Summary
The Israeli army’s category, “matarot otzem”, for high-rises, residential towers and public buildings whose bombing, on intelligence sources’ account in ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza, is intended mainly to harm Palestinian civil society and exert civil pressure on Hamas (lines 90-92, 128).
Details
- Power targets include high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks and government offices (line 128).
- Their bombing is mainly intended, sources with first-hand experience say, to “create a shock” that will “lead civilians to put pressure on Hamas” (line 92).
- Striking a power target functions primarily, on sources involved in compiling them in previous wars, as a “means that allows damage to civil society” (line 170).
- In the first five days of the war from October 7, 2023, 1,329 of 2,687 targets bombed were deemed power targets, on the IDF Spokesperson’s October 11 statements (line 132); nine were struck in the whole 2021 assault (line 190), and four in the last four days of the 2014 war, when the army first publicly defined the category (line 182).
- Until the current war, protocols allowed attacking power targets only when the buildings were empty of residents; testimonies and videos suggest some have since been attacked without prior notice, killing entire families (line 140).
Related pages
‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza, Habsora, Dahiyeh Doctrine, Disproportionate Force