Human shields
United States Policy Toward Lebanon-relief and Rehabilitation ...United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs - 1983
THE PLO THREAT
Israel has found in Lebanon enough PLO weapons to equip a massive army and to supply untold numbers of terrorist cadres...
Arafat boasts of PLO terrorists serving in El Salvador, Angola and ...
In two ways however, the PLO was different from conventional armies. First, the PLO consciously attacked only civilians and, secondly, the PLO used civilians as human shields to protect itself. Anyone who has been to the small country of Israel knows that there are many military targets to be easily found. ..
Yet, the PLO could only find those “military" targets disguised as kibbutz nurseries, school buses, marketplaces or passenger airplanes.
And the second factor that differentiates the PLO terrorist army from conventional armies is its hiding in the midst of civilian centers.
Israeli troops uncovered PLO arsenals, emplacements and bases in schools, mosques, and apartment basements. According to Newsweek, June 14, Israeli soldiers in one engagement, were attacked by PLO fighters disguised as hospital patients.
https://books.google.com/books?id=SvudKjsiDxAC&pg=PA131
Current World Leaders - Page 676 - 1982
PLO Subversion of Lebanon
The terrorists sought and found new bases in Lebanon. ...
The Deliberate Use of Civilians as Shields Since the beginning of its operations against Israel, the PLO has cynically used heavily populated areas — such as refugee camps or inhabited areas in Beirut and other towns in Lebanom — as bases of operation.
Aware of Israeli reluctance to harm civilians, it has thus often used the latter as human shields.
And indeed, Israel acted with restraint. It elected not to attack targets in the midst of the refugee camps or the towns, but on their peripheries, in order to innocent human lives and ... However, Israel has no choice but to act in self-defense as long as acts of terrorism continue against its people ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=LWNmAAAAMAAJ&dq=human+shields
Viewpoint. Inside Lebanon: A minister's View. Sumter Daily Item - Jan 29, 1983
... The PLO came to Lebanon 12 years ago, after it was evicted from Jordan by King Hussein, that "Black September" in 1970, Hussein's troops killed 10,000 PLO fighters in the expulsion from Jordan of these terrorists which were an increasing threat to the stability of his government. Eight years ago, in 1974, war broke out in Lebanon, as the PLO attempted to wrest this ancient country from its own people. From 1974 to 1982, over 100,000 people were killed in Lebanon by the PLO, half a million were injured, and one million were left homeless, without any significant world objection. The PLO siege of Lebanon, which has been incorrectly portrayed as a civil war, was in fact a reign of terror, during which anyone who refused to cooperate with the PLO was forcibly evicted from his home, watched his wife and daughters raped and mutilated, was tortured and killed, or perhaps just quietly disappeared. The Lebanese people — both Moslem and Christian — were prisoners within their own country.
In additions to the systematic terrorization of Lebanon, the PLO over the past eight years has repeatedly shelled the northern area of Israel, crossed the Israeli border in attacks on civilian people, and from Beirut directed attacks on Israeli diplomats and offices throughout the world, the most recent being the attempted assassination of Israel's ambassador to England, Shlome Argov. The people of Lebanon were fed up with the situation, and some of the several Lebanese factions, mainly Christian, appealed to Israel for assistance, Israel, equally fed up with the constant endangerment of the population of the Galilee, concurred, and in early July of this year the Israeli Army entered South Lebanon.
... We saw the PLO headquarters in Sidon, built near the town square, but underground, beneath a large and popular amusement park (complete with ferris wheel and roller coaster), "hiding beneath the skirts of women." We saw the Moslem hospital which the PLO used as an armament depot, marking their crates of live ammunition with the symbol of the Palestine Red Crescent (the local version of the Red Cross, and whose chairman is the brother of Yassar Arafat; most of the tragically inflated statistics on civilian casualties in Lebanon were provided by the Palestine Red Crescent issued without confirmation by the International Red Cross, which has since discovered how it was manipulated and has issued a formal retraction of the civilian casualty statistics'''). We talked with young men and old men in the streets of Sidon, candidly and happily. They told us how glad they are to have the Israeli army come in, how their freedom has been restored after eight years. "They called the Israeli army "the army of liberation." Nowhere could we find a dissenting opinion.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7YgiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v6oFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4952,3652451&hl=en
The Media's War Against Israel: The Full Exposé No One Dared Publish - Stephen Karetzky, Peter E. Goldman - Steimatzky/Shapolsky, 1986 - Arab-Israeli conflict - 423 pages - p. 266
By training their cameras on the stark rubble and bloody civilian casualties, the television reporters transformed the reality of Israel's most ... and the agony and casualties such attacks cause, and by rarely explaining how the PLO used civilians as shields, the knights of the Electronic Cyclops failed to give viewers a balanced picture of the fighting...
responsibility for the carnage, or about the PLO's right to use the Lebanese capital's civilianpopulation as hostages to his political maneuverings.
https://books.google.com/books?id=9rZKAAAAYAAJ&q=human+shields+civilian+population+plo
https://books.google.com/books?id=9rZKAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=As+hostages+
World Refugee Survey - Page 112 - 1994
... these organizations had "encamped themselves within civilian population centers in southern Lebanon, using the civilians as human shields and enabling them to launch Katyusha rockets and other weapons against Israeli soldiers and civilians with impunity. Faced with this deliberate provocation and escalation, Israel was forced to respond."
https://books.google.com/books?id=auxHAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Encamped
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Understanding the Volatile and Dangerous Middle East - A Comprehensive Analysis
By Steven Carol (iUniverse) 2019
The PLO pioneered the tactic of operating in civilian surroundings during the Israel–PLO War in Lebanon in 1982. Testimony of this exploitation of innocent civilians came from the Lebanese who in effect were the hostages, "Palestinian fighters took their guns placed them next to our [Lebanese civilian] homes, next to apartment blocks and hospitals and schools. At their own Ayn Hilweh camp the Palestinians actually put their guns on the roof of the hospitals."
https://books.google.com/books?id=trqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT145
The Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip used UN ambulances to evacuate armed terrorists from clashes with Israeli forces...
In a much-noted case, on May 24, 2004, a video tape filmed by Reuters, broadcast on numerous television networks worldwide, showed two ambulances arriving at the site where an exchange of fire took place between the IDF and terrorist operatives during an IDF action in the Gaza Strip. One of the ambulances was clearly marked with a Red Crescent and “UN,” and flying a UN flag. ...
During the 2008–09 First Gaza War, Hamas used human shields again...
https://books.google.com/books?id=trqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT146
A Gaza ambulance drive who described how Hamas operatives tried to force him to use his ambulance to....
https://books.google.com/books?id=trqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT147
During the Israeli retaliation for the incessant rocket fire— Operation Cast Lead— Hamas operatives made several attempts to commandeer the Al-Quds Hospital's (located in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City) fleet of ambulances to move terrorists, thus copying their tactics from 2004.
https://books.google.com/books?id=trqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT148
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Palestinians Use Children as Cannon Fodder
USA Today (December 8, 2000)
Tulkarm, West Bank - In a rare letter of protest sent in early December to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian women's group demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop using children as cannon fodder.
"Our children are being sent into the streets to face heavily armed Israeli soldiers," said the letter from the Tulkarm Women's Union - a local branch of the Palestinian Women's Union, a trade-union group that promotes the status of women in the Palestinian Authority.
"The Palestinian Authority must put an end to this phenomenon. We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death."
The letter adds weight to complaints from parents who are beginning to speak out despite what they say has been months of intimidation by armed gunmen loyal to Arafat.
'We don't want to send our sons to the front line, but they are being taken by the Palestinian Authority," says Aisheh, 43, a mother of six in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. She says she decided to speak out after her 17-year-old son was hit in the head by a rubber bullet. He suffered a concussion.
Like other protesting parents, Aisheh declines to allow her full name to be published for fear of reprisals. A nurse from Gaza who spoke out on Palestinian TV against sending children to the flash points was condemned in the Palestinian media as a traitor. Other individuals who refuse to allow their names to be published say they have been threatened by armed Fatah officials for discouraging their children from participating in the clashes.
Israel has faced international criticism for the deaths of at least 38 youths under the age of 17 in the first two months of conflict in which nearly 300 people have died. Nearly 1,000 children have been injured. The Palestinians consider anyone under the age of 17 a child. But children just entering their teens-and some even younger-have been injured in the region's worst violence in nearly a decade.
Bassam Abu Sharif, a special adviser to Arafat, has accused Israeli troops of "cold-blooded killing." He denies Israeli accusations that the Palestinian Authority has placed children at the front of demonstrations to act as human shields for armed gunmen.
"We don't send children-nobody can send children-and we don't hide behind children," Abu Sharif says.
But Aisheh says the militia of Arafat's Fatah movement and the Palestinian security forces provide transportation and encouragement to children eager to answer the call to combat Israel's continued presence on Arab land. "When school finishes, Palestinian Authority security cars go around collecting children from the streets and sending them to the killing fields," she says. "This is very serious because they are children and they are unarmed."
Israeli army chiefs point out that not all the children killed in the recent clashes have been innocent bystanders. They say their snipers have orders to shoot anyone shooting or throwing Molotov cocktails at them, but some of the attackers have been as young as 12.
Palestinian Authority TV broadcasts constant images of children carrying weapons and staging mock attacks on Israelis. Over the summer, children as young as 12 were trained in the use of Kalshnikov rifles and other weapons at special camps by Fatah officials.
"As the number of those killed rises, the Palestinian media extol and exalt not only those killed, but also their willingness to die as martyrs for Allah, emphasizing that dying a martyr's death was the realization of their hopes," says Itamar Marcus, director of the Palestinian Media Watch monitoring group.
Palestinian Authority TV and newspapers also have come under fire, accused of encouraging children to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at armed Israeli troops.
Aisheh's husband, Abdelghani, says intimidation has kept parents from speaking out. "No one here dares to say publicly that he is against sending his own children to the front line," he says. "Some parents who have tried to protest have been condemned as fifth columnists (traitors) and threatened."
Thumbs Up to Matthew Kalman | CAMERA
December 8, 2000
THUMBS UP to USA Today Jerusalem correspondent Matthew Kalman for his trenchant coverage of otherwise unreported stories concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. On Dec. 8, 2000, for example, in an article entitled “Let our kids alone, Arafat told,” he reported that a group of Palestinian women, the Tulkarm Women’s Union, sent a letter to Yasser Arafat demanding that the Palestinian Authority stop using children in the clashes against Israel.
https://www.camera.org/article/thumbs-up-to-matthew-kalman/
Arafat's Strategy of Hate
By Robert Isler Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2001
... However, their protests were muffled when USA Today reported on December 8 that Palestinian women from Tulkarm were outraged that their children were being picked up after school and brought into battle zones, and had written a protest letter to Arafat demanding that the Palestinian Authority "stop using our children as cannon fodder."
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,103236,00.html
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Israel To U.N.
"Keep Palestinians From Using
Kids As Shields"
By Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post
November 8, 2000
United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson is to begin a week-long visit to the area today, with Foreign Ministry officials saying they will present a strong case to her about the Palestinian's "cynical" use of children as human shields in the recent riots.
Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker said the use of children in the violence constitutes no less than a "war crime," and cites various international conventions to back up his position. Various international treaties, Baker says, set the age of 15 as minimum age for a child to participate in hostilities, whether directly - through combat - or through other means.
According to Baker, the Palestinians are well aware of the IDF's firing procedures: tear gas and water hoses against rock throwers, rubber bullets against firebomb throwers, and live fire against gunmen.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak explained that the Palestinians are placing the stonethrowers in the front lines, followed by the fire-bomb hurlers and then the snipers. In some cases, he said, some of the Palestinian youths killed during the clashes have actually been shot from behind.
The use of children as combatants was spelled out last week in a letter Israeli Ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry wrote to the executive director of UNICEF, asking the children's rights advocate to pressure the Palestinians to keep their children out of areas of potential conflict.
"Chairman Yasser Arafat, who is ruthlessly encouraging the involvement of children in the violence, calls them 'the Generals of the rocks.' He would have the world believe that Israel, with its guns and helicopters, is waging a war against 10-year-olds with small stones," Lancry wrote. "In truth, however, the children... are used as human shields for the gunmen, bomb throwers, and lynch mobs whose faces have been totally obscured and invisible to the media."
The message seems to be getting through, at least at a declarative level.
Yesterday, PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said, "There has been an overwhelming agreement among Palestinian factions to carry out a public-awareness campaign to prevent those children under 16 years old from taking part in these demonstrations." According to Abed Rabbo, the children are not knowingly being used as cannon fodder, but rather take part in the protests as a genuine expression of pain and grievance.
The problem, Baker says, is that children at that age are incapable of making the kind of logical decisions regarding whether to place themselves in life-threatening situations, and are in need of parental guidance and authority to protect them.
Regarding Robinson's visit, Mordechai Yedid, deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry's UN and International Organizations division, said Israel will receive her as the head of the UN's Commission on Human Rights, but not as part of a human rights inquiry commission the body set up last month after adopting a one-sided resolution condemning Israel for "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel, said Yedid, has informed Robinson that it will not cooperate with the body, or in any way assist it in implementing the resolution.
During her two-day visit, Robinson will meet with Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, and Supreme Court President Aharon Barak. A meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Barak is still in the works.
She is scheduled to go to the Palestinian Authority on Friday, where she is slated to meet Arafat and will surely be flooded with numerous allegations of Israeli human rights violations.
Robinson is a former president of Ireland and is seen as a possible candidate in the race to succeed Kofi Annan when his term as UN secretary-general expires in two years.
http://www.geocities.ws/arabracismandislamicjihad/HumanShieldsTactics.html
Jerusalem Letter /
No. 441 - 3 Heshvan 5761 / 1 November 2000
THE USE OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
IN THE AL-AQSA INTIFADA
Justus Reid Weiner
Executive Summary / Creating Martyrs for the Media / "Improved" Palestinian Tactics / Incitement by Arafat and his Palestinian Authority / Negating the Raison D'etre of the Peace Process / The Parents' Motivations / Identifying Child Abuse and Possessing the Courage to Speak Out / Israeli Restraint: The IDF Rules of Engagement / International Law: Efforts to Protect Children from the Dangers of Armed Conflict / Conclusion and Outlook.
https://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp441.htm
Doctors: Palestinian intifada abusing children
BY Tom Tugend
DECEMBER 10, 2000 10:00 AM
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10 (JTA) — A group of U.S. pediatricians has condemned the use of children in battles in the Middle East, Asia and Africa as a particularly virulent form of child abuse.
The impetus for their protest came from the use of Palestinian children in the front lines against Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
More than 200 pediatricians formed DOCS — Doctors Opposed to Child Sacrifice — to combat the abuse of children at the hands of parents, clergy and governments.
