Human shields by terrorists

The tactic of using human shields is very early, many have used human shields. The 'uniqueness' of terrorists is by using its own people.

Among documented noted terror entities[1][2] using this method:

* Taliban (supported by Pakistan, Qatar and Iran. [3][4]) In 2007, [5] in 2009, [6] in 2010,[7] in 2015,[8] in 2017, [9] in 2018,[10] and in 2019.[11][12]
* ISIS[13][14][15]

* Al Qaeda[16][17]
* Iran's 'Fatemiyoun' terrorists.[18][19]

* Houthis (Iranian proxy)[20][21][22]
* Hezbollah[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] (Iranian proxy).
* Arafat \- PLO.[33][34]
* Arafat's Fatah 'Force 17' القوة 17]][35]
* Tanzim (Arab-Palestinian group).[36]
* Fatah al-Islam - Shaker al-Absi (2007).[37][38]
* Al-Qassam (Arab-Palestinian group).[39]
* Hamas[40][41][42] Iranian proxy.[43][44] Pakistani and Iranian trained.[45]
* Bilal Badr, ("Palestinian" jihadist [46]) in 2017.[38]
* Palestinian Islamic Jihad.[42][47][48][44][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] Iran linked.[57][58][59]

## Contents

* 1 Palestine: 1939
* 2 Terror states, dictators
* 3 Anti-Israel forces
* 3.1 Action
* 4 References

## Palestine: 1939[edit]

Already in 1939, Yusuf Sa'id Abu Durra (1900 – 1940 - nom de guerre: Abu Abed), of Mohammed Amin Al-Husseini grand Mufti of a Jerusalem's terror gang, used women to escape.[60]

## Terror states, dictators[edit]

* Saddam's Iraqi loyalists, Islamists 2003-2004. [61][62][63]

* Gaddafi [Qaddafi, Khadafy] Libyan dictator (2011).[64][65][66]

* Syria, Bashar al-Assad.[67][68][69]

* Turkey's (dictator[70][71][72][73][74][75][76] ethnic-cleanser, oppressor, Islamist[77][78] fascist[79][80][81][82][83]) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, (2020).[84][85]

## Anti-Israel forces[edit]

The use of its civilians (in attacking Israeli civilians - the double crime[86]) by anti-Israel Arab-"Palestinians" or Hezbollah goes back to at least 1982, by Arafat at PLO.[33][87][88][89][90][91][92][34][93]

It has unfortunately caused many deaths while "successfully" duped the media or/and many reporters have played along.

This routine, practice, makes the anti-Israel Arab-Islamic forces the powerful destructive 'Goliath' vs 'David' - Israel - the careful side, despite its military capabilities.

It hinders Israel's defense and limits getting majority of terror targets.[94]

Most widespread, by Islamic Jihad and Hamas.[95] [96] Even by own admission.[97][98][99] That, in addition to operatives confessing to this fact.[100]

Among its usage:

* Schools.[101][102][36][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][32]
* Hospitals.[112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][100][120]
[121][122][123][124][54]

* Residences/private homes.[125][126][127]
* Places of worship.[128][33][129][115]
* Kids.[130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137]

* Women.[129][138]
* Ambulances.[139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150]

* Journalists.[151][152][126][153]
* UN vehicles.[154]
* Media outlets.[155][156][157]

Re Hamas[158]

> Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip since it defeated Fatah in elections and expelled its members by killing about 500 of them, between the years 2006 and 2007, learned from Hezbollah how to achieve gains on the conflict against the “Zionist enemy”. Hamas has adopted Hezbollah modus operandi using civilians as “human shields”. Few years ago the IDF published how it looks in the Shiite village of Al-Khiyam in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has placed the weapon depots dozen meters from schools in the crowded center of the village. Over the years, Hamas enjoyed wide assistance of training and consultancy from Hezbollah and applied the same methodology in Gaza. An underground, well concreted City was dug in Gaza, Where Hamas militants were hiding, while a single shelter was not built for the citizens. Gaza villages, as in Southern Lebanon, became military compounds including armories, headquarters, intelligence positions, rocket launching positions, etc. All these were spread throughout the village according to the terrain analysis: observation posts on high positions controlling the roads below, important assets such as command centers and weapons warehouses in the most crowded or sensitive sites such as hospitals, schools and mosques. During an escalation, rockets are being launched from the hidden positions that were dug in advance – within or under homes, schools, mosques and various religious centers. For example, the attached video shows rockets launched last week from the “Al-Noor” school in the Gaza Strip.

NATO has documented Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza.[159]

Columnist:[160]

> It’s often pointed out that Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. It’s more than that. Hamas, with Iran’s backing, is committed to Israel’s violent destruction. Missiles have fallen on schools and homes. Hamas is explicit about desiring Israeli counterattacks, because while Hamas aims to kill Israeli civilians, they know that Israel tries very hard not to kill Palestinian civilians. But every Palestinian death at the hands of Israel is seen as a propaganda victory for Hamas — which is why they place their munitions and terrorists in mosques, hospitals, and homes crowded with children.

Dubbed the 'dead baby strategy.'[161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169]
[170][171][172][173][174][175][176][177]

In a 2012 example in eliminating a terror master, it was explained:[178]

> ... For sure Hamas carries out good deeds among the Palestinian poor in Gaza, with clinics and soup kitchens, but this is largely an attempt to indoctrinate them in anti-Semitic hatred by a political leadership that gives the armed wing its strategic marching orders.

> The core fighters of the military wing number several hundreds of men, trained in Iran and Syria, but there another 10,000 people who facilitate their evil deeds.

> Hamas is not some benign conservative religious party. The 2012 list of its regular human rights abuses compiled by the organisation Human Rights Watch runs to 42 pages, and includes beating people with iron bars, 102 cases of torture, and the hanging of anyone suspected of collaborating with the Israelis.

> Their fighters employ child suicide bombers and use Palestinian civilians as human shields. This is the organisation to which Jaberi devoted the last decades of his violent life.

> Jaberi, for example, is believed to have been involved in the suicide bombing of a No 6 bus in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom in 1995 that killed eight and wounded 60 others.

Hamas' human shields has been widely noted by international journalists,[179] and has even threatened journalists reporting about it.[180][181][123]

Already in 2009, the fear factor was raised which prevents Arab Palestinians in testifying about it,[182] before Richard Goldstone saw the facts and had revised his report, admitting he was wrong, seeing Israel's evidence, and that the IDF's killing was unintentional.[183]

Already in 2008, Hamas openly bragged about the use of women and children as shields.[184]

Even biased HRW acknowledged it already in 2009.[185]

In 2014 it called on the "Palestinian" people to use the tactic to defend their homes: "We in the Hamas movement call on our people to adopt this procedure."[186]

At the time, a 'manual' by Hamas, instruction on human-shields, was found too.[187]

Hamas terrorists confessed to human shields use,[188] including that it was “widely known” that senior Hamas operatives had been hiding inside of Gaza’s hospitals.[100]

As Israel, the side that does care about all civilians, enacted its inventive advanced warning for civilians to evacuate ahead of targeting terrorists or/and weapon facilities etc., Hamas called on the population to stay put and not adhere to IDF warning.[189]

In June, 2021, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar himself admitted that the terrorist group hides in civilian buildings in Gaza.[190][191]

In July, 2021, in a rare rebuke, Arab-Palestinians, Fatah Palestinian Authority --though themselves terrorists in suits[192]\-- rights groups condemned Hamas for storing weapons in civilian areas.[193]

As summarised, [194]

> Certain facts are irrefutable. The terrorists are motivated by hatred and aim to wound or kill innocent women, men and children. Israel, by contrast, is motivated by the legal and moral imperative to protect and preserve life, and is always entirely justified in acting in its own self-defense...It is impossible to obtain reliable data on civilian casualties in Gaza. Data that is provided to and reported by the media come from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. What we do know — what is proven — is that Hamas commits war crimes by using Palestinians as human shields. No place in Gaza is safe from Hamas. Rockets, mortars, rifles and missiles are stored or fired from schools, apartment buildings, offices, mosques and hospitals.

A Finnish journalist reported seeing Hamas terrorists launch a rocket at Israel from a Gaza hospital, but later attacked news outlets for using her report as a pro-Israel “propaganda weapon.”[122] She is of Arab descent.

The Hamas terror-tunnels have been built intentionally beneath civilian areas. And the IDF had to maneuver very carefully how to eliminate terror actors hiding there, such as in Guardian of walls op. [195]

Days after Guardian of walls op., on May-28-2021, Hamas' head Y. Sinwar, played "hero," challenging Israel to eliminate him while he was careful to surrounded himself with civilians.[196]

Researchers' summary on crimes by Hamas at Guardian of walls:[197]

>   * As recognized by international law, Israel has the legal right to employ the force necessary to defend itself. President Biden, on May 16, 2021, “reaffirmed his strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.”

Book:[198]

>> The May 2021 conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas generated headlines around the world. However, much of the reporting ignored the history, funding, political dynamics, and other key components of the story. Hamas initiates conflict every few years. But the reporting rarely improves. Social media has only further clouded the picture. Hamas is rarely held responsible for its use of "human shields," blindly firing rockets at civilian areas in Israel, or diverting aid that should benefit the people of Gaza.

>> The Islamic Republic of Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, has been the primary patron of Hamas since the group's inception in the late 1980s. Hamas has received additional assistance over the years from Qatar, Turkey and Malaysia. These countries are fomenting conflict, while others, such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have tried to minimize it. Gaza is therefore ground zero in a struggle for the future stability of the Middle East.

>> The Biden administration has important choices to make. Its intent to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal could have significant consequences, given that sanctions relief to Iran will likely yield a financial boon for Hamas, along with other Iranian proxies. The Biden administration must also come to terms with "The Squad," a small but loud faction of the Democratic Party that seeks to undermine the US-Israel relationship.

>   * From a young age, Palestinian children are indoctrinated by the Palestinian leadership to seek death through war. For example, the daughter of a Hamas official was recorded saying, “If we die, we will die as Martyrs for the sake of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.” Such indoctrination is reinforced in summer camps for children and culminates in the conscription of children into military units, in direct violation of international humanitarian law.

>   * In the course of the 11-day conflict, from May 10 to May 21, 2021, Hamas launched 4,300 rockets at Israeli civilians in a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which calls to protect civilian populations during military operations. Article 25 of the 1907 Hague Regulations specifically prohibits attacks or bombardment of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings that are undefended.

>   * Hamas unapologetically uses its own civilians as human shields, unconcerned with the fatal ramifications of its actions. British Colonel Richard Kemp designated Hamas as “the first ‘army’ in history to use their own civilian populations as a primary weapon of war.” On May 12, 2021, UN Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland told the UN Security Council, “Hamas and other militants’ indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars from highly populated civilian neighborhoods into civilian population centers in Israel violates international humanitarian law, is unacceptable, and has to stop immediately.”

>   * Israel makes a concerted effort to limit civilian casualties. The IDF engages in the practice of “roof knocking” to warn civilians prior to an attack on Hamas targets. In addition, before Israeli attacks, civilians receive phone calls advising them to evacuate. Israeli drones watch from above, and attacks are permitted only after it is confirmed that the building has been evacuated.
>   * Hamas demonstrates no respect for international humanitarian law designed to protect innocent civilians. Therefore, it is vital that Hamas be held accountable for its illegal actions in international forums and international courts of law. Without doing so, there will be no justice for those who have suffered from the grave human rights abuses committed by Hamas.

In August 2021, Hamas arrested 20-year-old Mustafa Asfour for criticizing Hamas storing weapons in residential areas in the Gaza Strip.[199]

In July 2022: The IDF reveals to the world - Hamas infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population in Gaza - using schools, mosques and even hospitals.[200]

"Palestinians" themselves, in the West Bank, showed a majority supporting launching rockets/missiles into Israel from within populated areas, which is de factor human shields. From a poll 2014 poll:[201]

> addressing the Israeli talking point of Hamas using civilians in Gaza as "human shields," revealed interesting answers. Fifty-seven percent of respondents justified rocket launching from within populated areas; but a large discrepancy existed between Gaza — which suffered the brunt of the Israeli attacks — with 48% support, and the West Bank, with 62%.

UN \--and the like-- (by "default") boring predictable anti-Israel "resolutions" routine are also at fault for the intensification of this practice.[202] In an example of terror assisting operation - abusing humanitarian Israel's hospitals treating Arab Palestinians: Marwan Abu Rida, an ambulance driver for the Red Crescent, has been using his position to exploit patients seeking medical treatment in Israel for terrorist organizations.[203]

Report in 2017-2018 on Hezbollah:[204]

> Those who follow events in the Middle East are no stranger to the carnage in Syria, but there is another humanitarian crisis in the making you probably haven’t heard much about. Why? Because you will only read it, splashed across international newspapers, when it is too late and everyone acts surprised and outraged that it happened.

> Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist organization bankrolled by Iran and effectively in control of Lebanon, is steeling itself for a new war with Israel. At the heart of the group’s military strategy is the deployment of human shields — a war crime and terrorist tactic aimed at exploiting the moral sensibility of the enemy.

> Israeli military officials have warned that Hezbollah has turned hundreds of Lebanese villages into fighting zones, establishing bases in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon, both “above and below live civilians whom we [Israel] have nothing against — a kind of human shield,” said Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, chief of staff for the Israel Defense Forces.

> Hezbollah has a presence in “every third or fourth house,” he added, spread out across 240 villages in southern Lebanon, in blatant violation of U.N. Resolution 1701, which calls for the removal of all armed groups from the area. Hezbollah continues to receive weapons from its patrons in Iran and the U.N. Security Council has so far failed to enforce the resolution.

> A significant part of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure is embedded in civilian areas. Rockets, bombs and rifles are placed under homes, schools and hospitals with the grim intention that, if Israel needs to take out Hezbollah’s arsenals in a preventive strike, the operation will lead to mass civilian casualties.

> Hezbollah is playing a zero-sum game at the expense of its own population, thus leaving Israel in a tough spot: knock out the weapons before they put at risk the lives of Israelis, or wait until they are deployed and risk the lives of both Israeli and Lebanese civilians. It is a no-win situation for Israel. Either way, Israel will be inevitably blamed for any civilian casualties...

Expert on Hezbollah's tunnels:[205]

> Lebanese "human shield"

> Most Lebanese military commentators explain that the excavation of the tunnels is the result of the lessons of the Second Lebanon War, and were intended to protect Hezbollah fighters and equipment from Israel's subsequent bombings. Al-Qusayr-Zabdani's border area is strategically convenient for Hezbollah because it is mountainous, and compared to other areas for fighter jets it is difficult to bomb.

> Lebanese commentator Ahmad al-Ayoubi claimed that Hezbollah was acting without any regard for Lebanon, as the country's landlord, and in 2006 brought disaster and tremendous destruction to Lebanon, all due to the irresponsible step of kidnapping soldiers, serving only the organization's interests. Now the tunnels could bring exactly the same results. According to al-Ayoubi, Hezbollah is defending itself and not the Lebanese. In the next war, the organization's fighters will be in the tunnels, while the civilians will snatch the fire from Israeli planes. Lebanese citizens are becoming a human shield of the organization.

As a result of Hezbollah using civilians as human shields including placing weapons near residential areas,[206] the Aug 4, 2020, explosion damaged over half the city and killed at least 218 people.[207] Fearing truth will be revealed about Hezbollah's fault, its thugs attacked protesting investigation on Oct 14, 2021. 6 killed, 32 injured.[208][209]

Anti-Israel Islamist terrorists see their methods, firing from residential places, schools, etc. as a win win situation. In case they save themselves and their weaponry, of course they then can keep on the assault on Israeli civilians. If many civilians on its own side die, then Israel's image is even more in shambles and graphic photos are most powerful in bringing sympathy and even recruitment.

Among the famous dates:

* Dec.2000 letter by Arab women on use of kids as "cannon fodders";

* the letter by US doctors;

* the firing behind children stone throwers at intifada;

* 2000-2002 increased use;

* At IDF eliminating Jihadists in Jenin-2002 - which is why the IDF went door to door;

* 2006 Beit-Hanoun widely reported internationally of using women and terrorists did escaped (including BBC reporting on Hamas radio, Nov 3, call to women);

* 2002-2006 use of ambulances; including the May-13-2004 UNRWA press release

* 2008-2009 including on air real time Arab journalist reporting rockets fired from beneath;

* In 2008, Hamas' Fathi Hanmad stated that they have been using women and children.

Hamas explains use of human shields: "We desire death as you desire life;"

* In 2008, Fatah men accused Hamas of forcing them to act as human shields;

* 2009 Jan., per AP report, locals affirm that "Hamas militants had opened fire from the cover of a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge."

* 2009, PBS' statement from a doctor at hospital of Hamas terrorists hiding there, thus reaffirming IDF's revelations already in Dec-2008;

* 2009, J. Fleishman in L.A. Times, Jan. 23, detailing how Hamas used a bunker beneath a hospital as a headquarters;

* Oct-13-2009, PA's Mahmoud Abbas: Hamas Leaders Fled to the Sinai in Ambulances during the Israeli Campaign in Gaza;

* 2011 Hamas boasting, bragging of its launching actually showed in its provided images the residential locations where it fired from;

* In 2014, Hamas' Sami Abu Zuhri called on the Palestinian people to use the tactic to defend their homes: "We in the Hamas movement call on our people to adopt this procedure;"

* 2014, UN admitting its UNRWA was used;

* Summer-2014 widely array of international journalists --including Finnish, Polish (recounting it following year), French, Italian, Indian, Canadian reporters-- report of firing from civilian population and then there were reports of many threatened by Hamas for reporting;

* July-2014, WP report of Shifa hpspital being a "de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders;"

* July-2014, Hamas' 'human shields' how to, manual - captured;

* M. Friedman of AP reports (in 2014) how Hamas uses and even controls journalists;

* Hamas firing from besides offices of AP journalists; 2017-2021;

* In 2018 Hamas' Sinwar: "We Decided To Turn The Bodies Of Our Women And Children Into A Dam Blocking Arab Collapse;"

* In 2021 IDF aborting operations as kids were around;
* rocket launchers found near school.
* terror tunnels beneath schools - UNRWA acknowledges;
* in June-2021 Hamas' Sinwar admitting to the operations located in residential places;
* in Aug-2021, Hamas arrests Mustafa Asfour for criticizing Hamas storing weapons in residential areas.

Or Hezbollah use - most notably:

* using Christian villages
* UN recognized the fact in 2001
* and in 2006
* also by foreign journalist in 2006;
* the wide report of using civilians in 2018-19;
* 2021, the Druze fighting Hezbolllah for launching rockets from near their houses in order so to draw fire from IDF at them.

Experts:[210]

> Hamas has established an orderly paramilitary framework with brigades, battalions, companies, and platoons as well as dedicated units, including intelligence, commando and cyber units. Its arsenal includes thousands of rockets and missiles at their disposal, as well as dozens of kilometers of tunnels often built underneath highly-sensitive areas in the Gaza Strip such as hospitals. Rockets have even been found underneath UNRWA schools...

> Moral and legal justifications that were developed after World War II for declaring and waging wars (specifically the Hague and Geneva Convention) were meant for sovereign states. They are not appropriate for waging wars fought against terrorist organizations like Hamas. This puts Israel at a significant disadvantage to effectively defend itself and its citizens.

> In the current campaign between Israel and Hamas, the front and home front are blurred together. Hamas forces civilians in the Gaza Strip and Israel to be on the front lines. Hamas deliberately uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, since the terrorists are launching rockets and missiles from heavily-populated areas towards Israeli cities. Israel on the other hand, is trying to save innocent lives by always notifying Palestinian civilians in the building that is going to be targeted. The IDF does this by sending leaflets, making phone calls, using “knock on the roof” tactics and more.

In the course of the years, the IDF has developed and constantly improved methods, tools to minimize civilian casualties on the other side, including notifying owners of properties ahead of an operation so that civilians can evacuate and more precision guided weapons to hit more accurately at the target. Yet, nothing can ever be 100% a 100% of the times. Plus, the dilemma is great, sacrificing in not eliminating terror targets such as arsenal, tunnels and operatives who cynically use its people.

As explained in a piece "The Media’s Role in Hamas' War Strategy":[211]

> 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:

> 1\. Episodically attack Israel’s civilians in such as way as to provoke a counter-attack.

> 2\. 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.

> 3\. Encourage the Western news media to play up the civilian suffering, play down Hamas’ role in it, and accuse Israel.

> 4\. Conjure a firestorm of outrage around the world that eventually pressures Israel into desisting from counteroffensive measures.

> 5\. Survive to reap the propaganda victory and prepare the next round of hostilities.

> 6\. 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 lead to pogroms against the Jews worldwide.

Despite a pair of pro-Terror radical "activists"

[one, a former al-Jazeera guy, caught lying already before,[212]

another one (Neve Gordon), extremist,[213] hugging, shielding Arafat in the height of 2002 Intifadah massacres,[214] lying as if he "doesn't" know who is responsible for the terror massacres,[215]

"Gordon is so anti-Israel that his columns have been published on the neo-Nazi Zundelsite website operated by Ernst Zundel, the Nazi whom Canada recently deported to Germany, and on Islamic fundamentalist pro-terror web sites." He was "arrested for illegally trying to interfere with the Israeli army's anti-terror activities by serving as a human shield for Arafat and the wanted terrorists being hidden in PLO offices."[216] "Neve Gordon has gotten into bed with neo-Nazis, Holocaust justice deniers, and anti-Semites. He is a despicable example of a self-hating Jew and a self-hating Israeli."

Accused[217] of 'racist Judeophobic rhetoric.'

> Taken from an article by a senior Israeli academic, this excerpt typifies the racist Judeophobic rhetoric that has come to dominate the public discourse on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

Accused of inciting anti-Semitism in Arab press by invoking old libels.[218] Described as kind of a fascist type, [219] and who has been chastising, punishing his students for daring to challenge him on his distortion,[220] inciting vengeful treatment against a student who dared challenged his gross lie of his defining a road of all Israelis, Israelis-roads, both Arab and Jewish, as supposedly "just" Jewish. Thus inciting hatred.[221] Even the lefty Ben Gurion Uni condemned his ideas/views:[222] "We strongly reject the destructive views of Gordon, who cynically uses the existing freedom of expression in Israel and at Ben-Gurion University."]

co-authoring[223] a "book"[220] whereby in reality he identifies with Hamas[224] \--"book" promoted by two known hateful over-a-decade-propagandists[225] yet, facts are facts.
Both "co-authors" wrote earlier against denouncing Hamas for its routine method of using its people as human shields. Using that pseudo line of which side lost more, (asides from the unreliable figures of so called "civilians" coming from pallywood), they wrote/protested against Amnesty's report: [44] 26 March 2015, Index number: MDE 21/1178/2015: During the Gaza/Israel conflict in July and August 2014, Palestinian armed groups fired thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel, in many cases directed towards Israeli civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law. The conduct of Palestinian armed groups, including firing from residential areas and using indiscriminate munitions that cannot be accurately directed at a military target, also endangered civilians in Gaza.)

It has been pointed out, one might imagine, what would have happened, if Israel would, even once, albeit not go as far as to behave like its Arab Palestinian or Hezbollah side that actively aim at civilians while using its own, but with its mighty weapons just hadn’t gone to great length ['roof knocking',[226] developing precision 'Iron Sting' for precision preventing collateral damage[227] various methods[228][229]] to minimize civilians from adversary territories.

It has been said: 'How the Vicious Cycle of Arab "Palestinian" or Hezbollah - Bringing About Dead Kids Can Be Diminished':[230]

> Fight the death cult! Save lives!

> The vicious cycle is ever repeating. Palestinian or Hezbollah attack Israeli civilians, Israel goes after the operatives and their tools.. it tries to avoid hitting non combatants, not always successful, as the only party interested in 'dead babies' are exactly those who make sure it happens. Each and every time. As it is mostly tough, technically, to show a clear photo where exactly the Hamas, Hezbollah or P.I.Jihad guy was standing prior to being eliminated, or the place how it served the terrorists. But a 'dead' or and any bloodied body, is always powerful prey by those bloodthirsty leaders. It's the greatest recruitment plus the demonization of Israel. It shocks, it enrages. It's what they 'live' off, literally. Financially too. What if leading media outlets, especially TV stations would stop showing graphic photos? Try it. You will see a drop in Arab dead bodies. Of course it's nearly impossible, unless Hamas's friends, the Qataris Al Jazeera for example would be embarrassed facing a collective western media blackout.

> We are not talking about avoiding reporting the news. But a specific temporary ban on shocking images.

Analyst and journalist:[231]

> Hamas has waged a sophisticated, even brilliant propaganda war. “Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine,” the group told Gazans in a public-service announcement, “before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank.” Hamas enjoined civilians to use the phrase “innocent civilians” as much as possible when speaking with journalists.

> Hamas launches rockets from the Strip’s most densely populated locales—chiefly Gaza City, Beit Hanoun in the north, and Khan Younis in the south—and tells fighters to fire from sensitive locations like schools, churches, mosques, UN buildings and hospitals. It’s a win-win strategy: If Israel is deterred, Hamas fighters and infrastructure are preserved; if Israel is not, the attendant civilian casualties will be a propaganda coup.

> Hamas’s media strategy is exemplified by its use of Gaza City's Shifa hospital. There, in one of the conflict’s worst-kept secrets, the group’s leadership has prosecuted the war from an underground bunker. Reporters were denied entry to the bunker and instead invited to a media center in the hospital courtyard. There, journalists seeking interviews with Hamas officials were obligated to line up, in prime position to snap photos as wounded civilians and combatants (the latter inevitably plain-clothed) were rushed into the building.

As Arab-Palestinian long time human rights activist (previously working at B’tselem, before it became a total anti-Israel unreliable source of sheer propaganda) asserted:[232]

> “The main difference between Israel and Hamas: Israel is using missiles to protect its people while Hamas is using its people to protect its rockets,” Eid told The Algemeiner. “Hamas does not care where these missiles land.”

