Israeli Intelligence Spent Hours on Phone with Gaza Dentist, Coached Him Through Apartment Evacuation to Avoid Civilian Casualties
Israeli intelligence officials called Mahmoud Shaheen, a dentist in Gaza, late last month and spent several hours walking him through the evacuation of several apartment buildings that were later struck by the air force.
“I’m speaking with you from Israeli intelligence,” Shaheen recalled the military officer instructing him in Arabic. The soldier, who identified himself only as “Abu Khaled,” ordered Shaheen to help “evacuate the surrounding area,”Shaheen told the BBC. “He told me he wanted to bomb three towers,” Shaheen continued, “and ordered me to evacuate the surrounding area.”
At first, Shaheen did not believe the call to be authentic. Messages across Palestinian social-media had cautioned Gazans about fake calls. The dentist wanted the caller to confirm the severity of the situation by firing a warning shot. “I asked him to ‘shoot another warning shot before you bomb.'” A boom rang out, but Shaheen thought it could have been a drone crashing into a nearby apartment building. Once more, Shaheen asked for a warning shot. This time he heard it clearly.
“I told him: ‘Don’t betray us and bomb while people are still evacuating,'” Shaheen recounted telling Abu Khaled, pleading for patience as people fled from the structures. He stayed on the phone with the Israeli intelligence officer as he went door-to-door to get people out of harm’s way. “I didn’t want to know that there’s someone I could have saved and I didn’t,” he told the outlet.
Shaheen, at one point, tried to convince the military man to cancel the strike. “I tried my best to stop him. I asked, ‘Why do you want to bomb?'” he recalls asking Abu Khaled. “He said, ‘There are some things that we see that you don’t see.'”
“It is an order from people bigger than me and you, and we have an order to bomb,” the Israeli operative added. The disagreement went back and forth, even after the building was struck. “I told him al-Zahra [the neighborhood] is a civilian area. No one is a stranger here… I tried to make him understand. It is not a border area, we have not had previous clashes. It was always an area outside of trouble,” Shaheen added.
The conversations went on for hours, even after the building was destroyed and Shaheen returned to his home. At one point, during a later evacuation order from a different Israeli intelligence member, the two spoke about the atrocities of October 7. “He started telling me: ‘Did you see how they [Hamas] slaughtered those children with knives?’ I told him that according to our Islamic religion, this is forbidden,” Shaheen said.
Throughout the ensuing hours, Shaheen became a middleman between the IDF and ordinary Gazans helping to evacuate civilians. At one point, Shaheen sought to delay the bombings as people fled the scene. “He even told me, ‘Take your time. I won’t bomb unless you give me permission.’ I said: ‘No, it’s not my permission. I don’t want you to bomb anything. If you want me to evacuate, I will evacuate for the safety of the people, but if you want to bomb, don’t tell me you need my permission.”
The remarkable exchange provides a rare glimpse into Israel’s efforts to encourage civilians to avoid the ongoing war with Hamas.
LINK to original article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-intelligence-spent-hours-on-phone-with-gaza-dentist-coached-him-through-apartment-evacuation-to-avoid-civilian-casualties/ar-AA1jBXkL?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=62e7774a8fea4d409c22049232efc216&ei=45
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What an amazing exchange.
Absolutely, thanks for sharing,
Wow, I am totally blown away!
I was like, is this real!!.
Great find, Kav!
“I told him al-Zahra [the neighborhood] is a civilian area. No one is a stranger here… I tried to make him understand. It is not a border area, we have not had previous clashes. It was always an area outside of trouble,” Shaheen added."
Of course it is.
Since neither you nor I know if it is or isn't perhaps we should just thank two enemies that found a way between them to save many lives.
Every innocent life saved is a step in the right direction/forward! Kudos to both 'sides' for having a 'kind' intelligence officer call and a 'warm' spirit to receive and extend this message for saving 'countless' lives! Instead of this becoming an instance of 'making bloodsplatters' it turned into a case where 'lemons' were turned to lemonade! (Win-Win.)
How do you think it would have gone down if Israeli Intelligence had called Hamas instead?
The question is superfluous. You can deal with it yourself and without my opinion.
Does that mean that you lack an informed opinion?
Informed how? This telling is not about Hamas, but a dentist with the help of Israel Intelligence getting Palestinian civilians out of the field of 'fire.' Have you been so informed about anything other? If so, how do you think it would have gone down if Israeli Intelligence had called Hamas instead?
Now, if only we could convince Palestinians to turn on Hamas.
Hamas would have told the Gazans to stay in place and then informed the world of another Israeli atrocity.
