Fearing Palestinians will create human shields around every terror target in the Gaza Strip, the IDF, a high-ranking officer said Sunday, was prepared to launch ground raids into the Palestinian territory to demolish buildings that could not be destroyed in airstrikes. The warning came less than a day after hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the home of a known terrorist to prevent its bombing by IAF fighter jets. Late Saturday night, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, surrounded the home of Mohammedweil Baroud - head of the Popular Resistance Committees' (PRC) Kassam rocket cell - after he received a warning from the IDF late Saturday night giving him 30 minutes to leave his house in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Out of fear that innocent bystanders would be injured, the IDF called off the air strike.
Calling residents ahead of airstrikes on suspected weapons-storage and manufacturing sites is a routine tactic the IDF employs in the Gaza Strip and also used over the summer during the month-long war in Lebanon during which thousands of targets were struck by Israeli missiles. The incident in Beit Lahiya on Sunday however, was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent such an air strike and represents, officials said, a change in tactics to try and prevent the IAF missile strikes. "These human shields will not stop us from reaching every target of ours," an IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "If we can't get to the target by air due to the human shields, we will reach it by ground and the Palestinians will pay a heavy price."