Israel Defense Forces live blogs Gaza offensive

Posted By Uri Friedman Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 3:30 PM Share

The Operation Pillar of Defense that Israel launched in the Gaza Strip today, which included the killing of Hamas military commander Ahmad Jabari, is big news, and could spell a dramatic escalation in the long-simmering violence between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants in Gaza. But as Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal points out on Twitter, there's another remarkable aspect of the offensive: the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been updating us on the military's actions in close-to-real-time. 

If you go to the IDF's website, you'll find a post with live, time-stamped updates on the operation, including this jaw-dropping YouTube video of the strike on Jabari: 

Or you could go to the IDF's Twitter feed, where you'll find updates like these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast Company is calling this "the first time a military campaign goes public via tweet." That's not entirely true -- in November 2011, for example, the Kenyan military took to Twitter to warn Somali civilians about an impending offensive against al-Shabab (al-Shabab tweeted -- more like taunted -- back).

Still, the IDF's approach to getting the word out about Operation Pillar of Defense does represent a milestone in military communications -- one we should reflect on. What does it mean for us as a society when we can follow a targeted killing in real time, and watch a video of it on YouTube hours later?

Update: The military wing of Hamas appears to be tweeting back at the IDF. Here's the reaction to the Israeli military's warning for Hamas operatives to keep their heads down:

 

 

 

 

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