> Eid estimates based on his own Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip that more than 50 Palestinians died because of errant rockets by the Hamas that were targeted towards Israel but which landed in Gaza. According to the Israeli army, about 4,340 rockets were fired by Hamas toward Israel during the 11 days of hostilities, with 640 of them falling within Gaza.

Even biased NPR in its anti-Israel reporting piece (re op. Guardian of Walls) cited the fact: ...In Gaza City, fully intact buildings stood right next to where others had been flattened. One building looked like a layer cake, with one story stacked on top of the other.[233] The nature routine and nethods, precision fighting the human shields of its enemies.

As in a nutshell, the classic example [May, 2021] described the situation:

The IDF, attempting to warn about an impending strike, pleading for the Arab man in Gaza to evacuate the building before the bombing because civilians are present. This is the conversation that took place:

\- "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.Sky News Arabic video showing a conversation between a Gaza Palestinian and an IDF soldier.[234][235][236][237]

### Action[edit]

* In 2014, a resolution was introduced in the House condemning Hamas and other terror organizations.[238]

* In 2018, the US Senate passed bill sanctioning Hamas, Hezbollah 'human shields' practice.[239]

* Hamas was condemned for its use of human shields by the EU in July-2014;[240] by the (routinely anti-Israel) HRW in Aug, 2009;[39] by Amnesty International in March-2015;[241][242] (a body which is rather obsessed with anti-Israelism), in April-2018 by the EU,[243] and by the UN in June-2018.[244][245] (unusual for biased UN[202]) As well as by: Barack Obama on Aug-1-2014.[246][247] by UK in 2015;[248] by UNRWA (at such groups) on May-13-2004,[141] July-17-2014;[249] and again days later for placing rockets in yet another UNRWA school;[250][251][252] in 2017 at a Hamas-dug tunnel under school;[253] and in June-2021 also for a tunnel built under school, found after op. Guardian of walls.[254][255] Condemned by European aid commissioner in 2009;[256] by Canada's PM Harper (2014);[257] by Nobel laureate E. Wiesel (2014);[258] by the Wiesenthal Center (including in 2018);[259] by the Australian Labor party in July-2014;[260][261] by the OAS in May-2021.[262] Hamas and Hezbollah were condemned by the UN in July, 2021,[263][264] following Guardian of Walls.

* In August/2021, as Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel[265] near Druze houses, in a rare courageous act against the terror group that has its grip on Lebanon via terror, Druze villagers from the southern Lebanese Druze village of Chouya, on August 6, 2021, fought the Hezbollah[266][265] for firing from near their houses in order to draw fire from Israeli defenders, using the population as human shields.[266][267][268] The scene was filmed while some shouted: "Film this! film this!, the whole world will see Hezbollah firing from our houses, to attack us."[269] Noted as a dramatic event.[270]

See: Druze vs Hezbollah (2021).

* Palestinian Terrorists Use UN Ambulance (Reuters)clip

* Hamas uses kids as human shields

* Broadcaster, live, reacts to Hamas rocket just fired from below

* Hamas' Hamnad: "We used women and children as human shields"Hamas explains use of human shields: "We desire death as you desire life."clip)

* Hamas' Sinwar: "We Decided To Turn The Bodies Of Our Women And Children Into A Dam Blocking Arab Collapse"

* Sami Abu Zuhri calls on the Palestinian people to use the tactic to defend their homes: "We in the Hamas movement call on our people to adopt this procedure."

* Announcement from the ("Palestinian") ministry of the interior to the residents of the Gaza Strip, telling them not to pay attention to IDF announcements about vacating their homes'.

* Hamas rocket launching pad near homes

*   * Hamas' Hammad appears with a toddler visiting the fence, border w Israel at "riots"

* fdd

* fdd

*   * Ad

* Hamas' Sinwar admits to placing its armed operations at civilian population

* Hamas terror tunnel beneath UN school

* IDF Pilot Aborting Air Strike After Spotting Children in Target Area in Gaza (during op. 'Guardian of Walls,' May/21)

* "Palestinian" Tells Israeli Soldier ‘If Children Need to Die, Then They’ll Die’ (during op. 'Guardian of Walls' May/21)

* The terrorists fired beside an ambulance in Jenin, a Palestinian doctor killed: "A Fatah man who fought with us" (Oct/14/22)

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Orde Kittrie, 'Time to Act on Human Shields.' FDD, October 15, 2020. https://www.fdd.org/2020/10/15/time-to-act-on-human-shields/#easy-footnote-bottom-39-111635
2. ↑ Orde Kittrie: "Help NATO by Holding Hamas Accountable for Terrorist War Crimes." May 19, 2021. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/help-nato-holding-hamas-accountable-terrorist-war-crimes-185581
3. ↑ https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/panjshir-bombed-pakistani-air-force-drones-smart-bombs-reports-1849570-2021-09-06
4. ↑ The Afghanistan mess is truly Biden’s disaster and other commentary Post Editorial Board, NYPost, August 29, 2021.
5. ↑ Taliban Used Children as Human Shields Associated Press, September 20, 2007.  KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters carrying machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades used children as human shields during a battle in southern Afghanistan yesterday, forcing American-led coalition soldiers to hold their fire for a time, the coalition said.
6. ↑ Taliban fighters use civilians as 'human shields' as battle for Pakistan tears Swat Valley apart Liz Hazelton for MailOnline 10:40 BST 05 May 2009 , updated 11:08 BST 08 May 2009
7. ↑ 'Taliban using human shields, says Afghan army general.' The Guardian, Feb 17, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/17/taliban-human-shields
8. ↑ Afghanistan fights to retake Kunduz from Taliban fighters Cassandra Vinograd and Fazul Rahim, MSNBC, Sep 29, 2015. "Our main problem is that the enemy is using civilians as shields," he said in a televised address...
9. ↑ Mattis target of failed Kabul airport rocket attack, Taliban says Euan McKirdy, Keith Allen and Ryan Browne, CNN, September 27, 2017. A statement released by the international coalition in Afghanistan, Resolute Support, accused insurgents of "using civilians as shield and cover."
10. ↑ Afghanistan war: US strike in Helmand killed 23 civilians, UN says BBC News, Nov 30, 2018. Nato said the Taliban had been using the building that was hit "as a fighting position", and accused the militants of continuously using civi as human shields.
11. ↑ Asim Umar: Al-Qaeda's South Asia chief 'killed in Afghanistan' BBC News, Aug 8, 2019. Both US and Afghan forces often accuse the Taliban of using civilians as shields.
12. ↑ Civilians say Taliban use of human shields shows weakness, cruelty.' Dec. 12, 2018. https://afghanistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_st/features/2018/12/12/feature-02
13. ↑ Islamic State use of human shields slows final assault on ISIS . ABC News, Mar 4, 2019. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/islamic-state-human-shields-slows-final-assault-isis/story?id=61456501 The final assault on the last Islamic State enclave in Syria has slowed down after the discovery that ISIS was using civilians as human shields.
14. ↑ 'ISIS Using Mosul Civilians as Human Shields Amid Offensive.' Time, Mar 30, 2017. https://time.com/4717319/mosul-iraq-offensive-civilians-human-shields/
15. ↑ Suleiman Al-Khalidi, and Nandita Bose, ISIS leader Quraishi kills himself during Syria raid, U.S. says, Reuters, Feb 3, 2022.

> As U.S. forces closed in on Quraishi in northwestern Syria overnight, he triggered a blast that also killed members of his own family, including children, according to Biden and U.S. officials.

16. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth, Sandy Mitchell, 'Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud,' Random House, 2010
17. ↑ Pakistan Horizon. Volume 63, Issue 1, 2010, p. 104
18. ↑ Iran: Afghan Children Recruited to Fight in Syria HRW, Oct 1, 2017.

> Protection Gaps Increase Children’s Vulnerability

> (Beirut) – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has recruited Afghan immigrant children living in Iran to fight in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. Afghan children as young as 14 have fought in the Fatemiyoun division, an exclusively Afghan armed group supported by Iran that fights alongside government forces in the Syrian conflict. Under international law, recruiting children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities is a war crime.

19. ↑ What Is the Fatemiyoun Brigade and Why Does It Make the Taliban Nervous? Lila Hassan, PBS, July 20, 2021.

> FRONTLINE documentary "Leaving Afghanistan." Amid the U.S. withdrawal, Taliban leaders claim Iran is mobilizing its proxy militia the Fatemiyoun for civil war within Afghanistan.

> Why did the U.S. designate the Fatemiyoun a terrorist organization?

> In 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Fatemiyoun in Syria a terrorist organization “for providing material support” to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, alongside other groups that assisted Iran in Syria.

> “The brutal Iranian regime exploits refugee communities in Iran, deprives them of access to basic services, such as education, and uses them as human shields for the Syrian conflict,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at the time of the designation.

20. ↑ 'Yemeni Govt Says Houthis Are Using Civilians as Human Shields."?' Asharq Al Awsat, Feb.10.2021
21. ↑ Michelle Nichols, "Exclusive: U.N. report on Yemen says Houthis used human shields, Islamic State got cash", Reuters, Aug 4, 2016.
22. ↑ MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) Tweeted:

> ICYMI: In BBC Debate, Yemeni Activist Sonia Saleh Accuses Houthis of Using Yemenis as Human Shields; Houthi Official Nasr Al-Din Amer Responds: We Will Use Our Weapons to Strike Saudi Arabia and the Americans.

Apr 10, 2022.
23. ↑ DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hizballah sub-contracts Palestinian launch squads, uses Christian villages as human shields. July 19, 2006.
24. ↑ Canadian Soldier Says UN Position Used As Cover By Hezbollah. July 26, 2006. Ryan R. Jones. All Headline News Correspondent.
25. ↑ 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. [1]
26. ↑ Israel Says Hezbollah Positions Put Lebanese at Risk, Isabel Kershner, The New York Times, May 12, 2015.

> TEL AVIV — Viewed from the air, Muhaybib looks like a typical southern Lebanese village — a cluster of about 90 houses and buildings punctuated by the minaret of a mosque and surrounded by fields.

> But when the Israeli military trains its lens on that hilltop Shiite village close to the border, it sees nine arms depots, five rocket-launching sites, four infantry positions, signs of three underground tunnels, three antitank positions and, in the very center of the village, a Hezbollah command post.

> As Israel prepares for what it sees as an almost inevitable next battle with Hezbollah, the Shiite Lebanese organization that fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006, Israeli military officials and experts are warning that the group has done more than significantly build up its firepower since then.

> Maps and aerial photography provided to The New York Times by Israeli military officials this week illustrate, they say, that Hezbollah has moved most of its military infrastructure into the Shiite villages of southern Lebanon and around their perimeters. Israel says this amounts to using the civilians as a human shield.

> Without knowing when the next war will break out, or what might precipitate it, the Israelis are blunt about the implications: They will not hesitate to strike at those targets, so southern Lebanon will most likely be the scene of widespread destruction.

> Effectively, the Israelis are warning that in the event of another conflict with Hezbollah, many Lebanese civilians will probably be killed, and that it should not be considered Israel’s fault.

> “The civilians are living in a military compound,” a senior Israeli military official said at military headquarters in Tel Aviv, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing delicate intelligence matters...

> A slide from an Israel Defense Forces presentation that it says illustrates how Hezbollah has moved military facilities into civilian areas.

27. ↑ '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
28. ↑ 'US Congress Urges UN to Crack Down on Lebanon's Hizbullah.' The Media Line, Nov 25, 2019. https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/us-congress-urges-un-to-crack-down-on-lebanons-hizbullah/
29. ↑ Hollie McKay: "28 Hezbollah missile launch sites detected in civilian areas, highlighting its 'human shield' tactic in Lebanon." 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
30. ↑ Hezbollah - Using Lebanese Citizens as a "Human Shields". https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_human_shields_1.pdf
31. ↑ Hezbollah's Use of Human Shields https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollah/hezbollahs-use-of-human-shields/
32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Anna Ahronheim, "IDF: Hezbollah storing weapons 25 meters from a school," JPost, July 14, 2021.
The explosion of a Hezbollah warehouse near a school, should it happen, would be half the size of the Beirut explosion of last year... a possible target belonging to Hezbollah in the southern Lebanese village of Ebba in the Nabatieh Governorate... the terrorist group is storing rockets, military-grade explosives and other weapons in a residential building just 25 m. from a school with 300 students.
* Nir Dvori, Roni Daniel, "N12 - Watch: The IDF unveils a weapons depot set up near a school yard", N12, July 14, 2021.

The IDF is preparing for a possible confrontation on the northern border. Preparing for possible confrontation with Hezbollah: IDF unveils weapons depot placed near a schoolyard in Lebanon. The Northern Command decided to expose one of Hezbollah's thousands of terrorist targets and explained that "the organization has been turning Lebanese citizens into human shields for years" - The IDF emphasizes that the rocket threat to Israel is serious but non-existent: What is the IDF's strategy and how does the economic crisis in Lebanon affect its situation with Israel? In the center of Kfar Abba, in the heart of the dense construction, is a school used by 300 of the village's children. About 25 meters from the school yard, Hezbollah is hiding a large weapons depot. "Hezbollah is turning its citizens into human shields for its military infrastructure," the Northern Command explains. Hides tons of explosives within touching distance of children.
* The next Lebanon war: a bank of targets, an air strike and a terrorist organization hiding behind hundreds of children 0404, July 14, 2021.

It can be consistently seen that the terrorist organization Hezbollah uses civilian assets as an operational tactic for military activity, on the other hand, the IDF and the Northern Command will take all measures to reduce harm to civilians ... One of the thousands of existing targets in the Northern Command that will be attacked in the next Lebanon war is a warehouse containing weapons. Hezbollah intended to use it against IDF fighters and citizens of the State of Israel. The warehouse was established in the heart of the civilian population in Lebanon, a few meters near a school... in the village of Abba... about 25 meters from the official school of Kfar Abba.
33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 United States Policy Toward Lebanon-relief and Rehabilitation... United States Congress. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. 1983, p. 131
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.
34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Viewpoint. Inside Lebanon: A Minister's View. Sumter Daily Item - Jan 29, 1983

> 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.

35. ↑ Elior Levy, Documents from the Defensive Shield prove: This is how the Palestinian Authority supported terrorist attacks and terrorists, YNet, Apr 16, 2022.

> The letter to Arafat verifying the allegations that the PA defended terrorist cells, the documents that stunned Marwan Barghouti during his trial, and the surprises revealed in the Muqata in Ramallah. Documents found during Operation Defensive Shield are first revealed 20 years later and shed light on the PA's role in attacks against Israel. The Israeli defense system has always been known as a breakthrough in the integration of intelligence production technology. But signal intelligence (SIGINT in professional language) as good as it may be can not be a substitute for human intelligence (HUMINT) and field intelligence that there is only one way to achieve it - with feet on the ground. This assumption is true today and was also true two decades ago, during the days of the second intifada. One of the major questions that troubled the defense establishment during the Intifada in the early 2000s was the extent to which the Palestinian Authority and its security forces were involved in promoting terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. Operation Defensive Shield, at the height of the Intifada, in which the IDF reconquered Palestinian cities, provided an opportunity to get its hands on incriminating material that could shed light on the Palestinian leadership's plans and actions on this issue. 20 years. Classified documents and plans to protect the section

> For the purpose of locating the materials, the field intelligence unit was recruited AMSHT (Collection of loot documents and technical equipment). The intelligence unit, which consists of reservists, was established during the Yom Kippur War and its role is to enter the raiding areas with the fighting forces, collect documents and material equipment and go out with it from the operational activities. During Operation Defensive Shield, IDF forces raided, among other things, security and civilian facilities of the Palestinian Authority. Many documents of enormous intelligence value were stored inside the headquarters of the security services and office buildings, and the unit's role was to reach and collect them.

> A picture of bin Laden next to shrapnel found in the unit's raid [2] (From the private album)

> "We worked according to the requirements of the intelligence department," said Haim Levy, one of the unit's founders and its SMGD (Deputy Commander of a Battalion.) during the operation. "The unit was composed of fighters and translators. We joined elite units and within the target we carried out the intelligence handling. "In any such raid, we began to sort out the relevant documents on the ground that might shed light on the intentions of the Palestinians, and if there was a large amount of documents and maps - we would seize them and take them out to the bases." As the operation deepened, the unit's work became more and more frequent, and within a short time the IDF obtained enormous amounts of official documents, correspondence, maps, weapons and other means. "We set up a huge hangar in the Beit El area, to which large quantities of crates were poured, including all the material we collected," Levy said. "At one point the hangar was not enough, so another hangar was set up in Glilot, where Unit 8200 is located." The document sorting method was based on a number of filters. The first - field sorting of materials that may be relevant. Because in these areas there were battles between IDF forces and Palestinian militants, the sorting was preliminary and quick. The second filter was in a hangar in Beit El, to which the crates were dumped and where translators from various units in the intelligence corps passed through them. The third stage of screening was carried out in a hangar set up in Glilot, which was obtained by documents that had a high intelligence value, and from which the intelligence obtained through them was processed. The unit also operated for the purpose of producing intelligence at sites used for military purposes and carrying out terrorist attacks. "We raided lathes where improvised weapons were made and explosive labs. In the labs we would take the materials and from them the intelligence corps was able to learn what the terrorist organizations' capabilities were in producing explosive devices and explosive belts. Among other things, we got our hands on explosive training manuals." Some of the activity also required breaking into hard safes where particularly sensitive documents were stored. "We had a special team whose job was to break into safes. The team was skilled, and it was a matter of a few minutes," Haim said. "In the safes we found classified documents, money, lists of military operatives, war theory booklets, and operational plans to protect the Muqatta in Ramallah." The raids of the AMSHT (Collection of loot documents and technical equipment) unit did not only end with the facilities of the Palestinian security forces and Hamas explosives laboratories. In those days, the IDF took control of large parts of the Muqata compound in Ramallah, a small part of which was besieged by Yasser Arafat. During the search, we found documents that directly linked Arafat to the attacks and the aides who were part of the chain of attacks," recalled Shlomo (Sami) Ohana, who served in those days as a unit commander in the unit. "All the materials we obtained in our activities were transferred, among other things, to the American administration by the then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."

> The letter that indicted Arafat

> One of the documents seized by the unit, linking senior Palestinian Authority officials to terrorism and aiding the wanted, is a December 2001 letter personally addressed to Yasser Arafat with the logo of Palestinian General Security, one of the Palestinian security services. The letter reports that in accordance with Arafat's request, a squad of the Islamic Jihad organization operating from the Jenin refugee camp was monitored and the Palestinian Authority is interested in arresting its members to prevent Israel from arresting or eliminating them. The letter states that members of the cell have expressed a willingness to cooperate with the arrest. [3] The document to Arafat that clarifies that the PA tried to save terrorist cells (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

> In fact, the letter makes it clear that the Palestinian Authority has tried to save terrorist cells, including those affiliated with extremist factions and rivals such as Islamic Jihad, through defensive detention until the rage passes.

> In those days, Ohana knew the section closely, because the unit's fighters were repeatedly dispatched into the large compound following intelligence information about the presence of unusual means in it. One of the dispatches there he remembers most of all: [4] The Muqata in Ramallah as documented by AMSHT fighters (From the private album)

> "One Friday evening I received a phone call from Haim (Haim Levy the SMGD - E.L.), and he asked me to arrive quickly at the unit. And carrying out a serious attack. "

> Israel has already gained experience from severe terrorist attacks carried out from the air, such as the Night of the Gliders in 1987. "We quickly jumped into the muqattah and started searching a certain part of the compound. We went into one of the rooms and discovered a parachute with an engine placed next to it on the floor. Then we discovered another parachute, and everything was meters from where Arafat was besieged.

> The documents that left Barghouti in shock

> One of the symbols of the second intifada was the head of Fatah's Tanzim, Marwan Barghouti. In 2002, he was arrested in a special operation, after receiving information that he was hiding in a residential building in the Tira neighborhood of Ramallah. The AMSHT unit got its hands on many documents that linked Barghouti to terrorist activities, the transfer of weapons, and financial assistance to the wanted. One of the seized documents was written in August 2001, with an official request from the Tubas district of the Fatah movement to help return an M-16 rifle confiscated by the Palestinian Preventive Security in the district. [5] Barghouti's appeal to help return the rifle (Photo: IDF Spokesman) The letter clarified that the weapon belonged to Khaled Dragma, who was wanted by Israel at the time. At the bottom of the letter is a note in Barghouti's handwriting, in which he addresses Jibril Rajoub, who at the time was head of the Preventive Security Service in the West Bank, and calls on him to intervene to return the rifle. To read the full letter - click here [6]

> In another document seized and signed by Barghouti, from February 2002, there is a personal appeal to Yasser Arafat asking to pay a released security prisoner named Jamal Odeh, who was imprisoned for 11 years in Israel, $ 5,000 in aid of building a house. In principle, and not necessarily related to this request, in those days the Palestinians used seemingly innocent code words among themselves for the purpose of transferring funds intended to direct terrorist attacks, out of caution from the Israeli security system and international intelligence agencies. [7] Barghouti's personal appeal to Arafat (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

> The documents seized by the unit, which link Barghouti to involvement in terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, became evidence in the trial against him. During the trial, Levy, who was part of the collections of those incriminating documents, was required to testify in court. "The documents we found indicted him and revealed his involvement in terrorist attacks, in paying salaries to terrorists, in encouraging camps that provided inciting education for children," he said. "I was warned that he tends to lash out at witnesses to challenge them. But in my testimony he did not utter a word and looked down when we presented the incriminating documents. He was in shock."

> Palestinian police turned a blind eye to attacks against Israel

> The documents seized in Operation Defensive Shield also shed light on internal frictions between senior members of the Palestinian security forces. One of them, is a letter of complaint signed by the Preventive Security Commander in Ramallah in those days, Sabri Tamizi.

> In a letter from July 2001, addressed to the head of the main operations, he laments that the members of "Force 17" in Beituniya are working against IDF forces from the homes of Palestinian civilians, against their will. To read the full document - click here [8]

> The complaint against the activity of force 17 out of civilian homes [9] (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

> Another document seized is a circular from the Palestinian police chief, Razi Jabali, in which he demands that the ceasefire be maintained with Israel and not harmed. This follows cases in which Palestinian police, mainly from the Jenin district, were "recruited for the purpose of fulfilling foreign goals that harm Palestinians," meaning that police turned a blind eye or participated in terrorist activities against Israel. To read the full document - click here[10] Allegations against Palestinian police officers who turned a blind eye or carried out terrorist attacks against Israel [11] (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

> "The documents found during the Defensive Shield period last night were critical to completing the intelligence picture regarding the Palestinian Authority's involvement in carrying out terrorist attacks," said Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, who headed the Armenian research division during the operation. We and the political echelon must present conclusive proof of this to our partners around the world."

> Followers

> Twenty years have passed since Operation Defensive Shield. The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah has changed and changed its approach to inciting inferno attacks against Israelis. Levy and Ohana have already been released from the reserve, but it is clear in a conversation with them that they still carry closely their experiences from those days.

> Levy said that if he had the opportunity, he would like to meet with Abu Mazen. "He is the person who pulls the strings. There is cooperation with him, and today they prevent a lot of things." Ohana, on the other hand, expressed interest in his opponent at home. "I would be happy to meet Muhammad Dahlan, he is a character we would hear a lot about. At every intersection I would hear his name. I am very interested to know what he thinks today and what he wants. I would also give him some advice." [Ohana in unit activity. "I would be happy to meet with Muhammad Dahlan, I would give him some advice" (From the private album)] The time that has passed since the operation and the technological revolution have led to an evolutionary process also in the unit itself, which now operates as a battalion of fighters within Unit 8200, and in a completely different way than before. "The world has changed and we had to adapt to reality," said the current commander of the cruise, Captain G. “We have established a boutique force that is the latest evolution of last night. Today we specialize in working within targets from which we are required to extract intelligence in any configuration possible in real time. That is, if in the past equipment was taken back in anti-aircraft guns - then we know everything in the field. " Most of the unit's work in recent years has focused on the Palestinian arena. "We get into action in places where the only way to get intelligence is with our feet on the ground. Our way of thinking is that we reach a destination, and it can be likened to an escape room.

> According to Capt. Z., despite technological advances, another bright future awaits the party he heads. "This unit is only becoming more and more relevant. As the world progresses there are a lot of advanced technological capabilities that allow for remote accessibility, but on the other hand there are also things that cannot be reached, but only physically."

36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 London: Harper Collins. Bergman, R. (2002). Vehareshut Netuna [Authority Given]. Tel Aviv: Miskal-Yediot Ahronot Books and Chemed Books (Hebrew). p. 262

> ...that they place sabotage labs near schools and kindergartens for camouflage. Salim Hajah, a senior Hamas operative in Samaria who was arrested during Operation Defensive Shield, admitted that he had set up a sabotage laboratory near a school, and laboratory personnel disguised as students carrying bags and books. Ahmad Mu'arbi, a senior official at Tanzim Bethlehem, told GSS investigators that he had located his sabotage laboratory in the Daheisheh refugee camp, near a kindergarten. He and his men used to make explosives and carry out experiments.

> In both cases, the children in nearby institutions were in constant danger of being blown up as a result of a work accident.

37. ↑ Designation of Fatah al-Islam under Executive Order 13224.
Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC August 13, 2007.

> ... Fatah al-Islam, an offshoot of the Syria-backed secular Palestinian terrorist group Fatah al-Intifada, has been led by Shakir al-Absi, a well-known Palestinian-Jordanian militant who was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for his involvement in the 2002 murder of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley. Moreover, Fatah al-Islam initiated the recent hostilities in the Nahr al-Barid Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, Lebanon, with an unprovoked attack on Lebanese security forces in May, and used civilian refugees as human shields during the fighting. Over 130 Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers and civilians have lost their lives in the conflict at Nahr al-Barid. This terrorist group threatens the safety and security of the Lebanese people and the region.

