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The Spectacle Blog
The AP reports:
GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) -- Residents of a Gaza neighborhood are confirming Israel's claim that Hamas militants had opened fire from the cover of a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge.
Israeli forces fired back with mortars, and hospital officials says three dozen Palestinians were killed.
Two residents say a group of militants had fired their mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets. The Israeli army says two of the dead were militants. It accuses Gaza's Hamas rulers of "cynically" using civilians as human shields.
And here's a video from 2007 of Hamas members firing rockets from the same location. Nobody who is being intellectually honest can dispute the fact that Hamas uses civilians as human shields to make Israel hesitate, or, alternatively, to gain a propaganda victory when civilians are killed. That forces Israel to make a choice. Either Israelis target Hamas militants -- with the unfortunate consequences that civilians may be killed -- or they never fire if civilians are in the area, which would send a signal to terrorists that as long as they hide among women and children they can fire their rockets with impunity.
As I've mentioned before, this is also another reason for the disproportionate death tolls. Israelis go to great lengths to protect their own civilians, while Hamas makes the strategic decision to place its own civilians in harm's way.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/01/07/hamas-and-human-shields-at-the
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rob| 1.7.09 @ 12:51PM
Palestinians, love being Martyrs, make them all martyrs.
Marc Jeric| 1.7.09 @ 1:09PM
We used to have the winning rules of engagement - now we are burdened by the losing ones. In the waning months of WW2 an American unit of some 20 infantry, one tank, led by a lieutenant was approaching a beautifully preserved medieval towm of Ammerschwier in Alsace. Its mayor came out with a white flag, assuring the Americans that there was no resistance in the town - thus hoping to save it from damage. So the Americans march in - when suddenly a hidden sniper killed the lieutenant. The tank and the infantry retreated and called for air support. The bombers came in within minutes and blasted the town to smithereens. No other German town resorted to such means.
After the war the American taxpayer paid for a complete restauration of that town - including original construction material and methods; but those rules of engagement won the war!
Interested Conservative| 1.7.09 @ 1:44PM
One quibble with Phil Kleins commentary - it doesn't seem that the "terrorists" (quoted only since their are numerous synonyms which come to mind) "hide among women and children". Rather, it's built into their order of battle.
It's debatable if we need go to the ROE's which Mr. Jeric recalls, but UN local officials' actions and commentary on IDF combat moves are so biased that they mislead the debate and disqualify themselves from useful commentary, as in so much of their activity around the world.
John| 1.7.09 @ 2:06PM
It's all those dirty Arabs' fault. Israel is #1 in my book. Even in front of America.
Israel #1
America #2
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