Very true and nicely written sinkov.

BT: There are 'taps' in pubs in Bolton if I remember -right. There are taps in Gaza too. But different than yours there.

The building watchman spoke on his mobile intently, pacing up and down a quiet street in Gaza. In video footage caught by an onlooker, Jamal Nasman showed no panic. Yet what he was hearing was deadly serious. He later told Reuters an Israeli officer had been giving him advance warning that the 13-storey block he looked after would be the target of an air strike. Israel said Hamas militants used the building.
"How much time do you want?" Nasman stops to listen. "Two or three hours? You said two or three hours and then no one should be there?" Pause. "So I'll go to the block and say no one should come?" "Ok, got it. The drone will hit it once and then two more times." Pause. "Then you'll strike the block." The 67-year-old father of eight stops again. "Yes, right, no problem, just a moment ... everyone has exited the building, even those from the buildings around are standing on the road - there is no one."


First, small missiles 'tap or strike the block in Gaza City's Rimal district, then boom, the building crumpled, footage showed. Hours after it was destroyed, Israel confirmed it had given a prior warning for civilians to leave.

This is not what always happens when Israel strikes what it deems a military target.

It says it makes every effort to preserve civilian life and accuses Hamas - the group that rules Gaza and which it deems a terrorist organisation - of using civilian areas to mount operations, such as planning attacks or firing rockets at Israeli towns and cities.

Yet the mobile exchange that preceded the strike on the Rimal block has become a more common feature of conflict since the 2014 escalation in Gaza: Israel's army makes a call, tells residents to evacuate, tap-tap-tap go the small missiles as a final warning - and then a big one brings the building down.
"We select warheads with the necessary lethality to hit those who need to be hit, and to reduce the impact on others," said an Israeli official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, saying careful intelligence preceded the strikes.

Operations by Hamas turn the buildings into legitimate targets.

Footage by residents using smartphones, or recorded by Israel's military or the media, including Reuters, have shown some blasts that are contained to a single apartment or bring down a tower block while buildings next door stay standing.