Difference between revisions of "Human shields by terrorists"

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.

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 monthlong 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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." ...

... 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 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.

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.

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...

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...

... 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.

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...

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.

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 [9], churches [10], mosques [11], UN buildings [12] and hospitals [13]. 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 [14], 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...

[18]

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.

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.