“Day in and day out, Palestinian families feed their children healthy breakfasts and see them off into battles on the streets of the Palestinian-controlled areas to clash with Israelis soldiers at the edges of their communities,” said Dr. Pejman Salimpour, clinical chief of pediatrics at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“These children are being used as forced foot soldiers in a war directed by their elders,” he added.
“They are often placed as human shields for gunmen, who shoot over their heads at Israeli positions. Dozens and dozens of young children have been killed, their innocence and souls snuffed out, all as a result of parents and community members who abuse them by encouraging and allowing their involvement in the violence.”
Dr. Neal Kaufman of Cedars-Sinai said: “We’re talking mainly about children 8 to 11 years old. As pediatricians, who are devoting their lives to the health and well-being of children, we are morally bound to raise our voices against this vicious form of child abuse. To remain silent would be worse than standing aside while parents sold their children into slavery or prostitution.”
Dr. Ofelia Marin, a pediatric gastroenterologist in private practice, said that her concern “cuts across religious and national lines. As a Catholic, a physician and a human being, I feel strongly that children should be protected, not used. Sending children into battle is the worst form of child abuse.”
DOCS is focusing on the proliferation of child “martyrs” among Palestinians, but Salimpour said countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia and Afghanistan are guilty of similar practices.
At the same time, DOCS’ founding statement urges all governments “to exercise maximum restraint when confronting non-peaceful demonstrations that include children.”
The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a “child” as anyone under 15 years of age.
Amnesty International estimates that more than 300,000 soldiers who are younger than 16 are currently fighting in conflicts in more than 30 countries.
https://www.jta.org/2000/12/10/lifestyle/doctors-palestinian-intifada-abusing-children
http://www.zipple.com/newsandpolitics/usnews/20001211_palestinian_children.shtml
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PLO Uses Churches as "Human Shield" Propaganda
Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator
October 27, 2001
It was not surprising to hear Jennifer Ludden of NPR (National Public Radio) or read Hugh Dellios in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE play the "Christian" card. By that I mean that they played today's story from Yassir Arafat's propagandist point of view. That includes Arafat's push for international intervention to save his regime.
Arafat, whose Palestinians have completely reversed the population dominance of Arab Christians who were the majority in the city of Bethlehem into an Arab Muslim majority. It appears that their tactics are being further enabled and guided by the U.S. State Department to get its pool of U.S. journalists, TV anchors and radio commentators to push the idea that Israel is attacking Christian holy places. This is a direct extension of State Department policy to protect a virtually non-existent coalition of Arab nations as America commits to fighting Global Terrorism.
The heavily armed Palestinian gunmen are, as usual, shooting at Israelis from sensitive holy sites, including churches, in order to provoke an aggressive Israeli response so the Arab Muslims may claim international attention. The slugs of journalism are, as usual, going along with the propaganda line of Arafat.
Dellios, quotes a [Greek] Orthodox Christian who says: "We feel the Israelis do not sense the difference between a holy place and a vacant lot." Dellios does not mention the construction by Muslims of a toilet in the space adjoining the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as their comment on Christianity and holy places. Nor does he note that the Palestinian shooters are using these holy places as their virtual "human shield".
I have just finished the U.S. State Department's Chicago journal alias the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and am turning to the equally anti-Israel NEW YORK TIMES. Well, well! Front page column, describing how Israel has blockaded eight Palestinian towns. Do they mention why? Do they say that the Israelis are in "hot pursuit" of the assassins who killed an Israeli Knesset and Cabinet member - just like America is in hot pursuit of Osama bin Laden?
It is no surprise that a delegation of Congressman asked the Bush Adminstration why the double standard when we Americans have targeted Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda Terror organization.
The death of a 16 year old boy caught the attention of Pope Paul. You remember, this Pope hugged the arch killer Yassir Arafat. Later he cut a deal with Arafat wherein IF the Holy See recognized Arafat's various specious claims on Jerusalem, Arafat would provide the Church with safe passage for all its shrines on the Mount of Olives when it passed into his hands.
As we continue into the body copy of the NYT we see mourners leaving the Church of the Nativity with a prominent photo of a man carrying a coffin with a large cross in its lid. In the background we see gun-toting Arabs. Hey, NEW YORK TIMES, how come you didn't blank out their automatic rifles?
So, the NEW YORK TIMES, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NPR and, presumably, all the other news outlets connected by their umbilical cords to the U.S. State Department's propaganda machine will be pushing the same line: "Jews attacking Christian holy places". Interesting what political thugs can do when they rise to high places in the State Department or Presidential Administration.
Just yesterday (Sunday, October 21st) I watched Wolf Blitzer in Late Edition on CNN brush aside the statement of a famous guest, Arnaud de Bourgrave who, in the course of the interview, he mentioned that Iran had put out the story that, it wasn't the Muslims who hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon but, it was those sneaky Israelis through the Mossad. This is now being preached in all the mosques of Islam as true and is accepted by Muslims.
Strangely, our aberrant journalists, so anxious to spin this as some sort of Jew vs. Christian conflict, have so carefully avoided the constant Muslim harassment of Christians wherever Muslims were dominant. Journalistic slugs do leave behind a slimy trail which is hard to erase.
So, at the moment, our politically dovish General cum Secretary of State, Colin Powell is pushing, shoving and threatening Israel to stand down their daily defensive war against terror. Somehow, the daily drive-by shootings, car bombs, mortar and sniper attacks have become Ho-Hum for the Media. Only when one Palestinian teenager is killed is the Media interested. They have conveniently forgotten that 658 Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists since the signing of Oslo September 13, 1993.
Clearly, should the State of Israel take a fall, the cutting-edge journalists who have spun the news against Israel should be personally held responsible for assisting in making the State vulnerable. I would assume that the Nuremberg Tribunal judgement would apply to those who colluded in the State's demise.
There is a massive public relations campaign carried forward through Colin Powell to appease the Muslim world by using threats against Israel that America is not at war with Islam or Muslims. By accommodating anti-Jewish, pro-Arab sentiment against Israel for having lost six wars, our American State Department hopes that the terrorist nations will pretend to join a paper-thin coalition. Bush and Powell shame this great nation by accommodating terrorist nations and selling out a loyal ally.
The Arab nations expect the Bush/Powell Administration to do to Israel what they could not accomplish in six wars.
I do not think our loyal Christian friends will be so easily tricked by Arafat's charges that the Jewish State has suddenly turned on her Christian citizens. Mr. Powell...Mr. Bush...Have you no shame?
http://web.archive.org/web/20011110074722/http://www.gamla.org.il/english/article/2001/oct/win3.htm
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When Attacking Israelis - Palestinians Use Children as "Human Shields"
2001
http://web.archive.org/web/20010305223114/http://www.israelpr.com/plochild.html
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Palestinians Again Use Children for Terror Against Israel
11-year-old Abdullah Quraan (center) smiling with his friends hours after being used as a "human bomb" by Palestinian terrorists. Photo: AP
By Israel News Agency Staff
Jerusalem----March 18......An attempt by Palestinian terrorists to smuggle a bomb through an Israeli security checkpoint with the help of a 11-year-old boy drew widespread attention on both sides of the conflict Tuesday.
But the similarity stopped there.
Israeli authorities said that the boy, sixth-grader Abdullah Quraan, was carrying explosives and that his handlers intended to blow him up near the checkpoint; the boy, and others, disputed this, claiming the bag he was carrying - swiftly blown up by army sappers - contained auto parts.
Beyond the factual dispute lay a psychological chasm: For Israelis, the case was the latest indication that their enemy is ruthless, even barbaric.
Palestinians said the involvement of children in the conflict - two 17-year-olds carried out a twin suicide bombing Sunday - is a result of Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. And they see Israelis' moralizing as deluded or hypocritical. When Israelis hear the word "occupation" they know that Palestinians are referring beyond Nablus, Rahmallah and Jenin and are speaking about Tel Aviv, Haifa and Afula. All official Palestinian maps and the map patch that Arafat wears on his left coat shoulder illustrates a map of Palestine which covers all of the State of Israel.
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi pointed out that hundreds of Palestinian children and teenagers have died in the fighting and that countless others have seen their parents impoverished, humiliated or even killed during the conflict.
"The question of whether Quraan's handlers really intended to blow him up without his knowledge makes absolutely no difference," Israeli commentator Amit Cohen wrote in the daily Ma'ariv. "The man who packed the bomb in a schoolbag must have taken into account the possibility that the child carrying the bomb was liable to get hurt."
Back in school Tuesday, Quraan said he had done nothing wrong. "These people [the Israeli army] are liars, I don't believe them, and if it was a bomb, they would not have let me go so easily," he said at his school.
He said he routinely carries people's belongings across the Hawara checkpoint near his home in the impoverished Balata refugee camp.
The practice is common at the checkpoints across the West Bank, where Palestinians sometimes wait long periods to cross and children are less likely to raise suspicion.
Quraan said he met two men at the checkpoint on Monday. He said he and a friend raced to their vehicle ahead of a crowd of other children to get the business.
"They gave us a small travel bag, a plastic bag, and a bottle of water," Quraan said. The men told him to deliver the goods - described as clothes and auto parts - to a woman on the other side of the checkpoint. He said the men agreed to pay him the equivalent of about $4 to carry the items on a cart.
Alert soldiers confiscated the bags at the checkpoint and cleared the area, Quraan said. A bomb squad came in and blew up the bags. The boy said he was interrogated for several hours and released.
Army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold said the troops had thwarted a major terror attack and that the boy's life was saved only because a booby-trapped cell phone inside a bag didn't explode. She accused the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a terrorist group affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, of exploiting the boy.
The Israeli human rights group B'tselem, normally highly critical of Israel, called the use of a child to transport explosives a "war crime."
A local leader of Al Aqsa, Hashem Abu Hamdan, denied any connection and suggested the story had been made up by Israel, an opinion expressed by many Palestinians Tuesday.
Abdallah Quran, the 11-year-old Palestinian boy said Tuesday he does not believe the IDF version that the bag he was carrying contained explosives.
"They are lying," he said. "I never saw a bomb. If the bag really contained a bomb, why did they release me?"
Quran's older brother, Muhammad, claimed that Israel staged the incident in an attempt to win the sympathy of international public opinion.
"We have been told many journalists were at the checkpoint before the alleged incident," he said. "This shows that the whole thing was fabricated by Israel in order to defame the Palestinians. They used my brother as a tool in their propaganda machine."
A teacher at Quran's school said the majority of the camp residents is convinced that Israel made up the story.
"If the boy really had an explosive belt, why did they release him so easily?" he asked. "The Israelis are trying to justify their daily crimes against our people and the killing of children."
Ja'far al-Masri, a taxi driver from Nablus who claims he was at the checkpoint when the boy was caught, said he finds it hard to believe that a Palestinian group would exploit a small boy to transfer a bomb.
"I was there and I can't believe that they found explosives in the boy's bag," he added. "I think the Israelis planted the bomb there. The Palestinian groups are much more responsible and they would never do such a thing. Besides, they know that had the bomb exploded at the checkpoint, hundreds of Palestinians would have been killed or injured."
The IDF categorically denied the Palestinian accusations and said the terrorists had made cynical use of the child by placing the bomb in his bag. The IDF has no reason to detain children.
Security officials said it is obvious the terrorists don't want to admit they are recruiting Palestinian children.
Quran said two men asked him to deliver the bag to a woman waiting on the other side of the IDF checkpoint at the village of Huwara, south of Nablus.
Quran, who along with many children his age earn a living as porters at IDF checkpoints, said he was unaware that he was carrying a bomb. "Two men in their thirties paid me five shekels (one dollar), and asked me to deliver the bag to a woman who was waiting in a Subaru on the other side of the checkpoint," he said.
"I was with a friend of mine from the village of Kufr Qalil, who uses a cart to transport big bags," he added. "I was carrying three bags. When we arrived at the checkpoint, a female soldier started searching the bags. Suddenly, before she touched the third bag, soldiers came and took me to the side. I didn't know what was happening."
Quran, a sixth-grader at the UNRWA school in the Balata refugee camp, said he did not see any wires hanging out of the bag or anything else arousing suspicion.
"The soldiers gave me some sweets and asked me to calm down," he recalled. "Some of them shouted at me, demanding to know who had given me the bag. I told them that two men asked me to deliver the bag to a woman and that I didn't know anything else."
While the soldiers were still checking the suspicious bag, the two men tried unsuccessfully to detonate it remotely with a mobile phone.
Security sources said the two belonged to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, and that the bomb was intended for a suicide attack inside Israel.
But Quran, who was back in school on Tuesday, told journalists that the men who gave him the travel bag told him it contained clothes and auto parts. "I didn't do anything wrong. This is what I do for a living and to help my family."
Many Balata residents said they believe the story was fabricated by Israel in order to defame the Palestinians and drive a wedge between the people and the armed groups.
However, a Palestinian journalist from Nablus who works with the foreign media said he does not rule out the possibility that the Israeli version is true.
"Some people are asking themselves many questions, and are talking about the possibility that Fatah had indeed used the boy," he said. "There have been cases in which Fatah used women and children to transfer bombs."
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades denied responsibility, saying its members do not use children to carry out attacks against Israel.
"There is no shortage of adult fighters," said a local leader of the group. "The aim of the Israeli army is to defame the Martyrs Brigades. We do not use children, because this is inhuman and contravenes our traditions and morals. They are lying." ...
http://web.archive.org/web/20040602211025/http://www.israelnewsagency.com/palestinianterrorismchildren120314.html
Palestinians Push their Children to the Forefront of Clashes
"Peaceful Demonstrations" do not include people shooting guns, throwing Molotov cocktails, attacking and stabbing Israeli soldiers and civilians and throwing rocks!
Palestinians use children like this as "Human Shields" and then call this child a "hero" if he gets hurt!
Where are the parents of these children?
Are they only interested in the $300 they receive if their child is injured or the $2,000 they receive from the PLO if their child dies?
Behind these children are Palestinian "peaceful demonstrators" using live gunfire at Israeli soldiers and civilians!
Israeli soldiers using full restraint against attacking "peaceful demonstrators" and paying a high price with their blood!
IF - Israeli soldiers should attempt to defend themselves - they are then called "aggressors"!
http://web.archive.org/web/20010425114405/http://www.israelnewsagency.com/plochild.html
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Palestinian Children Die as Human Shields for Adult Terrorist Leaders
July 31, 2002
by Mary Mostert
Salah Shehadeh, commander of the Izzadine al-Qassam. The Hamas military wing has been responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israelis. He was also planning a "mega-terror" attack inside Israel, "perhaps the biggest Israel has ever seen, a truck with a ton of explosives that was intended to shock the people of Israel and cause hundreds, hundreds of dead," Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.