Well, there you go! You supplied a probable answer to your concern. Although, we can never know what Hamas would have don in this specific case, because Hamas did not get the call. Israeli Intelligent saw to that not going down that way. As Israeli Intel put it to the dentist: "We see things you don't see."
Everyone please get back on the topic, lives were saved in the middle of a brutal war, that is the news.
This 'poor' dentist, I wonder if he wonders how Israeli intelligence knows his name and where he lives. And, if he will be 'called to duty' or "drafted" ever again.
I bet he doesn't care since he found his way to safety with the help of those damn dastardly Israelis!
Suffice it to say we won't be hearing any such stories about the terrorists.
But but hit, the Israelites are committing genocide, and are occupiers, and are somehow colonists.
Honestly, I do not think any invading force in world history has shown more concern for civilians than the Jews invading Gaza.
There has been far more outrage over Israel than the year-long bombing of civilians by Russia.
May God watch over Mahmoud Shaheen, that he isn't killed by Hamas as some sort of traitor in their eyes.
I'm sure that Mahmoud unknowingly or knowingly risked his life by his actions. Hamas isn't known for it's understanding and sympathy of the Palestinian people.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the co-founders of Hamas, understands the reality of what groups like Hamas do to the region. He has seen it from the inside. He was on Cuomo tonight and what he had to say needs to be heard.
14 minute video, well worth the time to hear the reality as seen by someone who was embedded with Hamas.
It's a great video and delivers a "punch' to Hamas! However, . . . it still can not be that killing innocent people is appropriate in any circumstance. I don't think I heard Sheikh Yousef articulate how to stop killing them. When asked about civilians, he seemed to glide over that with a strange remark about Israel continuing to go after Hamas despite the civilians dying. That is UNSAT.
And for those who don't understand that. . . just ask them how they would react if these high powerful bombs were in the hands of Hamas and Hamas was killing Jewish civilians by the thousands or tens of thousands
War is hard, yes. And that makes it all the more important that people leave the innocent out of it!
That said, as I have always stated, Hamas deserves what it gets - apart from civilian deaths. Civilians don't deserve to die.
It's a great video worthy of being seen by all, nevertheless.
I find it admirable that Israeli intelligence would try to evacuate an area full of civilians before bombing it. It sounds to me like they want to avoid innocent casualties as much as possible.
Absolutely, Trout.
I found the whole episode to be like something out of James Bond.
So much for the mindless claims that Israel are just indiscriminately bombing civilians.
Well, . . . always somebody around to 'see' an opportunity to exploit a news story. This ONE anecdotal story is not the whole story, nor do I think it was MEANT to be an ACCOUNTING of the complete record of Israel's actions regarding bombing. It's a great story. It should be singularly APPLAUDED. It should not be EXPLOITED!
After all, the international community is not ASKING Israel to cut down/limit/stop bombing civilians, because civilians are living and thriving. . . . Isn't it obvious, if we can trust the international community and government to be accurate in its ask - not every building in Gaza gets this type of treatment. In my opinion.
But, once again the obvious implication has to be written out and articulated instead of being given the benefit of doubt.
Which makes it appear wrongly that I am somehow complaining about Israel in totality. I am not. Israel should go after Hamas and let UNARMED CITIZENS live to populate their land and maybe even make peace finally with Israel - heck they may even partner in at some indefinite time in the future!
So... I have to wonder here... What's the point of bombing empty buildings?
Maybe they suspect there are tunnels there?
Agreed. A collapsed building would be effective in both covering the tunnel entrance/exits and preventing an elevated firing position from being used against the IDF.
Ok that make sense thanks Drak. Trout too.
I read this article earlier this morning .. this is a crazy feel-good story. I knew that Israel dropped leaflets and made phone calls. but this surpassed anything I thought that the Israeli's did to warn Palestinian citizens. .. even firing 2 warning shots so Shaheen would believe that it was not a fake phone call.
Not that it would change any minds, but the dumbass bigoted hate filled 'future leaders of America' on college campuses and the nitwits in congress need to read this article.
The loss of life is devestating .. but Hamas must go ...!
I find it interesting that very few cried out over the murder of Syrian civilians by its own government, Russia and foreign fighter that flowed into the country from Turkey during the civil war / the Arab spring BS .. totals possibly reaching 600,000 murdered .. I thought it was because they were brown skinned that their deaths were not noticed by the world, and nothing done about it - but now I see that I was wrong .. if Israel was the ones doing the bombing the world would have screamed in unison antisemitic cries, and demands that the death of Syrians be stopped.
Peace!
It is def a good article to post Kavika