38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinians' Real Enemies: Arabs, Gatestone Institute, April 17, 2017

> The Arab heads of state and monarchs do not like to be reminded of how badly they treat Palestinians and subject them to discriminatory and apartheid laws.

> It is not comfortable or safe to be a Palestinian in an Arab country. Scenes of lawlessness and anarchy inside Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank have also driven many residents to move to nearby cities and villages. Most refugees in the West Bank no longer live inside UNRWA-run camps.

> Let us end where we began: with the Palestinian (non)leadership. What has it done to help its people in the Arab countries? Nothing. No Palestinian leader will urge an emergency session of the UN Security Council to expose the ethnic cleansing and killing of Palestinians in Arab countries. No Palestinian leader will demand that the international media and human rights organizations investigate the atrocities perpetrated by Arabs on their Palestinian brethren. We are sure to see more such criminal silence when Abbas meets with the president of the United States.

> Palestinians living in refugee camps in the Arab world are facing ethnic cleansing, displacement, and death -- but their leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are too busy tearing each other to pieces to notice or even, apparently, care much....

> About 10 years ago, the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon was shelled by the Lebanese army; most of its houses were destroyed. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee the camp; hundreds were killed and wounded after a Palestinian terror leader, Shaker al-Absi, and his men launched a series of deadly attacks on Lebanese targets, and the Lebanese army assaulted the camp. Before they were attacked by the Lebanese army, Al-Absi and his men had barricaded themselves inside the camp, using civilians as human shields.

> The scenario of Nahr al-Bared is now repeating itself in another Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon: Ain al-Hilweh. As in the previous instance, a terror leader, Belal Bader, has found shelter inside Ain al-Hilweh, home to more than 50,000 Palestinians. Like al-Absi, Bader is affiliated with radical Islamic groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. Bader's presence in the camp has triggered a gang war with other Palestinian factions, resulting in heavy fighting between the warring gangs inside Ain al-Hilweh. In the past week, at least eight Palestinians have been killed and 40 wounded.

39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Harm to Civilians from Palestinian Armed Groups’ Rocket Attacks, HRW, August 6, 2009.  This 31-page report documents attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups since November 2008 that killed three Israeli civilians and seriously injured dozens of others, damaged property and forced residents to leave their homes. The rockets unlawfully struck populated areas up to 40 kilometers inside Israel, placing roughly 800,000 Israeli civilians at risk. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel killed two girls and wounded others in Gaza during this period. Palestinian armed groups that launched rockets from densely populated areas also unlawfully put Gaza civilians at risk of Israeli counterstrikes... Harm to Civilians from Palestinian Armed Groups’ Rocket Attacks While Hamas has at times significantly decreased the level of rocket fire from Gaza, including by pressuring other armed groups to stop unauthorized attacks, it has taken no apparent action to prosecute or otherwise hold accountable Hamas forces or other Palestinian armed groups for launching unlawful rocket attacks against Israeli civilian areas. The rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups are primarily locally made “Qassam” rockets, with a range of 16 kilometers. A smaller number are Soviet-designed “Grad” rockets, with a 21-kilometer range. The rockets have hit Israeli cities and towns close to the 1949 armistice line between Gaza and Israel, primarily Sderot; in 2008, rockets also struck Ashkelon and Netivot. Since late December 2008, some longer-range rockets have struck as far as 40 kilometers inside Israel, including, for the first time, the cities of Beer Sheva and Ashdod. None of these rockets can be reliably aimed. Under international humanitarian law applicable to the fighting between Palestinian armed groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), such weapons are inherently indiscriminate when directed towards densely populated areas. The absence of Israeli military forces in the areas struck by the rockets, as well as statements from the leaders of Hamas and other armed groups, indicate that many of these attacks are deliberately intended to strike Israeli civilians and civilian structures. Individuals who willfully authorize or carry out deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians are committing war crimes. The rocket attacks have caused civilian casualties and property damage. Civilian structures damaged in recent attacks include a kindergarten, a synagogue and private homes. An Israeli early warning siren system, which gives civilians roughly 10 to 45 seconds to find cover in prepared shelters, depending on their distance from the launch site in Gaza, has undoubtedly limited the number of civilian casualties. However, the repeated attacks have, over months and even years, taken a psychological toll on the population in areas close to Gaza. The laws of war prohibit attacks the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population. Because of the rocket attacks, thousands of people have moved away from frequently targeted areas such as Sderot municipality. The rocket attacks have also placed civilians in Gaza at risk. The unpredictable nature of the crude rockets has meant that rockets have struck areas not only inside Israel but also inside Gaza; on December 26 a rocket hit a house in Beit Lahiya, killing two Palestinian girls, ages 5 and 12. In addition, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have frequently violated the laws of war by firing rockets from within populated areas. In doing so, they failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid placing military targets within densely populated areas, such as by removing civilians under their control from the vicinity of military targets, and protecting civilians from the danger resulting from military operations... Cease conducting attacks from locations near populated areas in Gaza in violation of international humanitarian law requiring all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of attacks, and avoid locating military objectives in densely populated areas... This report concerns rocket attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on civilian population centers in Israel since November 2008. .. Firing Rockets from Populated Areas Numerous Palestinians in Gaza told Human Rights Watch that during the course of Israel’s aerial campaign and subsequent invasion of Gaza in late December and early January, members of Palestinian armed groups redeployed from more open and outlying regions – many of which were either controlled by Israeli ground forces or “covered” by armed aerial drones, helicopters, and fighter aircraft – into densely populated urban areas. The International Crisis Group quoted an Islamic Jihad fighter as saying, “the most important thing is achieving our military goals,” among which was to continue firing rockets in defiance of the stated Israeli aim to end the rocket attacks. He told the Crisis Group, “We stay away from the houses if we can, but that’s often impossible.” While fighting in urban areas is not prohibited under the laws of war, parties to a conflict are obligated to adopt measures to minimize the risk to the civilian population. During the recent fighting and at other times, Palestinian armed groups have placed fellow Palestinians at grave risk of Israeli counter-attacks by firing rockets from within or near populated areas. In doing so, they violate the laws of war by failing to take all feasible precautions to avoid placing military targets within or near densely populated areas, to remove civilians under their control from the vicinity of military targets, and to protect civilians from the danger resulting from military operations. In most of the following cases, Human Rights Watch researchers found that armed groups endangered civilians by firing rockets from populated areas. In one case, a resident in northern Gaza City told Human Rights Watch that he and others had been on the roof of his building watching Israeli bombing raids on the first day of the Israeli assault. He said that around 5 p.m. “[w]e saw Hamas come and put up rocket launchers and fire. We could tell they were Grads by the sound, which is louder and deeper than that of Qassams.” According to the witness, the rockets were fired in a populated neighborhood near a well-known landmark, the al-Andalus tower. The witness specified, “they fired from between a medium-sized cow shed and some houses. There were maybe 60 meters between the cow shed and the houses.” It is not clear if the houses were inhabited at the time. In any case, ten minutes later, the witness said, “there was a retaliatory strike by an F-16 [fighter-bomber], a really big explosion.” The witness also said that, in a second incident on January 1, residents of the area shouted at Hamas fighters to prevent them from entering a garden immediately next to the building he lived in, apparently with the intention to use it to fire rockets. “I had already left [the area] but my neighbor, the grocery store owner, was watching and he called me to come back,” the witness said. “The Hamas guys had already cut the wires of the gate to break in. All the people got together and shouted at them to leave, told them the rockets were going to backfire on us. After that we came back every day to the garden for a few hours to prevent them from firing from it.” Hamas did not return to the area, according to the witness. Human Rights Watch researchers did not find any cases where Hamas or other armed groups forced civilians to remain in areas in close proximity to rocket launching sites. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine the locations from which militants fired rockets in Tel el-Hawa, or if they fired from locations very close to civilians when other firing positions were available. The lawyer who was badly injured by a Palestinian rocket on December 24 (see above) said he was unsure where fighters fired rockets in his neighborhood: “Not from rooftops, but that doesn’t make much difference when the IDF responds with an F-16 or heavy artillery.” In the months before the Israeli attack, he said, “we heard strange sounds coming just after the dawn prayers. We knew it was rockets being fired, but we never expected this [the rocket that fell on his home]. And this morning [April 10], we heard the same sounds again. We were all talking about it at lunch.” He added, “I do not deny the right of occupied people to resist, but I think that the means should be reevaluated.” Two residents of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in the southern part of Gaza City separately told Human Rights Watch that they could hear repeated rocket firings from the neighborhood during the Israeli operation, but could not identify the precise location of the launch sites. One said he heard “several” rockets being fired between December 27, when Israel launched its initial air strikes, and January 4, 2009, when he left the area for security reasons. The other resident remained in Tel al-Hawa throughout the period of heavy fighting and said he had heard “many” launches. The second man said neighbors had told him of a case in which fighters reportedly fired a rocket from within the courtyard of a building. Neither knew of rockets being launched from inhabited buildings or areas nearby, or whether Hamas made efforts to remove the buildings’ residents before firing rockets. The doctor whose home in Shajai’ya had been damaged by a rocket (see above) said that neighbors told him they saw the rocket being launched from an open agricultural area about 250 meters southwest of his home. “It was fired by a timer. Right after that there was a[n IDF] drone over us for 10 minutes – I’m sure it saw the damage to my house.” In another case, the doctor said, militants had fired a rocket much closer to the row of houses along his street. He said that a week before Israel began major military operations, an IDF helicopter fired a missile in response to a rocket firing “just 50 meters from here, inside the compound of the Palestinian power authority.” He indicated a wall directly across the street from his home. The Palestinian fighters “fired from inside the walls of the compound. Then the helicopter fired back,” shooting a missile into the main building in the compound. By using the compound of the power authority for military purposes, the Palestinian forces were making the normally civilian structure a lawful military target and may have been placing the residents of nearby homes at unnecessary risk. According to the doctor, residents of the area felt endangered and angered by the militants’ use of their area as a launching site. Two weeks before the rocket hit his home, he said, “another rocket fell short, but the people where the rocket landed didn’t know the name of the person responsible, and I think they were too afraid to ask.” He and his neighbors “went to the political leaders in the area and complained, and later they gave me money to repair the windows, though not the damage inside the house.” The authorities made no promises to stop the rocket fire, he added. As noted, parties to a conflict violate the laws of war when they fail to take all feasible precautions to avoid placing forces, weapons, and ammunition within or near densely populated areas. Deliberately using civilians to deter attacks on military targets amounts to “human shielding,” which is a war crime In the preceding cases, Human Rights Watch either could not determine or the evidence did not indicate that militants launched rockets from areas close to civilians with the intention of deterring Israeli forces from counter-attacking. The International Crisis Group interviewed three Hamas fighters in January who said they “often fired [rockets] in close proximity to homes and from alleys, hoping that nearby civilians would deter Israel from responding” -- indicating the intent to use civilians as shields. The Crisis Group’s report and the staff who conducted the interviews did not provide further details or specific cases of shielding. The Crisis Group reported that after the conflict, some Gaza residents unsuccessfully “urged a government investigation of, and accountability for, fighters who endangered civilians” by firing from populated areas...
40. ↑ idf, mfa
41. ↑ M. Amit
42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Ya'alon, Moshe, the Long and Short Way. Yedioth Ahronot, 2008. 36.

> Hamas, PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and Fatah - who attack the State of Israel with terrorist attacks and rockets challenge the world order. These organizations also violate the laws of war by targeting civilians and by using their citizens as 'human shields.'

43. ↑ Hamas is Acting as an Arm of Iranian Power, Dore Gold, JCPA, May 20, 2021
44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 The Hamas and Islamic Jihad Leadership and their Ties to Iran, Evan Brown, Lenny Ben-David, JCPA, July 13, 2021
45. ↑ https://www.opindia.com/2021/06/pak-senator-boasts-about-training-hamas-terrorists-says-will-continue-to-do-so-watch-video/
46. ↑ Najia Houssari, "Palestinian fugitive announces he is in Syria", Arab News, 02 January 2018.

> BEIRUT: Bilal Badr, who was a leader of a militant extremist group in Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, said in a statement that he has moved to Syria. The statement was circulated on social media and bears the signature of Badr, who is wanted by Lebanese authorities. He had been hiding in Ain Al-Hilweh for more than a month, and there were rumors that he had left the camp. In the statement, a copy of which was obtained by Arab News, Badr addressed his followers, saying: “From the land of jihad and pride, from the den of the lions in the Levant which we have immigrated to only to support the religion of God, raise the banner of monotheism, and support the oppressed and beleaguered Muslims. I would like to thank you for helping your sister, who is your honor. I congratulate myself for having brothers like you. May God gather us as His obedient followers in this world, and in paradise in the hereafter.”..

> Badr’s group includes 25 militants.

47. ↑ Tal Ariel Amir, Written in Blood: The Chilling Operations Diary of the Battle of Jenin Revealed, Maariv news, April 29, 2016.

> It was one of the most heroic and complex battles during Operation Shield in 2002, which aimed to eradicate Palestinian terrorism. One intense hour on April 9 that left behind 13 martyrs, many displays of heroism and stories of warrior brotherhood. A reserve infantry force, operating inside the Jenin refugee camp, went into an ambush in a small, low courtyard, which was named "the bath", thus becoming a stationary target for dozens of terrorists who had fortified themselves on the upper floors of the buildings around them. Under the cover of darkness, dozens of fighters from the Islamic Jihad sniped at them and threw trapped cans at them. But the evil of the reserve fighters was in their hands. Under heavy fire and at the risk of their lives, they worked uncompromisingly to rescue their wounded comrades. It was the sacrifice that led to the loss of the liver experienced by the assisting company from the 7020 battalion.

> Now, exactly 14 years after that bloody battle, which took place on the seventh day of Passover, the diary of Jenin's operations has been revealed for the first time...

> When did you understand that most of your friends to the department are not between life? "A moment before I entered the yard for the third time, which was silent at once, simply silence." The bath was armed with bodies and the mirror was creepy, I felt a dignity when I went to the fatal friends and crossed them.. These fighters are that he saved a whole nation by sacrificing their lives. After their deaths, the attacks decreased and we were here for their right. " What do you remember from your friends to battle? "It's hard to describe what we felt in Jenin, because it's a deep talking experience in us, I see Jenin's sights every day, I prefer to remember my friends as life and not like the laps in the yard in the refugee camp. They fought in a fierce. They are with me all the time." Full of March 2002 was loaded with terrorist attacks, as Israel did not know for many years, and therefore, according to all "black March". About 11 suicide bombings occurred in those days, and that the attack in the Park Hotel in Netanya, where 30 Israelis were murdered to celebrate the Passover order. In the same evening, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided, on the exit for the operation of a shield, in order to harm the terrorist infrastructure and stop the wave of attacks. The military operation went out on March 29 and surround all the grounds of Judea and Samaria. IDF forces entered Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, to Bethlehem, Qalqilya and Tulkarem, bread from home to Beit House, revealed arms and arrested. In most cities, there were relatively easy fights, but Jenin There was another story.

> The fighters entered the city on April 2. It was the first time when the army was dealing with a civilian environment, which used inhabitants as human shield. The Islamic Jihad members prepared for the battle and the mines throughout the small refugee camp, and bonzed about 15,000 cargo and explosive traps. Inside the houses, snipers hid, and the troublemaking alleys were placed. The conquest of Jenin was imposed on the Reserve Division 5, which one of its supervisors is 7020, known as Nachshon. The division will be buried in Golani 51 Battalion under the command of Ofek Buchris, in the reserve and graying units 13. The continued forces from Shutral, the Engineering and Cherry Unit. "On Friday, two days After the attack at the Park, I received an order 8", from Alfasi (43), which went to the operation and left at home behind him a pregnant woman. "I arrived at the base of the division and saw people in the clothes of holiday and those returned Especially from the farthest eastern trip. No one hesitated, the percentage of stabilization was full. We all was clear that we reached to save one's souls in Israel.

> After two days training, our mission is Nablus. Only then the command was changed to Jenin, the capital of suicide. "In the face of it, there were preceding concerns?" There was a high sense of mission. If there were concerns they were erased. We initially arrived at the Salem checkpoint, on the outskirts of Jenin, and immediately noticed the pastoral environment. Remote could be seen in the Jezreel Valley and the Gilboa, but the planes… returned me to reality. I thought of the symbolism of a military operation on Passover, which is the holiday of the liberty. On the first day of Jenin Givat Hatanas, but the next day we returned to the Salem checkpoint and entered the nightmares into the refugee camp, located in the city center. Next to the hospital we went down the tools and around was dark.

> The first thing I saw was pharmaceutics glued to the walls of most houses, including pictures of suicide bombers or of Jews who were murdered. It put me in the focus. We immediately entered one of the houses and so looked our activity in the days to come. We moved from a house under a strong fire. Whenever you break the door, purify the floors, and there is no quiet moment. "The entrance to the refugee camp was slow and nervous. The ground was full of sabotage, connected to a hire, and it had to neutralize them one by one. About the soldiers who were treated with improvised explosives. From time to time, bombers' terrorists in an attempt to explode among them. Jenin's operations diary details the frequent reckless encounters." Chase After a blue Subaru near the cemetery, an eight man with vests and weapons. A tank shell shooting at them, ".. was written on April 6 at 11:20. Five minutes later, the Operation Sergeants wrote:" Shooting from a mosque tower toward our forces. Snipers responded. They also identified 20 armed men into a house..."

48. ↑ Lilach Shoval, Step by step: this is how the senior jihadist was eliminated, ILH, Nov 12, 2019.

> The decision on the targeted elimination of Baha' Abu al-Ata ("there was no choice"), and the precise hit ("excellent intelligence capability") - The steps that led to the escalation.

> Abu al-Ata was in the IDF's crosshairs for a long time. The Northern Gaza Brigade, which was responsible for most of the recent attacks, including the bombardment of the Gaza Strip about two weeks ago, the shooting during Netanyahu's speech at the political event in Ashdod and the shooting on Memorial Day. The IDF announced this morning that in recent months they tried in every way to stop him from his hostile activities. "We tried in every possible way," they clarified. Abu al-Ata, for his part, made sure to use human shields, including children, in order to prevent his elimination. Last week, it was exceptionally approved to carry out the targeted elimination. With the exception of the assassination of a senior Hamas official in charge of finances, which was carried out last May, there have been no targeted assassinations in recent years. At the initiative of Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and in full coordination with the General Security Service, the operation was approved in an orderly procedure in the cabinet about a week ago, after which the IDF waited for the appropriate opportunity, with the understanding that Abu Elata planned in the coming days to fire rockets into the surrounding area, launch drones and sniper fire. "The Chief of Staff pushed for the implementation of the operation because he felt there was no other choice," emphasized the IDF spokesman. He also added that: "We understand that Baa was an unbridled factor who acted most of the times on his own accord in a way that was contrary to regional interests."

> At 4:00 the long-awaited opportunity arrived.

> Abu al-Ata was in his home, unusually without a human shield except for his wife and the IDF jets set off. "The operation was very surgical," the IDF said after the incident. A precision missile hit the room where the senior jihadist was staying and caused it to collapse. "We didn't collapse the entire house, but the room he was in,"Silberman said of the surgical operation and revealed a touch of the IDF's operational technological capability. "We took advantage of an opportunity to hit him with minimal casualties," he said. Excellent of both bodies. Very close coordination with the Shin Bet and that's what led us to hit the specific room."

Gaza's agent of chaos. Israel Hayom, November 13, 2019.

> \- He was never arrested and surrounded himself with innocents to act as a human shield - Whenever Hamas sought calm, Abu al-Ata tried to create an escalation.

> Bahaa Abu al-Ata has kept Israel's security elite very busy in the past year. The terrorist who emerged from the bottom, from the ranks of the Islamic Jihad, and rose to the military top of the organization, systematically challenged Israel and the appeasement against Hamas...

49. ↑ 1 killed, 10 injured in explosion at Gaza City market Tzvi Joffre, JPost, July 22, 2021.

> ... after a weapons storage belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist movement at the Al-Zawiya market in Gaza City exploded on Thursday morning... The PIJ seemed to take some form of responsibility on Thursday evening, announcing that it would "rise up to its responsibilities" and follow up with all concerned parties concerning the explosion in the market. The terrorist movement expressed its "full solidarity" with those affected by the explosion.

> The injured were transferred to Shifa Hospital in the coastal enclave. The Palestinian killed in the incident was identified by Palestinian media as Atta Saqallah.

> "Instead of responding to UN calls for the reconstruction of Gaza, terrorist organizations continue to manufacture weapons and promote the construction of military sites," added Adraee. "These terrorist organizations store their weapons in the heart of residential neighborhoods and among civilians, exposing them directly to danger."

50. ↑ IDF: The largest explosion in the Gaza Strip - an Islamic Jihad weapons depot, News 20. Thirteenth of Av 5781 (22/07/2021) .

> An IDF spokesman in Arabic reveals that the explosion that took place earlier today in the Gaza Strip and caused deaths and injuries was caused by a malfunction in the Islamic Jihad's weapons depot. IDF in Arabic Lt. Col. Avichai Adrei.

> Lt. Col. Avichai Adrai, the IDF's spokesman in Arabic, reveals on his Twitter account that the explosion that took place earlier today in the Gaza Strip and caused deaths and injuries was caused by a malfunction in the Islamic Jihad's weapons depot.

> "The explosion is further proof that the terrorist organizations prefer to continue their murderous activities over the interests of the residents of the Gaza Strip. "Instead of responding to UN calls for Gaza rehabilitation, terrorist organizations continue to manufacture weapons and promote the construction of military sites, storing their weapons in the heart of residential neighborhoods and among civilians, and exposing them directly to danger," Edrei wrote on his Twitter account.

51. ↑ AbuAliEnglish @AbuAliEnglishB1n Tweeted:

> Media outlets in Gaza realized that it's probably not a good idea to publish clips of rockets being launched from the heart of civilian areas... They began blurring out the lower part so as to hide the truth. You have both versions of the same clip. Share it with the world!

\

(Aug 6, 2022).

AbuAliEnglish @AbuAliEnglishB1 Tweeted:

> They did fire rockets at other targets, attached are pictures showing once again rockets being fired from civilian areas at civilian areas. In the #West_Bank, the operatives of PIJ military wing in #Jenin claim that they fired at #IDF targets at precisely 9:00...

\

(Aug 6, 2022)

52. ↑ Tal Marciano, The children who were killed in Jabaliya - as a result of Jihad shooting, Srugim news, 06.08.22.

> Contrary to the Palestinian publications regarding the killing of the children in Jabaliya, it appears that the IDF did not attack in Jabaliya and the deaths are the result of failed shooting by the Islamic Jihad...

> after an investigation it was reported that there had been no attack by the IDF in Jabaliya since 18:51 and the deaths there were the result of failed shooting by the Islamic Jihad organization.

53. ↑ Emanuel Fabian, Deadly blast in Jabaliya 'unequivocally' a failed Islamic Jihad rocket — officials, TOI, Aug 6, 2022.

> An explosion that rocked the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least four children, was a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket launch, officials say. According to a military official, the Israel Defense Forces did not conduct any airstrike in the area at the time of the blast. The official says the IDF detected the launch on its radar systems and saw it land in the area.

> "We have videos that prove beyond any doubt that this is not an Israeli attack. It has been unequivocally proven that it was a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch," another Israeli official says.

> According to the IDF, some 90 rockets fell short in the Gaza Strip since Friday.

54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 [Journalist covering the Middle East. Makor Rishon] Assaf gibor @assafgibor: Sep 28, 2022.

> Operatives in Jenin shoot at IDF forces and then flee into a school, so that the children will act as a human shield. [12].

> For those who were not clear, operatives = terrorist operatives in the various organizations. [13].

55. ↑ Idan Yosef, Exchange of fire in Jenin: terrorists shot from behind an ambulance, News1, 10/14/22.

> Palestinian militants took cover near an ambulance of the Red Crescent and fired from there at our forces. [14] Palestinian terrorists opened fire and detonated an explosive device at IDF and IDF forces who were operating (Friday, 14.10.22) in Jenin to arrest a Hamas operative suspected of having carried out shooting attacks against the security forces. The forces returned fire. According to reports, two or three Palestinians were killed. The armed men took cover near the Red Crescent ambulance and from there fired at the troops. The troops left the refugee camp in the city under heavy fire, unharmed.

> The Jenin Battalion in the military arm of the Islamic Jihad announced that it was the one that fired at the IDF forces.

56. ↑ [International Human Rights Lawyer] Arsen Ostrovsky @Ostrov_A (Oct 14, 2022):

>     1. Palestinian terrorists in #Jenin today, firing at Israelis, while using an ambulance as a shield. This is gross war crime! Where is the outrage by all those who don’t waste breath to condemn Israel & profess to care so much about international law?
> [15]

\- Hallel Bitton Rosen (@BittonRosen) (October 14, 2022):

> The terrorists shoot under the protection of elders and ambulances at our fighters. [pic.twitter.com/K0NwEa3qNz].

57. ↑ THE TERRORIST CONNECTION - IRAN, THE ISLAMIC JIHAD AND HAMAS Elie Rekhess "Justice", Vol. 5 (May 1995) [Fas.org]
58. ↑ Israel Targets Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Commander in Gaza, FDD, Aug 5, 2022.

> Latest Developments: An Israeli strike has killed Taysir al-Jabari, the Gaza commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which the U.S. Department of State designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Jabari "was responsible for multiple terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians." PIJ had threatened to attack Israeli targets after the arrest earlier this week of senior PIJ figure Bassam al-Saadi. Israel’s internal security service, Shabak, said Saadi was the PIJ leader in the West Bank and was behind the "building of a significant military force." Shabak added that Saadi "was a significant factor in the radicalization of the organization’s operatives in the field."

