The Israel Defense Forces says documents seized in Gaza show that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were fully aware that their own rockets were falling short inside Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians — and deliberately chose to continue launching them.
According to the IDF, internal communications among Islamic Jihad leaders acknowledged repeated rocket failures that caused deadly explosions in densely populated areas of Gaza. Despite this, senior figures ordered continued fire toward Israel. One high-ranking operative was quoted in the documents as saying:
> “Even if a thousand are killed by friendly fire, it’s the price of war.”
Israeli officials say the materials directly contradict claims that civilian deaths in Gaza are solely the result of Israeli military action, and instead expose a pattern of reckless and deliberate endangerment of Gaza’s own population by terrorist organizations operating from within civilian areas.