Disagreed, but you are free to continue your hate of Jews and your support of Islamic terrorism. I just hope the NSA catches up to you one day and places you in a facility for your own protection.Well, you are full of shit.....
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Disagreed, but you are free to continue your hate of Jews and your support of Islamic terrorism. I just hope the NSA catches up to you one day and places you in a facility for your own protection.Well, you are full of shit.....
Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Agreed. The antisemitics and/or Islamic terrorist supporters have a skewed view of history:Sure, Snow Flake...Those elites were suffocated by a media infested with political correctness.The Izzies might just lose, again How Hezbollah Defeated Israel
Israel sent the elite of its regular forces, the Golani infantry brigade and the Paratroopers brigade to Bint Jbeil. The IDF enjoyed a tremendous superiority both in numbers and firepower as well as absolute air superiority. The over 5,000 IDF soldiers laying a siege around the town were faced by little more than 100 Hizbullah fighters.[23] The IDF failed to conquer the town or to make any other tangible operational achievements. According to Kober the Israeli withdrawal was "correctly interpreted by Hizballah as a great victory for the organization
Battle of Bint Jbeil - Wikipedia
That's why Israel didn't hold back with Gaza.
This time around Hezballah will be annihilated.
But you already knew that.
Naw, if the Israelis are stupid enough to invade Lebanon again they will face a battle hardened Hezbollah militia after years of fighting Islamist terrorists in Syria and a reconstructed Lebanese Army that will participate in defending Lebanon this time.
If Hezballah COULD win, they would attack.
Hezbollah was established to defend against Israeli attacks on Lebanon, not the other way around.
WRONG AGAIN as hezbolloks was invented by Iran to put another terror group on Israel's borders. It is funded from Iran and it's philosophy is based on that of Khomeini, they are trained and organised by the Revolutionary guard. The3y were invited by the Syrian government who were occupying Lebanon at the time. Its aim is to wipe out all French, American and Jewish influence in the M.E.
Translation: I support PLO terrorist attacks against the Jews. If the PLO uses innocent people as meat shields, all the better.Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Indeed, you're perfectly fine with dead civilians when they are used to promote your loathsome Jew hatreds.Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.Translation: I support PLO terrorist attacks against the Jews. If the PLO uses innocent people as meat shields, all the better.Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Thanks for your input, Tin.
How about "A land without people for a people without a land" that was a good one.Not all Jews are Israeli
True. But when one says "pillar of existence", one means a fundamental aspect of Israel's creation and culture. Which means "Jews". And he's admitted it now, so my accusation stands firm. And since you agreed with his post, I can only assume that you subscribe to the same thought.
Which confirms my belief, long held, that there can be no peace between Israel and Palestine until the ideology of the Palestinians fundamentally changes and moves away from this underlying anti-semitism.
Your assertion that the Islamic terrorists have never used meat shields is both interesting and a proven lie.Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.
Hamas appeared to admit using human shields to fire rockets into Israel for the first time today, but refused to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed in retaliatory airstrikes.
In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory.
But while Ghazi Hamad claimed they took safeguards to keep people away from the violence, he admitted 'mistakes were made', blaming Israel's heavy-handed response for the deaths of civilians.
'Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone,' said Mr Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.
Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.
'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,' Hamad told The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, militants fired rockets from or near residential areas or civilian facilities.
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The questions lie at the heart of a brewing international legal confrontation: Did Hamas deliberately and systematically fire rockets at Israel from homes, hospitals and schools in the hope that Israel would be deterred from retaliating, as Israel claims? Or did Israel use force excessively, resulting in deaths among people not involved in combat operations?
The answers could help determine whether Israel - or Hamas - or both are ultimately accused of violating the international laws of war in a conflict that caused tremendous damage.
According to Palestinian figures, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed - roughly three quarters of them civilians and including more than 500 children - and 11,000 were wounded. The war also left some 100,000 homeless. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
Survivor: Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
+7
Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
Ahead of a U.N. investigation, the Israeli military has released reams of evidence, including satellite photos and aerial footage, to support its claims that it acted responsibly and attempted to minimize Palestinian casualties. It asserts that Hamas made no effort to disguise its attempt to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.