At least eight previous attempts to put Shehadeh out of commission had been called off after the Israelis learned that civilians were with him. In fact, six days before a "plane was in the air" with the bomb when Israel discovered that one of Shehadeh’s seven daughters was with him, and the strike was called off, Ben-Eliezer told the Jerusalem Post.
In spite of those efforts, the bomb killed not only Shehadeh, but his 14-year-old daughter, his wife, a bodyguard and 11 other people, seven of them children in adjoining buildings.
Before the bodies could be buried, Nasser al-Kidwa Palestinian Envoy to the United Nations had written a letter to the president of the UN Security Council stating: “The Israeli assault represents the first blatant war crime committed by the Israeli occupying forces since the entry into force this month of the ICC. …“This action definitely falls within the jurisdiction of the court and, as such, measures to bring the perpetrators to justice should be taken.”
If the Israeli action that killed a terrorist planning a major assault on Israeli civilians is a war-crime, what, pray tell, was the Palestinian action by Iz A-Din Al-Masri, a member of Hamas, on August 9, 2001 when he carried a bomb into the Sbarro-Pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem and detonated it, killing 15 people, including seven children, and injuring 130 other civilians? What was the action of Shadi Tubasi, another member of Hamas, when he walked into the Matza restaurant in Haifa, detonated his explosive belt, killing 15 people and injuring 40?
Obviously, it must also be a war crime. So, why are the war crimes of the Palestinians ignored by the Arab world? Why is it they think killing Israeli children leads a Palestinian to heaven, whereas accidentally killing Arab children leads to the International Criminal Court?
Perhaps even more pertinent is the fact that Shehadeh, who certainly knew the Israelis were out to get him, kept himself surrounded by children - his own children at that. Any man considered worthy to be called a man, knowing that his life was in danger, would make sure his wife and children were out of danger...
We see a pattern here among the Palestinians. Children are mere cannon fodder, useful mostly as human shields to protect terrorist leaders.
Should the Israelis have allowed Shehadeh to continue his plan to detonate his one ton bomb in downtown Jerusalem, causing hundreds of deaths, including children, rather than take a risk of hurting some of Shehadeh’s child shields?..
http://web.archive.org/web/20030311183210/http://www.conservativetruth.org/article.php?id=366
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Essays on Law and War at the Fault Lines - Page 550
Michael N. Schmitt · 2011
In April 2002, Israeli troops entered the Jenin refugee camp from which the terrorists were operating. During the fighting, the terrorists used human shields
extensively. Because of the risk to civilians, the IDF mounted ground operations, rather than aerial attacks.
https://books.google.com/books?id=SgGQr9DQXI0C&pg=PA550
A Passover Massacre, a Terror War, and the Lies They Told
Mar 23, 2021 — As a result of the Park Hotel massacre and Bloody March, Israel’s government decided to draft 20,000 IDF reservists, including my cousin Ofer, and launch operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale IDF counterterrorism operation in the West Bank. It took place between March 29 and May 10, 2002 and marked the beginning of the end of that period of unfathomable horror.
The Jenin Refugee Camp was the site of Defensive Shield’s most notorious battles. The IDF encountered heavy resistance from Palestinian terrorists. The camp was densely populated, which forced the IDF to make a moral, meaningful and eventually costly choice: engage in door-to-door combat instead of bombarding large swaths of the camp. The reason was to avert a high number of civilian casualties. The decision was not only that of Israel’s high command but also reflected the values of how the IDF soldiers operated on the ground.
The result was devastating. The ferocious exchange of fire resulted in the death of 23 IDF reservists, 13 of whom died in one bloody day. Little did the IDF soldiers know that an integral part of the Palestinian terrorists’ battle plan involved women and children. They used them not only as human shields — a practice sadly seen often — but also deployed them as combatants on the front lines, as well as logistical and intelligence support. In that battle, Palestinians weaponized Israel’s values and the IDF’s ethical code against its soldiers
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/334537/the-lies-they-told/
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Hamas
Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad
By Matthew Levitt · 2008 [Page 95]
Indicted in September 2002, Attalah admitted to using his U.N. vehicle on multiple occasions that summer to transport arms, explosives, and armed PRC activists..
https://books.google.com/books?id=Min9VpiravsC&pg=PA95
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Shielded' from the truth of war
by Jonathan S. Tobin
Jewish Exponent
Marh, 2003
The real heroes are the soldiers of the United States and of Israel who are risking their lives to protect us all against evil regimes and terrorists. Not the leftist fools who seek to stop them for doing their jobs. Were her goal truly humanitarian, Corrie and other so-called "human shields" would have done better to attempt to protect the men, women and children of Israel from the bombs and bullets of their Palestinian friends. Instead, Corrie died while trying to "shield" launching sites for missiles that have rained down on the people of Israel.
https://www.dallasjewishweek.com/dallas-jewish-week-8833.html
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Why is the IDF continuing operations when the withdrawal is apparently imminent?
Amos Harel, Haaretz, 8.3.04
At this stage of the conflict, the fact that four children and teenagers are among the dead is hardly addressed in Israel. The photographs from the recent operations do indicate that the militants use a crowd, including many children, as a "human shield" against IDF forces. Israel against launching operation.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040402041347/https://7th-day.co.il/tzahal/lama.htm
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lgf: Palestinian Human Shield Watch
Palestinian Human Shield Watch
Charles Johnson
Fri Sep 8, 2006 at 2:21 pm PDT • Views: 350
A Palestinian militant points his rifle towards Israeli troops as other gunmen and civilians look on during an Israeli army raid in the village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank town of Jenin, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
UPDATE at 9/8/06 5:29:50 pm:
Notice: some of the same people appear in this image from August 8, 2006:
A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militant, Palestinians sources said. The army said two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested during the operation. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
UPDATE at 9/8/06 6:50:01 pm:
And the August 8 photo was the subject of this “clarification” by the Associated Press:
RETRANSMITTING ORIGINAL FULL FRAME FOR CONTEXT TO SHOW THAT PEOPLE IN BACKGROUND ARE NOT DIRECTLY IN THE LINE OF FIRE — A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militant, Palestinians sources said. The army said two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested during the operation. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
Yet Mohammed Ballas and the Associated Press and the guy in the khaki pants have foisted another one of these photos on the world.
http://web.archive.org/web/20110813203335/http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22479
Sources in the IDF: Terrorist squads use Palestinian civilians as human shields - YNET | Posted 13:34, 06/07/2006
IDF sources said that "in recent hours, terrorist cells in the Gaza Strip have been using Palestinian civilians as human shields to fortify the shooting."
According to the sources, "the terrorists are firing from populated areas and endangering the lives of Palestinian civilians."
https://m.ynet.co.il/Articles/3272038
Palestinians Bar Attacks with Human Shields
THE MEDIA LINE STAFF
11/19/2006
https://themedialine.org/news/palestinians-bar-attacks-with-human-shields/
Human Rights Watch: Stop Human Shields in Gaza
TML STAFF
11/22/2006
https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/human-rights-watch-stop-human-shields-in-gaza/
Beit Hanoun: Women act as human shields
Gaza Strip town under siege for five days now as part of Operation Autumn Clouds. All access roads blocked. Men leaving city accompanied by women who act as their 'human shields.' Residents report severe humanitarian crisis. UNRWA: IDF not allowing food and water into Gaza Strip. IDF denies reports
Ali Waked, Gaza | Published: 11.05.06 , 22:53
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3324081,00.html
GAZA STRIP: Palestinians use women as human shields
Friday, November 3, 2006
BY YAKUB RALWAH OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Palestinian gunmen holed up in a mosque escaped today as Israeli forces fired at a group of women who streamed to the scene to serve as human shields, killing one and wounding 10, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.
The dead woman was one of several hundred who had heeded a call by Hamas militants to ring the mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Their presence allowed the gunmen inside to escape, some reportedly wearing robes supplied by the women, ending their 19-hour standoff with soldiers parked outside in tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Troops seized Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in their fiercest bid in months to halt Palestinian rocket fire on nearby Israeli communities. More than 20 Palestinians, most gunmen, have been killed since the offensive began, including a 22-year-old man killed today.
The mosque became the focus of the fighting in the town after dozens of gunmen sought refuge from troops there Thursday. Most were thought to belong to the military wing of the ruling Hamas party.
Armored vehicles quickly surrounded the building, and the two sides began exchanging fire that lasted throughout the night, the military and Palestinian security officials said.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061106030344/http://www.pjstar.com/stories/110306/pm__BBE5F07L.012.shtml
Women aid escape of gunmen in Gaza
Richard Boudreaux and Rushdi abu Alouf The Baltimore Sun
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip --
November 4, 2006
... the militants devised an escape plan, said Abu Ubaida, a Hamas spokesman: The Hamas radio station appealed to women in the town of 37,000 to converge on the mosque to protect the fighters, who numbered 73...
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2006-11-04-0611040306-story.html
Palestinians' high-risk human shield tactic
Updated: Monday, 20 November 2006, 16:40 GMT
Alan Johnston - BBC News, Gaza
The "human shields" have deterred at least one Israeli air strike
Schoolgirls chanting their defiance of Israel were among the crowd that gathered to defend the two-storey home in the town of Beit Lahiya.
Along with the girls had come old men, neighbours and militants.
All of them were ready to defy the Israeli air force. They were ready to put themselves in the line of fire.
But they knew too that a similar human shield tactic had worked a few days earlier.
The Israelis had backed off knowing that to strike would cause large numbers of civilian casualties which would, of course, have played very badly in the court of international opinion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6166362.stm
Middle East | Gaza shields an 'illegal tactic' - BBC NEWS
Nov 22, 2006 — A watchdog criticises Palestinian armed groups in Gaza for using civilians as human shields against Israeli attacks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6173850.stm
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Video: Terrorists firing mortars from schoolyard
Footage shows terror cell preparing to launch mortar shells near elementary school in Gaza, fleeing site after launches. IDF says terror organizations 'aware of our sensitivity to these areas and they take advantage of that, this is as cynical as their use of the civilian population gets'
Hanan Greenberg | Published: 10.31.07 , 21:05
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3466387,00.html
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Fatah claims: Hamas uses us as a "human shield"
According to Fatah operatives, Hamas members dispersed their detainees in Gaza at the organization's outposts, leaving them there when IDF attacks began. One of the detainees was killed by IDF gunfire at a Hamas outpost near Khan Yunis. And her three children
Ali Waked Posted: 03.01.08, 22:04
The Fatah movement this evening (Thursday) casts accusations against Hamas, according to which its operatives use Fatah detainees detained in the Gaza Strip as "human shields" in the face of IDF attacks in the Gaza Strip. The operative was arrested yesterday while returning to the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing
https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3490167,00.html
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Fathi Hamad (Hamas): Women and children serve as human shields - Videos - A look at the Palestinian media
2008-2009
Fathi Hamad (Hamas): Women and children serve as human shields. Fathi Hamad, Member of Parliament for Hamas "Death among the Palestinian people has become an industry in which women excel, and all who excel in it excel ... https://www.palwatch.org.il/main.aspx?fi=642&fld_id=642&doc_id=8197
Hamas explains use of human shields: "We desire death as you desire life."
https://palwatch.org/page/1089
https://youtu.be/RTu-AUE9ycs
[http://www.peacewithrealism.org/images/hammad.jpg]
Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. United States. Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008
March 5 2008
... and launch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields ; Whereas intentionally targeting civilian populations and the use of human shields violates international humanitarian and human rights law ;
https://books.google.com/books?id=Mq30VL7yquYC&pg=PA3207
Fatah claims: Hamas uses us as a "human shield" - Ynet ›...› Palestinians
Jan 3, 2008 - According to Fatah activists, Hamas members dispersed their men arrested in Gaza at the organization's outposts, leaving them there when they began ... Fatah claims: Hamas uses us as a "human shield" ...
https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3490167,00.html
Ignorance of international law is no excuse. Nor is taking laws out of context.
May 24, 2008 at 10:16
[...]
The Geneva Convention, and other international laws regulating conduct during warfare, makes clear distinctions of what is, or is not a "war crime." Using human shields is a war crime. Conducting warfare from population centers is a war crime. Engaging in perfidy, such as having armed militants dressed as civilians, having armed militants dressed in the uniforms of their opponents, using fake surrenders as a pretext to attack, is a war crime. Deliberately firing upon civilians, or deliberately directing fire towards civilian centers in an effort to produce civilian casualties, is a war crime.
If one were to add up all of these actions committed by Hezbollah and Hamas since 2006 alone, the number of clearly defined war crimes that they committed against Israel would exceed 100,000 separate instances.
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/129811
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Eye-witnesses: Hamas used human shields in Gaza war | PMW Analysis
Eye-witnesses: Hamas used human shields in Gaza war. Itamar Marcus, Barbara Crook and Nan Jacques Zilberdik | Sep 16, 2009. Hamas in 2008 expressed
https://palwatch.org/page/1382
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Human Shields in Gaza - The Volokh Conspiracy
Dec 31, 2008 — Human Shields in Gaza: Ha'aretz: The IDF has made frequent use of what is known as " knocking on the roof": Militants are warned by phone
http://volokh.com/posts/1230756039.shtml
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Hamas' use of civilians as a "human shield"
Jan 2, 2009 - Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip as "human shields." The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip have built an extensive military infrastructure that includes a large stock of. Rockets.. https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_08_204_1.pdf
Testimony of residents of the Gaza Strip regarding their use as a "human shield".
Jan 28, 2009 http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_09_043_1.pdf
Eye-witnesses: Hamas used human shields in Gaza war | PMW Analysis
Sep 16, 2009 — However, PMW reported in May that Hamas stole 46 ambulances donated for use in the war and used them as "military vehicles"..
https://palwatch.org/page/1382
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PA President Mahmoud Abbas: Hamas Leaders Fled to the Sinai in Ambulances during the Israeli Campaign in Gaza
#2255 | 01:42
Source: Palestinian Authority TV
Following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the Arab American University in Jenin. The speech aired on Palestinian Authority TV on October 13, 2009.
https://www.memri.org/tv/pa-president-mahmoud-abbas-hamas-leaders-fled-sinai-ambulances-during-israeli-campaign-gaza
Abbas: Hamas Leaders Used Ambulances To Flee
by IPT News • Oct 27, 2009 at 5:46 pm
https://www.investigativeproject.org/1487/abbas-hamas-leaders-used-ambulances-to-flee
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Palestine - Page 311 - Jonathan Bloomfield - 2010
Hamas and Hezbollah go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=fhd2TSX8XV0C&pg=PA311
Israeli NGO: Hamas 'Used Civilians as Human Shields' in Gaza
March - 2010
https://www.haaretz.com/1.5042118
Goldstone report showed 'systematic pro-Palestinian bias', says Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
Haaretz Service Jonny Singer
15.03.2010 | 15:10
Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields during last year's Gaza war, according to a study published Monday by the Israeli non-governmental orgainzation the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
https://www.haaretz.com/1.5042118
Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States - Page 311
... launch Sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields; Whereas intentionally targeting civilian populations and the use of human shields violates international humanitarian and human rights law: Whereas intentionally targeting civilians population and use of human shields.
