Pentagon Learned from Israel Defense Forces' Civilian Casualty Tactics in Gaza Conflict

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, has revealed that the Pentagon sent a team to Israel to see what lessons could be learned from the IDF's (Israel Defence Forces) Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip.

Dempsey said that Israel went to "extraordinary lengths" to limit civilian casualties in the 2014 Gaza conflict in which 2,192 Palestinians were killed with at least 1,523 of those civilians, according to UN figures.

He praised Israel's "knock on the roof" warning tactic, where a dummy missile is fired at a targeted building to give the occupants time to leave before a strike.

His comments were made during a speech at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York and comes just a day after Amnesty International released a report which condemned purported Israeli "war crimes" in the blockaded enclave.

The report said that its investigation into Israel's conduct in the conflict revealed "a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee."

However, Dempsey said that Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas were not held to the same standards as Israel in the conflict.

"I actually do think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties," Dempsey said.

"In this kind of conflict, where you are held to a standard that your enemy is not held to, you're going to be criticised for civilian casualties."

He added that the Israeli military "is not interested in creating civilian casualties. They're interested in stopping the shooting of rockets and missiles out of the Gaza Strip and into Israel."

The top US military chief said that the civilian deaths in Gaza were "tragic, but I think the IDF did what they could to avoid them."

In the seven-week Gaza conflict, over 2,100 Palestinians - mostly civilians - lost their lives. All but five of the 68 Israeli fatalities were soldiers.