Throughout the war, the Israeli air force compiled dozens of video clips showing alleged wrongdoing by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction.
These videos, many of them posted on YouTube, appear to show rockets flying out of residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schoolyards and mosque courtyards. There are also images of weapons caches purportedly uncovered inside mosques, and tunnels allegedly used by militants to scurry between homes, mosques and buildings.
'Hamas' excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,' said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
+7
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
Abbas criticises Hamas for delaying acceptance of ceasefire
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But a black-and-white satellite image released by the Israeli military illustrates the difficulties in proving the point. The army says the image, taken of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, shows four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and a nearby residential neighborhood.
Such images, it says, are evidence that Hamas used built-up areas for cover - and carelessly exposed civilians to danger in Israeli retaliatory strikes. However, the image itself is grainy and shows no clear signs of rocket activity, though rocket launchers are often hidden underground. The army refused to say how it had made its conclusions.
A visit to the area this week found three separate military sites - possibly training grounds - slightly larger than football fields located close to the state schools.
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
+7
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
The sites are mostly concealed from street view by barriers made of corrugated iron, but one bore the sign of Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, while another bore the sign of the Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas. The bases were deserted. Visible from the outside were human cutout figures and what appeared to be exercise hurdles.
There were no overt signs of rocket launchers or craters in the ground outside, though dirt appeared to have been disturbed either by some sort of blast or the work of heavy military-type trucks. There were pieces of mangled concrete scattered on the ground. The school buildings appeared untouched.
Hamas tightly restricts access to such facilities, and it was impossible for photographers to enter the sites. Israel confirmed the area was targeted in airstrikes.
Another location identified by the Israeli military as a rocket-launching site is in northern Gaza around the newly built Indonesian hospital. Immediately to the north of the two-story hospital and across the road to the west are two Hamas military facilities. Both stand in close proximity to residential homes. The hospital stands intact, while nothing is visible from inside the bases.
Hamad, the Hamas official, argued that many of the buildings shown in Israeli videos were either a safe distance from the rocket launchers or that the buildings had been kept vacant during the fighting.
The ground in Sheikh Radwan, for instance, lies some 150 meters (yards) away from the neighborhood, and the schools were empty for summer vacation.
During 50 days of fighting, many observers witnessed rocket launches from what appeared to be urban areas. One piece of video footage distributed by the AP, for instance, captured a launch in downtown Gaza City that took place in a lot next to a mosque and an office of the Hamas prime minister. Both buildings were badly damaged in subsequent Israeli airstrikes.
There was other evidence of Hamas having used civilian facilities: Early in the conflict, the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees announced that it discovered weapons stored in its schools as they stood empty during the summer.
'I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip,' said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches.'
The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
+7
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
US State Department on Israel, 'Time is not on our side here'
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'Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?' said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. 'The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate.'
The war erupted on July 8 when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups - part of an escalation that began with the killing by a Hamas cell of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
The Israeli army says Hamas fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel, including 600 from close to schools, mosques and other civilian facilities, and scores of mortar shells. Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes, in addition to using powerful artillery and gunship fire.
Frequently, Israeli arms struck hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, factories and office towers. Israel said the buildings had been used for cover by militant fighters, and that whenever possible, it provided warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming.
Israel disputes the makeup of the Palestinian casualty figures, saying that nearly half the dead were militants.
Nevertheless, the death toll and number of civilian deaths have led to harsh condemnations of Israel and raised questions on the proportionality of Israel's response. In an apparent attempt to head off international investigations, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties.
Hamas also has been sharply criticized for launching rockets aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Israel says its own civilian death toll would have been much higher had it not been for its rocket defenses.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to look into the latest fighting. Its report is expected no sooner than March.
I reckon the Israelis have some plans for southern Lebanon before the new U.S. president is inaugurated.Having passed it around to foreign diplomats as a real thing, and tweeted it on Tuesday with the claim it proved Hezbollah’s “war crimes,” the Israeli military today was forced to admit that a map of “Hezbollah positions” around southern Lebanon was actually totally fabricated by the military itself, and not based on any intelligence.