United States. Congress. House - 2010
https://books.google.com/books?id=bxbnyfRkw9YC&q=palestinian+use+human+shields
‘Hamas used kids as human shields’ - By Sderot Media Center - March 16, 2010
Hamas gunmen used Palestinian children as human shields, and established command centers and Qassam launch pads in and near more than 100 mosques andhospitals during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip last year, according to a new Israeli report being released on Monday that aims to counter criticism of the IDF
https://sderotmedia.com/hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/2510/
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John Oliver Blames Israel for Hamas War Crimes
Emanuel Miller - May 18, 2021
See, for example, the video below of an Al-Arabiya journalist expressing shock in 2009 that Hamas fired a Grad rocket at Israel from under the building in which she was located. “They launched from under the office,” she exclaims.
https://honestreporting.com/john-oliver-blames-israel-for-hamas-war-crimes/
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Watch: Hamas fires Grad missiles from schools and mosques
The IDF has repeatedly emphasized in recent weeks that Hamas and organizations in the Gaza Strip are launching rockets at Israel from residential neighborhoods, making it difficult to fire accurately at the launchers without harming civilians. Documentation coming from Gaza now reveals. Watch the launches
Tom Sharon
12.04.11
https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/security/Article-23d3dcd29e84f21004.htm
New Evidence from IDF: Hamas Still Using Palestinian Civilians as Human Shields
Sharona Schwartz - December 14, 2011
Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit released a video showing an Air Force strike of a Hamas weapons storage site in northern Gaza, saying this provides further evidence Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields:
https://www.theblaze.com/news/2011/12/14/new-evidence-from-idf-hamas-still-using-palestinian-civilians-as-human-shields
Palestinian Terrorists Using Civilians as Shields in Gaza, IDF Says
by News Editor
MARCH 12, 2012 3:06 PM
Hamas terrorist prepares to launch a rocket in the midst of civilians. Photo: IDF.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2012/03/12/palestinian-terrorists-using-civilians-as-shields-in-gaza-idf-says/
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Hamas has released a video: Rocket fire from a civilian surface.
The terrorist organization shot itself in the foot? Photographs of the military arm show a rocket launch from early morning, inside an area of civilian population
Elior Levy Posted 17:14, 29/10/2012 https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4298566,00.html
Hamas Spokesman Urges Palestinian Civilians to Ignore IDF Warnings
This afternoon, the IDF dropped leaflets over the Gaza Strip, warning civilians to stay away from Hamas operatives and infrastructure.
Nov 20, 2012 — ... within our people. The IDF does everything it can do to minimuze harm to Plestinian civilians in Gaza. Hamas uses civilians as human shields.
https://www.idf.il/en/articles/hamas/hamas-spokesman-urges-palestinian-civilians-to-ignore-idf-warnings/
How Hamas and Islamic Jihad Use Journalism as a Cover for Terrorism
Nov 29, 2012 — The terrorists thought that hiding in a civilian building and using international journalists as human shields would ensure their safety.
https://www.idf.il/en/articles/palestinian-terror/how-hamas-and-islamic-jihad-use-journalism-as-a-cover-for-terrorism/
IDF: Terrorists using human shields - Ynetnews
Dec 3, 2012 — Gaza terrorists firing rockets from densely populated areas, civilians hurt in Israeli strikes as result of Palestinian tactics
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4201948,00.html
Dealing with Hamas’s human shield tactics
By Yaakov Lappin
November 20, 2012 03:29
[IDF real time footage of bomb target 370]
Pilots often ordered to call off air strikes at last moment.
https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/t_JM_ArticleMainImage/207815
https://www.jpost.com/defense/dealing-with-hamass-human-shield-tactics
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Hamas - Human Shield - NEWS1 https://www.news1.co.il/uploadFiles/842037379741669.ppt
Cast Lead - Minerva Center for the Rule of Law in Extreme Situations
Jan 27, 2015 - Death of an ambulance driver in the home hospital area. Hanun. 25.07.2014.... 08.07.2014. Hamas spokesman called on the citizens of the Gaza Strip to serve as a "human shield" on terrorist operatives. http://minervaextremelaw.haifa.ac.il/images/Protective-Edge-Chronology-March-2015-1.pdf
Hamas encourages civilians to act as human shields
Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas | Jul 8, 2014
Al-Aqsa TV reporter: "Witnesses are talking about a large crowd. The residents are still gathering to reach the Kaware family home in order to prevent the Zionist occupation's fighter planes from striking it."
Al-Aqsa TV host: "People are reverting to a method that was very successful once."
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri: "The people oppose the Israeli fighter planes with their bodies alone... I think this method has proven effective against the occupation. It also reflects the nature of our heroic and brave people, and we, the [Hamas] movement, call on our people to adopt this method in order to protect the Palestinian homes."
https://palwatch.org/page/6552
Avital Leibovich: Reflections on Gaza From an Israeli Mother - WSJ
Jul 14, 2014 — Hamas uses innocent Palestinians as human shields to die for propaganda purposes
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/avital-leibovich-reflections-on-gaza-from-an-israeli-mother-1405364460
Thane Rosenbaum: Hamas's Civilian Death Strategy - WSJ - July 21, 2014
Hamas's Civilian Death Strategy
Gazans shelter terrorists and their weapons in their homes, right beside sofas and dirty diapers.
There are now reports that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are transporting themselves throughout Gaza in ambulances packed with children. Believe it or not, a donkey laden with explosives detonated just the other day.
The asymmetry is complicated even further by the status of these civilians. Under such maddening circumstances, are the adults, in a legal and moral sense, actual civilians? To qualify as a civilian one has to do more than simply look the part. How you came to find yourself in such a vulnerable state matters. After all, when everyone is wearing casual street clothing, civilian status is shared widely.
The people of Gaza overwhelmingly elected Hamas, a terrorist outfit dedicated to the destruction of Israel, as their designated representatives. Almost instantly Hamas began stockpiling weapons and using them against a more powerful foe with a solid track record of retaliation.
What did Gazans think was going to happen? Surely they must have understood on election night that their lives would now be suspended in a state of utter chaos. Life expectancy would be miserably low; children would be without a future. Staying alive would be a challenge, if staying alive even mattered anymore.
To make matters worse, Gazans sheltered terrorists and their weapons in their homes, right beside ottoman sofas and dirty diapers. When Israel warned them of impending attacks, the inhabitants defiantly refused to leave.
On some basic level, you forfeit your right to be called civilians when you freely elect members of a terrorist organization as statesmen, invite them to dinner with blood on their hands and allow them to set up shop in your living room as their base of operations. At that point you begin to look a lot more like conscripted soldiers than innocent civilians. And you have wittingly made yourself targets.
It also calls your parenting skills into serious question. In the U.S. if a parent is found to have locked his or her child in a parked car on a summer day with the windows closed, a social worker takes the children away from the demonstrably unfit parent. In Gaza, parents who place their children in the direct line of fire are rewarded with an interview on MSNBC where they can call Israel a genocidal murderer.
The absurdity of Israel's Gaza campaigns requires an entirely new terminology for the conduct of wars. "Enemy combatants," "theater of war," "innocent civilians," "casualties of war" all have ambiguous meaning in Gaza. There is nothing casual about why so many Gazans die; these deaths are tragically predictable and predetermined. Hamas builds tunnels for terrorists and their rockets; bomb shelters for the people of Gaza never entered the Hamas leaders' minds.
So much innocence is lost in this citizen army, which serves as the armor for demented leaders and their dwindling arsenal of rockets and martyrs. In Gaza the death toll of civilians is an endgame disguised as a tragedy. It is a sideshow—without death, Hamas has nothing to show for its efforts.
Surely there are civilians who have been killed in this conflict who have taken every step to distance themselves from this fast-moving war zone, and children whose parents are not card-carrying Hamas loyalists. These are the true innocents of Gaza. It is they for whom our sympathy should be reserved. The impossibility of identifying them, and saving them, is Israel's deepest moral dilemma.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/thane-rosenbaum-civilian-casualties-in-gaza-1405970362?KEYWORDS=israel
Hamas Uses Hospitals and Ambulances for Military Purposes - Aish.com
Jul 29, 2014
https://www.aish.com/gaza-war-blog/Hamas-Uses-Hospitals-and-Ambulances-for-Military-Purposes.html
Gaza conflict: Hamas chooses to let children die for its own crazy ends
Y. Lapid
23 July, 2014
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10987095/Gaza-conflict-Hamas-chooses-to-let-children-die-for-its-own-crazy-ends.html
Netanyahu reveals photo of children playing near Hamas rocket launcher
By Bob Fredericks
September 30, 2014 | 2:24am
[https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/09\/un-assembly_israel.jpg]
https://nypost.com/2014/09/30/netanyahu-reveals-photo-of-children-playing-near-hamas-rocket-launcher/
Hamas uses human shields 'for a reason' - YouTube
CNN July 21, 2014
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6bcP6SaYZpk
Hamas Manual Calls for Hiding Bombs in Civilian Homes
Aug 25, 2014 — Hamas Terrorists Confess to Using Human Shields. Share With. Published on: August 25, 2014. During Operation Protective Edge, IDF soldiers
https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hamas/hamas-manual-calls-for-hiding-bombs-in-civilian-homes/
Fighting terrorists who move around in ambulances - The Jerusalem Post
Jul 20, 2014 — ... and using it as human shields, to seek immunity from the army. ... reported spotting Hamas gunmen boarding ambulances in Gaza
https://m.jpost.com/operation-protective-edge/analysis-fighting-terrorists-who-move-around-in-ambulances-363498/amp
Video: Hamas Shoots Rockets from School, Cemetery
IDF provides some of the clearest evidence yet of Hamas's lowdown tactics.
[Tags: Human Shields Op. Protective Edge]
Gil Ronen , Jul 27 , 2014 4:35 PM
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183399
UN admits: We found 20 rockets at a school in Gaza - Ynet
Israel constantly emphasizes that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, the refugee aid agency found the smoking gun: "In a routine check, we first discovered Palestinian weapons buried in an empty school. We condemn it."
Elior Levy Posted 16:52, 17/07/2014
-
According to UNRWA, "Yesterday during a routine inspection of buildings we discovered about 20 rockets hidden in an empty school in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA strongly condemns the organizations responsible for placing weapons in one of its facilities "....
Israel is known to have blamed Hamas in each of its recent operations in the Gaza Strip and also in the current operation, "Protective Edge", for burying weapons and rockets in educational institutions and residences, using civilians as human shields and assuming that if Israel decides to hit these weapons depots - this will severely harm it from an explanatory [PR] point of view.
https://m.ynet.co.il/Articles/4545333
UNRWA CONDEMNS PLACEMENT OF ROCKETS, FOR A SECOND TIME, IN ONE OF ITS SCHOOLS
22 July 2014
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-condemns-placement-rockets-second-time-one-its-schools
New York, 23 July 2014 - Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on weapons at UNRWA school in Gaza
The Secretary-General is alarmed to hear that rockets were placed in an UNRWA school in Gaza and that subsequently these have gone missing. He expresses his outrage, and regret, at the placing of weapons in a UN-administered school. By doing so, those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children, UN employees working in such facilities, and anyone using the UN schools as shelter.
The Secretary-General notes that this is inconsistent with UN Security Council Resolution 1860 (2009), which calls for the prevention of arms smuggling. He demands that militants groups, who are responsible must stop such actions and should be held accountable for endangering the lives of civilians in this manner.
The Secretary-General has asked for a full review of such incidents and how the UN responds in such instances. The United Nations is taking concerted action to increase its vigilance in preventing such episodes from happening again. To this end, the Secretary-General has directed the UN Department of Safety and Security (DSS) and the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) to immediately develop and implement an effective security plan for the safe and secure handling of any weapons discovered in UN premises. Further, he has directed UNMAS to immediately deploy personnel with expertise to deal with this situation.
The Secretary-General calls on all of those who have any influence over militant groups to send an unmistakable message that this is unacceptable.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140812093753/http://www.un.org/sg/statements/?nid=7885
Rockets found in UNRWA school, for third time
UN agency spokesperson condemns discovery, says munitions expert hasn’t yet reached Gaza facility
By ILAN BEN ZION 30 Jul 2014, 1:28 am
https://www.timesofisrael.com/rockets-found-in-unrwa-school-for-third-time/
John Ging says the UN has forensic evidence that shells used in attack on UN school came from Israeli forces.
Jul 30, 3014
http://web.archive.org/web/20141018221020/http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Politics/Power%2B&%2BPolitics/ID/2479781349
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Exclusive: Hamas rocket launch pad lies near Gaza homes
Issued on: 05/08/2014 - 19:45
https://www.france24.com/en/20140805-exclusive-video-hamas-rocket-launching-pad-near-gaza-homes-un-building
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Jerusalem Post
Gaza reporters’ tweets: Hamas using human shields
By Lahav Harkov
Jul 24, 2014
Foreign journalists receive death threats for ‘fabricating information for Israel,’ accused of informing on terrorists.
Several journalists from around the world reported seeing rockets fired from civilian areas in Gaza in recent days, and received threatening tweets in return accusing them of “informing” the IDF.
On Wednesday, Peter Stefanovic of Australia’s Channel Nine News tweeted: “Hamas rockets just launched over our hotel from a site about two hundred metres away. So a missile launch site is basically next door.”
An account called @ThisIsGaza said this was Stefanovic’s fourth time “passing and fabricating information to Israel... from GAZA” and threatened to sue him.
Another account, @longitude0 wrote: “You are a cretin. Are you working for the IDF” and “in WWII spies got shot.”
Financial Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief John Reed reported seeing “two rockets fired toward Israel from near al-Shifa hospital, even as more bombing victims were brought in.”
Shifa, in Gaza City, is the main medical facility in the Strip.
In response, @Saritah_91 tweeted: “We’ll hold you responsible if Israel uses your tweet to bomb the hospital & then justify it.”
Another twitter user, @ Faysal_FreeGaza, said he’s “subtly justifying and encouraging IDF attacks on hospitals,” and @Maysara_ ara wrote: “Get out of Gaza u informant.”
Wall Street Journal correspondent Nick Casey tweeted on Tuesday a photo of a Hamas official using Shifa hospital for media interviews, writing: “You have to wonder w the shelling how patients at Shifa hospital feel as Hamas uses it as a safe place to see interviews.”