> PIJ Profile: Founded in 1981, PIJ is the second-largest militant group in Gaza after Hamas. In the 1990s and again during the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005, PIJ targeted Israeli civilians with suicide bombings, including the Netanya mall bombing in December 2005, which killed five Israelis and wounded fifty.

> Dependent on Iran: PIJ is the Palestinian militant group closest to Iran, on which it depends for financial and military support. Thanks to Iran, PIJ in Gaza has acquired military-grade weapons that range from small arms to man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), rockets, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), and explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). PIJ fighters have also trained inside Iran.

> Remotely Led: PIJ has a local leadership structure in Gaza, although its senior leaders reside in Syria, Lebanon, and other countries in the region. Unlike Hamas, PIJ does not compete in elections, employ civilian front organizations, or govern any part of Gaza. When weighing the risks of attacking Israel, it therefore has less need to consider the impact of a potential military response. Ziyad al-Nakhlaheh, Khaled al-Batsh, Hader Adnan, and Muhammed al-Hindi are among PIJ’s most visible leaders and spokesmen.

> Independent from Hamas: Despite PIJ's cooperation with Hamas, which also has close ties to Iran, PIJ has launched attacks on Israel at times when Hamas would have preferred not to escalate. These attacks seek to demonstrate that PIJ is the most militant organization in Gaza and can act independently.

> History of Clashes with IDF: In November 2019, an IDF strike killed Jabari’s predecessor, Bahaa Abu al-Atta, resulting in several days of clashes between PIJ and the IDF. In February 2020, the IDF conducted strikes against PIJ militant infrastructure in both the Gaza Strip and Syria. There has been a sharp increase in PIJ casualties over the last year and half, with numerous militants killed during engagements with Israeli personnel during counter-terrorism operations. Coupled with the establishment of PIJ fighting units, or "katibat," in several West Bank cities, the increase in violence suggests an organized PIJ effort to expand its military capabilities in the West Bank.

> Expert Analysis from FDD’s Joe Truzman: "Israel likely felt an attack by Palestinian Islamic Jihad was imminent and reacted first. The history of conflict with the PIJ suggests a high likelihood of an armed response in the coming days by PIJ and the other militant groups that belong to Palestinian Joint Operations Room, including Hamas."

59. ↑ (YNET journalist) Yossi Yehoshua @YehoshuaYosi Tweeted (Aug 5, 2022):

> The address to the tension in the Gaza Strip in front of the Islamic Jihad should only be searched in one place: Iran. The hand that shakes the front in the south and north.

60. ↑ The Palestine Post⁩⁩, 3 February 1939

> MUFTI CONDEMNED RY EX-TERRORIST FAKHRI ABDUL HADI'S OPEN LETTER TO MUFTI

> In a leaflet which is being widely distributed among the Arabs, Fakhri Abdul Hadi, who was Fawzi Kaukaj's lieutenant during the 1936 disturbances and who returned to Palestine from Damascus (where he had been in exile) some three months has rinted an ago, repopen letter sent to Haj Amin al Husseini, in which he bitterly referred to the machinations against himiself of Izzat Darwuza and others in the Mufti's entourage. Fakhri Abdul Hadi is a native of Arrabeh village near Jenin, and he is reported to have led his own armed men in several clashes with gangs supporting the Mufti . Izzat Darwuza, the Mufti's kinsman, who was Director of Waqfs in Jerusalem, has been acting as treasurer for the Palestinian exfles in Syria and the terrorists operating in this country.

> ARAB VS. ARAB

> Abdul Hadi criticised the oppressive regime under which the local Arab populace was suffering, and said that when men came to Arrabeh and killed five innocent villagers, he and his men took arms and shot dead ten of the attackers. The souls of all these ascended to complain to Allah of your deeds, as such acts are apparently desirable in your eyes. We can only do to others as you are trying to do to us, he wrote. He revealed also that his men had made an attempt to capture Yussef Abu Darra "who escaped by hiding among the women." Abdul Hadi vehemently denied Darwuza's accusations that he was a traitor, and concluded by saying that the Palestine "revolt" had ceased to be directed against the Government and the Jews — the latter were now safe — but was a war of blind hatred amongst the Arabs themselves. He warned that this could no longer be tolerated .

61. ↑ Pentagon: Iraqi forces engaged in 'deadly deception' Pentagon calls deaths of Syrian civilians 'regrettable'. CNN, Tuesday, March 25, 2003. Video.
The Pentagon says Iraqis have engaged in 'deadly deception' by feigning surrender and using human shields. CNN's Jamie McIntyre reports.
62. ↑ Fedayeen Ferrets: Dirty Band Dubbed ‘War Criminals ’ Aly Sujo, NYPost, March 27, 2003.  Angry U.S. officials accused the Iraqis yesterday of committing war crimes and using an arsenal of dirty tricks on the battlefield. They charged Saddam Hussein’s troops had feigned surrender and then shot at American forces, and had used hospitals and other civilian sites as staging areas for military operations. “This band of war criminals has been put on notice,” President Bush said ... “[Their] idea of courage is to brutalize unarmed prisoners. They wage attacks while posing as civilians. They use real civilians as human shields. They pretend to surrender, then fire upon those who show them mercy.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this week accused the Iraqis of “acts of treachery.” “They are dressing their forces as liberated civilians and sending soldiers out waving white flags … with the goal of drawing coalition forces into the ambushes,” he said.
63. ↑ CNN.com - Transcripts. CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER Interview With Lynne Cheney; Interview With Saeb Erakat. Aired November 14, 2004 - BLITZER: General Grange, there are reports out there in the papers over the past couple of days that the insurgents are actually pretty sophisticated, learning the U.S. tactics, how the U.S. operates, even stealing uniforms, Iraqi army uniforms, and then going out and killing U.S. military personnel. If you saw a story yesterday, one Marine was killed point-blank by insurgents wearing regular Iraqi army uniforms. How do you deal with that kind of insurgency? GRANGE: Well, every enemy we've fought, they've learned from fighting us. I mean, it's just something that happens in the military. We do the same thing. We learn from fighting insurgents or other armies. And the enemy are going to do anything they can, using civilians as camouflage and cover, the techniques that they use that violate the rules of land warfare, to get an advantage over a superior force. And what you've had is, after the maneuver phase, when Saddam's regime fell, which was an excellent campaign, and then now, in fact, now, in the country with the counterinsurgency efforts, excellent work being done by our military, but the transition between maneuver combat and counterinsurgency today gave some breathing time to these internal insurgents and external foreign fighters that now put those things together and are being used against our forces and others today in Iraq, because they had too much time to breathe and get reorganized.
64. ↑ S. African president: Gadhafi accepts terms of agreement \- CNN, Apr 10, 2011.

> NATO says Gadhafi's forces are using civilians as human shields.

65. ↑ Gadhafi forces continue to attack rebels Today, NBC, March 20, 2011. NBC’s Jim Maceda, reporting from Tripoli, says that the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is desperate to take control of Misurata, the largest rebel-controlled city near Tripoli, possibly using civilians as human shields.
66. ↑ Khadafy forces civilians into target city as attacks devastate HQ New York Post, Mar 22, 2011. The erratic ruler has threatened to use civilians as human shields against attack. (REUTERS).
67. ↑ Syria: Local Residents Used as Human Shields, HRW, Mar 25, 2012. Reports of Residents Forced to March in Front of Soldiers in Idlib – Syrian government forces have endangered local residents by forcing them to march in front of the army during recent arrest operations, troop movements, and attacks on towns and villages in northern Syria. Witnesses from the towns of al-Janoudyah, Kafr Nabl, Kafr Rouma, and Ayn Larouz in the Idlib governorate in northern Syria told Human Rights Watch that they saw the army and pro-government armed men, referred to locally as shabeeha, force people to march in front of the advancing army during the March 2012 offensive to retake control of areas that had fallen into the hands of the opposition. From the circumstances of these incidents, it was clear to the witnesses that the purpose of this was to protect the army from attack. “By using civilians as human shields, the Syrian army is showing blatant disregard for their safety,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Syrian army should immediately stop this abhorrent practice.”
* Syria forces accused of using civilians as shields Ynet, Mar 25, 2012.
Human Rights Watch has accused Syrian government forces of using civilians as human shields during recent military operations. The international watchdog said Sunday that the army and pro-regime gunmen forced residents to march in front of them as they advanced on opposition-held areas in the northern Idlib province. (AP)
68. ↑ Syrian children used as human shields, says UN report BBC, June 12, 2012.  The Syrian government is accused of using heavy weapons in residential areas. Syrian troops have tortured children and used them as human shields on tanks to prevent attacks by opposition forces, a UN report says. The UN's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict said children were being tortured in detention and slaughtered in massacres. The report said rebel forces were also using children on the front line. Separately the US has accused Syria of planning another massacre, while the UN chief condemned the rising violence.
69. ↑ Report: Assad moving inmates to military targets Roi Kais, Ynet, Aug 30, 2013.  Buses filled with prisoners moved to military targets to be used as human shields against Western airstrikes, British paper reports. Thousands of Syrian prisoners have been moved to military targets to be used as human shields against Western air strikes, Britain's Daily Mirror reported Friday. According to the report, Damascus residents said they saw buses filled with inmates being taken from their cells to sites the regime believes could be targets. The opposition Syrian National Coalition said: "Assad’s fascist regime is amassing activists and civilians in prisons in military locations that may be targets for foreign forces."
70. ↑ Turkey's Fascist Slide Güney Işıkara, Alp Kayserilioğlu, Max Zirngast, Jacobin, Nov 10, 2016. Turkish president Erdoğan is wielding the state to attack anyone who won't capitulate to his authoritarian rule.
71. ↑ Erdogan: The Dictator's Republic, Imbd, 2017
72. ↑ Turkish journalist goes on trial for insulting Erdoğan in ‘fascist dictatorship’ column SCF, June 28, 2018
73. ↑ What does Erdoğan want? Robert Debeuf, EU Observer, Mar 4, 2020.  "Shameful...unacceptable....blackmail...dictator." European leaders didn't spare their words to condemn Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after his decision on Friday (28 February) to open its border with Greece and let refugees enter into Europe. On Monday, Erdoğan stepped up his game warning that "millions" of refugees would come to Europe. He also said he refused €1m in extra cash, saying "we don't want this money". Despite this statement, former Nato secretary-general Willy Claes said on Belgian television that Erdogan is "a dictator" and that "all he wants is money".
74. ↑ Will Biden Turn His Words Against Dictator Erdoğan Into Action?Adulrahman Taleb, Greek City Times, Nov 16, 2020. Furthermore, Biden openly attacked dictator Erdoğan and called him an “autocrat” and promised that he will work with the opposition parties.
75. ↑ Erdogan should be very, very worried': What the Biden presidency means for Turkey Natasha Turak, CNBC, Dec 31, 2020. In an interview last January, Biden called Erdogan an “autocrat,” criticized his actions toward the Kurds..
76. ↑ Netanyahu hits back at 'Turkey's dictator Erdogan', France 24, Mar 13, 2019. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a "dictator" and "a joke"...
77. ↑ J’Accuse Erdogan Alon Ben-Meir, Globalist, July 9, 2020.  The weaker Recep Tayyip Erdogan is at home politically, the longer the list of the Turkish President’s transgressions gets.

> A preliminary list of Erdogan’s transgressions

> For evidence, it is useful to assemble the list of transgressions that seem to be the only category Erdogan still seems to “excel” in. Most fundamentally, Erdogan is violating every article of human rights in his own country, while being keen on destabilizing other countries by exploiting their weaknesses and resources in order to promote his nationalist agenda.

> I count altogether 13 specific major transgressions:

> 1.Erdogan continues to commit gross human rights violations in Turkey by using the failed 2016 military coup as an excuse to silence the media. Based on a judiciary that, for the most part, barely deserves that name, Erdogan has jailed over 150 journalists, incarcerated around 80,000 suspected of affiliation with the Gülen movement and purged 150,000 military officers and civil servants.

> 2.Erdogan engages in a systematic operation of ethnic cleansing against minorities in Turkey and northern Syria.

> He invaded Syria to both prevent the Syrian Kurdish community from establishing autonomous rule, and to entrench for Turkey a permanent foothold in the country, which is bound to only prolong the conflict and further destabilize the region.

> 3.Erdogan systematically persecutes his own Kurdish community and continues a 50-year-old war against the PKK, which he views as a terrorist organization.

> He also steadfastly refuses to resume negotiations with the Kurds — which account for as much as 20% of Turkey’s population — and end the carnage that has taken the lives of approximately 40,000 on both sides.

> 4.Erdogan purchased Russia’s S-400 air defense system which, once operational, NATO fears would seriously compromise the alliance’s intelligence sharing and technology — apart from being fully incompatible with NATO systems.

> 5.Erdogan invested heavily in promoting his Islamic agenda by supporting anti-Western Islamist extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and even ISIS.

> 6.Erdogan uses Islam as a political tool by building mosques and other Islamic theological institutions. He also sends his imams to teach and preach his brand of religious nationalism in many countries in the Middle East and the Balkans.

> 7.Erdogan violated U.S. sanctions against Iran by laundering up to $20 billion in an oil-for-gold scheme from 2012-2018, and he continues to cooperate and trade with Tehran in defiance of Western interests.

> 8.Erdogan made a deal with Putin in late 2019 to patrol northern Syria while working closely with Moscow and Tehran to delineate their spheres of influence in the country. He is thus leaving Syria de facto a divided state under their control, while significantly diminishing what’s left of Western influence.

> 9.Erdogan sent troops to support Libya’s Government of National Accord in an effort to establish a strong foothold in the country, exploiting its oil and gas and threatening the free flow of energy from the Eastern Mediterranean.

> 10.Erdogan violated a UN arms embargo while resisting NATO’s peace plans in Libya, including exercising extreme aggression against NATO ally France’s warship enforcing the embargo.

> 11.Erdogan blocked a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland and regularly intimidates Greece, a NATO member state, violating the country’s airspace with Turkish military jets.

> 12.Erdogan is adamant about drilling for gas in the territorial waters of Cyprus and has begun plans to expand drilling off the coast of the Greek island of Crete.

> In that pursuit, he remains at odds with Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel over ownership of natural resources, threatening to use force to secure “his share” which could burgeon into a violent conflict.

> 13.Last but not least, Erdogan perpetuated the heated conflict with Cyprus over his demand that his puppet — the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus — enjoy equal political power to the Republic of Cyprus, which is four times larger in population and territory and is an EU member state.

78. ↑ Italy’s Draghi slams Erdoğan as a ‘dictator’ after Sofagate Giorgio Leali, Politico, April 8, 2021.  Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi slammed Turkish Presiden Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
79. ↑ Exiled novelist Aslı Erdoğan: Turkey has a fascist regime. It is not yet 1940s Germany, but 1930s TurkeyPurge, Aug 6, 2018
80. ↑ Turkey turning into "fascist dictatorship", MEPs told Martin Banks, The Parliament Magazine, Nov 8, 2016  A leading Turkish opposition parliamentarian says that Turkey has been turned into a "fascist dictatorship" under its President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
81. ↑ Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Birth of a Dictator von John Blau, Handelsblatt, Dec 8, 2016.
82. ↑ Turkish Editor slams EU deal with Erdogan's fascist government, Kareem Shaheen, Guardian, January 19, 2016
83. ↑ Opinion: Turkey takes a big step toward nationalist fascism Omer Taspinar, Washington Post, June 25, 2018
84. ↑ Turkey Caught Using Children as Human Shields at Border With Greece as Greece Fights Erdogan’s Violent Migrant Army March 2, 2020.  Turkey has for a number of days now been using a violent migrant army of military age men to attack Greece because they did not support his regime change war in Syria. The Turkish regime has armed these military age men with weapons such as gas canisters and Molotov cocktails to attack Greek police, army, navy, and Greek locals.
85. ↑ Turkish Bazaar: An asymmetrical threat to the EU Panos Tasiopoulos, Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, March 3, 2020.  ... It is not the first time that Turkey is using civilians as human shields and tools of its foreign policy. During the Great War, the Ottoman Empire deported and exterminated a large part of its Christian population. In 1938, the Kemalist Republic followed a similar policy in Alexandretta. In September 1955, the Turkish state was behind the brutal “pogrom” against the Greek-Orthodox population of Istanbul. Two decades later, Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus and forced thousands of Cypriots into exile. The same strategy is being used today on the Greek-Turkish border. Greece is facing an ongoing hybrid attack on land, sea and air by a so-called NATO ally. Recently, reports of cyber-attacks towards the Greek government and other sensitive sectors of the Greek state by Turkish hackers were published in the international press. In the first months of 2020, the violation and infringement of Greek airspace – with armed planes flying even over inhabited Greek islands in the Aegean – has reached new records. The recent decision by Erdogan and his authoritarian regime to encourage and push thousands of desperate people towards the north-east Greek sea and land borders comes as a natural continuation to a series of aggressive actions taken against Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. These actions include illegal exploration activities in the Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) of Cyprus and the illegal Turkish-Libyan Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that openly violates Greek territorial sovereignty. In addition, reports and footage show that the movement of immigrants -including criminals detained in Turkish prisons- is being implemented with the active participation of the Turkish armed forces, police and the Turkish intelligence services (MIT). Turkey has become a state “trafficker” that does not recoil from politicising human pain and misery, in order to make political gains. The Greek government’s rightful decision to increase the level of deterrence at its borders and temporarily suspend the asylum applications is the only possible reaction for any state intent on protecting its territory from a well organised hybrid attack. In the last 3 days, there have been over twenty-four thousand instances of people illegally attempting to cross into Greek territory. In Evros, less than 200 were successful, in which case the intruders were immediately arrested. On Monday alone, over 1.000 arrivals were recorded on the Greek islands of the Northern Aegean. The situation is tense and a fatal accident could turn the whole situation into something that risks becoming uncontrollable. It is more than certain that Erdogan’s regime will use fake-news and propaganda in order to attract public sympathy and portray Greece and Europe as the offenders. Turkey de facto cancelled the EU-Turkey Statement and Action Plan. Those who speak about asylum and international humanitarian law from the comfort of their office thousands of miles away from the Greek border tend to forget the geopolitical realities in the region. We are no longer talking about individuals who are escaping conflict zones. What we see is uncontrollable masses trying to reach Europe in huge numbers under the direct encouragement, guidance and facilitation of an official state actor and its services.
86. ↑ 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.' May 12, 2021. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-glavin-by-using-human-shields-hamas-doubles-down-on-its-war-crimes
87. ↑ 'Current World Leaders,' 1982, p.676 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...
88. ↑ Stephen Karetzky, Peter E. Goldman, "The Media's War Against Israel: The Full Exposé No One Dared Publish." (Steimatzky/Shapolsky, 1986) p.266[16] 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 civilian population as hostages to his political maneuverings.
89. ↑ "World Refugee Survey," 1984, p.112 ...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."
90. ↑ Labin, Suzanne. Les états terroristes et la guerre des lâches. France: Autoedition, 1987, pp.71-2. [17].

> [L'OLP y a ajouté la touche supplémentaire de l'hypocrisie: Elle installe délibérément ses bases opérationnelles et ses dépôts d'armes dans des quartiers populeux, dans des stades sportifs , dans des temples religieux, dans des écoles, comme on a pu le constater en Jordanie et au Liban. LES POPULATIONS CIVILES SONT LA CLEF DE SA STRATEGIE MILITAIRE . Les courageux terroristes de l'OLP font la guerre des camps EN S'ABRITANT DERRIERE DES CIVILS. C'est ainsi que le Fatah de Saïda donnait le 28 mai 1981 cet ordre d'opération n° 4: «Les quartiers d'habitation de la ville de Saïda et des villages environnants sont d'excellentes zones d'abri. Les arbres permettent le camouflage complet des véhicules et du personnel ... Il convient de prendre position dans les QUARTIERS D'HABITATION de Saïda , dans les CAMPS DE REFUGIES ET DANS LES VILLAGES.» Arafat a cautionné publiquement les actes de lâcheté que je viens de mentionner. Il a déclaré: « Nos combattants ont le droit d'utiliser TOUS LES MOYENS dans leur lutte contre l'oppression. (Reuter, Tunis, 3 septembre 1985.) COLLUSION DE L'OLP AVEC LES NEO - NAZIS Non seulement l'OLP travaille pour les fins de l'impérialisme soviétique, mais encore , prenant exemple sur le pacte Hitler-Staline , elle ne craint pas de collaborer avec les néo-nazis. Pour cette Internationale palestinienne comme pour l'Internationale communiste , LA FIN JUSTIFIE LES MOYENS . Otto Albrecht, star du néo-nazisme allemand, a été arrêté en 1982 avec des papiers lui donnant le pouvoir de recruter des volontaires pour Yasser Arafat. Du versement sur un compte bancaire à Hambourg de sommes disproportionnées avec la valeur des véhicules livrés , la police allemande tira la conclusion que ce groupe néo-nazi était financièrement soutenu par des mouvements palestiniens communisants , notamment par le groupe.] The PLO has added the additional touch of hypocrisy: It deliberately installs its operational bases and its arms depots in populated areas, in sports stadiums, in religious temples [mosques], in schools, as we have been able to seen in Jordan and Lebanon. THE CIVILIAN POPULATIONS ARE THE KEY TO HIS MILITARY STRATEGY. The "brave" PLO terrorists are waging camp wars BY SHELTERING BEHIND CIVILIANS. This is how Fatah in Saida issued on May 28, 1981 this operation order No. 4: “The living quarters of the town of Saida and surrounding villages are excellent shelter areas. The trees allow complete camouflage of vehicles and personnel... Positions should be taken in Saïda's HOUSING AREAS, REFUGEE CAMPS AND VILLAGES.” Arafat publicly condoned the acts of cowardice I just mentioned. He said: "Our fighters have the right to use ANY MEANS in their fight against oppression. (Reuters, Tunis, September 3, 1985.)

> PLO COLLUSION WITH NEO-NAZIS Not only does the PLO work for the ends of Soviet imperialism, but also, taking its cue from the Hitler-Stalin pact, it is not afraid to collaborate with neo-Nazis. For this Palestinian International as for the Communist International, THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. Otto Albrecht, star of German neo-Nazism, was arrested in 1982 with papers giving him authority to recruit volunteers for Yasser Arafat.

> From the payment into a bank account in Hamburg of sums disproportionate to the value of the vehicles delivered, the German police drew the conclusion that this neo-Nazi group was financially supported by communist Palestinian movements, in particular by the group.

91. ↑ Fatah claims: Hamas uses us as a "human shield" Ali Waked, Ynet, Jan 3, 2008. 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.
92. ↑ Steven Carol, "Understanding the Volatile and Dangerous Middle East - A Comprehensive Analysis." (iUniverse) 2019. Pt145

> 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."

93. ↑ Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America Kenneth R. Timmerman, 2004, p.137.‎ (Quoting from Ahlmark, P.'s book) Tyranny and the Left: Is Demcracy for Everybody?, p.9:

> I was in Lebanon at the time Palme made his remark, and the only persecution of Palestinian children in refugee camps was being carried out by Arafat's PLO guerrillas, who used the refugees as human shields to forestall Israeli attacks on PLO military positions. Dozens of Palestinian men were arrested and tortured by the PLO as they attempted to flee Beirut that summer

> Dozens of Palestinian men were arrested and tortured by the PLO as they attempted to flee Beirut that summer; I met many of them in a secret Fatah detention."

94. ↑ Revealed: The IDF attacked only about one-tenth of the targets identified in Gaza Amnon Lord, Mida, Aug 31, 2014.  Information obtained by Mida confirms the hypothesis that many terrorist centers in Gaza have enjoyed immunity due to the nature of human shielding. Tzuk Eitan [Operation Protective Edge]: Gain and loss report for Israel and Hamas. Information obtained by Mida confirms hypotheses that many terrorist centers in Gaza enjoyed immunity due to Hamas' use of human shields • Israel knew in advance about 32 tunnels, but only ten of them did penetrate our territory. 50 % Of the Gaza casualties were terrorists • and also - why did Haniyeh almost faint and then be hospitalized?
95. ↑ Search: [18] https://www.google.com/search?q=site:idf.il+"human+shields" . https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/site-search?q=Human+shields+
96. ↑ Hamas' Use of Human Shields, Explained. Published on May 18, 2021. The Hamas terror organization manufactures, stores, and launches weapons among civilian areas in Gaza. This is a blatant violation of human rights—both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad use Gazan civilians as human shields to protect their weapons by putting them in the direct line of fire. Following Hamas' relentless rocket attacks since May 10, 2021, Israel has had no choice but to defend itself. In contrast to its enemies, the IDF goes above and beyond international law to warn and protect Gazan civilians while striking terror targets in Gaza. https://youtu.be/_IWrLkTYRO0
97. ↑ "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
98. ↑ "Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admits that the terrorist group hides in civilian buildings in Gaza." The Buffalo Tribune, June 7, 2021 [19]
99. ↑ Hamas admits using civilians as human shields, All Arab News Staff, June 9, 2021.

> Israel accuses Hamas of double war crimes for such fighting – firing at Israeli civilians from within civilian population centers.

> In a speech to the head of the Hamas political bureau in Gaza after the end of the war between Hamas and Israel last month, Yahya Sinwar admitted that his organization has several military headquarters embedded in residential buildings – something Israel has been accusing the organization of all along.

> Hamas has always denied the existence of military and security headquarters among Gaza residents. This contradicts videos published by the Israeli army which indicate that rockets were launched from among the residential areas.

> Now, in a video that is making its way around the media, Sinwar admits as much...

100. ↑ 100.0 100.1 100.2 Hamas Terrorists Confess to Using Human Shields. IDF, Aug 27, 2014. Another terrorist said it was “widely known” that senior Hamas operatives had been hiding inside of Gaza’s hospitals.
101. ↑ The Blame Game: Israel, Hamas, and Civilian Deaths in Gaza Sam Dealey, USNews, Jan 7, 2009.

