The military intelligence officer on duty at the Corps Unit 8200, identified only as Lieutenant A, on being asked to provide information in preparation for the aerial attack, refused to do so. He contacted the commander of the Unit, Brigadier General Y, and told him that the order he had received from General Staff headquarters and the Air Force was “problematic”. This was because he had been asked to identify a Fatah building and find out how many people were likely to be inside at the time of the forthcoming attack. He became suspicious, as intelligence would normally be asked to identify specific individuals whom the army wanted to target and discover their whereabouts.

According to Ma’ariv, Lieutenant A took this to mean that the Israeli military intended “to cause random casualties, and he balked at the order”, since innocent people would be hurt. The order was clearly illegal and he could not carry it out. But the Brigadier instructed him to carry out the order, despite his concerns.

Lieutenant A then sought out another officer, Lt Colonel K, who was commander of the district responsible for the base and informed him that he could not carry out of the order because it was illegal. When he received the information required for the bombardment, he did not transmit it. Without the information, the attack could not go ahead and ultimately it was abandoned. Only then did he pass on the information.