The tweeted image claimed to have been “declassified,” and was hyped as proving Israel’s massive intelligence-gathering capabilities in southern Lebanon, in anticipation of Israel’s next invasion. Officials also say it was presented to foreign diplomats as proof Hezbollah poses a threat to Israeli territory.
Israeli Army Admits Tweeted Hezbollah Map Actually Fake – Antiwar.com Blog
I will never trust the IDF spokesperson again, they Lied
Disagreed, but you are free to continue your hate of Jews and your support of Islamic terrorism. I just hope the NSA catches up to you one day and places you in a facility for your own protection.Well, you are full of shit.....
Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Let's hope INTERPOL or some other group is keeping a close eye on him.Why do you think he has done a runner and fled to Europe..................Disagreed, but you are free to continue your hate of Jews and your support of Islamic terrorism. I just hope the NSA catches up to you one day and places you in a facility for your own protection.Well, you are full of shit.....
Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.Translation: I support PLO terrorist attacks against the Jews. If the PLO uses innocent people as meat shields, all the better.Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Thanks for your input, Tin.
Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.Translation: I support PLO terrorist attacks against the Jews. If the PLO uses innocent people as meat shields, all the better.Indeed, Israel's military is always attacking civilians.The Lebanese suffered billions of dollars worth of property damage and 1,200 dead
Thanks for your input, Tin.
How about "A land without people for a people without a land" that was a good one.Not all Jews are Israeli
True. But when one says "pillar of existence", one means a fundamental aspect of Israel's creation and culture. Which means "Jews". And he's admitted it now, so my accusation stands firm. And since you agreed with his post, I can only assume that you subscribe to the same thought.
Which confirms my belief, long held, that there can be no peace between Israel and Palestine until the ideology of the Palestinians fundamentally changes and moves away from this underlying anti-semitism.
If you want another, just ask.
Your assertion that the Islamic terrorists have never used meat shields is both interesting and a proven lie.Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.
Hamas DID use schools and hospitals in Gaza Strip as 'human shields' | Daily Mail Online
Hamas appeared to admit using human shields to fire rockets into Israel for the first time today, but refused to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed in retaliatory airstrikes.
In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory.
But while Ghazi Hamad claimed they took safeguards to keep people away from the violence, he admitted 'mistakes were made', blaming Israel's heavy-handed response for the deaths of civilians.
'Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone,' said Mr Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.
Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.
'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,' Hamad told The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, militants fired rockets from or near residential areas or civilian facilities.
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Wiretaps against Palestinians are wrong, Israeli ex-spies...
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The questions lie at the heart of a brewing international legal confrontation: Did Hamas deliberately and systematically fire rockets at Israel from homes, hospitals and schools in the hope that Israel would be deterred from retaliating, as Israel claims? Or did Israel use force excessively, resulting in deaths among people not involved in combat operations?
The answers could help determine whether Israel - or Hamas - or both are ultimately accused of violating the international laws of war in a conflict that caused tremendous damage.
According to Palestinian figures, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed - roughly three quarters of them civilians and including more than 500 children - and 11,000 were wounded. The war also left some 100,000 homeless. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
Survivor: Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
+7
Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
Ahead of a U.N. investigation, the Israeli military has released reams of evidence, including satellite photos and aerial footage, to support its claims that it acted responsibly and attempted to minimize Palestinian casualties. It asserts that Hamas made no effort to disguise its attempt to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.
Throughout the war, the Israeli air force compiled dozens of video clips showing alleged wrongdoing by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction.
These videos, many of them posted on YouTube, appear to show rockets flying out of residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schoolyards and mosque courtyards. There are also images of weapons caches purportedly uncovered inside mosques, and tunnels allegedly used by militants to scurry between homes, mosques and buildings.
'Hamas' excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,' said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
+7
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
Abbas criticises Hamas for delaying acceptance of ceasefire
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But a black-and-white satellite image released by the Israeli military illustrates the difficulties in proving the point. The army says the image, taken of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, shows four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and a nearby residential neighborhood.