> Assessing blame for innocent casualties in the offensive launched by Israel into Gaza. ... Palestinians themselves, who now confirm Israel's assertion. Here's an excerpt from one Associated Press report:

> 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.

> ...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.

> And here's another, also from the AP: Palestinian residents, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution, said several militants ran toward the crowd, trying to use it as cover, when the first Israeli mortar shell missed them.

> ... Gaza militants used to wear black or khaki uniforms, but since the start of the Israeli offensive have been operating in civilian clothing, blending into crowds, residents say.

> Maybe it's time to re-evaluate which side shows such callous disregard for Palestine's civilians.

102. ↑ Congressional Record. Extensions of Remarks, Vol. 160, Pt. 9. Page 13211. "Israel Has The Right To Defend Itself." ... Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania In The House Of Representatives. July 25, 2014.
Hamas, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.. has a history of using schools, hospitals and civilians areas as staging grounds and launch sites for their attacks against Israel. They have also built a network of tunnels under those locations to facilitate the movement of soldiers and weapons for use against Israel. When Israel responds to these attacks by specifically targeting these missiles launchers, Hamas uses human shields--many times children--as propaganda tools. The civilized world should be horrified at such tactics by Hamas and condemn them absolutely.
103. ↑ Hamas terrorists confess to using human shields MFA, Aug 27, 2014.
According to terrorists Afif and Ahmed Jarrah, Hamas built an attack tunnel just steps away from a playground in Beit Lahia.
104. ↑ UNRWA unveils a Hamas tunnel under a school in Gaza Elior Levy, Ynet, June 10, 2017.
The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees discovered the tunnel about a week and a half ago, and agreed with Hamas that the part that passes under the school will be destroyed and sealed. It is probably not a tunnel intended to be used to infiltrate Israel.
105. ↑ 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
106. ↑ The IDF informs 2 UNRWA schools to evacuate in preparation for the bombing, Rotter, May 17, 2021.  The IDF sent a message to UNRWA institutions evacuating al-Burak and al-Aqsa schools Towards the near bombing. In Gaza, this is called a crime because they have become shelters.
107. ↑ UNRWA finds attack tunnel under one of its Gaza schools. By Tovah Lazaroff, June 6, 2021, JPost.com; 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.' Jun 5, 2021
108. ↑ Exclusive documentation: A Hamas tunnel was exposed at a UNRWA school in Gaza Gal Berger, Kann News, June 10, 2021.
Exclusive documentation: Exposed. The tunnel was excavated about 7 meters below the school grounds, where children's sports and leisure activities are routinely held. UNRWA has announced that it condemns any excavation of tunnels under their facilities, and has appealed to the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip for clarification.
109. ↑ Hamas prevents UN team from working near terror tunnel by school - report JPost staff, JPost, Aug 11, 2021
110. ↑ UNRWA REITERATES THE INVIOLABILITY OF ITS INSTALLATIONS MUST BE RESPECTED AT ALL TIMES, Unrwa, August 11, 2021. ... Initial risk assessments have indicated the existence of underground structures that could have led to further damage. The Agency condemns the existence and potential use of such underground structures, including tunnels, in the strongest possible terms, and letters of protest have been sent to the de facto authorities in Gaza. The Agency has also protested the takeover by the de facto authorities of one of these schools, which undermines the inviolability and neutrality of UNRWA premises. These actions also stand to compromise the safe return of children to their schools and scuttles the Agency efforts to open the schools on time.
111. ↑ The Israeli response to the terror of incendiary balloons, Hamal, Aug 23, 2021.

> ...a Hamas terrorist weapons production site in Khan Yunis, a terrorist tunnel shaft in Jabalya and an underground rocket launching station located in the heart of a civilian population in Shuja'iyya, near a school.

112. ↑ Gaza: Hamas gunmen hide in hospitals, Roni Sofer, Ynet, Dec 31, 2008. Shin Bet chief briefs cabinet on day five of Gaza offensive, says terror operatives hide in hospitals, mosques. IDF: Hamas increases use of densely populated areas for launching pads.
113. ↑ Gaza E.R. ~ Hamas Hiding in Shifa Hospital? Wide Angle, PBS 13 Jan 2009. Hamas Hiding in Shifa Hospital? Israeli intelligence officials say that Hamas leaders are operating out of a bunker underneath Shifa Hospital... But WIDE ANGLE reached a doctor in Gaza who believes Hamas officials are hiding either in the basement or in a separate underground area underneath the hospital and said that they moved there recently because other locations have been destroyed by Israel. The doctor, who asked not to be named, added that he believes Hamas is aware that they are putting civilians in harm’s way.
114. ↑ "Sources: Hamas Leaders Hiding in Basement of Israel-built Hospital in Gaza." Shin Bet Chief says militants hiding in Shifa Hospital because they know it will not be targeted by Israel. Amos Harel, Haaretz, Jan. 12, 2009.

> Senior Hamas officials in Gaza are hiding out in a "bunker" built by Israel, intelligence officials suspect: Many are believed to be in the basements of the Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City, which was refurbished during Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip.

> Shifa, the coastal strip's largest hospital, was built while Gaza was under Egyptian rule, before 1967.

> During the mid-1980s the building underwent massive refurbishment as part of a showcase project to improve the living conditions of residents.

> Millions were invested in the project, which was overseen by Shmuel Goren, the coordinator for activities in the territories at the time.

> The Israeli civil administration in the territories constructed the hospital complex's Building Number 2, which has a large cement basement that housed the hospital's laundry and various administrative services.

> During a cabinet meeting a week ago, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said senior Hamas officials found refuge in the hospital basement because they know Israel would not target it, due to the patients in the upper floors. Palestinian sources told Haaretz that not all the senior Hamas leaders are hiding in one place.

> Rather, they have spread out, and some are constantly changing locations. Some of the bunkers they are using were linked by tunnels Hamas built in recent years.

115. ↑ 115.0 115.1 Laurie R. Blank, ‎Gregory P. Noone, "International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War." (Wolters Kluwer; 2nd edition, September 14, 2018), p. 627.
Cast Lead... Anthony H. Cordesman, The “Gaza War”: A Strategic Analysis 24 (2009) (describing how Hamas used a mosque to store Grad missiles and Qassam rockets), http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/090202_gaza_war.pdf; Jeffrey Fleishman, Charges Fly in. Battle Over What Happened in Gaza, L.A. Times, Jan. 23, 2009, at A1 (detailing how Hamas used a bunker beneath a hospital as a headquarters).
116. ↑ "Underground Warfare," Daphné Richemond-Barak, (Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 209. UNDERGROUND WARFARE IN URBAN AREAS.  Hamas did not have to dig to reap the benefits of operating underneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
117. ↑ "Mabat - a failed Hamas launch towards Israel from the Shifa hospital complex in Gaza ended today with the deaths of 10 Palestinians." Attempt to fire a rocket from the Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza ended today with the deaths of at least ten Palestinians, some of them children. Across the Gaza Strip, they tried to celebrate Eid al-Fitr today and Hamas - despite the destruction and suffering - is not ready to contain the fire. Article by Yuval King. 28 Jul 2014 YouTube · Kan 11 - The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation
118. ↑ A failed launch caused destruction at Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Israel Greenfeld, Kol Hazman, Jul 28, 2014. An explosion occurred near Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, the explosion occurred following a failed Hamas firing.
119. ↑ While Israel held its fire, the militant group Hamas did not William Booth, Washington Post, July 15, 2014 ... At the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, crowds gathered to throw shoes and eggs at the Palestinian Authority’s health minister, who represents the crumbling “unity government” in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The minister was turned away before he reached the hospital, which has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices...
120. ↑ Hamas Captives: Haniyeh Hiding in Hospital. Arutz Sheva staff, Aug 26, 2014. Shin Bet publishes testimony of captured terrorist who says 'everybody knows' that Hamas's leadership is hiding out at Shifa. [Tags: Op. Protective Edge]
121. ↑ Foreign correspondent: "It's true, Hamas fires rockets from hospitals" A Finnish journalist covered the fighting from Shifa Hospital in Gaza, when a rocket was launched from a parking lot there.
Walla! news, August 2, 2014.
Israel has claimed since the beginning of the operation that the organization is using civilian facilities for military purposes.

> A Finnish TV reporter from the Helsinki Snomat network broadcast one night during Operation Protective Edge on broadcasts from Shifa Hospital in Gaza, when Hamas terrorists suddenly fired a rocket from the hospital at Israel. Following this, the reporter, whose name is not mentioned in a video uploaded to YouTube, confirmed that Hamas had committed a war crime that only a few journalists dare to report on.

> Reporting outside the hospital, the reporter says: "A rocket was launched right from the hospital's parking lot at 2:00 p.m." She added: "The noise was very loud," and that "it is true that rockets were fired from the hospital area toward Israel." ...

122. ↑ 122.0 122.1 Molly Wharton, Reporter Tells Truth About Rocket Fired from Gaza Hospital, Complains When Quoted by Pro-Israel Media, The National Review, Aug 4, 2014.

> A Finnish journalist reported seeing Hamas terrorists launch a rocket at Israel from a Gaza hospital, but later attacked news outlets for using her report as a pro-Israel “propaganda weapon.”

> Aishi Zidan, a journalist for the daily newspaper Helsinging Sanomat, described the rocket attack in a report, which was uploaded to YouTube on Friday. The blog Legal Insurrection provided a translation of the Finnish report.

123. ↑ 123.0 123.1 Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed—And Why Reporters Won't Talk About It. Staff Notes. Tablet Mag. Jul 29, 2014. Hamas obviously has no interest in having a photo-layout of one of its command bunkers beneath Shifa Hospital splashed on the front pages of...
124. ↑ How Hamas Uses Schools & Hospitals | Military.com Aug 7, 2014. https://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/terrorism/how-hamas-uses-schools-hospitals/3719616045001
125. ↑ Watch: The weapons depot attacked in Gaza, near a residence, Walla! news, Dec 12, 2011 - A video released today by the IDF Spokesman illustrates how the population of Gaza has become a "human shield" for the terrorist activities of the various organizations, headed by Hamas..
126. ↑ 126.0 126.1 Reporter Recounts Hamas’ Ruthless Tactics During 2014 Gaza War, Yair Rosenberg, Tablet Magazine, Aug 25, 2015. On-the-ground dispatch details how Gaza’s military forces deliberately endangered their own civilians by using them as ‘living shields’

> ... Polish foreign correspondent Wojciech Cegielski reported live from amidst the chaos of the 2014 Gaza war. Today in Haaretz, he offers a damning account of how he witnessed Hamas deliberately endanger civilians and journalists during that conflict. “Yes, Israel bombed Palestinian houses in Gaza,” the Polish Radio reporter writes. “But Hamas is also to blame for its cruel and selfish game against its own people.”

> While saying that he does not have “hard evidence” beyond his personal experience, Cegielski attests that from “spending a month in the middle of this hell, it was obvious that they [Hamas] were breaking international rules of war and worst of all, were not afraid to use their own citizens as living shields.” Cegielski then proceeds to recount two arresting instances of Hamas placing civilians in harm’s way for which he was personally present:

> The first incident happened late in the evening. I was in the bathroom when [I] heard a loud rocket noise and my Spanish colleague, a journalist who was renting a flat with me near the Gaza beach, started to scream. He wanted to light a cigarette and came to one of the open windows. The moment he was using his lighter, he saw a fireball in front of his eyes and lost his hearing.

> From what our neighbors told us later, a man drove up in a pickup to our tiny street. He placed a rocket launcher outside and fired. But the rocket failed to go upwards and flew along the street at ground level for a long time before destroying a building. It was a miracle that nobody was hurt or killed.

> When we calmed down, we started to analyze the situation. It became obvious that the man or his supervisor wanted the Israel Defense Forces to destroy civilian houses, which our tiny street was full of. Whoever it was, Hamas, Iz al-Din al-Qassam or others, they knew that the IDF can strike back at the same place from which the rocket was fired. Fortunately for us, the rocket missed its target in Israel.

> The second incident targeted not Gaza’s people, but its foreign journalists:

> I was sitting with other journalists in a cafe outside one of the hotels near the beach. During wartime, these hotels are occupied by foreign press and some NGOs. Every hotel is full and in its cafes many journalists spend their time discussing, writing, editing stories, or just recharging the phones. Suddenly I saw a man firing a rocket from between the hotels. It was obvious that we journalists became a target. If the IDF would strike back, we all would be dead. What would Hamas do? It would not be surprising to hear about the “cruel Zionist regime killing innocent and free press.”

127. ↑ "What is Hamas? Who supports Hamas? What you need to know," DW, May 15, 2021.

> Hamas often fires rockets at Israel from within residential areas and operates command posts in apartment blocks. The practice effectively uses civilians as human shields. Hamas has been secretly digging underground tunnels to smuggle arms into the enclave, chiefly from Egypt. The Egyptian government, however, has been clamping down on this activity.

128. ↑ William Booth, Sudarsan Raghavan and Ruth Eglash, "Israel launches ground invasion of Gaza", Washington Post, July 17, 2014.

> During the lull, a group of men at a mosque in northern Gaza said they had returned to clean up the green glass from windows shattered in the previous day’s bombardment. But they could be seen moving small rockets into the mosque.

129. ↑ 129.0 129.1 Gaza women killed in mosque siege, BBC, Nov 3, 2006.

> Hamas appeal

> In the dramatic mosque rescue, Hamas radio issued an appeal to local women when a tense stand-off developed between Israeli forces surrounding the building and up to 15 militants who had taken refuge inside.

130. ↑ The Status of Children in Gaza
131. ↑ UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields Post Editorial, NYPost, 2 May 2015. UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields.
132. ↑ 'At least 160 children died digging tunnels for Hamas' JPOST.com Staff, July 28, 2014.

> Use of child labor not stopped by police in Gaza, where children's "nimble bodies" help dig the tunnels that lead into Israel and Egypt.

> Hamas used children to help them dig numerous tunnels into Israel and Egypt, a 2012 paper written for the Journal of Palestine Studies reported.

> The paper, titled Gaza’s Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israel’s Siege says that little had been done to stop the phenomenon of child labor during the digging of the tunnels by Hamas in Gaza.

> In December 2011, the paper’s author Nicolas Pelham accompanied a police patrol in Gaza and reported that “nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies.”

> He continued and said that “at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas.

133. ↑ "This is how Hamas uses children." Yossi Yehoshua, Yediot Achronot, Apr 22, 2018

> With a Barcelona football shirt, slingshots and heavy tires - this is how the children who serve as human shields were photographed last Friday and sent to the front line during the violent demonstrations near the fence in Gaza. To authorize firing on children "

> In a Chicago Bulls basketball jersey or Barcelona football shirt, jeans and a childish haircut, the Hamas organization sends young children, some no more than 10 years old, to participate in demonstrations on the border fence in the Gaza Strip and serve as human shields.

134. ↑ Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) Tweeted: A 7 year-old girl was sent across the Gaza Strip border by the Hamas terror organization, where IDF troops identified her. Upon realizing she was a child, IDF troops ensured she returned safely to her parents.[https://twitter.com/IDF/status/979690695324786689?s=20 Mar 30, 2018]
135. ↑ Israel Nitzan (@IsraelNitzan) Tweeted: Earlier today #Hamas media in #Gaza published photos of senior Hamas leader Fathi Hammad carrying his baby daughter to the border area with Israel, where violent rioters attack Israel's security fence & IDF troops. Hamas is using children as #HumanShields. https://t.co/nytdfrStp3 Mar 30, 2018 photo
* (Broadcaster) Ivgeni Zarubinski tweeted:

> The next time that Israel will be accused of harming the "innocent", Do remember this picture of a senior Hamas member, Who arrived today in Gaza, where there are riots, near the fence with Israel, Holding a little child on his hands, using her as a human shield.

https://t.co/05X3SRbosd— (@ivgiz) Mar 30, 2018
136. ↑ Israeli group seeks ICC action against Hamas for using children as shields Yair Altman, Israel Hayom, April 25, 2018, updated May 12, 2019.

> The Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center is seeking International Criminal Court action against Hamas over the terrorist group's use of children as human shields in the riots that have taken place over the past month on the Israel-Gaza Strip border.

> The lawsuit is based on a clause in the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC's work, which says that recruiting children under the age of 15 to any militant organization is a war crime.

> The suit names former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, current deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, and moneyman Zahar Jabarin as guilty of war crimes, saying that as all three are nationals of Jordan, which is a signatory to the Rome Statute, they are subject to the court's jurisdiction.

137. ↑ IDF pilot suspects children in vicinity, calls off airstrike - watch Tobias Siegal, May 17, 2021
138. ↑ "Hamas enlists female participation in border riots - watch", Jerusalem Post Staff, February 18, 2019.
New footage released over the weekend shows Hamas using its women as human shields.
139. ↑ Gelber, Yoav. Ziv, Hani. Sons of the Bow: One Hundred Years of Struggle, Fifty Years of IDF. Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1998, p. 410.

> 1993... December 13 - A stolen 'Red Crescent' ambulance raced towards a checkpoint near Gaza. The soldiers opened fire on him and the ambulance exploded. Three soldiers were injured. The terrorist was killed.

140. ↑ Elyashiv, Netanʼel Binyamin. With all your heart: a window to the attributes (qualities of character) of Roi Klein , 2007.(Ḳashtiʼel, E. (2008). With All Your Heart: Insights Into the Inner World of Israel Hero Major Roi Klein. Israel: Old City Press].

> The name of Major Roy Klein entered the pages of history... after he lay down on a grenade to save his subordinates during the Second Lebanon War, with 'Shema Israel' on his lips...

p. 153:

> Roi showed a great deal of composure, as he waited with the order to open fire until the squad approached at short range. When she did so, Roi's force opened fire and hit three terrorists. As a result of this action, two of the terrorists were killed and the third was wounded, but Roy refused to be satisfied with this achievement, and immediately set up another ambush watching over the bodies of the terrorists.

> Indeed, after a short time an ambulance arrived at the scene with terrorists who had come to evacuate the bodies and plant explosives for the IDF forces. Roi surprised this squad as well, and managed to eliminate three more terrorists. The commander of the Central Command gave Roi a certificate of special appreciation for the successful operation, which proved that foot soldiers' ambushes are an effective tool in the Judea-Samaria sector as well. Roi, with characteristic modesty, avoided telling others about the certificate, which he hid under his bed.

* Kfir, Ilan, The earth shook. Israel: Maariv Library, 2006.

p. 139:

> ... Klein took command... he and the signaller Yochai tried to pull Merhavia into a cover nearby. Someone threw a stretcher at them. Kneeling down, Roi and Yohai tried to lift Amichai onto the stretcher. Around them were other wounded people calling for help. Roy tried to calm them down: "I'm soon coming to you." Shimon Adega, a fighter of Ethiopian origin, light on his feet and loved, hurried to help the SAMGAD [Deputy battalion commander] pull the stretcher. Klein tried to get up from his kneeling position to pick up the stretcher. Avitar Turgeman, a fighter in the Edge Force, suddenly saw the SAMGAD throwing himself forward and yelling: "Shema Israel". Shimon Adega was probably the only one who noticed Roy Klein leaping towards a hand grenade that rolled towards them. Avitar heard Shimon shouting hysterically: 'He jumped on the grenade, he jumped on the grenade.' Turgeman was stunned for a second. 'Klein, we're going to get you out,' he shouted. He and Shimon Adega pulled the stretcher to cover. Roy was still conscious. All around the fire continued. Hand grenades exploded near the force. Cries of victims from all sides: 'Mom, I'm dead.' Roy, mortally wounded, tried to get up. His hand went to the radio switch. His soldiers were amazed when they heard him: "I'm reporting, Klein is dead, Klein is dead..." Before he closed his eyes forever, he still managed to whisper something to Itamar Katz, who had taken command of the company. It was the secret code cipher on his walkie-talkie: "Vered Harim".

> Signler Elad Ozeri could not hold back the tears in his eyes: "Roi is dead, Roi is dead," he said to his friends in disbelief. Shimon Adega, the smiling Ethiopian was hit directly and killed...

p. 146:

> In 2001, Klein received a medal from the General of the Central Command, for executing a perfect ambush near the IDF's axis of movement near Mount Ebal. A number of terrorist squads operated in the area, specializing in proactive ambushes for IDF forces and settlers moving along the [road] axis. The first ambush ended without results. Contrary to intelligence information, the terrorist squad did not pass the axis. A few days later, it changed the location of the ambush. Late at night he noticed three terrorists approaching the axis to plant a bomb. Roi and his men let them approach and opened fire at short range. The three terrorists were killed. Suddenly a Palestinian ambulance appeared. Roy ordered his men to besiege fire. To his surprise, a number of armed terrorists got out of the Palestinian ambulance. Roi opened fire and hit them. In the investigation after the battle, he learned from the Shin Bet that the terrorists who were in the ambulance belonged to a wanted squad that carried out ambushes in the area.

> On the night of July 26, 2006, on his way to the last mission of his life, he told his men that for him Bint Jbeil was the closing of a circle. The circle is indeed closed. but at a heavy price. Roi Klein was laid to rest exactly on his thirty-first birthday. Klein was one of [village] Eli's three martyrs in the war...

141. ↑ 141.0 141.1 OPT: UNRWA calls on all parties to respect the neutrality of its ambulances - Israel. Posted - 13 May 2004.Originally published - 13 May 2004. Press Release No. HQ/G/09/2004.

> UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has issued a call to all the parties to the conflict in the ...territory to respect the integrity of its ambulance services and the neutrality and impartiality of its staff. The call follows an incident in Gaza City on 11 May in which armed Palestinian militants threatened the lives of an UNRWA ambulance team (a driver and a paramedic) and forced them to transport an injured gunman and two of his armed colleagues to a hospital in Gaza City.

> UNRWA condemns this action in the strongest possible terms. While its ambulances do not make any distinction between the injured, whether they are injured fighters or noncombatants, at no time and under no circumstances should armed men enter any UNRWA vehicle.

* Knesset Protocols. Israel. Keneset, 2005.p. 20377.

> On May 13, 2004, UNRWA published a statement of condemnation in which it announced that on May 11, armed terrorists took over an ambulance in the Zaytun neighborhood and forced the driver to drive an armed wounded Palestinian to the hospital. At the same time, news spread that there was a tape of the event, taken by the Reuters agency. In the past we received information about other cases of terrorists using UNRWA ambulances.

142. ↑ PA President Mahmoud Abbas: Hamas Leaders Fled to the Sinai in Ambulances during the Israeli Campaign in Gaza, Memri, Oct 13, 2009.

> 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.

143. ↑ Documentation: Terrorist operatives flee in an ambulance Mako N12, July 22, 2014.

> Hamas terrorists use ambulances in the Gaza Strip to evacuate injured civilians to hospitals - and use them to escape from IDF forces.

> Terrorist operatives in Gaza who fire at soldiers and launch rockets into Israeli territory during the days of Operation Resilient Cliff, are taking advantage of the ambulance system in the Gaza Strip, which is designed to serve the many civilians injured - all to try and evade IDF forces in the area.

144. ↑ 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, p. 16

> There were even published reports earlier this week of Hamas terrorists using ambulances as getaway cars..

145. ↑ Yaakov Lappin, Fighting terrorists who move around in ambulances JPost, July 20, 2014
146. ↑ J. A. Gross, "IDF accuses Palestinians of using ambulance as shield for rock throwing", TOI, Dec 10, 2017.
Photographs released by military show two youths standing behind vehicle as they apparently lob stones at security forces
147. ↑ https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/12/Using-an-Ambulance-as-a-Shield-2.jpeg
148. ↑ https://static.educalingo.com/img/en/800/human-shield.jpg
149. ↑ Steven Carol, "Understanding the Volatile and Dangerous Middle East - A Comprehensive Analysis." (iUniverse) 2019. 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...

Pt146

> A Gaza ambulance driver who described how Hamas operatives tried to force him to use his ambulance to....

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.

pt148

150. ↑ The Red Crescent: When a Rescue Organization Selects Death, Lital Semesh, Israel Hayom, Dec 12, 2017.

> The day before yesterday, a violent riot broke out in the Ramallah area, one day chasing another day of riots involving rioters throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at IDF forces. In a video released by the IDF Spokesman, a Red Crescent ambulance was seen assisting in transporting rioters disguised as wounded to the demonstration area. The ambulance dismantled the masked wounded in the area of the riots, as they wrapped themselves in Palestinian flags and joined their brothers in throwing stones at our soldiers. All of this celebration took place under the auspices of an organization that is supposed to save lives and help the wounded, and not help the terrorists to vent their anger at IDF soldiers.

> This is not the first time the Red Crescent organization has given a hand to violence and terrorism.

