In the 1982 Lebanon war I served as an Israeli artillery forward observer, my task to pinpoint the PLO’s positions and call in fire from our artillery units. We stayed in the evacuated Al Jamous School, overlooking Beirut. The routine was simple enough: I would pop into the classroom next door from where I would collect the co-ordinates and description of my military targets: “a military camp”, “a mortar”, “an antenna”. I would then return to my room and, looking out of the windows, I would direct our fire on the targets.

From time to time I would pause to let the air force get in to drop its munitions; and the navy would fire from the sea. Beirut, in the summer of 1982, was all burning up – a city on fire.

There was a purpose to this massive bombardment: to hit Yasser Arafat’s guerrilla force and its weapons – and also put pressure on the Lebanese, particularly those living inside Beirut with no water, food and electricity, so they demanded Arafat get out of Beirut which would then stop our assault.

In the end, a Lebanese military officer by the name of Jonny Abdu confronted Arafat who left Lebanon and moved to Tunisa.

Looking back now, I’m appalled by our brutal bombing of Beirut. Was it justified to turn this beautiful city into a Middle Eastern Dresden and kill hundreds of innocent civilians in the process?

Now to Gaza where, like in 1982 Beirut, the Israeli army is using overwhelming military power to locate and destroy Hamas’s tunnels, to stop them firing rockets into Israel – and also to put pressure on the Gazans (as we had pressured the Beirutis) so they turn their backs on Hamas as a political force.

In the process, just as in Lebanon, hundreds of innocent Palestinians have been killed and parts of Gaza, as some sections of 1982 Beirut, have been turned into wastelands. Even worse, UN schools in Gaza which are shelters to more than 250,000 refugees, and their hospitals have also been hit by Israeli artillery and bombs.

Wayward artillery

Can anything be done so that in the next round between Israel and Hamas, which is inevitable, there would be fewer innocent civilian casualties?

The answer to this question is yes. It is indeed possible to reduce the number of casualties on the Palestinian side, but this would require a modification of the Israeli army’s rules of engagement, namely the way it operates, particularly when in close proximity to schools, hospitals and other shelters.

In pictures: The children of Gaza Show all 30 1 /30 In pictures: The children of Gaza In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children playing at one of the Canaan Institutes outreach programs in Retal Kindergarten. This was their first day back since the war began In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children playing on the swings at one of the Canaan Institutes outreach programs in Retal Kindergarten In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Animators dress up in bear costumes and entertain the children at one of the Canaan Institutes outreach programs in Retal Kindergarten In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Issa Saaba, the director and founder of the Canaan Institute, Gaza City In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza A family digs through the rubble of their home in search for the bodies of relatives still buried inside. Beit Hanoun saw some of the heaviest fighting of the 51 day war with much of the neighborhood totally destroyed In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza This family from Sujayea had been digging for 4 days in the blistering heat attempting to recover some of their brothers recent wedding presents from inside their destroyed home. The densely populated district of Sujayea near the border with Israel was the scene of much of the worst fighting In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza This family from Sujayea had been digging for 4 days in the blistering heat attempting to recover some of their brothers recent wedding presents from inside their destroyed home. The densely populated district of Sujayea near the border with Israel was the scene of much of the worst fighting In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza The first day back to school and the streets of Gaza City are filled with children in the morning. The first 2 weeks were dedicated solely to psycho social support In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children sneaking a look at the performance taking place at one of the UNRWA schools in Gaza City on the first day back at school. The first 2 weeks were dedicated solely to psycho social support In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza The performance taking place at one of the UNRWA schools in Gaza City on the first day back at school. The first 2 weeks were dedicated solely to psycho social support In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza The birthday party of Umer at the Never Stop Dreaming Center, Gaza City. This event was funded by HOPE AND PLAY from a donation by Umer's parents who live in the UK In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children enjoying the last light on the beach, Gaza City. During the war no one dared venture onto the beach for fear of being targeted In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza On the weekends hundreds of people gather at the port as night falls to socialize, relax and swim In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza A young man kicks rocks past destroyed homes in Shujayea, one of the worst hit areas in Gaza City where unexploded ordnances are still an ever present threat In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza One of the children from the outreach program in at youth centre in northern Gaza close to the border with Israel In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza The home of young boy from Beit Hanoun was badly damaged by a drone attack. His family offered us what little food they had as ate with them on the street, shaded by what remained of their home In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Animators lead the children through one of their games in an outreach program at youth centre in northern Gaza close to the border with Israel In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Some children from a bedouin area in Eastern Gaza perform some of their dance routines for the rest of the class In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children from the Camp Breakerz dance crew show off their moves as Sharky looks on. Sharky started camp breakerz in 2012 and now it has dozens of children attending on a regular basis. Its a chance for them to let off a bit of steam as there are minimal extracurricular activities for children growing up in Gaza today In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Dr’s from the Gaza Community Mental Health Program meet with a traumatised family in Gaza City who lost their father In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Salma, who was traumatised, receives treatment at her home from the Gaza Community Mental Health Program in Gaza City. She had lost her 18 of her fmaily members when their family home was bombed In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children playing at the Nawa for Culture and Arts Association, Gaza City. The center was started in 2013 by Reem Abu Jabr and now helps dozens of children with various activities such as arts and crafts and dancing In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Teachers sing with the young children at Childrens Land kindergarden in the bedouin village of Um al Nasser. This kindergarden, after taking on the children from another kindergarden, is now over crowded. The 'Land of the Children' kindegarten was bombed and then bulldozed by the IDF during the most recent offensive. Over 26 schools in Gaza were destroyed during the 51 day war and 232 were damaged In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Zaher Hania one of the Canaan Institutes Animators captivates the children during an early evening in Zana, an area in the North of Gaza that was badly destroyed In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza People from Zana in the North of Gaza point at where their playground was destroyed In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Prayer continues in this Mosque in Zana despite its terrible damage In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children from a Judo School in Gaza City perform some of what they've learnt in the graduation ceremony In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music practice their music. Many kids find music a way to escape the suffering and pain of the war In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music practice their music. Many kids find music a way to escape the suffering and pain of the war In pictures: The children of Gaza Gaza Children playing along the Corniche in Gaza city. On the weekends people from all over Gaza City come to the corniche to relax, socialize and enjoy the cooler part of the day at the beach. During the war no one dared venture onto the beach for fear of being targeted

