Israeli President Expresses ‘Utter Pain and Sorrow for Any Innocent Casualty on Palestinian Side’

President of Israel Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have stressed the IDF is doing everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks to reporters about his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on July 18, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has expressed his “utter pain and sorrow for any innocent casualty on the Palestinian side” during the ongoing war in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, over 11,000 people have been killed during Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza. Those numbers have not been independently verified and Israel says it’s unclear how many were killed by Israeli or terrorist fire. The military strikes follow Israel’s declaration of war after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on the nation on Oct. 7 that saw 1,200 people in Israel murdered and hundreds more taken as hostages.

In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Herzog said Israel was doing its “utmost, according to international humanitarian law,” to ensure civilians in Gaza are not caught up in the fighting between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hamas terrorists.

“First and foremost, we alert people,” he said of the thousands of leaflets, calls, and text messages Israel had sent to all civilians in north Gaza alerting them of their plans for an offensive to root out Hamas.

“I mean, what’s the story here? The enemy, these terrorists, fought and tried to kill us and send missiles and terrorists from their homes,” he said. “So we have to go to these homes and we have to blow up all their infrastructure, tunnels, missiles, everything.”

Of the innocent bystanders, he said, “[W]e give them time to move out and we’ve opened humanitarian corridors and we have increased dramatically the humanitarian aid to those who are moving out to a safety zone. ”

From the beginning of the war, Gazan civilians have been urged by Israel to evacuate from known Hamas locations and hideouts. Over 1. 2 million Palestinians are estimated to have headed the call to escape the Gaza Strip, using whatever means at their disposal.

Palestinian civilians and rescue teams sifting through the debris of a collapsed building in Al-Maghazi, located in the central Gaza Strip, in search of survivors and victims following the Israeli bombardment on Nov. 5, 2023. Mohammed Zaanoun/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

However, the IDF has accused Hamas, of using a variety of tactics, including blocking roads, to prevent many civilians from reaching safety.

President Herzog also pointed to the IDF’s attempts to open and maintain humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to escape the war zone, and provide humanitarian aid to those moving out to safety.