151. ↑ "Gaza Reporter Caught on Tape Confirming Hamas Fired Rockets Near TV Offices." Yoav Stern, Jan. 20, 2009. Israel releases tape of Al-Arabiya presenter saying Grad fired 'below the building', networks deny claim.
* Al-Arabiya Footage Confirms Hamas Fired From Building Used By Journalists [English subtitle], Jan 22, 2009.
Footage of a presenter on the Arabic language television station Al-Arabiya(العربية) apparently confirms that Hamas fired at least one rocket from close to a building used by journalists during the 22-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces shelled the building, drawing international condemnation, and television networks with offices in the building denied that rockets had been launched from anywhere nearby. [Right, the honesty and reliability of the reporters and news agencies in Gaza huh? Of course, their home offices and international outlets, such as the CNN and so forth, simply eat up the lies and spit them back out for the masses]. The reporter, Al-Arabiya presenter Hanan Al-Masri is caught on camera saying that a Grad rocket had been fired from a location near the studios at Al-Shuruk tower in Gaza City. Al-Masri did not realize that she had been caught on camera. A rocket from here? It's here, she says and turns to look at a window. Listen, it's here, below the building. The production team tells Al-Masri that a rocket has been fired from a nearby location. She then calls someone and says: The rocket that was just fired from here is a Grad? Its as if it was fired from beneath the office. It was very loud. I thought it was bombing but it was a rocket launch. This is an out-Take of Al-arabiya-TV Reporter Hannan al-Masri learning of an Hamas missile being fired from the ground floor of the building housing the Al-Arabiya studio in Gaza City on January 1, 2009. The video was intercepted by satellite hobbyist. The video is in arabic, but at 0:26 she actually says, It seems that it came out from under the office. She is apparently talking to her husband or brother. Translation: Journalist: A missile was launched from our place? From here?, it was launched from here!, no, from under our building. How many? Was the missile launched from under our place a Grad. The missile was launched just now, it seems like it was launched just outside the office. It made a big bang, I thought it was an airstrike, but it was a missile. They launched it from under the office! (Giggles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPDZYmcyzqA .
* clip
* L'Arche, Issues 609-610, 2009, p.45
[La journaliste entend les missiles du Hamas, mais elle n'en parle pas Hanan Al-Masri est la correspondante à Gaza de la chaîne de télévision al-Arabiya Basée à Dubaï. Les studios de la chaîne sont situés à la plein centre de la ville de Gaza. Dans un immeuble... (Elle parle dans son téléphone portable) Est-ce que le missile qui a été tiré d'ici était un Grad? Juste a l'instant. Comme s'il venait depuis juste au-des-sous du bureau. Il a fait un bruit terrible. J'ai cru que c'était un raid aérien mais c'était un missile. Ils l'ont tiré juste à côté du bureau."] Journalist hears Hamas missiles, but does not talk about them Hanan Al-Masri is the Gaza correspondent for Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV channel. The channel's studios are located right in the center of Gaza City. In a building... (Speaks into her cell phone) Was the missile that was fired from here a Grad? Just at the moment. As if he was coming from just below the office. He made a terrible noise. I thought it was an air raid, but it was a missile. They shot him right next to the office."
152. ↑ What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel, Matti Friedman, The Atlantic, Nov 30, 2014.
The news tells us less about Israel than about the people writing the news, a former AP reporter says... AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office.
153. ↑ Israel says Hamas jammed Iron Dome signals from destroyed media building AFP, Ynet, June 8, 2021.
...ambassador to the United States, Gilad Erdan, gave the most detailed explanation yet of the decision to strike the tower as he met the head of the news agency, Gary Pruitt, at its New York headquarters.... "The unit was developing an electronic jamming system to be used against the Iron Dome defense system," Erdan said, referring to the anti-missile shield that intercepts Hamas rockets...."In contrast, Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization that has no regard for the press. It purposely places its terror machine in civilian areas, including in offices being used by international media outlets," he said.
154. ↑ Matthew Levitt (2008). "Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad." p. 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.
155. ↑ John Oliver Blames Israel for Hamas War Crimes. Emanuel Miller, HR, 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/
156. ↑ Blinken: Israel provided US secret justification for flattening AP building in Gaza. By Steven Nelson, NY Post May 18, 2021. https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/blinken-israel-gave-us-secret-justification-for-flattening-ap-building-in-gaza/. .. 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."
157. ↑ UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields Post Editorial Board, NYPost, May 2, 2015
158. ↑ From Collateral Damage to Human Shields: Why There Are So Many Casualties on the Palestinian Side, Sarit Zehavi, Alma Israel, July 29, 2014.
159. ↑ Hybrid Threats: Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza StratCom | NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Riga, Latvia. 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. 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.
160. ↑ The So-called International Community, Mona Charen, National Review, Jan 3, 2009.

> Waiting in vain for an international outcry. Just for a lark, I decided to google “international condemnations of Hamas” this morning. You can guess what came up, right?.... In 2005, perhaps accepting Bennett-Jones’s interpretation of history, Israel pulled out of Gaza completely, uprooting all of the Jewish settlers, and leaving the area completely to the Palestinians to administer. Rather than build a society of their own, Hamas, which controls Gaza — the Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank — has used its independence to launch a ceaseless barrage of missiles against Israel.

> It’s often pointed out that Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. It’s more than that. Hamas, with Iran’s backing, is committed to Israel’s violent destruction. Missiles have fallen on schools and homes. Hamas is explicit about desiring Israeli counterattacks, because while Hamas aims to kill Israeli civilians, they know that Israel tries very hard not to kill Palestinian civilians. But every Palestinian death at the hands of Israel is seen as a propaganda victory for Hamas — which is why they place their munitions and terrorists in mosques, hospitals, and homes crowded with children. Hamas representative Fathi Hamad stated it explicitly: “For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly (Palestinians) created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire life.”

161. ↑ Gil Stein: Hamas ”dead baby strategy” reprehensible, Gil Stein, Santa Cruz Sentinel, published: January 10, 2010, updated: September 11, 2018

> We also saw video from the other side. We saw the destruction in Gaza and we also saw how the Hamas weapon of choice was the human shield. In Israeli cities efforts were made to protect civilians. Israel also made efforts to minimize civilian casualties on the other side by dropping over a million leaflets warning people to vacate areas where Hamas activity was taking place. In Gaza it was the opposite.

162. ↑ Why do the media keep encouraging Hamas violence? A. Dershowitz, JPost, May 17, 2018. Calling this the “dead baby strategy” may seem cruel, because it is cruel. But don’t blame the messenger for accurately describing this tactic.
163. ↑ The dead-baby strategy Jonathan S Tobin, JNS, May 18, 2018

> The exploitation of the death of a Palestinian infant shows the depths to which anti-Israel propaganda has sunk and how effective such immoral arguments can be... But what good are facts if all you’re really after is more propaganda war against Israel? If someone like British shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry (the person who will be Britain’s leading diplomat if a Labour Party that is tainted by anti-Semitism wins the next election in that country) could claim that Israeli snipers were shooting Palestinian children in the back while they ran for their lives, then clearly anything is possible... Palestinians brought their children to the border as if they were going to a family picnic. As we saw during previous armed conflicts with Israel, Palestinian factions routinely use humans as shield. The presence of civilians protects their fighters, as well as provides a bonus in the form of bad press for Israel if non-combatants are harmed.

> While some Jews are ashamed that Israelis are prepared to use lethal force to defend their country, Hamas leaders feel no shame about putting Palestinian children in harm’s way. In their eyes, the goal of destroying the Jewish state is so important that no action is too depraved if it undermines Israel.

> Hamas is correct about the effectiveness of these tactics, which are nothing less than acts of human sacrifice. In the face of such calamity, it’s hard for some seemingly fair-minded observers like the Times’ David Brooks to think clearly about Gaza. The situation is so egregious that they assume that no matter what Hamas does, they’ve come to believe it’s somehow Israel’s responsibility prevent the Palestinians from purposing the deaths of these kids. Rather than analyze the conflict dispassionately, he and others simply damn both sides as extremists...

164. ↑ The dead baby strategy: defend terror, not democracy, Tuvia Brodie, INN, Aug 11, 2014.

> ... we see how a terror organization uses a ‘dead baby’ strategy. It uses children as human shields. It seeks more, not less, civilian deaths. It does that to enrage the world against Israel.

> It’s a strategy that’s perfectly aligned with how a terror organization thinks. The Daily Telegraph, however, doesn’t understand the difference between a democracy and a terror organization. It doesn’t look at how Hamas deliberately positions civilians, especially women and children, to be killed by attacking Israelis. It doesn’t ask why Hamas won’t let civilians leave targets after Israel notifies those civilians to evacuate because a strike is coming at them. It cares only about one thing: Palestinian children have been killed by Israel-the-democracy...

165. ↑ Chaim Shacham, "This is a fight Israel did not seek", Miami Herald, July 28, 2014.

> It’s called the “dead baby” tactic and here’s how it works: Hamas carries out outrageous attacks against Israel’s civilian population. In turn, Israel must — like any responsible government — protect its citizens by trying to remove the threat. Hamas, in turn, hides behind its civilian population, hoping that these innocent human shields will bear the brunt of Israel’s effort to defend itself. Last, the inevitable civilian casualties would be spun from outrage and sympathy into renewed political power for Hamas. Recognizing this diabolical Hamas strategy, yet maintaining its moral standards, Israel has endeavored to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza as much as humanly possible — while still effectively countering Hamas attempts to murder Israeli citizens. To this end, Israel has done what no nation has ever done in order to protect civilians — on both sides:

> In short, Israel has employed its arsenal to protect civilians, while Hamas has employed its civilians to protect its arsenal.

> The population of Gaza is not Israel’s enemy, and it is Israel’s fervent hope that the current efforts to establish a ceasefire will be successful. Moreover, throughout this tragic ordeal, Israel has not lost sight of its ultimate goal, that of living in peace with its neighbors.

166. ↑ Amanda Berman, Director of Legal Affairs, "The Truth and UNtruth of the Matter", The Lawfare Project. July 1, 2015.

> It would be counterproductive for the Palestinian leadership to invest in civilian protection when its stated goal is to increase and leverage the civilian death toll in Gaza to improperly influence the international narrative against Israel. Those who truly value the lives of Palestinian civilians mustvociferously condemn the “dead baby strategy”. In continuing to rely on Hamas’s hyper-inflated civilian casualty statistics to castigate Israel – as the UN Commission did – the international community is sanctioning this strategy and is therefore complicit in the deaths of innocents. From a legal perspective, the often-referenced proportionality argument fails to support the accusation that Israel committed war crimes. It is Hamas, not Israel, which persistently violates the proportionality principle by intentionally waging indiscriminate attacks on civilian population centers.

167. ↑ Why HAMAS is Bad for Palestinians, Jerusalem Institute of Justice, May, 2017.

> 1\. Societal Abuse Hamas has forcefully taken over Gaza, and has summarily executed 500+ political opponents by throwing them from skyscraper rooftops. Hamas carries out arbitrary arrests, torture and executions, by accusing and convicting suspected anti-Hamas Palestinians as "collaborators." During July/August 2014 Hamas performed at least 55 executions of civilians. Hamas has arbitrarily arrested and/or detained at least 2,970 people since seizing control of Gaza. 200+ cases of torture by Hamas have been documented since 2011.

> 2\. Child Abuse Hamas perpetuates a culture of militarization in which younger children are revered as holier martyrs. Hamas runs summer camps for children as young as 6 years old, which include activities like crawling under barbed wire fences with assault rifles and viewing simulated kidnappings of Israeli soldiers.

> 160 child laborers allegedly died during Hamas’ construction of cross-border tunnels between Gaza and Israel. Hamas spokesman: "Human rights education dangerously contravenes Palestinian and Islamic culture" and "brainwashes Palestinian children."

> 3\. Corruption Hamas raises billions of dollars, pockets most of it, and with what's left, builds tens of millions of dollars' worth of tunnels under homes, schools and hospitals. It diverted an estimated $30-90 million’s worth of building materials from construction projects to build three dozen tunnels into Israel to use for terrorist acts. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, with personal net worth of $2.6 billion, calls the shots of the military engagement in Gaza while living comfortably at a 5-star hotel in Qatar.

> 4\. Human Rights Abuses Hamas morality police punish women .. Women in Gaza are unable to initiate divorce. Only males may press incest charges. Rapists can be set free if they agree to marry their victims. Homosexuality is entirely outlawed by Hamas, with a punishment of up to ten years in jail.

> 5\. Disregard for Life Hamas camouflages its combatants in civilian clothes, turning all Gazans into potential IDF targets. Hamas glorifies martyrdom as a high calling, intentionally drawing Palestinian civilians into danger by firing rockets at Israel from civilian population centers. Hamas has been known to physically prevent civilians from evacuating targeted buildings. Hamas implements a "dead-baby strategy" by strategically trying to have as many as possible Palestinian babies killed, in order to use the photos to raise finances and political collateral. Hamas declared that all Israelis – including civilian men, women and children – are legitimate targets of missile attacks. Hamas frequently misfires rockets which land in Gaza, destroying buildings and killing innocent Palestinians. Hamas booby-traps homes, schools, and hospitals with explosives. "Work accidents" sometimes kill civilians. Hamas in August 2014 booby-trapped a United Nations clinic in Gaza by hiding 12 barrels containing 80 kg. of explosives each in a wall, and then using a child to lure Israeli soldiers into the building. The explosives detonated and three soldiers died.

> HAMAS TERRORIZES the PEOPLE of GAZA.

> FREE GAZA END HAMAS' OCCUPATION.

168. ↑ Mike Fegelman, "Canadian Media Fall for Palestinian Dead Baby Strategy", HR, May 9, 2019.
Israel’s enemies are adept at exploiting the deaths of Palestinian infants and innocent civilians alike to slander the Jewish state. This crude and morally depraved anti-Israel propaganda was on full display on May 4 when Palestinians, specifically Gaza’s Health Ministry (run by the Hamas terror group) claimed that an Israeli airstrike killed a 14-month-old Palestinian baby girl and her pregnant aunt. In truth, the Islamic Jihad terror group reportedly admitted that one of its rockets had misfired and killed both Palestinian innocents. On May 5, Israel strenuously denied any responsibility for their deaths.
169. ↑ Gerard Max, "Israel-Gaza: the digital conflict", Australian Jewish News, June 4, 2021.
'As the world increasingly questions Israel’s right to exist, the necessity to communicate the fundamental legitimacy of our nationhood is more important than ever'.

> ... Facts have been rendered worthless, our voice muted, our pain inconsequential.

> The reality is that it’s unlikely that any of us can directly influence events in Israel. However, it has become clearer than ever that our ability to live safely, while being identifiable Jews in Australia, is intimately connected to our ability and willingness to defend our link with Israel.

> We know the facts. The “atrocious, racist eviction of Palestinians” in Sheikh Jarrah, an eviction that hasn’t actually happened, was a flashpoint of pure confection.

> In fact, it was Jews who were ethnically cleansed in 1948. What followed were the orchestrated riots at Al-Aqsa mosque – a mechanism to unite the broader Islamic community behind Hamas, and then the rocket barrage from Gaza, designed to both kill Israelis and induce a response that would inevitably create civilian casualties and feed – with grotesque cynicism – Hamas’s “dead baby” strategy.

> And it worked brilliantly. The international media which dutifully reported on Israel’s “disproportionate response”, the human cost, the carnage in Gaza, largely ignored the fact that the citizens of a democratic country spent days and nights in bomb shelters, and completely ignored the reason why Gazans have no bomb shelters. Not through lack of money, but rather because Hamas needs Gazans to die to achieve its objective – the excision and destruction of Israel.

> Online has become even more of a cesspool of antisemitism...

170. ↑ Evelyn Gordon, "Was Sharon right after all?," JPost, August 4, 2014. [20]
If the Gaza pullout doesn’t kill us, it may well have saved us from a far more lethal West Bank one. Last week, I thought something I never dreamed I could think: that perhaps I owe former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon an apology. Not that I’ve altered my conviction that he bears direct, personal responsibility for every rocket fired from Gaza over the last nine years, every cross-border tunnel, every soldier killed there, every bit of damage done to Israel’s global standing by the periodic wars with Gaza and even many Palestinian casualties of these wars; all are the bitter fruit of the unilateral “disengagement” from Gaza that he conceived, bulldozed through the Knesset and finally implemented in August 2005. Yet if an apology is owed – and I’m still not sure it is – it’s not despite his responsibility for these evils, but because of it... Except for one minor problem: The success of the operation doesn’t matter if the patient dies. And it’s not yet clear Israel can survive the success of Sharon’s operation. It’s not clear it can survive the security consequences – which, for the first time since 1948, have turned Israeli communities within the Green Line into ghost towns – and it’s not clear it can survive the cumulative toll on its international legitimacy that repeated applications of Hamas’ wildly successful “dead baby strategy” are exacting.
171. ↑ Reuven Ben-Shalom, "Demilitarizing Gaza – an international responsibility", JPost, July 24, 2014.
The movement’s leaders adhere to no morals or ethics. To them, the end of annihilating Israel justifies every means, including sacrificing their own civilians. They understand that this is first and foremost a battle of narratives, so they operate in a way that maximizes their “dead baby strategy.” The extensive use of human shields is horrific. They fire rockets from schoolyards, calculating that retaliatory fire will kill children.
172. ↑ Reuven Ben-Shalom, "UNHRC is empowering terrorism and degrading human rights", JPost, July 28, 2014.
The main reason for civilian deaths during this operation is that Hamas deliberately places them in harm’s way. It understands the impact this has on the international community, so it maximizes civilian deaths. Rockets are fired from schoolyards, so that retaliatory fire will kill children. People are sent to rooftops after warnings of an imminent attack. Civilians are ordered to stay in war zones despite being urged by the IDF to leave. Entire residential areas such as Shajaia have been turned into terrorist strongholds loaded with weapons and explosives. It’s heartless and brutal – but it works. Hamas’s “dead baby strategy” makes the world condemn Israel for killing civilians. We may never know the exact numbers, but it is also important to note that many uninvolved civilians have been killed directly by Hamas. Many of rockets fired by Hamas have fallen within the Gaza Strip. “Accidents” are very common when operating nonstandard weapons, and when weapon caches are deliberately placed in schools and mosques, every mishap costs the lives of innocents. Sometimes small-scale, pinpoint air strikes spark secondary explosions and even set off rockets. People executed by Hamas for collaborating with Israel are also presented as victims of “Israeli aggression.”
173. ↑ Jack Engelhard, Believe Nothing From The BBC, INN, July 21, 2014.

> Forget news. You are getting stories.

> Well it’s about time…but why not take the next step and forbid journalists from access altogether? Many are “journalists” in name only. They are enemy combatants.

> Instead of guns, they use words. Instead of rockets, they use pictures. They have perfected the “dead baby strategy” to inflame public opinion against Israel.

> In particular I am thinking about that British mieskeit who in the midst of Gaza can only find “suffering civilians” but not a single terrorist. The place is crawling with them but this BBC reporter can’t find a single one. The Jews are to blame. That is her story.

174. ↑ Mark Silverberg, " UNHRC Report ignores the implications of the Gaza war," June 24, 2015.
What is not addressed in the Report however is the rationale behind Hamas’s use of human shields and civilian infrastructures as an integral part of its war tactics. Hamas made it clear to Gaza’s civilians that those fleeing the fighting would be considered collaborators (which, in Gaza, is the equivalent of a death sentence) if they didn’t stay put. As Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan said in May: “The Arab nations came to understand that they will not be able to defeat Israel on the battlefield, and therefore decided to transfer the battlefield to the civilian population. The only change on the Palestinian side was an under-the-radar tactical change, but this change still adheres to their original agenda – the total rejection of the Jewish state. Instead of tank battles in distant deserts, the Palestinians transferred their battles to densely populated areas where the civilians serve as human shields.” This tactic is part of what several Middle-East scholars have termed the “dead baby” strategy. A widely circulated cartoon makes this point effectively: [21]
175. ↑ Richard Landes (@richard_landes) Tweeted Sep 7, 2015: Will Chris Gunness ever be held to account for his role in Hamas' cannibalistic "dead baby" strategy? http://t.co/zyiJm7c2L0
176. ↑ Richard Kemp V (@COLRICHARDKEMP) Tweeted (July 22, 2014): .@shashj Inflammatory comments encourage violence in Europe; validating Hamas dead baby strategy encourages wider use of human shields.
177. ↑ There is only one honest answer to this Israel-Palestinian conflict: Condemning Hamas terrorism, Alan Dershowitz, NY Daily News, May 19, 2021

> This Hamas approach has aptly been called the CNN strategy (which is to say nothing against CNN, simply that the strategy is designed to exploit the 24-hour news cycle). Others call it the “dead baby strategy.” It is based on the recognition that the media loves to show dead children, and that Hamas always parades its dead and wounded in front of TV cameras. They know that “If it bleeds, it leads.” They also know there will inevitably be some civilian casualties among the human shields they deliberately deploy. They could easily fire their rockets from the many unpopulated areas of the Gaza Strip, but they deliberately choose to fire them from mosques, schools, hospitals and other locations that are densely populated with civilians.

178. ↑ Rocket attack is a warning to all Israel's enemies, with domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet to take action 'when necessary' Michael Burleigh for the Daily Mail, Nov 16, 2012.

> ... For sure Hamas carries out good deeds among the Palestinian poor in Gaza, with clinics and soup kitchens, but this is largely an attempt to indoctrinate them in anti-Semitic hatred by a political leadership that gives the armed wing its strategic marching orders.

> The core fighters of the military wing number several hundreds of men, trained in Iran and Syria, but there another 10,000 people who facilitate their evil deeds.

> Hamas is not some benign conservative religious party. The 2012 list of its regular human rights abuses compiled by the organisation Human Rights Watch runs to 42 pages, and includes beating people with iron bars, 102 cases of torture, and the hanging of anyone suspected of collaborating with the Israelis.

> Their fighters employ child suicide bombers and use Palestinian civilians as human shields. This is the organisation to which Jaberi devoted the last decades of his violent life.

> Jaberi, for example, is believed to have been involved in the suicide bombing of a No 6 bus in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom in 1995 that killed eight and wounded 60 others.

179. ↑ Foreign journalists reveal Hamas' false front Daniel Bettini, Ynet, Jul 8, 2014.

> The world didn't believe Israel, but it might believe foreign reporters who were afraid to offer real-time reports but now tell all: A Hamas HQ at Al-Shifa Hospital, launchers near UN facilities, and staged bomb scenes.

> It has been said that when the cannons are heard, the muses are silent. In the case of foreign reporters in the Gaza Strip, their silence stemmed mostly from fear.

> A day after Operation Protective Edge ended, a truer picture slowly began emerging: foreign reporters leaving the Gaza Strip revealed what Israel has claimed all along – that Hamas had fired out of population hubs and near UN facilities.

> Why didn't they report those facts during the ongoing fighting? According to the reporters, they feared for their lives. "We saw the Hamas men," a Spanish reporter admitted. "But had we dared point the cameras at them, they would have opened fire at us and killed us."

> Now that they're out of the Gaza Strip, the reporters are revealing what Hamas tried to prevent the world from seeing. An Indian reporter, for example, documented how Hamas militants launched rockets from a post right outside the window of the hotel where he was staying in the Gaza Strip, shortly before the ceasefire came into effect. The video aired only after the reporter left Gaza. When asked about it, he replied: "There's a conspiracy of silence rooted in fear – no one wants to report in real-time".

> Report by Indian journalist showing assembly, firing of rocket in Gaza.

> The report by Indian journalist Sreenivasan Jain for Hindi language news channel NDTV went as follows: "It began with a mysterious tent with a blue canopy that bobbed up yesterday (August 4) at 6:30 am in an open patch of land next to our window. We saw three men making a multitude of journeys in and out of the tent, sometimes with wires.

> "An hour later, they emerged, dismantled the tent, changed their clothes and walked away."

> The journalist stressed that it is "important to report on how Hamas places those very civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones."

> FRANCE 24 correspondent Gallagher Fenwick aired a report showing rockets being launched just 50 meters away from the hotel where foreign journalists were staying and 100 meters away from a UN facility.

> This France 24 report shows children surrounding a rocket launch site.

> “The Israeli army has repeatedly accused the Palestinian militants of shooting from within densely populated civilian areas and that is precisely the type of setup we have here. Rockets set up right next to buildings with a lot of residents in them," he reported after leaving.

> Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati also told the truth about Hamas once he left the Strip, no longer under their threat. In a tweet, Barbati said: “Out of #Gaza far from #Hamasretaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday (yesterday) in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.” He added: “@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communique released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not #Israel behind it.”

> Another foreign reporter said that it is an open secret that Hamas uses Al-Shifa hospital as its command center, but that reporters in Gaza would not report that out of fear that it would endanger them.

> However, not only foreign reporters were afraid of Hamas' potential revenge. Palestinian reporters also suffered threats when they attempted to criticize the terrorist organization and give truthful reports.

> Local Palestinian reporter Radjaa Abu Dagga, for example, reported that he was summoned for questioning at Al-Shifa hospital, where armed Hamas militants attempted to determine whether he writes for an Israeli newspaper. Abu Dagga said that his passport was taken from him, and he was prohibited from leaving the Gaza Strip. Later he published an article in French newspaper Libération, but was forced to remove it after receiving threats.

> Reporters in Gaza were subject not only to threats but also to Hamas' manipulations. The Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan detailed how the organization's men staged the IDF attack scenes: he said that he was taken to photograph a mosque that had been bombed, and discovered that someone had "prepared" the scene and placed a prayer mat and burnt Quran pages.

> He later reported that it was obvious that someone had put them there to create empathy for the Palestinian struggle.

> The CBN news website said that apart from mosques, Hamas is also using church compounds to launch attacks. In his report, journalist George Thomas said that Gaza's most prominent Christian leader, Archbishop Alexios, "took CBN News to the roof terrace outside his office to show how Islamists used the church compound to launch rockets into Israel."

> The Archbishop explained that "Islam is the rule of this place and whatever Hamas says we must obey or face consequences," Thomas added.

> A foreign reporter's testimony: Hamas' manipulations

> Yedioth Ahronoth exclusive

> Hamas' control of the foreign journalists' coverage during the days of fighting in Gaza was not very sophisticated, but very effective.

> First, Hamas determined that the organization's spokesmen could be interviewed only in the the courtyard of Al-Shifa hospital. As a result, long lines of reporters waiting for an interview were created, and during their wait, they witnessed wounded people who arrived to receive treatment. This created the impression Hamas was seeking to convey: a state of immediate emergency and humanitarian disaster.

> Secondly, Hamas has never allowed foreign reporters access to military sites attacked by Israel, whether they are bases, rocket-launching sites or other Hamas targets. The dead and wounded of the organization were not captured on film as well, and hence from a media perspective they didn't even exist. All this served Hamas' purpose in creating an impression that all the victims were civilians.

> Thirdly, it was clear that Hamas was launching rockets out of populated civilian areas, but the organization demanded that the press photographers not document the launch sites, so as to not expose their tactic, nor disclose the location of the launchers.

