The scene of the attack. Photo: Screenshot.

Commanders at Britain’s Scotland Yard defended their slow response time to the terror attack in Woolwich, England earlier this week as a preventative measure to save police lives, citing tactics used by Palestinians against Israel.

“Questions were immediately asked about why you would commit such an offense and wait for police. These are the kind of tactics seen employed by Palestinians in Israel.

“Detonate a bomb, wait for the emergency services to arrive and then walk in with a suicide vest,” one police source told Britain’s Daily Mail.

According to the newspaper, commanders at Scotland Yard suspected the killers were waiting for officers to arrive so they could set off hidden explosives.

“‘The unarmed officers were effectively keeping a cordon. Both guys were wearing heavy coats and keeping a distance between us and them was a priority,” the source said.

“This is why we chose to send in firearms officers who did not arrive at the scene of the carnage for 14 minutes,” the source explained to the Mail.

“Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrnet said unarmed officers arrived at John Wilson Street within nine minutes of the first of hundreds of 999 calls to flood into their control room,” reported the paper.