Human Shields Quotes

The Hamas leadership of the Gaza strip had fired thousands of rockets into Israel which their charter states should be eliminated. The Israelis after many being hit by more than a thousand rockets, used their military to attack (via the air) the Hamas leadership. However, Hamas had stored their rockets and their armaments in or very near civilian facilities including hospitals, schools, mosques and even UN humanitarian facilities. The Hamas leaders thereby made civilian facilities legitimate military targets under the Rules of War of the Geneva and Hague Conventions. So the Gaza leadership, instead of their military protecting their own civilians, used the civilians to protect the military and their weapons in the midst of war. The Secretary General also was referring to the Hamas leadership who had rejected at that point 5 different cease fires that had been proposed by the Egyptians, Americans, The Arab League and others. Israeli accepted them all.

Hamas had seized power in a coup of the Gaza Strip, and in July of 2014 they fired thousands of rockets into Israel with a stated aim to kill as many Israeli men, women, and children. The Israelis responded to this act of terrorism and war by a set of air power attacks on the Hamas infrastructure and military targets. They even notified the Gaza population of each target that they before the strike so civilians who might be there could evacuate. Hamas, however, told the people to stay and not to evacuate. They also stored and fired their rockets in civilian institutions like schools and hospitals, thereby turning the institution into a military target according to the Rules of War. United Nations officials observed the Hamas practice in Gaza schools and informed the Secretary General who was furious and made this statement—particularly harsh for a leader of the UN who generally tries to avoid attacking anyone.

Hamas, a terrorist organization controlling Gaza at that time had fired a thousand missiles into Israel. To stop them, the Israeli Defense Force using air power destroyed hundreds of Hamas facilities and homes of Hamas leaders. They also killed many Hamas terrorists, but at the same time there were also civilian casualties including women and children. Some critics of Israel formulated a moral equivalence between the two sides especially since the Israeli’s had anti-missile defense that exploded most of the missiles in flight. The Israeli Prime Minister explained the moral and ethical distinction. The Israeli’s did not strike any building without warning; they always notified the population in advance as to which target would be hit—something that no other nation had ever done in an armed conflict. However, Hamas forced many civilians to remain in the targeted buildings and almost all of the civilian casualties were to the civilians who Hamas decided to sacrifice. The facilities attacked were all places where Hamas had stored weapons or were command and control facilities, or were used for planning terrorist activities or were the residences of Hamas fighters of high rank. All these are legitimate targets under the rules of war, and the military force that uses them are responsible for clearing the civilians out. In this case, the kept them in, and in many cases sent them in, so that the Israeli military forces would be accused of injuring or killing innocent civilians.