> The reporter requested that his name not be used.

180. ↑ Journalists threatened by Hamas for reporting use of human shields, Lahav Harkov, JPost, Jul 31, 2014.
Foreign correspondents asked to leave enclave for social media posts on Hamas' utilization of civilian sites to attack Israel.
181. ↑ Richard Landes, "The Media's Role in Hamas' War Strategy", The American Interest, Aug 5, 2014.

> Intimidation and Advocacy Motivate Media’s Cooperation

> The single most compelling reason for the near-unanimity of the media’s cooperation with Hamas is not advocacy, which alone could not create such a consensus, but rather intimidation. Like all systems of omertà this one covers its tracks. Some observers have pointedly asked, for example, why the mainstream news media has conveyed so few images of Hamas “militants.” The New York Times responded that out of the hundreds of photos from weeks of warfare, their award-winning photographer and his crew had provided only two blurry ones. Is this sheer incompetence? Or is it because, as one journalist, just out of Gaza told an Israeli off-the-record: “If we ever dared point our camera at them, they would shoot at us and kill us.” Asked to say that on camera, the journalist “refused and almost ran away.”

> But in the Twitter age, evidence of cover-up abounds for those who care to look. Several journalists have reported receiving a wave of SMS threats when they even tweet about Hamas using human shields. Accused of being informants or fifth columnists who are lying and fabricating for Israel, these journalists rapidly learn how seriously Hamas considers their trade a weapon of war and their non-compliance a form of treason. The subsequent disappearance of many of those tweets indicates just how far Hamas’ threats reach.

> Occasionally, a really telling piece of evidence appears. Two days after the shelling of Shaati and Shifa, that had “disgraced the world,” an Italian journalist tweeted:

> Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children y[ester]day in Shati. Witness [proof]: militants rushed and cleared debris.

> So, just as Israel had claimed, jihadis had killed their own women and children, cleaned the site, and then brought in journalists to blame Israel. It was indeed disgraceful on many counts, none of which concerned Israel. And yet we only know about this, if we do at all, because this one journalist felt himself beyond Hamas’ reach.

> In a dramatic episode, Palestinian-born French journalist Radjaa Abou Dagga found himself summoned to Hamas offices (inside Shifa hospital), alternately accused of working for Abbas or the Israelis, and expelled from Gaza with instructions to work no more. Libération published his account, which makes it clear that such intimidation is common. Indeed, a colleague refused him shelter for the night because he, too, had received these threats: “You don’t mess with these people during a war.” Three days later, Libé took down Dagga’s article at his request. With family in Gaza, he clearly did not feel beyond Hamas’ reach.

> If true, why does this terrible tale of civilian victimization and journalistic intimidation go untold? Some answer, because it’s not true: “Hamas does not use human shields,” BBC’s Jeremy Bowen assures us. Nor, insists CNN’s Karl Penhaul, do “any of the militant movements and factions here in Gaza,” give journalists “any form of instruction.” For one CNN analyst, it’s “complicated”, but, insists James Fallows, we owe our reporters respect. After all, would they all misinform us? Or is their intimidation and cowardice a public secret they won’t admit?

182. ↑ The Simon Wiesenthal Center, "2010 Top Ten Anti-Israel Lies." Aish, May 8, 2010.

> ... The Goldstone Report on Israel’s defensive war against Hamas-controlled Gaza, from which 8,000 rockets were fired after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005, is a biased product of the UN’s misnamed Human Rights Council. The UNHRC is obsessed with false anti-Israel resolutions. It refuses to address grievous human rights abuses in Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and beyond.

> Faced with similar attacks, every UN member-state including the U.S. and Canada would surely have acted more aggressively than the IDF did in Gaza.

> Yet, Richard Goldstone, a South African Jewish jurist, signed a document prepared by investigators whose main qualification was rabid anti-Israel bias. He accepted every anonymous libel against the IDF. But he insisted that hearings in Gaza be televised, guaranteeing that fearful Palestinians would never testify about Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields and their hiding of weapons in mosques and hospitals.

183. ↑ Marc Tracy, "Goldstone Retracts Israeli War Crimes Claim", Tablet Magazine, April 4, 2011.

> Author of eponymous report asserts Israel did not target civilians.

> As Goldstone aptly explains it, the Report essentially saw dead civilians and, without any further evidence, assumed intentionality, when in fact, the IDF’s track record of attempting to minimize civilian casualties, combined with Hamas’s track record of using civilians as human shields to either deter retaliation or provoke outcry when retaliation kills civilians, should have moved the mission to find unintentionality; in this case, according to Goldstone himself, subsequent evidence proved them right and him wrong.

184. ↑ Hamas MP Fathi Hammad: We Used Women and Children as Human Shields Source: Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas/Gaza). Feb.29. 2008.
185. ↑ D. Izenberg, Y. Katz, H. Keinon, "HRW acknowledges Palestinians used human shields in Cast Lead," The Jerusalem Post, August 13, 2009.
A Jerusalem-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, Bill Van Esveld, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that there was evidence to indicate that war crimes were committed by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who allegedly used civilians as "human shields" during Operation Cast Lead...
186. ↑ Hamas again uses Gazan civilians as human shields July 2014, MFA, Jul 11, 2014
187. ↑ Hamas’ disturbing ‘human shields’ manual Bob Fredericks, August 5, 2014. The Israeli military said it has captured a Hamas manual on urban warfare — called “Introduction to the City War” — that extols the benefits of civilian deaths and openly admits that Israel tries to avoid them
188. ↑ "Hamas fighters said to cop to human shield use," TOI, Aug 28, 2014.
189. ↑ Hamas: Do not evacuate homes before the IDF bombs, Roi Kais and Elior Levy, YNET, Jul 10, 2014.
Gaza Interior Ministry calls not to cooperate with IDF warnings before shelling houses...
190. ↑ Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admits that the terrorist group [22]
191. ↑ Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) Tweeted: Plain and simple: Sinwar the leader of Hamas in Gaza admits in his own words that they use civilian areas for terrorist purposes. Next you blame Israel for killing innocent civilians understand that Hamas are using their people as human shields https://t.co/Hn2ioFoB25 Junne 5, 2021
192. ↑ PA and Fatah Accuse Hamas of Using Human Shields, David Lange, IC, Aug 3, 2021.

> Grab the popcorn, folks, The PA and Fatah are joining the chorus that is criticizing Hamas for doing what Israel has shown them to be doing for years: human rights abuses, including using their own civilians as human shields...

> Of course, the PA and Fatah are no boy scouts themselves; they are people in glass houses – terrorists in suits to be more precise – who literally throw stones (and Molotov cocktails). Their criticism of Hamas here is to score political points. Nevertheless, it is always a positive development when terrorists organizations turn on each other...

193. ↑ Palestinians to Hamas: 'Stop Using Us as Human Shields!' Janglo, Jul 27, 2021.
In a rare rebuke, Palestinians and human rights organizations called on Hamas and other Gaza terror groups to stop storing weapons in civilian areas.
194. ↑ Speak Up for Israel, Hadassah, May 21, 2021
195. ↑ Amir Bohbot, This is how the top Hamas engineers were eliminated in the "Guardian of the Walls": "They were buried", Walla!, 07/05/2022.

> During the operation, the IDF launched the "Goliath City" plan, the details of which are revealed for the first time, in which a huge branch branched off in tunnels under civilian buildings in Gaza City. "

> Hamas operatives inside a terrorist tunnel - Gaza Strip, August 2014 (Photo: Reuters)

> Operation Guardian of the Walls began on May 10, 2021, Monday, with a significant air force attack that included 130 terrorist targets. Hamas understood that the IDF was facing an extensive operation and not a one-off response.... That evening, the chief of staff approved the "Goliath city" attack plan... In a bunker, Hamas' research, development and production of weapons were hidden inside a ramified system of top tunnels. The challenge of attacking the bunker was enormous, as it was built (not by chance) under buildings containing civilians.

> Researchers who analyzed the engineering infrastructure that helped build the huge bunker found that the "city" also has tunnels that lead to the heart of the bunker from nearby buildings.

> After countless planning, training, exercises and technique development processes, the Air Force under the direct command of Amikam Nurkin prepared to attack the bunker.

> At around 05:20 on Thursday morning, the Air Force attacked in more than four minutes more than 10 shafts that led to the bunker.

> "We told ourselves that it was better not to attack the heart of the bunker, due to the fear of harming civilians, so we attacked the openings and so they were buried," said a source who was exposed to the operational plan before the execution.

> "The results were impressive and accurate. If they had missed one shaft they would have managed to escape from the bunker."

> According to IDF estimates, apart from senior Hamas figures who were killed, 50% of the rocket's production capacity and 75% of the Islamic Jihad's production capacity were damaged in the operation.

> Beyond that, in the internal discussions in the defense establishment, the insight arose that after Operation Goliath, it will be difficult for Hamas to rebuild its military force.

> The question then arose about the attack on the "metro", a ramified system of tunnels that Hamas had built for more than 15 years under Gaza City and by which escaped unmanned aerial vehicles....

> "They invested everything in it, and the IDF destroyed it in the 'Guardian of the Walls.' Does that mean there will be no tunnels in Gaza?" Saar continued. "There will be tunnels in Gaza... but the tunnels - in a completely different event.

> Now they already understand that they can die in the tunnels, now they understand that they can not move everything to the tunnels. Now they understand that we have a huge advantage over them and they need a different systemic idea."

196. ↑ Yoni Ben Menachem: Yahya Sanwar Challenges Israel, Zman, May 28, 2021.

> The Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip emerges from his hiding place and begins to provoke Israel, When he calls on her to try and eliminate him ... He was careful to walk around surrounded by bodyguards and residents of the Gaza Strip who served as his "human shield," assuming that the IDF would not eliminate him when surrounded by civilians.

197. ↑ "Hamas’ Human Rights Violations in the 2021 Gaza War," Amelia Navins, Lenny Ben-David, JCPA, June 29, 2021.
198. ↑ Schanzer, Jonathan. Gaza Conflict 2021. United States: Armin Lear Press, Nov 10, 2021.
199. ↑ Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) Tweeted: Hamas arrests 20-year-old Mustafa Asfour, from Khan Yunis, after he criticized Hamas for storing weapons in residential areas in the Gaza Strip. August 8, 2021.
Hamas arrests Palestinian for criticizing the policy of storing weapons in residential centers. Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel 365 News, Aug 9, 2021.
Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh tweeted on Sunday that Hamas arrested 20-year-old Mustafa Asfour, from Khan Yunis, after he criticized Hamas for storing weapons in residential areas in the Gaza Strip.
Hillel Neuer's tweet - "20-year-old Mustafa Asfour of Gaza did something our Western correspondents rarely do: He risked his life to call out Hamas for using Palestinians as human shields by storing bombs in residential areas. That’s a war crime under the Geneva Conventions that Ken Roth never mentions. " - Trendsmap Aug 10, 2021
Lise Korson (@LiseKorson) Tweeted: .Mustafa Asfour & other #Gazans just want #Hamas to STOP! following the practices of their #Iran patron who taught #Hezbollah to store weapons in civilian areas. We all saw what happened in Beirut blast last August! https://t.co/XI3fzoNghw Aug 9, 2021.
@GogoIsrael2 Replying to @afagerbakke: But, but, according to the greatest NGO's E.V.E.R. that's not the case. #Israel is targetting residential area's without any proof of weapon storage or missile platforms. Correct, Kenny @KenRoth @hrw? Are you just a blatant #Israel basher and denying your ancestry? .. Aug 9, 2021.
When Hamas tells you you're a human shield you shut up and be a human shield. Aug 9, 2021.
michalms (@michalms01) Tweeted: @KhaledAbuToameh @IlhanMN @AOC if you care about Palestinian lives, you would use your voice and power to help Mustafa Asfour. Or are you only “care” about Palestinians when Israel is involved? Aug 10, 2021
yossi blachman (@YBlachman) Tweeted: @KhaledAbuToameh @elliecohanim Where is @RashidaTlaib @AOC @Ilhan @UNWatch I guess only certain Palestinian lives matter to them. Aug 10, 2021
200. ↑ Adi Keller and Yuval Tal, (new site staff), Schools, mosques and even hospitals: The IDF reveals to the world - Hamas infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population in Gaza, July 27, 2022.

> The image of an ammunition depot belonging to a terrorist organization located next to a clinic or school is not new to Israelis, and to the world? For years, terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip have been using civil, religious, and humanitarian buildings as human shields. But how common is it?

> It's no secret to us that the Gaza Strip is an uneasy section. Some of the challenges encountered by commanders in the field revolve around the question of how to operate in such a civilian and complex area. The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, led by 'Hamas', take advantage of the civilian route to determine the rules of warfare themselves.

> [23]

> After the 'Guardian of the Walls' operation, for example, during which an underground terror tunnel of Hamas was attacked, an entrance shaft leading to an entire network, located under the Islamic University, was exposed. The university has about 20,000 students, and is a center of political, social, and cultural power. The main headquarters of UNRWA in the Middle East is also located near the tunnels.

> [24]

> It is also exposed to manufacturing and repairing Hamas weapons, located in a building used for residences and other civilian needs. The site is intended for terrorist activity and funded infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip, and 45 meters from a mosque, 55 meters from UNRWA clinic and 60 meters from the Shifa Hospital, the central and important hospital in the Gaza Strip The patients are treated every thousand patients and employs about 1,000 employees.

> [25]

> Over the years, the hospital and its surroundings were used for terrorist needs: January 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, the GSS revealed that Senior Hamas officials take advantage of the hospital to a hiding place. In 2014, during Operation Tzuk Eitan, Report in Washington Post that hospital offices are used as a primary headquarters of Hamas, and the organization's activists were observed in the corridors of the hospital. The production site contains explosives and flammable materials, which may flare And explode, all at the time being unbeated in the building.

> [26]

> Another case is the Hamas ammunition depot located inside the "Al-Shahid" mosque - a mosque where sports classes, first aid courses, children's activities and youth movement activities are held. The warehouse is hidden in the heart of a civilian neighborhood and next to a public library financed by a German bank.

> [27]

> What is less known is that in addition to the warehouses and training bases of those organizations, underground networks are also being built within the various neighborhoods in the Strip. The tunnels pass under buildings necessary for the civilian way of life, knowing that attacking those targets would be provocative. If the tunnels collapse, hospitals, mosques, universities or factories will also collapse with them.

> [28] The route of a terrorist tunnel under the school complex and medical buildings.

> A recent example is the underground terror tunnel of Hamas in the Tapah neighborhood of Gaza City. The tunnel is used for the storage of explosives and for the movement of Hamas terrorist operatives, and is located near the "Pepsi" factory operating under franchise, and the UNRWA "Drag" elementary school, which in an emergency is used as a declared shelter for 2,500 people.

> Also located, an war-material warehouse and a terrorist tunnel shaft were located in the homes of two of the organization's operatives. The first is Mahmoud Salah Muhammad Abu Ali - an operative in the Hamas production system, on the roof of his house a war-material warehouse was discovered. And it's not just his house that he poor - the house is surrounded by other residences and is located next to the UNRWA clinic, which is across the road and provides medical care to about 15 thousand people.

> The second activist is Omer Oni Ooch of Hisan, an activist of the terrorist organization Hamas and in charge of training in the Shujaiyya battalion, whose house has a tunnel shaft 60 meters away from a school with about 20 classes and is used as a shelter for refugees during an emergency, and 30 meters away from a mosque.

> The locations where the infrastructures were discovered present a difficult and sad picture of the situation, where exploitation and inhumanity are a course of action. The enemy hides under the noses of innocent people the infrastructure for the next war, thus putting them, against their will, at the front of the next campaign. Commanders from all the units associated with the sector are dealing with the dilemmas that the situation creates. They operate with the knowledge that if they do not act - those places will be used for terrorism. This is how the surgical and pinpoint strikes that the IDF is identified with were created.

* Anna Ahronheim, IDF unveils Hamas sites to be targeted in future Gaza conflicts, JPost, July 27, 2022.

> ... Among the sites disclosed to journalists on Wednesday was a tunnel used to store weapons and and move fighters in Gaza City's Tuffah neighborhood next to a now-closed Pepsi factory that closed following last year’s war as well as close to a UNRWA elementary school which is used as an emergency shelter for some 2,500 people in times of hostilities.

> Another tunnel used by Hamas in the Zabara neighborhood of Gaza City identified by the IDF on Wednesday is under a UNWRA school and a central ambulance center with 14 ambulances as well as a medical equipment storage complex. The tunnel also runs under a church and schools that are used as shelters during hostilities.

> Another site is a tunnel entry shaft that was exposed during last year’s conflict near the al-Azar university in Gaza City which has about 20,000 students. According to the IDF, the tunnel entry shaft leads to a network of subterranean tunnels that branches throughout the Tel-Hawa area southwest of Gaza City and is also close to a police station, a UNWRA school, medical clinic, mosque, a community center and UNRWA’s headquarters in the area.

> According to the IDF, Hamas has a munition production facility located in a building that is also used as a residential building. The site, which contains explosives and flammable material that would cause extreme damage should it explode, is 45 meters from a mosque, 55 meters from a UNRWA clinic that is used as a triage and primary screening center, and 60 meters from Shifa hospital.

> Shifa is considered the blockaded enclave’s main hospital and treats thousands of patients daily. But it has also been used by the terror group for years, including in the 2009 Operation Cast Lead, when senior Hamas officials hid in the building. It also used the hospital in 2014 during Operation Protective Edge as its main headquarters.

> The IDF also shared the location of a munition warehouse used by Hamas inside the al-Shahid Mosque in the Bureij refugee camp, in the heart of a civilian neighborhood and next to a public library funded by Germany’s KfW bank. The mosque serves as a community center, providing first aid courses and activities for local children.

> Another mosque identified by the IDF as an ammunition depot was the Abdullah Azzam Mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp. According to the army, the mosque is an important part of the camp, is surrounded by residential homes and is just 86 m. from the offices of UNRWA’s North Nuseirat relief and social services.

> “An explosion, an accident or even a fire in the warehouse could result in injuries to civilians, from worshipers in the mosque to people who come to receive humanitarian aid,” the IDF said.

> Following a Wednesday tour of the Gaza Division, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, “Hamas fires from within the civilian population and into the civilian population – the world should charge Hamas a price for its crimes.”

201. ↑ New Palestinian poll reveals waning support for Hamas, TOI, Sep 30, 2014.

> New Palestinian poll reveals waning support for Hamas. But 80% advocate resuming rocket fire if Gaza blockade isn't lifted... One question, addressing the Israeli talking point of Hamas using civilians in Gaza as "human shields," revealed interesting answers. Fifty-seven percent of respondents justified rocket launching from within populated areas; but a large discrepancy existed between Gaza — which suffered the brunt of the Israeli attacks — with 48% support, and the West Bank, with 62%.

-'Most "Palestinians" support using its civilians as human shields (2014),' DP, Aug 9, 2022.

> As the deaths of Gazan children in Jabalia on Aug 6, 2022 was shown to be a result of, yet, another Islamic Jihad failed rocket, one should remember the wider deadly problem in that circle.

> The BBC's Jeremy Bowen, reporting from Gaza on May 21, 2021, (amidst Guardian of Walls against Hamas barrage of rockets) showed a Gazan in the crowd screaming in ecstatic: "We sacrifice everything for Jerusalem. I'm sacrificing my wife my child for Jerusalem." While cheers can be heard. And this is how he reported it on BBC live TV. Then it was edited and the part of "my wife, my child" was removed from the clip. No surprise there for biased BBC or Jeremy Bowen for that matter. However, the Arab "Palestinians" themselves --at least since in 2014-- showed a majority in suport of launching into Israel from within populated areas:

> "New Palestinian poll reveals waning support for Hamas," Times Of Israel, Sep 30, 2014.
>  New Palestinian poll reveals waning support for Hamas. But 80% advocate resuming rocket fire if Gaza blockade isn't lifted..

> One question, addressing the Israeli talking point of Hamas using civilians in Gaza as "human shields," revealed interesting answers. Fifty-seven percent of respondents justified rocket launching from within populated areas; but a large discrepancy existed between Gaza — which suffered the brunt of the Israeli attacks — with 48% support, and the West Bank, with 62%.

202. ↑ 202.0 202.1 Critics slam UN for pointing fingers at Israel in new report while not also condemning Hamas' use of human shields Hollie McKay, Fox News, March 19, 2019.  "The U.N. report validates the illegal tactics used by Hamas against Israel, and sets a precedent encouraging not only Hamas, but similar groups like Hezbollah, to continue placing civilians in harm’s way," Natonski said.
203. ↑ Shameful abuse of power: Marwan Abu Rida, a Palestinian ambulance driver ... SWU, Jan 7, 2018.

> [29] Shameful abuse of power: Marwan Abu Rida, the driver for the Red Crescent, has been using his position to exploit patients seeking medical treatment in Israel for terrorist organizations.

> COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories has called for his immediate dismissal and rightly so.

europa-israel, Jan 8, 2018.

> Europe Israel – analyses, informations sur Israel, l'Europe et le Moyen-Orient – Un chauffeur d’ambulance palestinien attrapé en train de livrer du matériel à des terroristes du Hamas

> [30].

Now14, Jan 4, 2018:

> The coordinator of government operations in the territories, Major General Yoav (Foli) Mordechai, demands the firing of an ambulance driver who exploits Gazan patients for the needs of terrorist organizations: "Hamas continues to cross red lines, residents of Gaza - wake up!"

204. ↑ Block: Hezbollah preps for new attacks with ‘human shields’ Joshua S. Block, Boston Herald, Published: June 30, 2017, Updated: November 17, 2018.
205. ↑ Also in Yemen and towards Syria: Hezbollah tunnels, Dr. Yaron Friedman, Ynet, Dec 5, 2018
206. ↑ Assaf Orion, "Hezbollah’s Secrets Explode—and Are Covered Up—Again," Washington Institute, Oct 8, 2020.
embeds its forces and weapons in populated areas, thereby exposing civilians to safety hazards and turning them into human shields in the event of another war...
207. ↑ Guy Davies and Ibtissem Guenfoud, "One year after Beirut blast, Lebanon suffering economic and political crises", ABC, August 4, 2021
208. ↑ Tzvi Joffre, "Beirut blast: 6 killed, 32 injured as Hezbollah protests investigation," JPost, Oct 14, 2021

> Shots were fired as Hezbollah and its allies protested against the judge in charge of the Beirut port blast investigation on Thursday.

> [Army soldiers are seen behind a glass with gun holes, after gunfire erupted in Beirut, Lebanon October 14, 2021.]

> At least six people were killed and 32 wounded as shots were fired during a protest by Hezbollah supporters against Tarek Bitar, the judge investigating the Beirut Port blast, in Beirut on Thursday, as tensions surrounding the case continue to rise.

> A cautious calm had been reached as of Thursday afternoon, according to Lebanese reports.

> The shooting reportedly began in the Tayouneh area where it meets Ain El Remmaneh and Chiyah, a site famous for sectarian clashes during the 1975 civil war in Lebanon, as it marked the border between East Beirut and West Beirut.

209. ↑ Kann News (@kann_news) Tweeted Oct 14, 2021:

> The demonstration that got out of control in Lebanon . At least five people were killed in clashes between Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal movement, with gunmen in central Beirut. Against the background of the clashes: Hezbollah fears that the organization will be blamed for the explosion in the port of Beirut about a year ago, and accuses the Christian party in parliament of riots.

210. ↑ The need for a Marshall Plan in the Gaza Strip Bradley Martin and Dr. Liram Koblentz-Stenzler, The Washington Times, May 18, 2021.
211. ↑ Richard Landes: "The Media's Role in Hamas’ War Strategy." The American Interest, August 5, 2014. https://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/08/05/the-medias-role-in-hamas-war-strategy/?utm_content=buffer84617
212. ↑ UN researcher reports UN session on Israel that never happened - UN Watch. Feb 22, 2013. Nicola Perugini, a UN researcher in the Palestinian territories for UNESCO and UNIFEM... https://unwatch.org/al-jazeera-reports-on-un-session-that-never-happened/
213. ↑ "Let Hagai Elad speak." Neve Dromi, Haaretz, Jan 20, 2021. This is what happened to me: The solid right-wing position I hold today was formed when I was a student of Prof. Niv [Neve] Gordon, an extreme leftist. The discussions with him made me realize that he represents a completely wrong position. B'Tselem is an organization that arouses disgust...
214. ↑ Murderer of 'Ghandi' Jailed, but Protectors still Free, INN, Sep. 23, 2008. Gordon as human shield for murderers [31], "Beyond Chutzpah: A Tale of Slander, Plagiarism, and Holocaust Revisionism," TI, Dec 2006. By Susan L. Rosenbluth
215. ↑ E. Weiss, Ynet, Feb.3.2002 Niv [Neve] Gordon, in the photo with Arafat, tells Ynet: "I do not know who is responsible for the attacks..." Asked if he felt comfortable embracing the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, who is responsible for terrorism in Israel..
216. ↑ Neve Gordon: Is He Anti-Israel? HNN, Mar 7, 2005.

> Gordon was arrested for his illegal interference with IDf anti-terror operations. Prof. Alan Dershowitz last year described Gordon thus: "It is my opinion that Neve Gordon has gotten into bed with neo-Nazis, Holocaust justice deniers, and anti-Semites. He is a despicable example of a self-hating Jew and a self-hating Israeli." Officials at Ben Gurion University have long backed Gordon's anti-Israel and Solidarity-with-Terrorists activism

217. ↑ "The real racism: Expecting Jews to die meekly", Martin Sherman, The Jerusalem Post, Oct 28, 2011
218. ↑ Prof. Niv [Neve] Gordon of Ben-Gurion University, wrote an article for the Al Jazeera network ... Liran Levy, 01/04/18. Current affairs and news, political. The head of the policy department at the "If You Will" movement and a graduate of the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University, Alon Schwartzer, responded to the publication, saying: "The use of the term 'Passover massacre' by Niv [Neve] Gordon is not accidental. Its purpose is to direct the world of connotations to the most horrific anti-Semitic blood libels against the Jews who have falsely held that Jews practice killing children on Passover to prepare matzah. "Thousands of Jews have been murdered for these lies over the generations and a professor belonging to the Israeli academy is now dancing for it. Gordon is also known for calling for a boycott of Israel. We call on outgoing university president Rebecca Carmi to make amends for her personal career. There is only one thing worse than anti-Semitism and that is the Jews who feed it." [32][33]
219. ↑ Hypocrites at their worst, A. Roll, September 4, 2009.

