The opposite is the case. Actually, it is the Hamas rocket attacks that are indiscriminate. Hamas rockets cannot be precisely aimed at any specific target and are intended to create maximum civilian casualties on the Israeli side.[1] This explains why approximately 15% of the rockets during the May 2021 Israel/Hamas conflict—680 out of some 4,300—fell short in Gaza, killing Gazans and harming Gazan infrastructure.[2]

By contrast the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) takes great care—even beyond what is required by law—to avoid civilian casualties under the close guidance of its International Law Department.[3] The IDF employs sophisticated technology enabling it to pinpoint military targets with a high degree of precision and to minimize harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure.[4] Military law expert Prof. Geoffrey Corn commented that “the precision is in military terms relatively remarkable,” noting also that Israel does not do “artillery barrage into populated areas.”[5] Military law expert Prof. Michael Schmitt likewise described the IDF’s sophisticated weapons: “The IDF often employs specially configured smaller warheads with reduced explosive material against targets in urban areas to limit collateral damage. Other warheads have been re-engineered to generate lighter fragments upon detonation so that the fragments travel shorter distances from the point of impact.”[6]

The IDF launched hundreds of surgical strikes against 1,500 Hamas military targets, including rocket stores, rocket launchers, underground terror tunnels, militants, and operational facilities.[7] In many of these strikes there were no Palestinian casualties. Hamas has already admitted that 90 of the deaths were terror operatives. Furthermore, according to an analysis of the casualty names conducted by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, approximately half of those killed were terrorists.[8] Col. Richard Kemp commented that the casualty numbers here indicate that the IDF was “even more successful in minimizing civilian casualties during this campaign than in previous engagements in Gaza.”[9]

Even now former-UNRWA Gaza head Mathias Schmale admitted that the Israeli strikes were “very precise”, and that Israel operated with “huge sophistication” in how it struck its targets[10]—comments by someone present in Gaza during the conflict which directly contradict this accusation. Schmale’s statement contradicting the Hamas propaganda portraying Israel as the murderous criminal clearly angered Hamas. The terror group quickly condemned Schmale’s remarks and accused him of “excusing the harm against civilians and their homes…” leading him to apologize.[11] Ultimately, Schmale was declared persona non grata in Gaza and both he and his deputy were recalled by UNRWA on grounds the agency could not guaranty their safety.

A quick consideration of what an indiscriminate attack by a modern air force on a city like Gaza would look like — at a minimum, thousands of casualties evenly distributed between women and men and people of all ages — shows how absurd this claim is.