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IDF Expands Criteria for Targeted Interception
(Jerusalem Post) Arieh O'Sullivan - The IDF will now target Palestinian gunmen engaged in terrorist training, military sources have confirmed, expanding the criteria usually met for staging a targeted interception and indicating improvements in field intelligence. The missile strike last week against a large group of Hamas members in a Gaza field was the first example of this change. A senior military source described the decision as one aimed at pre-empting Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers at all stages. National Security Adviser Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland noted that the IDF had four criteria that had to be met to carry out a targeted interception: 1) that there was no way to arrest the person; 2) that the intelligence was completely reliable; 3) that the target was "important enough"; 4) that the operation could be conducted with the minimum probability of causing innocent casualties. "There have been dozens, if not hundreds of times that we had good operational opportunity to do something but did not because it did not meet all four conditions," Eiland said. He said Israel had no policy of targeted killing. That was a mistaken perception. The action was related to an increasing level of reliable intelligence, which was able to detect terrorist intentions earlier and earlier.