Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir on Sunday denied a Channel 14 report that claimed the military advocate-general bears responsibility for the deaths of the four soldiers on Friday. 

He said he condemns the repeated, unfounded, and baseless attacks regarding the activities of the officials. 

There was no directive from the military advocate-general to refrain from striking the building that collapsed and caused the deaths of four soldiers in Khan Yunis.

The claims made in this context are false, malicious, and entirely without basis, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said. 

The safety of IDF soldiers is a central consideration in all operations carried out in the Gaza Strip, and the forces on the ground have operational freedom to remove threats.

IDF MILITARY Advocate-General Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi is the Israeli military’s chief lawyer and has the task of defending Israelis from accusations of war crimes. (credit: FLASH90)
IDF MILITARY Advocate-General Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi is the Israeli military’s chief lawyer and has the task of defending Israelis from accusations of war crimes. (credit: FLASH90)
The Chief of Staff strongly condemns the defamation of the names of IDF officers who work day and night for the security of the state and the protection of its citizens.

Channel 14 reported the IDF was barred from striking the building

Channel 14's Noam Amir shared a closed conversation where a senior IDF officer claimed that even though the military knew about the booby-trapped building in Khan Yunis, and it had been designated a Hamas compound, the military advocate-general prevented the air force from striking due to concerns regarding “high collateral damage.”

“We knew the infrastructure, we knew who was there, and we didn’t strike, each time for a different reason—high collateral damage,” said the officer, who also claimed the building had been targeted numerous times by the Southern Command and never received approval for an airstrike.

This is a developing story.