By Wednesday, the tweet was deleted, but pro-Palestinian Twitter accounts continued to include him on lists of “journos in Gaza [who] lie/fabricate info for Israel” and “must be sued for crimes.”
On Sunday, Janis Mackey Frayer, a correspondent for Canada’s CTV, tweeted that, while in Gaza City’s Shejaiya’s neighborhood, she “saw several Hamas gunmen.
One passed dressed in a woman’s headscarf... tip of a gun poked out from under cloak.”
She received threats similar to those sent to other reporters.
Harry Fear, a journalist from the UK reporting from Gaza for RT (formerly Russia Today) television, tweeted last week: “Early morning Gaza rockets were fired into Israel. A well-known site in W. Gaza City, near my hotel, was among the origins, confirm locals.”
Fear then took on the critics, tweeting soon after that he rejects “loaded complaints that I ‘informed’ Israel about the specifics of Gaza military sites... These sites are well-known among locals and internationals here.”
“Should a journalist only report the noise and ferocity of Israel’s attacks & not the sounds of Gaza’s rockets? Both terrify people,” he tweeted.
Later that day, Fear tweeted: “Al-Wafa hospital has been hit in the last while; injuries reported – this is the hospital with human shields.”
https://www.jpost.com/operation-protective-edge/gaza-reporters-tweets-hamas-using-human-shields-368689
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Will captured Hamas manual on using human shields help Israel block war crimes trials?
By Yonah Jeremy Bob
August 5, 2014 21:20
The manual goes on to explain that the presence of civilians among pockets of resistance causes three major issues for army forces: problems with opening fire, problems in controlling the civilian population, and problems assuring civilian medical care.
Lastly, the manual discusses the benefits for Hamas when civilian homes are destroyed: “This increases the hatred of the citizens toward the attackers [the IDF] and increases their [support] around the city defenders [i.e. Hamas].”
https://m.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Will-captured-Hamas-manual-on-using-human-shields-help-Israel-block-war-crimes-trials-370154
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UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields - New York Post
By Post Editorial Board - May 2, 2015
...UN report published Monday — but only part of the story.
The report also confirmed something Israel’s been saying all along: Hamas stored mortars and other weapons in at least three UN schools during last summer’s war and fired rockets at Israel from two of them.
Israel repeatedly made that point during the conflict to explain why it was firing on schools (and mosques and hospitals) where Palestinians had taken refuge.
Because Hamas, desperate to win world sympathy by any means, has always been happy to use Palestinian innocents as human shields — the more casualties, the better... As it happens, the three schools-turned-arsenals were empty at the time Israel struck — but there’s no suggestion Hamas just took advantage of the students’ absence.
And in at least one school where weapons were stored, the report found, Hamas unlocked the gate “to allow children access to the schoolyard.”
In fact, Hamas has long used UN facilities as a staging grounds and observation posts for attacks on Israel. And the United Nations barely raised an objection — unless and until Hamas was caught and called out.
https://nypost.com/2015/05/02/un-report-outlines-how-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/
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United Nations › auto-insert-182027
Hamas fires deadly rockets targeting Israeli civilians, using Palestinians as human shields – Letter from Israel
Aug 27, 2014
Over the past 50 days, more than 4,000 rockets have been shot at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Thousands of these rockets were launched from densely populated areas. Hamas is committing a double war crime — first by using Palestinian civilians as human shields and second by intentionally targeting innocent Israeli civilians.
Deadly rockets were fired daily from launch pads located in hospitals, mosques and schools in Gaza only to explode in homes, synagogues and kindergartens in Israel. While Israel has been using missile defence to protect its civilians, Hamas has been using civilians to protect its missiles.
Hamas deliberately embeds its military operations in residential areas with the clear intention of using its own people, including women and children, as protection. One does not have to look any further than Hamas’ own combat manual on urban warfare to see how the terror organization has institutionalized its disregard for human life. Its combat strategy guidelines explicitly instruct terrorists to use civilians as human shields. This is not a new tactic — it has been the modus operandi of Hamas each and every time it has waged hostilities against Israel.
Evidence of this criminal strategy is mounting and the examples are too numerous to count. Hamas has routinely fired from schools, playgrounds and hotels, as described below:
On 8 July, a rocket was fired from within the El’ Azhar Islamic College
On 14 July, an M-75 rocket was launched from a children’s playground located in the neighbourhood of Shuj a’iya
On 1 August, a rocket was fired from within the Al-Shati refugee camp, near the Al Mashtal hotel, where many journalists were staying
And, as if exploiting civilian infrastructure was not horrific enough, Hamas repeatedly called on the civilian population of Gaza to disregard Israeli warnings and threatened them not to evacuate the areas from which Hamas launched its attacks. Such statements were made on 10 July by the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior and on 15 July by the Head of the Hamas refugee department. Hamas also used its official media channels to actively encourage Palestinian civilians to act as human shields, turning Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warnings of impending strikes into opportunities for sacrificing their own civilians.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-182027/
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Hamas Quietly Admits It Fired Rockets from Civilian Areas
Sep 12, 2014 — Throughout the seven- week conflict, Israel frequently charged that Hamas had been using schools, hospitals, and homes to fire .
https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/380149
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Hamas members are hiding in multi-population buildings
Mida | 17/07/2014
Israel is aware of the whereabouts of many senior Hamas figures, who are hiding in the heart of the civilian population, but are refraining from eliminating them for "moral and humanitarian" reasons.
Afraid of the IDF, hiding behind children. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib, Flash 90
[https://mida.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/F140529ARK002.jpg]
Edited: Eric Greenstein
Israel knows where many Hamas operatives are located, starting with the highest echelons and continuing down the chain of command, Mida has learned. Certified information that has reached us indicates that the terrorists are hiding in multi-population homes, some of them high-rise buildings, located in all parts of the Gaza Strip - in Beit Lahiya, in the city of Gaza, and further south. The only reason the IDF does not use the Air Force, or other firearms, to eliminate them is defined as a "moral-humanitarian operational problem." The occupants of the houses know that senior Hamas figures and their operatives are in their immediate vicinity. In the meantime, the IDF managed to get about 17,000 people to evacuate within hours, out of a population of about 30,000.
The location of those terrorists in multi-population buildings indicates that ground action may be portrayed as a hollow slogan. There is no advantage to infantry or armored force in harming terrorists, protected by innocent and frightened civilians. If a difficult decision is made, the wording of senior Hamas bombing Salah Shehadeh (2002), in which he was killed along with 14 other civilians, then bombing from the air is far more effective than entangling a force on the ground, which will try to start clearing buildings.
https://mida.org.il/2014/07/17/%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%99-%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%A1-%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%97%D7%91%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%91%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%9C/
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Documented: Hamas’ Human Shields and Israel’s Humanitarian Efforts
25/07/2014
Terrorists flee in an ambulance...
https://israeliside.com/2014/07/documented-hamas-human-shields-and-israels-humanitarian-efforts/
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The Media’s Role in Hamas’ War Strategy
Richard Landes
August 5, 2014
Hamas’ PR strategy can only work if international news media follows the script, whether willingly or under coercion.
[...]
According to its critics, Hamas’ war strategy works like this:
Episodically attack Israel’s civilians in such as way as to provoke a counter-attack.
Hide behind Palestinian civilians (preferably in crowded neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals), while encouraging them, even forcing them, to stay, guaranteeing that the return fire wounds or kills civilians and damages civilian structures.
Encourage the Western news media to play up the civilian suffering, play down Hamas’ role in it, and accuse Israel.
Conjure a firestorm of outrage around the world that eventually pressures Israel into desisting from counteroffensive measures.
Survive to reap the propaganda victory and prepare the next round of hostilities.
Repeat, with each exchange hurting Israel more, and each round of international news coverage further savaging the Jewish State’s international reputation.
No matter what the Israeli response, the Hamas strategy is win-win. If the Israelis abort a strike to avoid civilian casualties (as they often do), then Hamas is spared the blow; if an Israeli strike causes civilian casualties, Hamas has dead babies to parade before the cameras. And eventually, the bloodletting will get so bad, the pictures so damning, that Israel will stop. Hamas’ endgame goals, at least at this stage of its asymmetrical war, are actually threefold: tie Israel down with constraints on its use of power, delegitimize and demonize it in the eyes of the world, and stir an aggressive “Muslim Street” in the West, where genocidal chants can
https://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/08/05/the-medias-role-in-hamas-war-strategy/?utm_content=buffer84617
Oren: Hamas media strategy relies on deaths of civilians - CNN
Jul 22, 2014 — Michael Oren: More than a military strategy, Hamas has a media ... civilian suffering play a central—and potentially decisive—role in the outcome.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/21/opinion/oren-hamas-media-strategy/index.html
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa - 2014
Denouncing the Use of Civilians as Human Shields by Hamas and Other Terrorist Organizations in Violation of International Humanitarian Law; and Condemning the Murder of Israeli and Palestinian Children in Israel and the Ongoing and Escalating Violence in that Country: Markup Before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, Second Session on H. Con. Res. 107 and H. Res. 665, July 25, 2014
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. U.S. Government Printing Office, 2014 - Crimes against humanity (International law) - 24 pages
https://books.google.com/books?id=rVG3xwEACAAJ&dq=palestinian+use+human+shields
https://books.google.com/books?id=rVG3xwEACAAJ&dq=international+law
https://books.google.com/books?id=ariPAzGVot4C&pg=PA9
Operation Protective Edge: Videos of Hamas Human Shield Use
[2014]
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/videos-of-hamas-human-shield-use
Military uses of medical facilities and ambulances by Hamas and other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip ...
Jul 23, 2014 - IDF Testimonies The ambulance driver's committees are supported by intelligence information held by Israel. A statement by Hamas operatives during Operation Cast Lead shows that ambulances were used.
https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/he/20683
Elie Wiesel: Hamas, stop using children as shields | CNN
Aug 3, 2014 — Nobel laureate Wiesel: Hamas must stop using children as human shields. Steve Almasy and Josh Levs, CNN. Updated 1:45 PM EDT
https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/03/world/meast/elie-wiesel-hamas-ad/index.html
Media death count encourages Hamas to use human shields
By ALAN DERSHOWITZ
JULY 15, 2014 20:35
By emphasizing the comparative body counts without providing the reasons for the disparity, the media plays into the hands of Hamas, and encourages that terrorist organization to continue to pursue its dead baby strategy.
https://m.jpost.com/opinion/op-ed-contributors/media-death-count-encourages-hamas-to-use-human-shields-362927
Journalists threatened by Hamas for reporting use of human shields
By LAHAV HARKOV
JULY 31, 2014 19:16
Foreign correspondents asked to leave enclave for social media posts on Hamas' utilization of civilian sites to attack Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/operation-protective-edge/journalists-threatened-by-hamas-for-reporting-use-of-human-shields-369619
News - In the country nrg - ... "Hamas uses human shields and blame - MakorRishon
May 15, 2015 - "Hamas uses human shields and the blame falls on Israel." The phenomenon of human shielding creates a trap. If the military refrains from attacking, the organization's objectives remain protected. In case the army ... https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART2/694/820.html
Avital Leibovich: Reflections on Gaza From an Israeli Mother - WSJ
Jul 14, 2014 — Hamas uses innocent Palestinians as human shields to die for propaganda purposes
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/avital-leibovich-reflections-on-gaza-from-an-israeli-mother-1405364460
Hamas Admits to Using Civilians as Human Shields - by Omri Ceren | 09.15.14 12:11 pm
... Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad was specifically quoted declaring that “Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain.” The claim is false. A short study by Alan Dershowitz titled “The empty spaces in Gaza,” published last month by the Gatestone Institute, noted that “there are dense parts of Gaza, especially Gaza City, Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis, but there are far less dense areas in Gaza between these cities.” Dershowitz pointed to population density maps to emphasize that Hamas had embraced a “strategy of using human shields to maximize civilian casualties,” ...
http://www.thetower.org/1067oc-hamas-admits-to-using-civilians-as-human-shields
For second time, rockets found at UN school in Gaza
‘How many more schools will have to be abused by Hamas missile squads before the international community will intervene?’ Foreign Ministry fumes
By RAPHAEL AHREN 22 July 2014, 9:31 pm
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-second-time-rockets-found-at-un-school-in-gaza/
Letter: Hamas has occupied Gaza - LSJ | 8:47 pm EDT August 4, 2014
[...]
The real occupier is Hamas. Funds given to Palestinians are being used by Hamas, not to improve the Palestinians’ lives, but to amass ammunition, rockets, underground tunnels and commit heinous crimes.
Hamas is using United Nation schools, ambulances, mosques and homes to launch rockets. When you use children as human shields, the result is tragic. Sadly, Hamas wants the human loss, especially of children, to paint a negative picture of Israel in the media. The world must not be silent or blind and loudly condemn these heinous crimes.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/readers/2014/08/04/letter-hamas-has-occupied-gaza/13603493/
Evidence growing that Hamas used residential areas - AP News
Sep 11, 2014 — ... of the Gaza war, there is growing evidence that Hamas militants used residential areas as cover for launching rockets at Israel..
https://apnews.com/article/152644963f4249a7a21154446649910a
Hamas and the Other Terrorist Organizations in the Gaza Strip Use Medical Facilities and Ambulances for Military-Terrorist Purposes
Published: 23/07/2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRmYYSp0-B8
Reuters - Palestinians Terrorists use UN Ambulance - YouTube
Video of Hamas using ambulances to transfer armed militants in Gaza
(Reuters, 2004
https://mfa.gov.il/MFA_Graphics/MFA%20Gallery/2011/Turkel/ambulance.jpg
https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/20683/
Amnesty says Gaza groups committed war crimes
NGO cites indiscriminate fire and use of civilians for cover during fighting; Israel was charged with crimes in previous report
By AP 26 Mar 2015, 4:59 am
https://www.timesofisrael.com/amnesty-says-gaza-groups-committed-war-crimes-during-war/
Stein: Cartoon betrays ignorance
Posted Aug 1, 2014
[...]
So it was once again in his recent misguided cartoon picturing an Israeli tank pushing Gaza off a cliff.
Since 2001, Gaza-based terrorists have launched more than 15,000 rockets at civilians in Israel, including well over 2,000 rockets in the last few weeks. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the other terror groups in Gaza deliberately store those rockets in residential areas, including the basements of homes, schools, mosques and hospitals. The largest hospital in Gaza, Shifa Hospital, serves as Hamas' "military" headquarters.
So far, rockets have been found in the basements of three UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) schools; they are undoubtedly stored in countless others. Incredibly, in the first case, UNRWA actually gave the rockets back to Hamas; they've probably already been launched at Israeli civilians! In the second case, UNRWA simply left the school empty until the rockets mysteriously "disappeared."
