Israel’s Gaza offensive will be ‘horrific’: UK minister

LONDON (Agencies): Israel’s expected ground, air and naval offensive on Gaza will be “horrific” and will involve “seeing some awful things,” the UK’s armed forces minister has said.

James Heappey’s comments come as Israel prepares a massive assault on the Palestinian enclave, warning residents in northern Gaza to move south, The Independent reported on Monday.

He claimed that the Israel Defense Forces are “doing everything they can” to avoid civilian casualties by telling populations to move, but the “use of human shields” by Hamas would make protecting civilians “incredibly difficult.”

Heappey said: “I have every confidence that Israel will be precise in its targeting and they’ll have good intelligence about where it needs to target.

“But nobody should pretend that this is going to be anything other than horrific. I’m afraid we’re going to see some awful things over the next few days.”

He said it is “entirely understandable” that Israel is aiming to “destroy” Hamas, “but it is going after an adversary that deliberately hides in amongst the civilian population … that hides its materiel in and amongst the civilian population.”