WATCH: ‘IDF soldiers are happy to kill kids,’ BBC interviewer tells ex-PM

BBC journalist accuses IDF of intentionally murdering children, referring to 17-year-old terrorists engaging in gun battles with Israeli troops.

By World Israel News Staff

A BBC journalist accused the IDF of intentionally killing children during Operation Home and Garden in Jenin, triggering a strong response from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

“The Israeli military are calling this a ‘military operation,’ but we know that young people are being killed, four of them under 18,” Anjana Gadgil told Bennett. “Is that really what the military set out to do, to kill people between the ages of 16 and 18?”

Gadgil did not acknowledge that the teenagers were affiliated with terror groups and engaged in armed clashes with Israeli soldiers when they were killed.

Bennett corrected Gadgil and clarified that the slain young men were terrorists and that they “held responsibility” for choosing to arm themselves and fire at IDF troops.

But Gadgil doubled down on the narrative that the Israeli army specifically aims to murder kids, and failing to differentiate between adolescents firing at troops and small, elementary-school age children.

“Terrorists, but children. The Israeli forces are happy to kill children,” Gadgil repeated, then looked at Bennett expectantly, without asking a question.

Bennett appeared to be taken aback by her comment, saying it was “quite remarkable that you’d say that, because they’re killing us.

“If there’s a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist that’s firing at your family, Anjana, what is he?”

Gadgil countered that adolescent armed terrorists were defined as “children” by the United Nations, but failed to acknowledge that such a definition would make the Palestinians guilty of war crimes for utilizing child soldiers.

Bennett challenged Gadgil, asking her if she would think of a 17-year-old “trying to murder your family’ as a child.

An exasperated Gadgil snapped, “We’re not talking about that.”

When asked what success would look like for the Jenin operation, Bennett said there were a “number of parameters” which would indicate whether objectives had been achieved.