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.
