‘Makes Israel Look Like Hamas’: Sky News Military Analyst Gives Blistering Take On IDF’s Hospital Raid Optics
Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke delivered a blistering critique of the Israeli Defence Force’s (IDF) recent operation in a West Bank hospital to assassinate members of Hamas saying the tactics used “strengthen the sense that they are behaving like the terrorists themselves.”
During the action undercover Israeli special forces, masquerading as doctors and patients, stormed a West Bank hospital in an operation that the Israeli military said was aimed at thwarting a looming terror attack, reminiscent of October 7th in which over 1,200 Israelis were killed and some 250 taken hostage.
In CCTV footage that emerged following the raid, the commandos disguised themselves with fake beards and dressed as Muslim women, with one soldier posing as wheelchair-bound patients to infiltrate the hospital undetected.
The high-stakes mission ended in the elimination of three alleged terrorists linked to Hamas, including Hamas commander Mohammad Jalamneh.
Reviewing the footage, Clarke examined the “legality” of the tactics used: “[The IDF have] been going after Hamas wherever they find them because of what they are and what they do. But doing it in that way is very suspect and is tactically foolish because it makes Israel look like Hamas. It makes it look as if they’re doing Hamas’ job.”
He continued: “What they should do, and this is the counsel of perfection, is that they should go in as uniformed police or uniformed troops, surround it, try to arrest the people they’re after, and if they resist, then you shoot them. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Reflecting again on how the operations looked, Clarke said: “Taking on this sort of assassination by playing at being hospitalised employees is not a clever idea tactically because it just strengthens everything that people say about the IDF and what they’re doing in Gaza. It strengthens that sense that they’re behaving a bit like the terrorists themselves.”
