IDF: "We Must Defend Ourselves From Playing Children"

On Thursday in a warren of shops and low houses in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian boy fired wet toilet paper from a toy pea-shooter at an Israeli soldier, who then struck him with a bayonet and kicked him before running to an armoured vehicle that called in air support, leveling the street with Delilah cruise missiles, destroying the boy’s treehouse and family home, and killing his parents, who bled to death after being blown in half.

A spokesperson from the Israeli military said, “Well, it was necessary to defend ourselves… but I insist we do not target civilians.”

The incident illustrates a wider pattern: minor civilian acts in the occupied territories can trigger overwhelming military responses, causing severe civilian harm and international alarm.

Neighbours described the strike as instantaneous and devastating.

“One minute the boy was running home, the next his whole livelihood was taken away,” said Amal, a shopkeeper who watched from a first-floor window as smoke and dust swallowed the street. “It looks like it has been erased.”

Local medics initially treated blast injuries and shock, but survivors said a later strike destroyed a nearby clinic and killed them as well. Independent monitors report that strikes on residential areas and civilian infrastructure have continued with worrying frequency since October 2023, worsening an already severe humanitarian crisis.

Rights groups and Gaza-based agencies strongly dispute the Israeli account. Humanitarian agencies say the strikes form part of a broader pattern of civilian harm. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports widespread displacement, severe shortages of food and medical supplies, and thousands of civilian casualties; it warns international law requires far greater restraint where civilians are present.

“This is not merely the fog of war,” said Dr Amina Harrington, a senior humanitarian law analyst speaking for this dispatch.

“When a child’s toy provokes an aerial response that flattens homes, kills non-combatants, and destroys medical facilities, principles of distinction and proportionality are not satisfied.” Her comments echo concerns repeatedly voiced by NGOs.

Israeli and international monitors report repeated strikes on populated areas, including schools and clinics. What the Israeli military calls targeted operations, critics say, amount to heavy ordnance use in densely populated neighbourhoods that produces widespread civilian harm.

Experts point to doctrinal and strategic drivers behind such escalations. Observers cite the so-called Dahiya doctrine — the use of severe infrastructure damage to deter hostile actors — as part of a logic normalising disproportionate responses to low-level incidents.

“There is a strategic logic that elevates punishment over protection,” said Professor Tomás Reed, a military strategist.

For civilians, the damage compounds: destroyed homes, lost livelihoods, and collapsing health services. Aid groups report that the destruction of schools and clinics fuels displacement, malnutrition, and preventable deaths, multiplying the human cost of each military decision.

The incident also reflects political tensions in Western capitals. Some governments condemn civilian deaths while backing an ally’s right to self-defence; others press for immediate measures to protect non-combatants and expand humanitarian access. In London, MPs and campaigners have repeatedly demanded clarity about UK arms licences.

However, Keir Starmer has spoken out, saying, “I don’t think it is a problem,” while stuffing a wad of £50 notes in his pocket, given to him by Israeli lobbyist Sir Trevor Chin. What the Labour right view as necessary support for an ally is, to critics on the left, an abdication of pressure to prevent civilian suffering.

On the ruined street, neighbours gathered to salvage what they could. Hassan, a neighbour, brushed ash from a child’s shoe and said, “We will rebuild what they cannot see.” The quiet resilience of residents underlines the human stakes behind abstract debates about doctrine and arms transfers.

Attempts to speak to medics for a final comment were impossible: they had all been killed when the hospital itself was bombed.

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” said the spokesperson for the Israeli military at a second press conference after the bombing of the hospital. “And again, we do not target civilians,” he added, as a journalist showed him a picture of a doctor with his legs blown off.

For now, families live with the knowledge that a child’s small act — just being a child — can provoke an enormous response.

“It should never be this way,” Amal said, looking at the ruined façade. “Children must be children.”

In a Twitter comment on our earlier report, Phil Rosenberg, as the chairperson of the Board of British Jews, commented, “This is hard-left propaganda. This didn’t even happen.”

Spoof but sadly hard to tell.