Human shields by terrorists

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• Nir Dvori, Roni Daniel, "N12 - Watch: The IDF unveils a weapons depot set up near a school yard", N12, July 14, 2021.
  

• The next Lebanon war: a bank of targets, an air strike and a terrorist organization hiding behind hundreds of children 0404, July 14, 2021.

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.

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."

...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.

... 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.

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.

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.'

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.

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..."

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...

... 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."

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.

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).

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)

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.

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.

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].

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.

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]

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

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."

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.

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 .

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

• Syria forces accused of using civilians as shields Ynet, Mar 25, 2012.

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.

[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.

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."

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."

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...

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.

...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.

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.

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." ...

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.

... 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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• (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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

• Al-Arabiya Footage Confirms Hamas Fired From Building Used By Journalists [English subtitle], Jan 22, 2009.

• clip

• L'Arche, Issues 609-610, 2009, p.45

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.”

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.

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...

... 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...

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.

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.

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.

... 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...

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.

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.

... 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.

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.

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?

... 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.

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.

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...

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."

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.

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.”

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%.

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%.

[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].

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!"

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

... 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]

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.

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.

(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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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).

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.

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.

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.

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