> The debates surrounding the wrongful act of a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University are not forgotten. Niv Gordon, a left-wing extremist from the fascist genre, infamous as the human shield of "The Man with the Hair on His Face" Yasser Arafat, in a Muqata in Ramallah during "Operation Defensive Shield", did so again and published an article in the Los Angeles Times calling for a boycott.. This is not about academic freedom, as they call for a boycott of the State of Israel and the academic institutions in it, first and foremost, thus constraining the existence of the Israeli academy and the destruction of the academy and the freedom of speech in it as a result.

> This action by Gordon joins the actions of (many) .. to exert dictatorial-fascist pressure on Israel because their arguments no longer stand up to public logic. For the past 20 years, hundreds and thousands of organizations have been working to fund anti-Semitic anti-Israelis overseas in order to bring the State of Israel to its knees and eliminate it as a sovereign, Jewish, independent entity.

220. ↑ 220.0 220.1 'Nicola Perugini, distorter, typical inciter.' Aug 9, 2020. http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/259883
221. ↑ Studying with Prof. Neve Gordon at the University of Michigan, Jacob Shrybman, Israel Behind the News, August 25, 2009.
222. ↑ Ben-Gurion University condemns the lecturer: his words are destructive, Uri Binder, Maariv, Aug 23, 2009.
223. ↑ bigotry: How to Dehumanize Israeli Civilians - Academically, DP, Aug 18, 2020
224. ↑ How Neve Gordon Identifies with Hamas Israel Academia Monitor, Nov 19, 2020
225. ↑ https://www.theisraelgroup.org/post/anti-israel-editor-nishidani
226. ↑ Yaakov Katz, "How the IDF invented 'Roof Knocking', the tactic that saves lives in Gaza." Jerusalem Lost, March 25, 2021. https://m.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/the-story-of-idfs-innovative-tactic-to-avoid-civilian-casualties-in-gaza-663170
227. ↑ Seth Frantzman @sfrantzman: Iron Sting is a 'networked precision fire system' – a mortar munition that employs laser and GPS to engage targets accurately and prevent collateral damage. Trials have been conducted successfully, concluding the system’s development. Mar 14, 2021.
228. ↑ 'How Israel moves Gazan civilians out of the way of attacks on Hamas.' Israel uses phone calls and roof-knock munitions to evacuate Gazans ahead of airstrikes. "We select warheads with the necessary lethality to hit those who need to be hit and to reduce the impact on others," Israeli official explains. By Reuters and ILH Staff. 05-14-2021. https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/05/14/how-israel-keeps-innocent-gazans-safe-from-iaf-airstrikes/
229. ↑ 'More Accurate Better Bombs and Sparing Human Shields.' WSJ, August 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
230. ↑ How the Vicious Cycle of Arab "Palestinian" or Hezbollah - Bringing About Dead Kids Can Be Diminished, DP, May 20, 2021
231. ↑ Reporters Have Finally Found Hamas. What Took So Long? Oren Kessler, The New Republic, August 11, 2014.

> Hamas has waged a sophisticated, even brilliant propaganda war. “Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine,” the group told Gazans in a public-service announcement, “before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank.” Hamas enjoined civilians to use the phrase “innocent civilians” as much as possible when speaking with journalists.

> Hamas launches rockets from the Strip’s most densely populated locales—chiefly Gaza City, Beit Hanoun in the north, and Khan Younis in the south—and tells fighters to fire from sensitive locations like schools [34], churches [35], mosques [36], UN buildings [37] and hospitals [38]. It’s a win-win strategy: If Israel is deterred, Hamas fighters and infrastructure are preserved; if Israel is not, the attendant civilian casualties will be a propaganda coup.

> Hamas’s media strategy is exemplified by its use of Gaza City's Shifa hospital. There, in one of the conflict’s worst-kept secrets, the group’s leadership has prosecuted the war from an underground bunker. Reporters were denied entry to the bunker and instead invited to a media center in the hospital courtyard. There, journalists seeking interviews with Hamas officials were obligated to line up [39], in prime position to snap photos as wounded civilians and combatants (the latter inevitably plain-clothed) were rushed into the building.

232. ↑ ‘Israel Is Using Missiles to Protect Its People, Hamas Is Using Its People to Protect Its Rockets,’ Says Palestinian Human Rights Activist. Algemeiner, Sharon Wrobel, May 26, 2021. https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/26/israel-is-using-missiles-to-protect-its-people-hamas-is-using-its-people-to-protect-its-rockets-says-palestinian-human-rights-activist/
233. ↑ NPR, May 21, 2021
234. ↑ "Social Media Video Shows Gaza Palestinian Telling IDF Soldier ‘If the Children Need to Die, Then They’ll Die’". Algemeiner.com. May 19, 2021. https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/19/social-media-video-shows-gaza-palestinian-telling-idf-soldier-if-the-children-need-to-die-then-theyll-die/
235. ↑ '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,” https://townhall.com/tipsheet//leahbarkoukis/2021/05/19/shocking-phone-call-between-idf-and-gazan-reveals-entire-conflict-in-a-nutshell-n2589676
236. ↑ Hank Berrien, "Shock Video: IDF Warns Gazan Man To Evacuate Children Before Bombing. He Responds: ‘If The Children Need To Die Then They’ll Die’". 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
237. ↑ 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 May 19, 2021
238. ↑ 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. [40][41] [42]
239. ↑ Senate passes bill sanctioning Hamas, Hezbollah 'human shields' practice, Michael Wilner, JPost, Oct 12, 2018. The legislation, titled the STOP Using Human Shields Act, was authored and supported by Republican and Democrats.
240. ↑ EU calls on Hamas to disarm, condemns use of civilians as shields Herb Keinon. JPost, July 22, 2014
241. ↑ STATE OF PALESTINE: UNLAWFUL AND DEADLY: ROCKET AND MORTAR ATTACKS BY PALESTINIAN ARMED GROUPS DURING THE 2014 GAZA/ISRAEL CONFLICT 26 March 2015, Index number: MDE 21/1178/2015.

> During the Gaza/Israel conflict in July and August 2014, Palestinian armed groups fired thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel, in many cases directed towards Israeli civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law. The conduct of Palestinian armed groups, including firing from residential areas and using indiscriminate munitions that cannot be accurately directed at a military target, also endangered civilians in Gaza.

242. ↑ Hamas guilty of war crimes - Amnesty International DK, Apr 19, 2015
243. ↑ EU Condemns Hamas For Using Civilians As Human Shields, i24 News, Apr 20, 2018
244. ↑ Israel praises UN condemnation of terrorists’ use of human shields. TOI Staff and AP, June 27, 2018. Envoy Danny Danon calls update to counter-terrorism strategy an 'important step in our activities to change the rules of the game at the UN'.
245. ↑ UN General Assembly condemns terrorists' use of citizens as 'human shields', JNS, Jun 27, 2018. The resolution was specifically aimed as Hamas, which has used human shields, including women and children, during its conflicts with Israel.
246. ↑ User Clip: No country would tolerate Tunnels Except the U.S. C-SPAN.org, Aug 1, 2014.

> ... On the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible actions on the part of Hamas to oftentimes house these rocket launchers right in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, we end up seeing people who had nothing to do with these rockets ending up being hurt.Part of the reason why we've been pushing so hard for a cease-fire is precisely because it's hard to reconcile Israel's legitimate need to defend itself with our concern with those civilians...

[43]

247. ↑ Obama Slams Hamas Ceasefire Violations, Human Shields Hamodia Staff. August 3, 2014.  President Barack Obama was unsparing in his criticism of Hamas for violations of a 72-hour ceasefire agreement on Friday in which three Israeli soldiers were killed, and backed allegations that the terrorist group’s systematic use of human shields has resulted in numerous civilian casualties. Speaking at a White House press conference, Obama said that “I think it’s going to be very hard to put a ceasefire back together again if Israelis and the international community can’t feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a cease-fire commitment.” Referring to Hamas disavowals of responsibility for the acts of other terrorist groups operating in the Gaza Strip, the president echoed the Israeli position: “When they sign onto a ceasefire they’re claiming to speak for all the Palestinian factions. And if they don’t have control of them, and just moments after a ceasefire is signed you have Israeli soldiers being killed and captured, then it’s hard for the Israelis to feel confident that a ceasefire can actually be honored.” Obama mentioned again his concern over the Palestinian death toll, but he stressed “Israel’s right to defend itself, and it’s got to be able to get at those rockets and those tunnel networks. On the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible actions on the part of Hamas to oftentimes house these rocket launchers right in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, we end up seeing people who had nothing to do with these rockets ending up being hurt....
248. ↑ Stance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Hamas. Feb 12, 2015.

> The Petition of residents in the Southend West constituency, Declares that the Petitioners believe that the Foreign Office view Hamas as a plausible negotiating partner for creating a peace agreement with Israel; further that the Petitioners believe that such a view is incorrect as Hamas's own political charter clearly states that it seeks nothing less than the destruction of Israel; further that the Petitioners believe that the Foreign Office is unwilling to clearly declare that it deplores the use of civilians and civilian buildings by Hamas as part of Hamas's warfare strategy; Hamas's consequential abuse of civilian properties as places from which to launch attacks on Israel, and its abuse of civilians as human shields resulting in a disproportionate loss of life; further that the Petitioners believe that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and is the only place in the Middle East where Christianity and other faiths can co-exist peacefully and thrive; further that a lack of clarity in support of Israel contributes to anti-Jewish sentiment; further that the Petitioners recognise the need for, and the rights of, the civilians of Gaza and other Arabs who live within and around Israel for a peaceable existence; and further that the Petitioners believe that the lack of demonstrable public clarity by the Foreign Office to support Israel and to deplore Hamas is deeply concerning. The Petitioners therefore urges the House of Commons to request that the Foreign Office explains its actions and views on Israel, and clarifies its view of and position on Hamas. And the Petitioners remain, etc.'” [Presented by Sir David Amess, Official Report, 12 February 2015; Vol. 592, c. 1049.] [P001436] Observations from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: ... UK Government policy on Hamas have not changed and is clear: Hamas must renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept previously signed agreements. These conditions remain the benchmark against which Hamas's intentions should be judged. Throughout the hostilities in Gaza of summer 2014, the UK condemned Hamas's illegal and indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel and stressed the need for Hamas and other militant groups to stop them. We condemned any use of human shields as violations of international humanitarian law, and we called on all sides to ensure that civilians were not put in danger. The UK was also clear that Israel had a right to take action to defend itself but needed to act proportionately and to minimise the risk of civilian casualties. We also made clear our serious concern regarding human rights abuses in Gaza by Hamas. We are deeply concerned by incitement in the Hamas-run media and leadership, which is both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic; we are concerned about the deteriorating freedoms of religion and belief; and we are concerned about the continued use of extrajudicial executions of alleged collaborators. Hamas's military wing (Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades) is proscribed by the UK Government and have been since March 2001. Proscription makes it a criminal offence to invite support for a proscribed organisation which includes, but is not restricted to, the provision of funds. The entirety of Hamas (including its political and military wings) has been listed by the European Union since 2003. The UK enforces the EU asset freeze on Hamas through the Terrorist Asset Freezing Act 2010 which makes it a criminal offence for individuals or entities to supply funding to any part of Hamas.

> In December 2014, the listing of Hamas was annulled on procedural grounds by the European Court. This does not mean that the EU no longer considers Hamas a terrorist organisation and the European Commission is challenging the European Court's decision. The asset freeze remains in place while the legal challenge is ongoing.

249. ↑ UN admits: We found 20 rockets at a school in Gaza Elior Levy, Ynet, July 17, 2014.  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." 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.
250. ↑ Hamas Rockets Found in Second United Nations School Adam Chandler, The Atlantic, July 22, 2014.  An undisclosed number of rockets were found in a school run by a United Nations agency for the second time in a week. This time, they were in a facility within proximity of 3,000 displaced Palestinians.
251. ↑ For the 2nd time, UNRWA condemns placement of rockets in one of its schools – UNRWA press release July 22, 2014.  UNRWA CONDEMNS PLACEMENT OF ROCKETS, FOR A SECOND TIME, IN ONE OF ITS SCHOOLS AGENCY DEMANDS FULL RESPECT FOR THE SANCTITY OF ITS PREMISES IN GAZA
252. ↑ Brazil crossed the line on Israel Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, July 26, 2014

> Furthermore, the United States and the 28-member European Union, which consider Hamas as a terrorist group, have specifically condemned Hamas use of civilians as human shields.

> On July 17, the United Nations Agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, known by its acronym UNRWA, announced that it had discovered 20 Hamas rockets hidden in a U.N. school in Gaza. A few days later, UNRWA announced a similar finding at another U.N. school.

253. ↑ UNRWA uncovers Hamas-dug tunnel under school in Gaza TOI, staff, 9 Jun 9, 2017.  Palestinian refugee agency condemns Gaza rulers’ underground network; Israel’s UN envoy: ‘Cruelty of Hamas’ knows no bounds. The agency said it condemns “the existence of such tunnels in the strongest possible terms,” adding that it was “unacceptable that students and staff are placed at risk in such a way.” We demand they desist from any activities or conduct that put beneficiaries and staff at risk and undermine the ability of UN staff to provide assistance to Palestine refugees in safety and security,” the agency said.
254. ↑ UNRWA Condemns Tunnel Built Under Gaza School The Media Line Staff, June 6, 2021  UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) condemned “the existence and potential use by Palestinian armed groups” of a tunnel found underneath a school in southern Gaza. It also condemned an Israeli airstrike on the building. The existence of the tunnel was discovered during an investigation of the property following an Israeli airstrike on the UNRWA Zaitoun Preparatory Boys’ School “A” and Elementary Boys’ School “A”, despite the buildings being marked as UN schools and flying a UN flag. No one was killed or injured in the airstrike during the recent violence between Israel and the Hamas terror organization in Gaza. “The strike calls into question respect for the fundamental principle of inviolability” of UN buildings, a statement issued by the UNRWA said. The tunnel was located 7.5 meters below the school. There were no entry or exit points for the tunnel on school property, according to the statement.
255. ↑ UNRWA: Tunnel found under Gaza school hit by Israel in last month’s conflict Judah Ari Gross, TOI, June 7, 2021.  Announcement comes after head of the UN group is thrown out of the Strip for saying IDF launched ‘precise’ strikes in recent battle; school was empty when IDF hit. The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency has condemned the construction of a tunnel under a school it operates in the central Gaza Strip, which was apparently targeted by the Israel Defense Forces during last month’s 11-day battle between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
256. ↑ Lazaroff T., "EU official: Hamas responsible for Gaza." JPost, Jan 26, 2009.
European aid commissioner says, "When you kill innocents, it is not resistance. It is terrorism." ... "At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas," said Michel, according to AFP. "I intentionally say this here: Hamas is a terrorist movement and it has to be denounced as such." Reuters quoted Michel as criticizing Hamas for its use of civilians as "human shields" and for fighting in populated areas.
257. ↑ Stephen Harper accuses Hamas of using human shields, urges world leaders to side with Israel The Canadian Press, (National Post) Jul 13, 2014. Harper says there is evidence that Hamas, listed by Canada as a terrorist organization, is using human shields in its attempts to stave off the Israeli offensive.
258. ↑ Steve Almasy and Josh Levs, Nobel laureate Wiesel: Hamas must stop using children as human shields, CNN, Aug 3, 2014.

> (CNN) — Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel writes in a new ad campaign that the crisis in Gaza and Israel is a battle between “those who celebrate life and those who champion death.”

259. ↑ Simon Wiesenthal Center to Media: Reject Images of Palestinian Children Dressed as Concentration Camp Victims June 7, 2018.

> The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO devoted to the memory of the six million Jewish victims murdered in the Nazi Holocaust, denounced Hamas’ intention to dress up Friday’s Gaza border-riot participants as concentration camp victims.

> “We urge major international media outlets to reject this macabre and hideous ploy to defame the memory of the victims murdered in the Nazi genocide,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier, founder and dean and Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action head.

> “The European Union, led by Germany, should vehemently protest this latest serial abuse of Palestinian children by Hamas terrorists attempting to attract attention to their weekly riot,” Hier and Cooper added.

> “As for Hamas, by dressing up kids as Nazi victims, proves the only god this terrorist organization worships is Moloch, the pagan god of child sacrifice, for whom children’s lives are worthless.

> When will NGOs and U.N. agencies devoted to protecting children finally raise their voices in protests against Hamas’ barbaric tactics, including the use of civilians, children nonetheless, as human shields and cannon fodder for their endless terrorist campaigns? When will the nations like Japan, who supplied beautiful kites for Palestinian children, protest the use of these kites to set fires in Israeli nature preserves and fields?” Hier and Cooper concluded.

260. ↑ The Conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Bill Shorten, July 31, 2014.

> Labor is appalled by the recent shelling of a UN school in a Gaza refugee camp, and attacks on similar facilities.

> Labor deplores the abuse of civilian facilities for military purposes, including a Gaza school that was used to hide rockets.

> Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel - more than 2600 so far, and Israel must restrain its response, which has cost far too many civilian lives.

261. ↑ Abbott backs Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas rockets, Jared Owens, The Australian, July 31, 2014.

> Tony Abbott this morning supported Israel’s right to self-defence and repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire “because plainly too many people are dying”.

> “We support Israel’s right to exist, we support Israel’s right to self-defence, we support the Palestinians’ right to a state of their own, but that’s got to go hand-in-hand with the recognition of Israel’s right to exist behind secure borders,” the Prime Minister told Melbourne radio 3AW.

> “The problem in the Middle East is that in the end so many people are not prepared to accept Israel’s right to exist.”..

> Opposition Leader Bill Shorten urged the Abbott government to pursue a ceasefire at the United Nations.

> “Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel - more than 2600 so far, and Israel must restrain its response, which has cost far too many civilian lives,” he said in a joint statement with his deputy, Tanya Plibersek.

> “Labor is appalled by the recent shelling of a UN school in a Gaza refugee camp, and attacks on similar facilities.

> “Labor deplores the abuse of civilian facilities for military purposes, including a Gaza school that was used to hide rockets.”

> Mr Shorten earlier today said: “Every country’s got the right to secure borders but like, I think, most Australians the images we’ve seen today are deeply, deeply disturbing.”

> Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull... warned Israel “risks extinction” and “can barely afford to lose a battle, let alone a war”...

> “As long as Hamas is firing rockets into Israel, the Israeli defence force has to defend its own population. I mean that’s what we’d expect the Australian Army to do for us,” Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio..

> Mr Abbott, asked whether anti-semitism had crept into debate about the conflict, said: “Well, that’s right and every other day there are rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza.”

262. ↑ Qualification of Hamas as a Terrorist Organization by the OAS General Secretariat OAS, May 17, 2021

> The recent attacks launched by Hamas against the Israeli civilian population undoubtedly constitute attacks of a terrorist nature. Their violence and the objectives they pursue clearly have this characteristic.

> Hamas's terrorist aggression is unlimited and always seeks civilian victims, seeks to escalate conflict dynamics and armed actions, as well as sowing terror among innocent populations, be they Israeli or Palestinian.

> The immoral and unworthy use of children and women as human shields, as well as the militarization of residential areas, constitute in themselves acts that deserve the most absolute repudiation and condemnation.

> The initiation of attacks of this nature against a country with a clear terrorist objective of its civilian population makes the invocation of the principle of legitimate defense by Israel essential.

> The Hamas attacks constitute an attack against the peace and security of Israel and the region and make it imperative to categorize Hamas as a terrorist organization for the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS).

263. ↑ UN condemns use of civilians as human shields, anti-Semitic terror, i24NEWS, Ynetnews, July 7, 2021.

> The United Nations on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning the use of civilians as human shields by terrorist groups, a strategy frequently used by organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

> The UN General Assembly adopted the resolution of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS), which was first approved in 2006 and is reviewed every two years. This year marked the seventh review of the document that prioritizes the counter-terrorism strategy of member states.

> The international body also condemned anti-Semitic terrorism for the first time, as well as the use of the internet as a tool for the recruitment of terrorists.

264. ↑ An unexpected U.N. turn toward Israel WJW Editorial Board, July 14, 2021.

> Since the historic founding of the state of Israel more than 73 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly has passed hundreds of resolutions critical of the Jewish state. Whether based upon criticism of Israel’s “disproportionate” response...

> So it was with great surprise that we learned that in what appears to be a routine, below-the-radar resolution passed by the U.N. General Assembly last week, the world body included subtle criticism of Hamas, Hezbollah and other bad actors in the Middle East, and had elements that seemed to favor Israel.

> The provisions in question were part of the General Assembly's bi-annual review of Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which was supposed to have been handled last year, but was delayed because of the COVID pandemic. Within the resolution, the General Assembly did three things that got our attention: First, it condemned the use of civilians as human shields during military operations, a common practice by terrorists — and especially Hamas in Gaza — that imperils innocent lives. Second, for the first time ever, the General Assembly condemned terrorism directed toward Jews, among others. And third, it condemned the use of the internet to recruit terrorists.

> These three unexpected provisions — tucked away in the broader Global Terror resolution — are a welcome change, even if the reporting of them has been muted. We hope the provisions signify a new level of honesty in the U.N.’s General Assembly. But we aren’t sure.

> In order to gauge the significance of the provisions, we would like to understand what prompted them. And we admit that our lingering uncertainty underscores how diminished the U.N. has become in our minds as a result of the organization’s historic and unrelenting anti-Israel bias.

> We are skeptical whether the newfound morality added to the recent U.N. resolution is a sign of a meaningful shift in the U.N.’s policy, or just a minor adjustment. We will withhold judgment until we see what comes next.

265. ↑ 265.0 265.1 In wake of rocket attacks on Israel, Hezbollah tries to signal it’s ‘in control’ Yaakov Lappin, JNS, Aug 6, 2021.

> The firing of 19 rockets at open areas near Kiryat Shmona was a calculated step by Hezbollah designed to indicate that it will not “allow” Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon to go unanswered; the scope of Israel’s retaliation will determine the next stage of this controlled standoff. ... Meanwhile, a dramatic and unexpected twist occurred in Lebanon itself, when villagers from the southern Lebanese Druze village of Shwaya discovered a vehicle-mounted rocket-launcher and a Hezbollah operative traveling through their area. Angry villagers quickly surrounded the operative, who was rescued by village elders and handed over to the Lebanese Armed Forces. The LAF later announced that it had arrested four suspects.

> Let the whole world see. Hezbollah is firing from near homes so that it [Israel] hits us, a Druze villager said on a video posted to social media. The furious response by the villagers indicates that Hezbollah can expect no cooperation from Lebanese Druze in any future attempt to use them as human shields. Such tensions also represent simmering sectarian fault lines in Lebanon, which are becoming more acute as the country continues to experience massive economic and political crises.

> The dogs of Hezbollah are firing from the center of the Druze heartland, a villager said in the video.

266. ↑ 266.0 266.1 Lebanese Druze confront, detain Hezbollah rocket crew after it fires at Israel, Emanuel Fabian, TOI, Aug 6, 2021. Angry villagers in Chouya accuse terror group of endangering lives by firing from near civilian areas; Lebanon army arrives, confiscates launcher, arrests 4 suspects.
267. ↑ Lebanese Druze Detain Hezbollah Terrorists Who Fired Rockets at Israel Yoni Weiss, Hamodia, August 8, 2021. Locals accused Hezbollah of launching rockets at Israel from their village and endangering their lives by firing at Israel from civilian areas.
268. ↑ Mike Fainzilber (@MFainzilber) Tweeted: Lebanese stopping a rocket launcher belonging to the Iranian Hezbollah, which was preparing to launch rockets towards Israeli territory from the vicinity of their homes. People objecting to being used as human shields in a proxy war waged by and for the Iranian regime. Aug 6, 2021
269. ↑ Jonathan Elkhoury - (@Jonathan_Elk) Tweeted: "Film this! film this!, the whole world will see Hezbollah firing from our houses, to attack us." A viral video now on the net. Aug 6, 2021 https://t.co/tYjH7yxeD8
270. ↑ Former Druze battalion commander: "Druze attempts in Lebanon to stop Hezbollah are dramatic" Walla! News, August 8, 2021.

> MK Mofid Marai of White Brush referred to an incident that was documented on Friday and received considerable resonance over the weekend on social media.

> Colonel (Res.) MK Mofid Marai (blue and white), former commander of the Druze battalion, said today (Sunday) that the Druze's attempts in Lebanon to stop Hezbollah's firing at Israel are a "dramatic event." Magal and Ben Caspit on 103FM, referring to an incident that was recorded in Lebanon on Friday and received considerable resonance over the weekend on social media.

> The videos that were distributed show a great commotion during which Lebanese residents in the Druze city of Hasbaya gather in protest around a vehicle loaded with Hezbollah rockets, and try to stop it. "Eventually, the Druze villages in southern Lebanon confiscated what was left of the missiles. They prevented the missiles or Katyushas from continuing to fire at the State of Israel," Marai said. "The question is what led Hassan Nasrallah to fire there."

Former Druze battalion commander: "Druze attempts in Lebanon to stop Hezbollah are dramatic" - Walla! news

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Terrorism

Terrorism|

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Major Terrorist Attacks|

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