CNN's Jake Tapper confronted high-level Israeli adviser Mark Regev after a CNN producer, Ibrahim Dahman, lost his childhood home and nine family members to Israeli strikes in the war against Hamas — and was visibly aghast at Regev's response.
"I'm convinced every single civilian death, especially children, is a tragedy and we don't want to see it," said Regev. "In comparative numbers — if you compare Israel to perfection, of course we'll fall short.
"When you compare to other Western armies fighting terrorists, I think Israel will not come out badly. I think it will be seen that the IDF has done everything humanly possible to try to safeguard human civilians."
Tapper, however, swiftly pushed back. "It's very hard to believe that when one of our producers lost nine members of the family — not members of Hamas, not members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, not members of any group, nine people just trying to live their lives."
"First of all, I extend my sorrow to him and my sympathies," said Regev. However, he was swift to add, "That happened in Northern Gaza, in Gaza City, where a month ago we asked all the civilians to leave. Most of them did. There was like 1 million people there, There was only a couple, or ten thousand left ... we don't want to see anyone caught up in the crossfire. Why didn't they heed the advice and leave the area?"
Tapper visibly sighed with exasperation.
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"You can't blame them," he said. "There's fighting in the south now. I've been asking this since October 7th: where are these people supposed to go?"
"At the beginning it was easier because the fighting was concentrated in the north and we asked people to move south," said Regev.
"That was relatively simple. I'm not saying totally simple. Just go south of the river. Now we're being more specific because it is more complicated in the south, we've actually designated areas in the south which are safer areas, there's a number of them. We've shared the maps with the United States. It's been shared also with the U.N. and the other humanitarian organizations."
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Jake Tapper confronts Israeli official about CNN producer losing his family in Gaza www.youtube.com
