Israeli government spokesman David Mencer slammed critics Monday who complained about Palestinian civilian casualties in Israel’s successful hostage rescue in Gaza last weekend.
It’s “the ultimate chutzpah,” Mencer told journalists, after a correspondent for the Agence France-Presse (AFP) nes agency asked whether Israel had violated a “legal duty” by carrying out a raid near a crowded marketplace in Nuseirat, Gaza, in broad daylight, where Israeli hostages were being held.
“I’m sorry, you do not get to steal our people, hide them in crowded areas, and then complain about civilian casualties,” Mencer added.
As Breitbart News reported, four hostages — Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40 — were rescued Saturday morning in a daring joint operation conducted by the IDF, ISA, and the Israeli police. Israeli Police counter-terror commander Arnon Zamora was killed in action during the operation.
Argamani and the three male hostages were held in separate locations, a short distance apart. Argamani was rescued without incident, but a fierce firefight erupted as the Israeli commandos extracted the three male hostages.
Palestinian sources have claimed that nearly 300 people were killed, implying that they were primarily civilians. Israel has said that some civilians may have been killed during the fight, but put the number of overall casualties as less than 100 people, many of whom were terrorists.
“Our forces were fired upon by rocket-propelled grenades, by heavy machine guns,” Mencer said. “Where there were civilian casualties during this rescue, they more than likely happened from Hamas as well.”
He slammed the “Hamas PR machine,” which he said “immediately jumped into action and started talking about hundreds of civilian casualties.”
He continued: “Everyone should understand that this method by which Hamas fights, it’s not going to save them. It’s not going to allow Hamas to keep our hostages. We will always protect civilians … but we are going to go for this genocidal terror organization.”
Mencer confirmed reports that Israeli hostages had been slaves in Gaza, and were forced to perform labor for their captors, among other ordeals.
Asked about a potential separate effort by the U.S. to negotiate with Hamas, via Qatar, to free five hostages who are American-Israeli dual citizens, Mencer welcomed the initiative.
“Israel has encouraged all countries … to put maximum pressure” on Hamas to release all of the hostages, he said.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.