Israel has gone to extraordinary lengths to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza; this is the exact opposite of what Hamas has been doing. Few people - and apparently Dave Granlund is not among them - realize that far fewer people have been killed during the last few weeks in Gaza than in Syria during the same period, or that the proportion of civilian casualties is actually far less than the norm in urban warfare, even though Gaza is unique in using civilians as human shields to protect rockets.
Most of the blame for the current fighting, and deaths, falls on Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza, but a considerable amount of blame also falls on those who pressured Israel to prematurely accept flawed ceasefires in 2009 and 2012, and then pressured Israel into transferring building supplies into Gaza, supplies which instead of building homes and schools were used to build tunnels and rockets.
If we are to prevent yet another, more deadly war in another year or two, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past. We must ensure that the rockets are removed and the tunnels and the rest of the terror infrastructure in Gaza are permanently dismantled.
https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20140801/Opinion/140809743?template=ampart
Why Hamas stores its weapons inside hospitals, mosques and schools
By Terrence McCoy
July 31, 2014 at 3:38 a.m. EDT
Inside a Gaza Strip mosque in January 2009, nothing at first seemed unusual with the wooden pulpit pushed against the cement wall. Barely taller than a man, it stood beside a microphone stand near an electric fan and some plastic chairs, according to photographs captured by the Israel Defense Forces.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/31/why-hamas-stores-its-weapons-inside-hospitals-mosques-and-schools/
What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel
The news tells us less about Israel than about the people writing the news, a former AP reporter says.
MATTI FRIEDMAN - NOVEMBER 30, 2014
... demonstrate the kind of decisions made regularly in the bureaus of the foreign press covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, and to show the way in which the pipeline of information from this place is not just rusty and leaking, which is the usual state of affairs in the media, but intentionally plugged....
alliance consists of activists and international staffers from the UN and the NGOs; the Western diplomatic corps, particularly in East Jerusalem; and foreign reporters. (There is also a local component, consisting of a small number of Israeli human-rights activists who are themselves largely funded by European governments, and Palestinian staffers from the Palestinian Authority, the NGOs, and the UN.) Mingling occurs at places like ..:
'JERUSALEM (AP) _ The prickly relationship between Israel and its critics in human rights organizations has escalated into an unprecedented war of words as the fallout from Israel’s Gaza offensive persists ten months after the fighting ended.' - Editors killed the story....
When Hamas’s leaders surveyed their assets before this summer’s round of fighting, they knew that among those assets was the international press. The AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby—and the AP wouldn’t report it, not even in AP articles about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas. (This happened.) Hamas fighters would burst into the AP’s Gaza bureau and threaten the staff—and the AP wouldn’t report it. (This also happened.) Cameramen waiting outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City would film the arrival of civilian casualties and then, at a signal from an official, turn off their cameras when wounded and dead fighters came in, helping Hamas maintain the illusion that only civilians were dying. (This too happened; the information comes from multiple sources with firsthand knowledge of these incidents.)
Colford, the AP spokesman, confirmed that armed militants entered the AP’s Gaza office in the early days of the war to complain about a photo showing the location of a rocket launch...
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/
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Israel: The World's Most Moral Army
Published on Dec 7, 2015 - PragerU!
Is the Israeli military a paragon of morality and wartime ethics? Or is it an oppressive force that targets innocent Palestinian civilians and commits war crimes as a matter of policy? Colonel Richard Kemp, who was the commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, was in Israel during its war against Hamas in 2014, and analyzes whether Israel's military is ethical, evil, or somewhere in between.
https://www.prageru.com/video/israel-the-worlds-most-moral-army/
http://l.prageru.com/2ylo1Yt
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IDF publishes clip showing Hamas gunmen in ambulance | The Times of Israel
Jul 23, 2014 — The IDF says in a statement that it observed Hamas fighters use an ambulance to flee the scene of combat..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-publishes-clip-showing-hamas-gunmen-in-ambulance/
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VIDEO: Finnish reporter sees rockets fired from Gaza hospital
Correspondent from Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat reports from Gaza hospital, claims to have witnessed rocket fire from location minutes earlier, Gazan admits: 'It is true that rockets are launched from here'; reporter writes on Facebook: Don't use me as propaganda.
Ynetnews | Published: 08.02.14 , 15:56
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4553643,00.html
Gaza archbishop says rockets were fired from church
Clergyman says Greek Orthodox compound, which sheltered hundreds during shelling, used by Hamas as launch site
By TOI STAFF - 7 Aug 2014
http://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-archbishop-says-rockets-fired-from-church/
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Hamas threatening journalists in Gaza who expose abuse of civilians
Reporters are bullied, have equipment confiscated, barred from sensitive sites… but they don’t report it. ‘They’re too scared,’ says Israeli official, lamenting capitulation to harassment
By TOI STAFF 28 Jul 2014,
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-threatening-journalists-in-gaza-who-expose-abuse-of-civilians/
"You have to leave Gaza at the quickest speed and stop working"
LIBERATION JULY 24, 2014 At 17:46
This article, which describes the intimidation attempts at the meeting of Palestinian journalist Radjaa Abou Dagga, correspondent of "Ouest France" and former collaborator of "Liberation", was published at his request.
[«Tu dois quitter Gaza au plus vite et arrêter de travailler»
LIBERATION 24 JUILLET 2014 À 17:46
Cet article, qui décrivait les tentatives d'intimidation à l'encontre du journaliste palestinien Radjaa Abou Dagga, correspondant de «Ouest France» et ancien collaborateur de «Libération», a été dépublié à sa demande.]
http://web.archive.org/web/20140724195751/http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2014/07/24/tu-dois-quitter-gaza-au-plus-vite-et-arreter-de-travailler_1069701
Trapped in Gaza: How Hamas punishes reporters for the truth
THE AUSTRALIAN - JULY 31, 2014 12:00AM
HAMAS is not just targeting Israeli civilians, threatening Gazans and using them as humans shields.
It has another terror tactic: intimidating foreign journalists.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140731071248/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/trapped-in-gaza-how-hamas-punishes-reporters-for-the-truth/story-e6frg6zo-1227007768903
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IDF accuses Palestinians of using ambulance as shield for rock throwing
Dec 10, 2017 — The Israel Defense Forces accused Palestinian protesters of using an ambulance as a human shield during a violent demonstration in
https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-accuses-palestinians-of-using-ambulance-as-shield-for-rock-throwing/amp/
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Hamas has a different scale of values than the IDF, and is guilty of war crimes
As long as the UN does not understand how different a war between a sovereign state and a terrorist organization is from a war between sovereign states, we will continue to see condemnation of the actions of the IDF and the state.
Liram Koblenz-Stenzler 12/03/2017 16:58
[Tags: War Crimes / Human Defender]... For years, the State of Israel has suffered from a deep lack of understanding of its war on terrorist organizations. One of the prominent places where this can be seen is the Goldstone report, which was published after Operation Cast Lead and was a moral earthquake for Israel. The report states that Israel has harmed uninvolved civilians as part of an overall policy. Two years later, in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Goldstone reiterated this statement and admitted that "if he had known what he knows now, the report would have looked different," but at the same time argued that the laws of war contained in international law should be applied by Non-state organizations like Hamas, to the same extent that they are supposed to be implemented by the armies of a sovereign state. According to him, their lack of application during combat should lead to an investigation by the violating party.
Different scale of values
This argument is even more indicative of the lack of understanding because the terrorist organizations against which the IDF fights, such as Hamas, have a completely different scale of values from that accepted by Israel; they tend not to consider human life - neither the lives of their activists, nor the lives of the population they fight for. The enemy. So even though they are semi-military and similar to a state's regular army - not only do they not fight according to the principles of international law, but they also deliberately violate them. Intentionally disrupting the distinction between them and the citizens first. For example, by launching rockets or mortar shells from civilian installations such as schools, mosques, churches and hospitals. In this way, they seek to force the IDF to fire at the same targets, thus leading to the loss of the IDF's legitimacy for its action and condemnation of it and the State of Israel by the international community.
These actions mean that the responsibility for harming the security of the citizens rests with those organizations and not with the IDF. Nevertheless, during a war, the IDF as a moral army has, without a doubt, the responsibility to preserve the human dignity of the citizens of Israel and its soldiers. On the human dignity of the fighters of the other side and its citizens. So he should try and minimize as much as possible the damage done to the civilian population of the other side. However, until the UN and human rights organizations understand how different a war between a sovereign state and a terrorist organization is from a war between sovereign states, and until the rules of war and the moral justifications for the various actions are changed accordingly, we will continue to see international condemnation of IDF and Israeli actions.
[The author is a doctoral student in military ethics and terrorism at the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University. Served as a research fellow at Yale University.] https://www.maariv.co.il/journalists/opinions/Article-577502
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UNRWA uncovers Hamas-dug tunnel under school in Gaza
Palestinian refugee agency condemns Gaza rulers' underground network; Israel's UN envoy: 'Cruelty of Hamas' knows no bounds
By TOI STAFF 9 June 2017, 9:30 pm
https://www.timesofisrael.com/unrwa-uncovers-hamas-dug-tunnel-under-school-in-gaza/
"Gaza children serve as a human shield for Hamas" - Actualic
Jun 10, 2017 - Israel is reacting sharply to the discovery that in recent days the same terrorist tunnel belonging to the military arm of Hamas, under a school belonging to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - UNRWA. https://actualic.co.il/%25D7%25A0%25D7%2597%25D7%25A9%25D7%25A4%25D7%2594-%25D7%2594%25D7%2590%25D7%259E%25D7%25AA-%25D7 % 2599% 25D7% 259C% 25D7% 2593% 25D7% 2599-% 25D7% 25A2% 25D7% 2596% 25D7% 2594-% 25D7% 259E% 25D7% 25A9% 25D7% 259E% 25D7% 25A9% 25D7% 2599% 25D7 % 259D-% 25D7% 259E% 25D7% 2592% 25D7% 259F-% 25D7% 2590% 25D7% 25A0% 25D7% 2595% 25D7% 25A9% 25D7% 2599-% 25D7% 259C /
H.R.3542 - Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act115th Congress (2017-2018)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3542/text
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3542/all-info
Prosecution in The Hague: "Hamas uses children as human shields"
Apr 24, 2018 - It is Hamas leaders who send their children to serve as human shields and as a result to be killed in battle. They are therefore the ones who have to stand up in the International Court of Justice in The Hague and give in.. https://www.israelhayom.co.il/interactive/amp/article/551269
This is how Hamas uses children - Yedioth Ahronoth
Apr 23, 2018 - This is how Hamas uses children. With a Barcelona football shirt, slingshots and heavy tires - this is how the children who serve as human shields and are sent to the first line were photographed last Friday
https://m.yediot.co.il/Articles/5238011
Hamas military intensification - INSS
2018
The logic of Hamas' power building is similar to that which guides Hezbollah's power building. In Lebanon, which argues for the existence of a military infrastructure in population concentrations; Use of civilians, including children. And boys, as a "human shield" for terrorist operatives; https://www.inss.org.il/he/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/01/GazaCrisis_HEB_5-43-51.pdf
The riots on the fence - the warriors' version
Soldiers recently discharged from the IDF talk about the violent routine in Gaza and describe how Hamas exploits women and children to carry out terrorist attacks. The evidence will help file a lawsuit against the organization's leaders: "A terrorist throws a grenade and holds a child next to him."
Nir Dvori, Mako, 28.11.18
https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/security-q4_2018/Article-7ca99ecaa3c5761004.htm
Israel minimizes casualties, but Hamas uses human shields
May 18, 2018 · The U.N. Human Rights Council convened a special meeting in Geneva Friday to
https://www.israelhayom.com/2018/05/18/israel-minimizes-casualties-but-hamas-uses-human-shields-envoy-says/
In first, European Parliament condemns Hamas for terror, use of human shields.
Apr 19, 2018
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-european-parliament-condemns-hamas-for-terror-use-of-human-shields/
The inhumanity of Hamas' human shields.
Illustration on Hamas' use of human shields by Alexander Hunter/The Washington ... By Joe Wilson - - Thursday, May 31, 2018.
https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/31/the-inhumanity-of-hamas-human-shields/
Hamas enlists female participation in border riots - watch
By Jerusalem Post Staff
February 18, 2019 16:58
New footage released over the weekend shows Hamas using its women as human shields.
https://m.jpost.com/Middle-East/Hamas-enlists-female-participation-in-border-riots-watch-580973
This is how Hamas uses children - Yedioth Ahronoth
Apr 23, 2018 - This is how Hamas uses children. With a Barcelona football shirt, slingshots and heavy tires - this is how the children who serve as human shields and are sent to the first line were photographed last Friday ...
https://www.yediot.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5238011,00.html
Haley blasts Iran over civilian deaths in the Middle East - CNN Politics
Apr 26, 2018 — "Groups that Iran has sponsored or supported have perfected the tactic of using human shields," she told the UN Security Council, ..
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/04/26/politics/haley-blasts-iran/index.html
"We will burn the J..s": New documentation from Gaza reveals the lie of "peace demonstrations"
Gilad Zwick | 09/05/2018 (MIDA)
Using children as human shields, blatant anti-Semitism and sacrificing the lives of protesters for propaganda purposes: this is what the Hamas terror march looks like.
New documentation from the Gaza side of the border fence reveals the murderous and antisemitic nature of the terrorist march in Gaza. In a video by Israeli-French journalist and film director Pierre Rehov (pseudonym), gunmen can be seen dragging a small child into the heart of a combat zone, and a few seconds later an explosion takes place. Other children were taken by their parents to the battle area and some were equipped with masks designed to quell the impact of the gas grenades thrown by IDF forces. "What kind of parents would volunteer to expose their children to such dangers," Rehov wonders in the video, "What propaganda machine did Hamas use to get parents to turn their children into human shields?"
Apart from the use of children, the video documents the violence used by the demonstrators and their explicit desire to murder Jews and destroy the State of Israel. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and one of the founders of the organization's military wing, declared to foreign reporters that after they demolished the border fence in Gaza, "we will uproot (Israelis) their hearts from their bodies." Sinwar, who was released in the Shalit deal after 22 years in an Israeli prison, owed his life to the State of Israel when he was operated on about a decade ago in a Israeli hospital in light of the danger to his life. Sinwar does not seem to feel the need to pay homage to the act and incites the brutal murder of Israelis.