Such images, it says, are evidence that Hamas used built-up areas for cover - and carelessly exposed civilians to danger in Israeli retaliatory strikes. However, the image itself is grainy and shows no clear signs of rocket activity, though rocket launchers are often hidden underground. The army refused to say how it had made its conclusions.
A visit to the area this week found three separate military sites - possibly training grounds - slightly larger than football fields located close to the state schools.
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
+7
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
The sites are mostly concealed from street view by barriers made of corrugated iron, but one bore the sign of Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, while another bore the sign of the Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas. The bases were deserted. Visible from the outside were human cutout figures and what appeared to be exercise hurdles.
There were no overt signs of rocket launchers or craters in the ground outside, though dirt appeared to have been disturbed either by some sort of blast or the work of heavy military-type trucks. There were pieces of mangled concrete scattered on the ground. The school buildings appeared untouched.
Hamas tightly restricts access to such facilities, and it was impossible for photographers to enter the sites. Israel confirmed the area was targeted in airstrikes.
Another location identified by the Israeli military as a rocket-launching site is in northern Gaza around the newly built Indonesian hospital. Immediately to the north of the two-story hospital and across the road to the west are two Hamas military facilities. Both stand in close proximity to residential homes. The hospital stands intact, while nothing is visible from inside the bases.
Hamad, the Hamas official, argued that many of the buildings shown in Israeli videos were either a safe distance from the rocket launchers or that the buildings had been kept vacant during the fighting.
The ground in Sheikh Radwan, for instance, lies some 150 meters (yards) away from the neighborhood, and the schools were empty for summer vacation.
During 50 days of fighting, many observers witnessed rocket launches from what appeared to be urban areas. One piece of video footage distributed by the AP, for instance, captured a launch in downtown Gaza City that took place in a lot next to a mosque and an office of the Hamas prime minister. Both buildings were badly damaged in subsequent Israeli airstrikes.
There was other evidence of Hamas having used civilian facilities: Early in the conflict, the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees announced that it discovered weapons stored in its schools as they stood empty during the summer.
'I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip,' said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches.'
The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
+7
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
US State Department on Israel, 'Time is not on our side here'
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'Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?' said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. 'The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate.'
The war erupted on July 8 when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups - part of an escalation that began with the killing by a Hamas cell of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
The Israeli army says Hamas fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel, including 600 from close to schools, mosques and other civilian facilities, and scores of mortar shells. Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes, in addition to using powerful artillery and gunship fire.
Frequently, Israeli arms struck hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, factories and office towers. Israel said the buildings had been used for cover by militant fighters, and that whenever possible, it provided warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming.
Israel disputes the makeup of the Palestinian casualty figures, saying that nearly half the dead were militants.
Nevertheless, the death toll and number of civilian deaths have led to harsh condemnations of Israel and raised questions on the proportionality of Israel's response. In an apparent attempt to head off international investigations, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties.
Hamas also has been sharply criticized for launching rockets aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Israel says its own civilian death toll would have been much higher had it not been for its rocket defenses.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to look into the latest fighting. Its report is expected no sooner than March.
UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields | New York Post
......The report also confirmed something Israel’s been saying all along: Hamas stored mortars and other weapons in at least three UN schools during last summer’s war and fired rockets at Israel from two of them.
Israel repeatedly made that point during the conflict to explain why it was firing on schools (and mosques and hospitals) where Palestinians had taken refuge.
Because Hamas, desperate to win world sympathy by any means, has always been happy to use Palestinian innocents as human shields — the more casualties, the better......
I haven't heard that one.How about "A land without people for a people without a land" that was a good one.Not all Jews are Israeli
True. But when one says "pillar of existence", one means a fundamental aspect of Israel's creation and culture. Which means "Jews". And he's admitted it now, so my accusation stands firm. And since you agreed with his post, I can only assume that you subscribe to the same thought.
Which confirms my belief, long held, that there can be no peace between Israel and Palestine until the ideology of the Palestinians fundamentally changes and moves away from this underlying anti-semitism.
If you want another, just ask.
I prefer the one much used by islamonazi's " cos allah gave us the land innit "
Your assertion that the Islamic terrorists have never used meat shields is both interesting and a proven lie.Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.
