"Wait, there are children in the area" Exclusive Footage of an Air Strike Being Called Off

Never before seen Israeli Air Force footage shows efforts to avoid civilian casualties

In last week’s IDF podcast, Lt Col ‘A’, an air force navigator, described how airstrikes can be called off from the cockpit:

Continuously when we're in the air, we're looking to see if we need to abort.

Now this can come from someone that is now looking at the target, be it a UAV or a manned aircraft… if somebody sees something, they immediately call on the comms, abort! abort! abort!

And then we can do a few things. If it's before we release the ammunition, then we abort it, and we go back and wait for the target to be clean…

Or, if it's after, sometimes we have the capability, and we plan that in advance, to move the bombs into a place that we call an "‘open field”, which will be a safer area that the bombs will go there and won't hit those that just got into the area.

Here’s an Exclusive Clip of an Aborted Air Strike

What you’re seeing in this clip is a perfect illustration of what Lt. Col A described. Just to be clear, this is exclusive footage being seen first by readers of this Substack.

This IDF air strike of a target, based on existing intelligence, was called off due to proximity of non-combatants.

Why am I so proud of videos like these?

Because, as I’ve said before, our war is not with the people of Gaza. We’re doing everything we can to open up evacuation corridors for them to move south. This is a counter to Hamas tactic - entrenching within the civilian population, with tunnels under homes and rocket launchers near mosques. But while Hamas may take the battle into their cities, we take our values with us when we meet them there. And we will continue to so do.

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Operational Updates

Further details are posted every day in the ‘Daily Updates’ section on the IDF’s website

• IDF forces in the Gaza Strip continued to close in on Hamas positions in northern Gaza, after encircling it earlier this month.

• Over the last day, the IDF has secured a number of Hamas outposts, capturing rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, ammunition, and intelligence materials. Weapons confiscated included hundreds of RPGs, dozens of machine guns, surface-to-air missiles and more.

• One example of this is the video below, in which IDF forces discovered rocket launchers in a children’s’ youth center:

• While locate terrorist infrastructure and clear the area, soldiers of the 460th Brigade rocket launch pits found by the soldiers in a mosque were destroyed.

• IDF troops located a number of Hamas terrorists who barricaded themselves in a building adjacent to the al-Quds Hospital, and planned to carry out an attack on the forces from there. IDF soldiers directed an aircraft to strike the Hamas terrorists. The attack led to significant secondary explosions which indicate the presence of a Hamas weapons depot in a civilian area.

• In response to the continued firing of rockets from Lebanon, the IDF struck a number of Hezbollah targets, including arsenals, rocket launchers, technology centers, and more.  Footage of the strike can be seen here:

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Quote of the Day

"We have been at war for a month now, we are inflicting severe damage to Hamas, damaging the leadership of Hamas, targeting the commanders, targeting the terrorists, destroying Hamas' infrastructure in Gaza, and we are also constantly ready for other areas.

This base knows how to reach anywhere in the Middle East. I happened to see now in the 140th Squadron air support of an Adir (F-35) jet for forces who were 200 meters away.

- Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi

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What I’m Watching:

Opinion: I’m an expert in urban warfare. Israel is upholding the laws of war (CNN)

John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, shares his perspective on the legality of IDF operations in the Gaza Strip

Inside Israel’s Mission to Destroy Hamas Tunnels in Gaza - NBC News

NBC news follows IDF combat engineers as they work to destroy tunnels under civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

One final thing.

We’re overwhelmed by images and videos these days but every once in a while, one sticks with you. Yesterday, it was this picture.

I shared this in my daily briefing with journalists today. It shows IDF soldiers working together with archeologists to sift through ashes to identify the remains of victims of the October 7th massacre who were burnt to ashes. This is why we fight.