For example, as an artillery officer I know that even now – with advanced technologies – artillery fire is unreliable. As an artillery forward observer, I always looked up to the sky, praying my shells hit the targets and not land on my head. Artillery shells have a strange habit of going astray.

In 1996, in southern Lebanon, wayward Israeli artillery shells landed on a UN compound near the village of Qana, killing 106 innocent people. In the current Gaza war many of the innocent casualties were victims of artillery shells landing in the wrong place. What’s needed here is to ensure that heavy artillery is not used in Gaza’s urban areas – particularly not near schools and hospitals.

As for Israeli attacks from the air, at the moment, Israeli pilots, or those who dispatch them, can choose from a range of bombs weighing from 250-1,000kg. They often opt for the latter, as they are big enough to destroy the target completely – and the pilots are confident they can hit the target accurately, as they often do.

The problem is that the collateral damage of such big bombs is catastrophic in densely populated Gaza; it destroys not only the intended targets but also causes massive damage to nearby structures and kills non-combatants. Such big bombs must be banned altogether from being used in the vicinity of shelters, schools and hospitals.

Hannibal Protocol

Finally, certain practices employed by the Israeli army should not be allowed to be used, most notably the “Hannibal Protocol”, which is the IDF’s procedure for preventing soldiers from falling into enemy hands.

The Hannibal Protocol is yet another product of Israel’s Lebanon wars: a procedure to be used in the first minutes and hours after a possible abduction of an Israeli soldier. It calls on the military to dramatically escalate attacks in the vicinity of any kidnapping – to strike at bridges, roads, houses, cars – everything, in fact, to prevent the captors from disappearing with the abducted soldier.

When the IDF thought – wrongly as it turned out - that one of its officers had been abducted by Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip, the Hannibal protocol was activated to a most devastating effect. The army used everything at its disposal – tanks, artillery, aeroplanes, drones – and pounded vast areas in Rafah, causing enormous damage, killing and wounding scores of innocent Palestinians.

The brutal Hannibal procedure seems to me to break all rules of war. It should be thrown out of the window and never used again in Gaza.

What will ultimately stop the death of innocent Palestinians and Israelis is a peace deal putting an end to the conflict. But in the meantime, a modification of the Israeli rules of engagement could reduce the number of innocent casualties.

In 2010, following Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip which resulted in hundreds of Palestinian casualties, the IDF produced a document calling on military commanders, operating in densely populated areas, to “exercise judgement and use more accurate weapons, or lower-impact weapons”.

It seems, judging from the sheer number of Palestinian casualties in the current Gaza war, that the Israelis are not following their own rules – or the rules were produced at the time as a PR exercise to silence international criticism.

There’s no reason to think the Israelis couldn’t change their rules, though. We have international conventions banning, for instance, the use of chemical weapons in war, so it is possible, I believe, to also prohibit the use of heavy artillery, big bombs and cruel procedures in densely populated areas such as the Gaza Strip. After all, it is also in Israel’s interest, as the horrific pictures coming out of the Gaza Strip ruin the country’s already tarnished reputation.