Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians

At exactly 1 p.m.on Oct.

7, 2023, Israel’s military leadership issued an order that unleashed one of the most intense bombing campaigns in contemporary warfare.Effective immediately, the order granted mid-ranking Israeli officers the authority to strike thousands of militants and military sites that had never been a priority in previous wars in Gaza.Officers could now pursue not only the senior Hamas commanders, arms depots and rocket launchers that were the focus of earlier campaigns, but also the lowest-ranking fighters.In each strike, the order said, officers had the authority to risk killing up to 20 civilians.The order, which has not previously been reported, had no precedent in Israeli military history.

Mid-ranking officers had never been given so much leeway to attack so many targets, many of which had lower military significance, at such a high potential civilian cost.It meant, for example, that the military could target rank-and-file militants as they were at home surrounded by relatives and neighbors, instead of only when they were alone outside.In previous conflicts with Hamas, many Israeli strikes were approved only after officers concluded that no civilians would be hurt.Sometimes, officers could risk killing up to five civilians and only rarely did the limit rise to 10 or above, though the actual death toll was sometimes much higher.On Oct.

7, the military leadership changed its rules of engagement because it believed that Israel faced an existential threat, according to a senior military officer who answered questions about the order on the condition of anonymity....