A member of Hamas 'political leadership, Mahmoud a-Zahar, made it clear that the protesters' goal was not to end the "occupation" but to wipe Israel off the map: "We will continue the battle until we liberate the entire country," a-Zahar stressed. “There is no such thing as East Jerusalem or West Jerusalem, there is only one Jerusalem that is our capital. We do not accept Palestine within the 48 ′ or 67 ′ borders. There is only one Palestine - and that is all of Palestine! ”
"The J..s the dogs need to be burned"
The demonstrators in the video are not afraid to express clear antisemitic attitudes: "We will roll the tires towards the Jews so that we can burn them," says an elderly woman who participated in the demonstrations. “All unclean J...s are dogs. They need to be burned. Dirty. ” Another demonstrator added that "J..s cannot rob us of the land, even if our bodies are cut to pieces."
https://mida.org.il/2018/05/09/%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A3-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%93-%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%A3-%D7%90/
Laws of Armed Conflict in Gaza
By John Toolan
August 14, 2018
...
Hamas's attacks on Israel’s border were ostensibly peaceful protests declared to be the “Great March of Return.” These demonstrations, organized under the pretext of Palestinians exercising their “right” to return to ancestral homes in Israel, in reality involved Hamas encouraging thousands of Gazans to storm and potentially break through Israel’s border fence en masse. Hamas implanted its military operatives within the onrushing crowds, effectively using civilians as human shields.
These “peaceful” demonstrations are a win-win for Hamas. However infinitesimal the odds, successfully overrunning the border could be portrayed as advancing the terrorist group’s goal – stated in its founding covenant – ultimately to eliminate Israel.
Hamas enjoys far more success, however, when the attacks fail. It can vilify Israel by creating situations where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) must fire on the attackers, which Hamas portrays as innocent civilians. In fact, many are combatants – after one mass demonstration in May, for example, Hamas admitted that 50 of the 62 dead “unarmed protestors” were members of terrorist groups.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/08/14/laws_of_armed_conflict_in_gaza_113719.html
More Accurate Better Bombs and Sparing Human Shields - WSJ - Aug 10, 2018 - A key reason for civilian casualties other than faulty intelligence or inaccurate ordnance: The deliberate use of civilians as human shields by terrorist groups. https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-accurate-better-bombs-and-sparing-human-shields-1533938542
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Soldiers' Testimony Report - My Truth
'Human Shields
The use of children and the civilian population by terrorist organizations
Soldiers' Testimony Report
November-2018
... For example, in April 2018, Hamas in Gaza decided to adopt a new tactic. Huge demonstrations on the border fence with Israel aimed at creating the impression among the international community that this is a "non-violent protest." However, already at the first demonstration, it became clear that the many civilians the participants in the demonstrations are nothing but human defenders who allow Hamas terrorists to approach the fence, hit IDF soldiers and try to infiltrate Israeli territory.
These events, along with the wave of popular terror that preceded them and were characterized by many attacks carried out by boys and women, led us to the understanding that exposing the evidence regarding the high scale of values on which IDF soldiers operate is essential, but no less important to present another side - methods Fighting by terrorist organizations based on the same understanding that the IDF is wary of harming innocent people, repeatedly placing IDF fighters in front of a civilian population including children and women, both for offensive combat purposes and as human defenders.
This document combines more than 30 testimonies of soldiers and reservists who served in the IDF and other security services of the State of Israel. The testimonies in this booklet make a sound true, important and valuable of soldiers who have encountered in their military service a blatant violation of human rights on the part of the Palestinian terrorist organizations towards the Palestinians themselves, with an emphasis on the use of human shields and exploitation of a civilian population for combat purposes.
This collection of testimonies was published on the understanding that although this is a blatant violation of international law, in the Palestinian case, the issue is almost completely ignored by the international community and human rights organizations.
The events documented in this booklet represent a broad phenomenon of the use of civilian space and humanitarian for terrorist purposes. Evidence includes cases in which ambulances were used to transport weapons and transport terrorists, launching rockets from kindergartens, firing from schools and mosques, planning attacks on prominent civilian spaces and Israeli communities, using children and women as human shields, violations of humanitarian ceasefires and much more. Describing first-hand the cynical use that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority make of the Palestinian civilian population. https://mytruth.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/eduyot_heb_pages.pdf
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Hamas enlists female participation in border riots - watch - The Jerusalem Post
Feb 18, 2019 — New footage released over the weekend shows Hamas using its women as human shields.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/hamas-enlists-female-participation-in-border-riots-watch-580973
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Hybrid Threats: Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza
By: James Pamment Vladimir Sazonov Francesca Granelli Sean Aday Māris Andžāns Una Bērziņa-Čerenkova John-Paul Gravelines Mils Hills Irene Martinez-Sanchez Mariita Mattiisen Holger Molder Yeganeh Morakabati Aurel Sari Gregory Simons Jonathan Terra
Related topics:
Hybrid Warfare
Publication details
ISBN: 978-9934-564-33-8
Year: 2019
This is one of the Case Studies from the report "Hybrid Threats. A Strategic Communications Perspective".
Executive Summary
Hamas, an Islamist militant group and the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, has been using human shields in conflicts with Israel since 2007. According to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the war crime of using human shields encompasses “utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas, or military forces immune from military operations.” Hamas has launched rockets, positioned military-related infrastructure-hubs and routes, and engaged the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from, or in proximity to, residential and commercial areas.
The strategic logic of human shields has two components. It is based on an awareness of Israel’s desire to minimise collateral damage, and of Western public opinion’s sensitivity towards civilian casualties. If the IDF uses lethal force and causes an increase in civilian casualties, Hamas can utilise that as a lawfare tool: it can accuse Israel of committing war crimes, which could result in the imposition of a wide array of sanctions. Alternatively, if the IDF limits its use of military force in Gaza to avoid collateral damage, Hamas will be less susceptible to Israeli attacks, and thereby able to protect its assets while continuing to fight. Moreover, despite the Israeli public’s high level of support for the Israeli political and military leadership during operations, civilian casualties are one of the friction points between Israeli left-wing and right-wing supporters, with the former questioning the outcomes of the operation.
https://stratcomcoe.org/publications/hybrid-threats-hamas-use-of-human-shields-in-gaza/87
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Hamas Views Application of Sovereignty as a Potential Opportunity - By Yaakov Lappin July 9, 2020
...the possibility of a simultaneous escalation in both the West Bank and Gaza remains real. Hamas has assembled a well-armed terror army in Gaza, equipped with tens of thousands of rockets, anti-tank guided missile launchers, mortar launchers, and other weapons. A network of tunnels runs under the Gaza Strip for the movement of Hamas terrorists, and residential buildings double as military command centers and rocket launch sites. Hamas continues to prioritize its force buildup program over the wellbeing of the Gazan people.
Hamas copied its warfare doctrine, which is based on the principle of operating from within the civilian population and thereby exploiting that population as human shields, from Hezbollah, adapting it to Gazan conditions. The two organizations cooperate on a number of levels.
https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-hamas-sovereignty/
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Watch: Bennett joins CNN interviewer: "We will not be bound by terror" - ICE
May 13, 2021 - ... First to CNN Since the election, the former defense minister was asked about the Israeli bombings in Gaza and replied: "Hamas itself kills the children of the Gaza Strip when it uses them as a human shield".. https://www.ice.co.il/media/news/article/820076
Ganz appeals to Gaza residents: "Hamas is sacrificing you because of their personal needs"
Defense Minister Bnei Gantz addressed a message translated into Arabic to Gaza residents: "Because of Hamas, you will not celebrate Eid al-Fitr. Hamas started the campaign because of political motives - and not because of the freedom of the Temple Mount."
He added that "Hamas leaders are responsible for the fact that instead of preparing for the holiday you are buried in houses. Unfortunately, they operate from civilian space and therefore the damage will be great and powerful. They sacrifice you because of their personal needs. If Israel sleeps in protected areas - Gaza will burn. There is no other equation."
Anna Bersky 12/05/2021 | 19:49 https://www.maariv.co.il/breaking-news/Article-840184
Terry Glavin: By using human shields, Hamas doubles down on its war crimes
There is no equivalence between Israel's defensive targeting of Hamas launch sites in Gaza and the rockets targeting Israeli civilians
Author of the article: Terry Glavin
Publishing date: May 12, 2021
... This is very much the case in contrasting and evaluating the Israel Defense Forces’ targeted bombing of Hamas operatives and infrastructure in Gaza against the war crimes committed with each and every one of the roughly 1,500 rockets Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched in indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians since last weekend...
The problem is that no amount of Israeli "restraint" would have saved the life of Soumya Santhosh, a 31-year-old housemaid from Kerala, India, who was killed when one of the indiscriminately-fired Hamas rockets landed on a house in Ashkelon on Tuesday evening. At the moment of her death, Santhosh was talking with her husband back in India, in a video call..
Trudeau was referring to what is widely described as the spark that ignited the conflagration, an affair the Israeli government has unhelpfully called a mere real-estate dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem. .. Hamas seized on the confrontation as a propaganda opportunity — the police action was a vile Jewish desecration of one of Islam’s holiest sites — and everything took off from there...
All those rockets are Haniyeh’s way of establishing Hamas as the champion of Al Aqsa and the defender of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Islamic state and a holy cause of the world’s Muslims. Israel considers Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the Israeli state. But this is where it becomes impossible to draw moral equivalences, and why appeals to “both sides” fall flat on their face.
There is no equivalence between the IDF’s defensive targeting of the Hamas and its Qassam Brigades launch sites in Gaza and the Qassam rockets targeting Israeli civilians, but the more important thing to keep your eye on is the way Hamas embeds itself among Gaza’s civilians, effectively using the people it claims to represent as human shields.
It’s on this point that countries like Canada might make some use of themselves, at least in clarifying the incoherence that so routinely bubbles out of the public affairs departments of the liberal democracies’ foreign ministries. In a 52-page analysis and legislative proposal set to be released this week, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Canadian Coalition Against Terror are proposing a Canadian law to respond to NATO’s appeals to give statutory force and effect to international prohibitions against using civilians as human shields.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-glavin-by-using-human-shields-hamas-doubles-down-on-its-war-crimes
Hamas is firing rockets from among civilians, targeting civilians
Israel's Foreign Affairs Min.
Published on May 11, 2021
Hamas is firing rockets from civilian areas in #Gaza, deliberately targeting Israeli civilians. Israel is defending itself from Hamas' double war crime. The international community must condemn Hamas for its actions.
https://youtu.be/9o0FFVHc3B4
Magellan fighters attacked a Hamas anti-tank launcher located in a residential building
Fragmentation of anti-tank launchers continues: Magellan fighters attacked an anti-tank launcher of the Hamas terrorist organization located in a high-rise residential building in the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF notes that the terrorist organization Hamas is deliberately placing its military assets in the heart of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Date: 13/05/2021 | Updated: 13/05/2021 https://m.news1.co.il/Archive/001-D-440521-00.html?AfterBan=1
A message to the residents of the Gaza Strip: "Hamas has arranged a holiday for you without electricity and water".
Uri Marom, Mivzak Live, 14 May 2021.
General Rassan Aliyan told the residents of the Gaza Strip: "Residents of Gaza, in recent days and especially tonight, you have witnessed the IDF resolutely protecting the citizens of Israel, while Hamas continues to bring destruction and destruction upon you. The terrorist organization continues to launch rockets from civilian structures and uses you as a human shield - in your children, in your women, in innocent people who have been killed and injured...
https://www.mivzaklive.co.il/archives/436045
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Watch: The IDF attacked a tunnel inside a school in Gaza - Kikar haShabbat Square
2 Sivan 5781 - 13.05.21 - Among the targets, a Hamas terrorist tunnel was attacked, which is part of the Hamas terrorist organization's tunnel project and is located under a school and near other civilian buildings.
https://www.kikar.co.il/amp/391872
A tunnel under a school, and senior houses in Hamas: targets bombed in the Gaza Strip
As part of Operation Wall Guard, hundreds of Hamas terrorist targets were attacked, including terrorist tunnels placed under schools in the Gaza Strip that were near civilian buildings. In addition, several branches of the central bank used by the organization's activists were attacked, as well as several buildings of the Homeland Security Headquarters.
Amir Bohbot, Walla, May 13, 2021
https://news.walla.co.il/item/3435316
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TEICH: Hamas' use of human shields is a war crime
May 14, 2021 https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/teich-hamas-use-of-human-shields-is-a-war-crime/wcm/8454ddb3-78f2-4dbb-aa65-60a7c93d4280/amp/
Moshe Hogeg: "Israeli Arabs can not sit on the fence"
The owners of 'Betar Jerusalem' launched a major attack on the networks following the security situation: "It is heartbreaking to see so many Jews in the United States, and unfortunately there are also some in Israel, going out against our country in this war."
'Sports Hayom'
12/5/2021, 15:14, updated 12/5/2021
The owner of Betar Jerusalem is known as one who is not afraid to express his opinion. In parallel with .. the fight against racism ... today (Wednesday) he took time to address the sensitive security situation in Israel...
"It's also annoying to see our failure when it comes to global propaganda, how the hell our enemies manage to win the war on consciousness when they are the ones firing the missiles, trying to harm our citizens, using their own citizens as human shields and more succeeding in exposing themselves as poor Israelis. Just crazy...
Israeli Arabs can not sit on the fence with all due respect, if you support Hamas, say it so we can allow you to cross the border to your friends or alternatively arrest you for treason, if you are against harming civilians then grow already some b..ls and denounce these terrorists...
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/sport/israeli-soccer/article/879572
Netanyahu adviser: Condemn Hamas’ use of journalists as human shields
By Aaron Klein
May 16, 2021 | 12:46pm
The al-Jalaa building was believed to house Hamas operations but also contained offices for multiple news agencies.
https://nypost.com/2021/05/16/netanyahu-adviser-hamas-using-journalists-as-human-shields/
Aurora Intel @AuroraIntel:
Several locations within #Gaza City caught on satellite Imagery, showing impact craters targeting suspected launch positions, a launch position and Al-Jalaa Tower, Satellite Imagery courtesy of @planet. May 17, 2021.
https://twitter.com/AuroraIntel/status/1394373519182602241?s=20
"Biden pressured to respond to Mideast violence."
Ed O'Keefe reports. May 17, 2021.
"Well, today the State Department walked that back, saying, that while the secretary haden't personally seen the intelligence, others in US government have."
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/biden-pressured-to-respond-to-escalating-mideast-violence/#x
Kylie Atwood @kylieatwood:
Sec State Blinken says the US has received some further info through intelligence channels from Israel regarding their strike on a building in Gaza over the wknd that housed journalist outlets, and which Israel said Hamas was using. He says he cannot comment on the intelligence.
8:27 AM · May 18, 2021·
https://twitter.com/kylieatwood/status/1394630815544446987?s=20
Blinken: Israel provided US secret justification for flattening AP building in Gaza
By Steven Nelson
May 18, 2021 | 5:07pm
Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Tuesday said that Israel privately gave the US a justification for flattening a 13-story building in Gaza that housed the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken said the US did reach out to Israel to ask for justification on the building’s destruction.
... Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council under former President Barack Obama, said that the building was long known as an operational center for the Islamic fundamentalist group.
"I'm sure Hamas offices were in that building [and] that they purposely co-locate operations with civilians" Vietor wrote on Twitter. He added that "I talked to people who worked in the building."
https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/blinken-israel-gave-us-secret-justification-for-flattening-ap-building-in-gaza/
Israel, Hamas, Iran and Biden
The U.S. needs to give Israel time to degrade the rocket threat.
By The Editorial Board - May 16, 2021
[...]
But who's really endangering the journalists? Israel’s government says the multistory building was also used by Hamas for intelligence purposes. AP says it had no knowledge of this, but this wasn’t the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Using civilians and journalists as shields is a common Hamas tactic, and Hamas isn’t likely to have shared its plans with Western journalists.
Israel also warned the journalists and others in the building to clear out an hour before the attack. They did and there are no reports of casualties. This also let Hamas's militants escape, but it shows how far Israel has gone in this conflict to avoid killing civilians. Inevitably there will be mistakes in war, and civilians will die, but it's remarkable how discriminating Israel’s targeting has been.
The truth to keep in mind is that this conflict was started by Hamas and another radical outfit, Islamic Jihad. They are attempting to kill Israeli civilians with rockets supplied by Iran, or manufactured in Gaza with parts supplied by Iran. Hamas’s rocket arsenal is larger and more sophisticated than ever, and the Israel Defense Forces said that as of Sunday the Islamists had fired some 3,000 rockets into Israel. The miracle is that more Israelis haven’t died, and that’s due in large part to Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-hamas-iran-and-biden-11621195618
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IDF: Gaza tower housed Hamas 'military assets,' terror group used press as ‘human shields’
May 15, 2021 — The IDF accuses Hamas of “hiding behind” the offices of the press outlets in the Al Jalaa tower and “using them as human shields.” “The Hamas ..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-gaza-tower-housed-hamas-military-assets-terror-group-used-press-as-human-shields/
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"There are children here, we will not go for it": the shelling that the IDF canceled | Documentation
Shirel Laloom | 5 Sivan 5781 (May 16, 2021) | 15:30
The IDF released documentation of an attack that was canceled at the last minute due to the presence of children at the scene.
An amazing video released by the IDF today shows a planned attack in Gaza being stopped by soldiers noticing Gazan children.
https://www.20il.co.il/%D7%99%D7%A9-%D7%A4%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%A0%D7%9C%D7%9A-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%92%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%A6%D7%94%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%99%D7%98/
"This Is morality"
"Check, maybe there are children": This is how the IDF refrained from operating in Gaza. Watch.
In a new documentation revealed by the Air Force, the soldiers in the "control room" are seen considering attacking a terrorist target in Gaza, but refraining - for fear that children will be harmed; Defense Minister Ganz praised them - Watch (Defense).
B. Nissani | 5 Sivan 5781, 16.05.21
https://www.kikar.co.il/392065.html
Experts Call on Canada to Sanction Military Exploits of ‘Human Shields’
May 17, 2021 19:21, Last Updated: May 17, 2021 19:21
By Andrew Chen
Experts are calling on Canada lawmakers to pass laws aimed at sanctioning the use of “human shields,” amid reports of terrorist group Hamas is using civilians as a cover for military assets in its recent crossfire with Israel.
https://m.theepochtimes.com/experts-call-on-canada-to-sanction-military-exploits-of-human-shields_3819158.html
Opinion: You should be concerned about Hamas’ attacks on Israel
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 12:49 PM
By Anat Sultan-Dadon
Over the last 5 days, Hamas terrorists have been constantly firing rockets at the state of Israel from the Gaza strip, targeting our civilian populations. They are not only deliberately targeting civilians; they are doing so intentionally from within their own civilian populations, using them as human shields, which constitutes a double war crime.
https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-you-should-be-concerned-about-hamas-attacks-on-israel/M7GO7M6TNZCW5CKVQF4WDTNTGU/
Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes so as not to serve as human shields for ... | Hamal
Dr. Amir Bohbot
May 17, 2021
- Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes so as not to serve as human shields for terrorist operatives In one case Palestinian children were killed and Hamas claimed it was an attack by the Air Force while the defense establishment claimed that a human rights organization report saud it was a rocket fall.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.hamal.co.il/post/-M_uim8tFYC0MgD04LRQ
Thousands of targets built by Hamas and Islamic Jihad were dug under mosques, schools, kindergartens, community centers and more to prevent the IDF from attacking them.
Amazing how sensitive sitemap overlaps destination map | Dr. Amir Bohbot, May 18, 2021
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.hamal.co.il/post/-Ma0HViXtMA_g_e8aCvD
'Shocking' Phone Call Between IDF and Gazan Reveals 'Entire Conflict in a Nutshell'
Leah Barkoukis | @LeahBarkoukis | May 19, 2021
A short but “shocking” phone call between the Israeli Defense Forces and a Palestinian in Gaza reveals "the entire conflict in a nutshell.."
In the recording, the IDF is attempting to warn about an impending strike, pleading for the man to evacuate the building before the bombing because civilians are present.
“I can’t get all of the people out I need at least two hours to get them out,” the Palestinian says.
“Listen, we are going to bomb the building,” the member of the IDF replies.
“You want to bomb? Bomb whatever you want,” the man responds.
“No, brother, we need to do everything we can so you don’t die,” the IDF member says.
“We want to die,” the Palestinian answers.
“But you have a responsibility for children’s lives,” the Israeli pushes back.
“If the children need to die then they’ll die,” the Palestinian counters.
“God forbid, God forbid, what do you want, to die?!” the soldier asks.
“This is how we reveal your cruelty,” the man responds...
https://townhall.com/tipsheet//leahbarkoukis/2021/05/19/shocking-phone-call-between-idf-and-gazan-reveals-entire-conflict-in-a-nutshell-n2589676
Shock Video: IDF Warns Gazan Man To Evacuate Children Before Bombing. He Responds: ‘If The Children Need To Die Then They’ll Die’
By Hank Berrien - May 19, 2021 . DailyWire.com
Before strikes on buildings in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces call residents of those buildings to give them a chance to evacuate and preserve their lives. A new video shows the IDF pleading with a Gazan man on the other end of the line to evacuate a targeted building, saying he had a responsibility for children’s lives. The man responded, “If the children need to die then they’ll die.”
In the video, aired by Sky News (below), the Gazan man initially tries to stall for time, saying, “I can’t get all of the people out; I need at least two hours to get them out.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/shock-video-idf-warns-gazan-man-to-evacuate-children-before-bombing-he-responds-if-the-children-need-to-die-then-theyll-die
יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) Tweeted:
Through a 30 second conversation between the IDF and a Palestinian in #Gaza you can understand who is choosing life and who is choosing death.
A shocking phone call, must watch: https://t.co/4soDBV2AVE https://twitter.com/YosephHaddad/status/1394900465498869762?s=20 [May 19, 2021]
Bennett slams John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Bella Hadid on Israel criticism
By AARON REICH, ZACHARY KEYSER
MAY 20, 2021 21:13
... Israel just wants to live in peace with its neighbors, "but what we won't do is commit suicide so you can make your snarky comedy bits."
.... Many of these criticisms stemmed from the idea that there is a significant disparity in casualties, with Hamas suffering far more casualties than Israel, due in part to the Iron Dome defense system.
But Bennett sought to set the record straight for who he sarcastically called "The 'great philosophers' of our age."
Bennett... gave numerous examples of important Gazan facilities such as Shifa hospital and the Ayyobiya Boys School, both of which are also Hamas facilities that are used to help plan attacks on Israel or store weapons.
.... the example of the al-Jalaa building, where several media outlets like Al Jazeera and the Associated Press had offices. ...also housed a Hamas military ...
"So Bella, John and Noah, help me out here," he said. "If a terror organization like Hamas called to murder your families and launched thousands of missiles at your children while they're hiding inside hospitals, schools and media offices, what would you do?"
... two options. Do nothing and die, or respond.
"I don't know about you all, but we're gonna go with number two," Bennett explained.
... If celebrities like Noah, Oliver and Hadid want to help end this war, then they should be using their platforms to demand Hamas stop hiding behind innocent civilians, he said.
"Maybe you should ask Hamas operator, Fathi Hamad, to stop bragging that 'Palestinian women and children make the best human shields,"
....
On May 16, the Israel Twitter account responded to Hadid, who along with her sister Gigi Hadid had shared multiple pro-Palestinian messages on social media, many of which were controversial.
"When celebrities like @BellaHadid advocate for throwing Jews into the sea, they are advocating for the elimination of the Jewish State," the Israel Twitter account wrote.
"This shouldn't be an Israeli-Palestinian issue. This should be a human issue. Shame on you."...
Responding to Oliver, Renana, a 10-year-old girl from Kfar Azza, a Gaza border community where rocket sirens have been ringing day and night for the past week and a half, recorded a video ...
"Every siren makes me cry and feel sad," Renana said, speaking well beyond her years. "Just so you know, my army is strong. However, this does not protect me from being afraid."
https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/bennett-slams-john-oliver-trevor-noah-bella-hadid-on-israel-criticism-668672
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Khaled Abu Toameh @KhaledAbuToameh
UNRWA 'condemns the existence and potential use by Palestinian armed groups of tunnels underneath its schools (in Gaza) in the strongest possible terms It is unacceptable that students and staff be placed at risk in such a way.'
8:23 PM · Jun 5, 2021· https://mobile.twitter.com/KhaledAbuToameh/status/1401333927428640775
UNRWA finds attack tunnel under one of its Gaza schools
By Tovah Lazaroff
June 6, 2021 21:36
... “UNRWA condemns the existence and potential use by Palestinian armed groups of such tunnels underneath its schools in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable that students and staff be placed at risk in such a way,” the organization stated.
https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/unrwa-finds-attack-tunnel-under-one-of-its-gaza-schools-670262
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Egyptian-American Political Analyst Magdi Khalil: Hamas Uses Gaza Civilians As Human Shields; Recent Fighting Was Intended To Help Iran In Nuclear Negotiations
#8917 | 03:02
Source: Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar)
https://www.memri.org/tv/magdi-khalil-hamas-uses-gaza-civilians-as-human-shields
____________________________
* HEZBOLLAH *
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hizballah sub-contracts Palestinian launch squads, uses Christian villages as human shields
July 19, 2006, 5:48 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Palestinian Jihad Islami, Ahmed Jibril’s PFLP-General Command and Palestinian crime gangs based in S. Lebanon’s Burj Shimali east of Tyre are leading the rocket offensive against Nahariya and coastal Galilee. Early Wednesday, an Israeli air raid struck a village house in this sector east of Tyre, causing 10 deaths, according to Lebanese officials...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060719180552/http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=2926
Canadian Soldier Says UN Position Used As Cover By Hezbollah
July 26, 2006 11:40 p.m. EST
Ryan R. Jones - All Headline News Correspondent
Beirut, Lebanon (AHN) - A Canadian UN peacekeeper killed in an Israeli air strike Tuesday complained just days before that tragic incident that his position was being used as cover by Hezbollah terrorists attacking Israel.
In an interview on CBC Radio in Toronto, Major General Lewis MacKenzie (ret.) said he had been privy to e-mails received from the soldier over the past week.
MacKenzie, who happened to know the deceased personally, said in one such correspondence the soldier "described the fact that he was taking within…three meters of his position 'for tactical necessity - not being targeted.'"
The general explained that is veiled military speech "telling us [that] Hezbollah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them."
He said using UN personnel as human shields is “a favorite trick by people who don’t have representation in the UN,” knowing they will suffer no direct consequences for the violation.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060822035411/http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004343191
Even the UN are used as human shields
July 27, 2006
As the world is outraged by the death of four Unifil members at the hands of Israeli artillery fire, I was keeping quiet until more news would creep out, which it inevitably would.
Israel does not attack people for no reason, and it also does not attack a target by mistake for hours on end. These facts are a given, and so it follows the attack at or near the Unifil post must have been deliberate, and it must have been justified. The death of the Unifil members was perhaps not intentional, but it was not something Israel was bound to avoid if the price was a carte blanche shelling from Hezbullah. And this was exactly the issue.
On October 7th, 2000, Hezbullah crossed the border of Israel and kidnapped three Israeli soldiers. The UN witnessed the entire event and VIDEOTAPED it. There are strong indications that elements of the UN forces present were involved in the terrorist operation.
At first, the UN flatly denied it had videotapes of the kidnapping. When denial was no longer possible,
On July 6, 2001, the U.N. finally admitted that they possessed the tape as of 18 hours after the incident occurred.
Some believe the denial was intentional. They believe that UNIFIL workers in the area had prior knowledge of the kidnapping plot, but did nothing to prevent it. Hizbullah crossed through a U.N. patrolled area to get to the Israeli soldiers.
http://web.archive.org/web/20071118115055/http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=2002
UNITED NATIONS INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON (UNIFIL)
Naqoura, 20 July 2006
PRESS RELEASE
... Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naqoura and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061203030252/http://www.un.org/depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr04.pdf
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Senate passes bill sanctioning Hamas, Hezbollah 'human shields' practice
By MICHAEL WILNER
OCTOBER 12, 2018 23:35
The legislation, titled the STOP Using Human Shields Act, was authored and supported by Republican and Democrats.
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Senate-passes-bill-sanctioning-Hamas-Hezbollah-human-shields-practice-569289
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On the target: Hezbollah's "human defenders" in Lebanon Israel Hayom.
Jan 6, 2019 - Hezbollah in Lebanon // Photo: Reuters. An open secret is that Hezbollah stores weapons in civilian buildings in southern Lebanon, thus creating a human shield against activity.
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/interactive/amp/article/622059
US Congress Urges UN to Crack Down on Lebanon's Hizbullah - The Media Line
Nov 25, 2019 — ... the letter continues, “has positioned its massive arsenal [of missiles] in civilian areas, turning much of Lebanon's population into human shields..
https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/us-congress-urges-un-to-crack-down-on-lebanons-hizbullah/
28 Hezbollah missile launch sites detected in civilian areas, highlighting its 'human shield' tactic in Lebanon
Hezbollah's weapons arsenal is increasingly hidden in densely-populated parts of Lebanon
By Hollie McKay | Fox News - Last Update July 14, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/world/28-new-hezbollah-missile-launch-sites-detected-in-civilians-areas-highlighting-its-human-shield-tactic
Hezbollah - Using Lebanese Citizens as a "Human Shields"
https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_human_shields_1.pdf
Hezbollah's Use of Human Shields
https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollah/hezbollahs-use-of-human-shields/
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