"We Are Fighting a Just War With Just Means"

"Of course, militaries have soldiers that do things that are wrong [but Israel holds them accountable and launches investigations]. If Israel was trying to conduct civilian harm there [in Gaza], nothing shows that. Not my on-hand research or the numbers."

"[If Israel wasn't following the rules of war, Gaza] would look a lot worse than it does now."

"I believe in not just looking at the data everybody else has, but I have a research methodology of walking the ground, observing, asking the hard questions."

"You really don't understand the complexity of what the IDF had to face, until you see the dense urban terrain. You're walking on top of hundreds of miles of tunnel. You have a war of this scale, in a context that no military has faced in modern history."

John Spencer, urban warfare expert, chair of urban warfare studies, Modern War Institute, West Point

During his time with the IDF, urban warfare expert John Spencer said the Israeli army doing "harm mitigation at a level that nobody's ever tried." Photo by Handout

One of the world's preeminent experts on urban warfare has taken himself inside the Gaza Strip on three occasions since December. Embedded with the Israel Defence Forces, John Spencer  analyzed the war against Hamas at multiple angles and perspectives. He meticulously conducted interviews with figures such as the prime minister, IDF chief of staff, division commanders, brigade commanders, battalion commanders "all the way down to soldiers in the field".

Since he is well aware of critics accusing Israel of conducting its conflict with Hamas with disproportionate casualties, excessive force, indiscriminate bombing in an alleged campaign to starve ordinary Gazans to accomplish genocide on Palestinians as it is frequently charged with, he was intensely interested in what his close proximity to the war situation would actually reveal. What he saw was the IDF performing "harm mitigation at a level that nobody's ever tried".

He personally and at close range observed clear and consistent following of legal warfare requirements; what is militarily referred to as "civilian harm mitigation steps". That would include evacuating civilians from specific areas by handing out maps of safe areas, real-time population tracking methodology and warning shots on roofs before target bombing to clear the buildings of civilians. His was not the only critical investigation by any means: British Col. Richard Kemp and British Maj. Andrew Fox came to identical conclusions through their own investigations.

 

Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, in a handout image released by the Israeli army on August 14, 2024. Photo by Handout/Israeli Army/AFP via Getty Images

 

Spencer served two tours in Iraq, as an infantry platoon leader and company commander and has over 25 years of experience active in the British military. He currently serves as a colonel in the California State Guard, as director of urban warfare training. While there, he co-created and instructs a  unique course designed to improve the capacity of commanders and staff in coordinating large-scale urban operations. As the author of several books, he has advised four-star generals and Pentagon officials.

His research, over a decade, focused on military operations in situations such as dense urban areas and subterranean warfare; Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), Ukraine and Israel included. The popular charge of Israel's response to the Palestinian terrorists' atrocities of October 7 has been disproportionate or indiscriminate, he opposes them as "baseless". As for the accusation Israel is attempting to starve Gazans, that represents "a big lie; the data does not support the claim. [Israel] has done everything feasible and reasonable to flood Gaza with food."

He contends that Israel is "horrible at communicating operations to the public". Were he to be asked to advise on the issue, he would "assign more resources to winning the battle of narratives on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis". According to Spencer, a win for Israel would reflect this hoped-for eventuality: 

• Hamas virtually eliminated 
• Gaza demilitarized 
• hostages freed 
• reconstruction 
• deradicalization.

Throughout eleven long and arduous months of conflict with the terrorist group Hamas, with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, and more latterly, Jordanian Palestinians, all directed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in its covenant for the destruction of the Jewish state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly advised his home public and the critical world at large: "We are fighting a just war, with just means".

 

"There has been no actual evidence -- unless you believe TikTok videos -- of Israel targeting civilians, or any prohibited target."

"[There is, however], a lot of evidence [that Hamas intercepted aid, sometimes shooting people to get it, then selling [it] at a  high price in the Palestinian marketplace]."

"Under the social media algorithm-driven confirmation bias, if you had negative ideas about Israel, it's going to feed you that. Then  you're going to infer what you want."

"The enemy [Hamas] had 15 years to prepare to defend the area, meaning it's going to require a lot of force to overtake the enemy."

John Spencer, Modern War Institute