High civilian toll in Gaza is cost of crushing Hamas, says Israeli military

Heavy civilian casualties are the cost of Israel's intense campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza and the militants' urban warfare strategy, Israeli military officials said, in the face of global alarm at the staggering toll from the bombing.

Israel has dropped thousands of tonnes of munitions over the past 10 weeks, leaving the narrow Mediterranean strip in ruins and killing nearly 20,000, with more believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings, Gazan officials say. More than 50,000 are injured, with minimal healthcare services working.

Speaking on Dec 18 at the Palmachim Air Force Base 45km from Gaza, two officials said Israel acknowledged that before each strike, the cost in civilian lives was balanced against an evaluation of the military advantage.

One of the officials, a legal adviser to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), said the air force was carrying out "thousands and thousands of attacks and often attacks that require heavy firepower" to break through Hamas' tunnels under Gaza.

"Really tragically, that results in a large number of civilian casualties," said the official, in a briefing with journalists at the coastal base, from where grey military drones depart on daily bombing runs.

The Israeli military asked that the officials not be named for security reasons.

Israel's top war aim is to dismantle Hamas' military capabilities to prevent further attacks after the Islamist militants' Oct 7 killings of 1,200 mainly civilian people and mass hostage-taking.