Israel Says That Hamas Uses Civilian Shields, Reviving Debate

[iandhr]

GAZA CITY — Militant rockets can be seen launching from crowded neighborhoods, near apartment buildings, schools and hotels. Hamas fighters have set traps for Israeli soldiers in civilian homes and stored weapons in mosques and schools. Tunnels have been dug beneath private properU
With international condemnation rising over the death toll in Gaza exceeding 650 in the war’s 16th day, Israel points to its adversaries’ practice of embedding forces throughout the crowded, impoverished coastal enclave of 1.7 million people. “Hamas uses schools, residential buildings, mosques and hospitals to fire rockets at Israeli civilians,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Canadian counterpart in a call over the weekend, according to a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office. “Hamas uses innocent civilians as a human shield for terrorist activity.”

Nothing is ever so clear in the complex and often brutal calculus of urban warfare. There is no evidence that Hamas and other militants force civilians to stay in areas that are under attack — the legal definition of a human shield under international law. But it is indisputable that Gaza militants operate in civilian areas, draw return fire to civilian structures, and on some level benefit in the diplomatic arena from the rising casualties. They also have at times encouraged residents not to flee their homes when alerted by Israel to a pending strike and, having prepared extensively for war, did not build civilian bomb shelters.

Israel, for its part, says it takes precautions to avoid killing civilians, but has also accepted as inevitable that there will be large numbers of civilian casualties when it strikes at certain targets, like Hamas members in their houses, or offices, or mosques.

“It’s a bit of a fluid concept,” said Bill Van Esveld, a lawyer and senior researcher in the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch. “If you have any choice in the matter, you should not be fighting from an apartment building full of civilians.”

Some of Hamas’s tactics mirror those of other insurgent groups, like the Irish Republican Army and Nicaraguan contras.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/israel-says-hamas-is-using-civilians-as-shields-in-gaza.html?ref=world&_r=0

Hamas wants its own people to die for the purposes of propaganda. And amazingly people in the West including many here are supporting them.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. And, Israel generously supports Hamas by committing atrocities.

[sabrina 1]

6. Exactly, so sick of this. They never realize that your response

is exactly what most intelligent people say when told 'Hamas wants us to kill their own people'. So Israel is doing Hamas' bidding, what utter nonsense.

[bemildred]

2. I don't think they are so much "used" as just there in the way,

and neither side is willing to stop shooting on their account.

[Fred Sanders]

3. Fucking propaganda meme does not even meet the accepted definition of human shields, because

there is zero evidence anyone was forced to be.

"There is no evidence that Hamas and other militants force civilians to stay in areas that are under attack — the legal definition of a human shield under international law."

Freaky media propaganda will never point this out, never.

[4now]

4. Stop making me beat you.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. The wife beater's defense. n/t