutality, they killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages to Gaza.
The IDF launched widespread airstrikes, followed by a ground offensive, with the aim of toppling the Hamas terror group that rules the Strip. The IDF says it is hitting infrastructure used by Hamas and other terror groups, much of it in a vast network of fortified tunnels built beneath civilian areas, including under apartments, hospitals, mosques, and schools.
Hamas says 10,000 Palestinians, including 4,000 children, have died since the start of Israel’s response. These numbers cannot be verified and Hamas has been accused of inflating them; failing to differentiate between terrorists and civilians; counting all fatalities aged under 18, including gunmen, as children, and including those killed by hundreds of terrorist rockets aimed at Israel that have fallen short in the Strip.
The BBC said it contacted Shaheen after multiple al-Zahra residents identified him as the man who received the warning calls.
It noted that while it could not verify the contents of the call, the details matched those on a community Facebook group from the day, and satellite images before and after the bombing.
Israel has repeatedly called on residents in north Gaza to move south into a safer area and continue to do so following the launch of a recent ground offensive that has surrounded Gaza City, where Hamas has extensive infrastructure.
The IDF has released recordings of other calls made by officers in the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 — which specializes in HUMINT — to Gaza residents urging them to evacuate buildings and leave for the south.
In one recording, the local resident can be heard telling the Israeli officer that Hamas was shooting at people trying to flee south.
IDF releases an audio recording of an officer in the Military Intelligence Directorate's Unit 504 — which specializes in HUMINT — speaking to a Gazan man, during which he describes how Hamas is preventing people from evacuating from the northern part of the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/VgMJO3SzVo
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 26, 2023
According to Shaheen, his phone rang again that evening with another Israeli officer on the line; this one identified himself as “Daoud.”
He told the BBC that the man praised him for his efforts that morning and called him a “wise man.” He said the caller knew a great deal about him, including his son’s name.
He was told there would be further strikes and he had to evacuate his neighbors again.
He repeated the morning process, this time in the dark, and then three more buildings were destroyed once they were empty.
Israeli warplanes destroy more than 20 residential buildings in al-Zahra’ area, Gaza. pic.twitter.com/SmUFWZqntR
— Wilabee (@Wilabee) October 21, 2023
Shaheen said that then suddenly the orders changed and Daoud told him the full row of apartments on one side of the street would be targeted, bringing the total to more than 20 buildings.
“There were people we hadn’t evacuated yet because there was no warning about those buildings. I told him, ‘At least give us until morning, in nighttime, where will the people go?’
“The answer was, ‘The orders have been received, and we will bomb all towers within two hours,'” Shaheen recounted.
He said that during this time he ran around frantically trying to get the hundreds of people out, with the man remaining on the line with him the whole time.
“He even told me, ‘Take your time. I won’t bomb unless you give me permission.’
“I said, ‘No, it’s not my permission. I don’t want you to bomb anything. If you want me to evacuate, I will evacuate for the safety of the people, but if you want to bomb, don’t tell me you need my permission. It’s not Mahmoud Shaheen who will bomb al-Zahra,” he said.
At one stage, with his phone battery running low, the Israeli told him to hang up and save his battery. A neighbor’s phone then rang with Daoud on the line, asking for Mahmoud Shaheen, he recounted.
He advised Shaheen to take the evacuated residents to the west, to the nearby University of Palestine, where they could seek shelter.
The man then stayed on the line with him until the strikes were complete.
In response to the report, the IDF told the BBC that as part of its “mission to dismantle the Hamas terrorist organization [it] has been targeting military targets across the Gaza Strip.” Strikes on military targets were subject, it said, to “relevant provisions of international law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties.”
“Hamas continues to attack Israel from across the entire Gaza Strip. Hamas has embedded itself in civilian infrastructure and operates across the entire Gaza Strip. The IDF is determined to end these attacks and as such we will strike Hamas wherever necessary.”
The BBC reported that “thanks to Mahmoud’s efforts, it is believed that none of his neighbors died that day.”
TOI Staff
Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-man-israeli-agents-spent-hours-on-phone-with-me-to-evacuate-targeted-buildings/
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