Hamas DID use schools and hospitals in Gaza Strip as 'human shields' | Daily Mail Online
Hamas appeared to admit using human shields to fire rockets into Israel for the first time today, but refused to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed in retaliatory airstrikes.
In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory.
But while Ghazi Hamad claimed they took safeguards to keep people away from the violence, he admitted 'mistakes were made', blaming Israel's heavy-handed response for the deaths of civilians.
'Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone,' said Mr Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.
Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.
'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,' Hamad told The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, militants fired rockets from or near residential areas or civilian facilities.
RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
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Wiretaps against Palestinians are wrong, Israeli ex-spies...
Blockaded Gaza faces huge challenges to rebuild after war
Israel is accused of committing war crimes after attacking...
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The questions lie at the heart of a brewing international legal confrontation: Did Hamas deliberately and systematically fire rockets at Israel from homes, hospitals and schools in the hope that Israel would be deterred from retaliating, as Israel claims? Or did Israel use force excessively, resulting in deaths among people not involved in combat operations?
The answers could help determine whether Israel - or Hamas - or both are ultimately accused of violating the international laws of war in a conflict that caused tremendous damage.
According to Palestinian figures, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed - roughly three quarters of them civilians and including more than 500 children - and 11,000 were wounded. The war also left some 100,000 homeless. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
Survivor: Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
+7
Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
Ahead of a U.N. investigation, the Israeli military has released reams of evidence, including satellite photos and aerial footage, to support its claims that it acted responsibly and attempted to minimize Palestinian casualties. It asserts that Hamas made no effort to disguise its attempt to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.
Throughout the war, the Israeli air force compiled dozens of video clips showing alleged wrongdoing by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction.
These videos, many of them posted on YouTube, appear to show rockets flying out of residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schoolyards and mosque courtyards. There are also images of weapons caches purportedly uncovered inside mosques, and tunnels allegedly used by militants to scurry between homes, mosques and buildings.
'Hamas' excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,' said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
+7
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
Abbas criticises Hamas for delaying acceptance of ceasefire
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But a black-and-white satellite image released by the Israeli military illustrates the difficulties in proving the point. The army says the image, taken of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, shows four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and a nearby residential neighborhood.
Such images, it says, are evidence that Hamas used built-up areas for cover - and carelessly exposed civilians to danger in Israeli retaliatory strikes. However, the image itself is grainy and shows no clear signs of rocket activity, though rocket launchers are often hidden underground. The army refused to say how it had made its conclusions.
A visit to the area this week found three separate military sites - possibly training grounds - slightly larger than football fields located close to the state schools.
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
+7
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
The sites are mostly concealed from street view by barriers made of corrugated iron, but one bore the sign of Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, while another bore the sign of the Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas. The bases were deserted. Visible from the outside were human cutout figures and what appeared to be exercise hurdles.
There were no overt signs of rocket launchers or craters in the ground outside, though dirt appeared to have been disturbed either by some sort of blast or the work of heavy military-type trucks. There were pieces of mangled concrete scattered on the ground. The school buildings appeared untouched.
Hamas tightly restricts access to such facilities, and it was impossible for photographers to enter the sites. Israel confirmed the area was targeted in airstrikes.
Another location identified by the Israeli military as a rocket-launching site is in northern Gaza around the newly built Indonesian hospital. Immediately to the north of the two-story hospital and across the road to the west are two Hamas military facilities. Both stand in close proximity to residential homes. The hospital stands intact, while nothing is visible from inside the bases.
Hamad, the Hamas official, argued that many of the buildings shown in Israeli videos were either a safe distance from the rocket launchers or that the buildings had been kept vacant during the fighting.
The ground in Sheikh Radwan, for instance, lies some 150 meters (yards) away from the neighborhood, and the schools were empty for summer vacation.
During 50 days of fighting, many observers witnessed rocket launches from what appeared to be urban areas. One piece of video footage distributed by the AP, for instance, captured a launch in downtown Gaza City that took place in a lot next to a mosque and an office of the Hamas prime minister. