Liberation newspaper said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the heavy losses among civilians in Gaza by recalling the so-called "Carthage Operation" carried out by the Allies during World War II, which was a "tragic" mistake in which dozens of children were killed.

By comparing the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Nazis on the one hand, and Israel and its allies on the other, Netanyahu told the story of a mistaken strike that occurred during World War II.

Netanyahu said, “The British Air Force was scheduled to bomb the Gestapo (German intelligence) headquarters in Copenhagen in 1944, and it was a completely legitimate target, but the British pilots missed the target, and instead of the Gestapo headquarters, they opened fire on a children’s hospital.”

Netanyahu added, "I believe that 84 children were burned to death. It is not a war crime, and Britain is not to blame for it. It was a legitimate act of war, but it had tragic consequences. He did not tell the allies at the time, 'Do not stop your war against the Nazis,' because of these tragic consequences."

He continued, "They came all this way because they knew that the future of our civilization was at stake... Well, I'm telling you now the future of our civilization is at stake. We must win this war, and we will do that by reducing human casualties among civilians."

The tragic event

The newspaper corrected this well-known and documented historical fact, explaining that the “Carthage Operation” was carried out on March 21, 1945, not in 1944 as Netanyahu claimed, and its first target was the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, but an unexpected event occurred, which the Royal Air Force described as “ An unfortunate accident,” which the Danish press described as a “catastrophic mistake,” which led to the burning of a French Catholic school, not a “children’s hospital,” as Netanyahu also claimed.

The event - as the newspaper says - is that a warplane was flying at a very low altitude. It hit a building, according to the Royal Air Force, or an electricity pole, according to other accounts. It lost its ability to fly, and crashed after colliding with the French school, "Jeanne d'Arc." Then other planes rose from the waves. Subsequent combat, led by smoke emanating from the burned school, led to targeting and bombing it, and the result was the death of 120 civilians, including 86 children.

According to the newspaper, Netanyahu adopted a true historical story in which a technical error led to very serious “collateral damage,” justifying the killing of civilians in Gaza by saying that Hamas was using them as “human shields.”

He said, "No civilian should die. Hamas only has to allow them to enter the safe zone that we created in the southeast of the Gaza Strip. But Hamas prevents them from going there, and keeps them in conflict areas. So I think your question should be posed to Hamas." .

In conclusion, the newspaper pointed out that this is not the first time that Netanyahu has referred to this story. He spoke about it when he was Israel’s representative to the United Nations on the American program “Firing Line,” trying to prove that the mistake of the Carthage operation is not “terrorism.” ", as mentioned in a book published in 1997 entitled "Combat Terrorism."