BBC anchor asks if Israeli forces warned Palestinians ahead of hostage rescue mission: Defeats 'the purpose'

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A former IDF spokesperson pushed back against a BBC anchor who asked if Israeli forces would have warned Gazans ahead of a secret raid to liberate a handful of hostages so they could seek safety.

"Would there have been a warning to those civilians [Gazans] for them to get out on time?" BBC anchor Helena Humphrey asked former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus during a recent interview.

"Of course, we can't anticipate Israel to be warning ahead of a raid to extract or to save hostages because then what the terrorists would do is to kill the hostages, and that would defeat the purpose," he replied.

FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES TAKEN IN ISRAEL ON OCT. 7 PLEAD FOR PEACE AT INTERFAITH CONFERENCE IN NYC

The exchange followed Humphrey's note on the massive sums of Gazan civilians who died amid conflict in the region. She asked Conricus if the IDF could have anticipated such a substantial number of casualties that have occurred in the months since the war began in October.

"I think the whole civilian issue here really needs to be analyzed impartially and understood," he said, pointing to his sources and Hamas statements to support his suggestion that Palestinian civilians played a role in the situation.

"… the Israeli hostages were held and jailed by Palestinian civilians in a Palestinian civilian area, and as regrettable as any loss of life is, I think that we would have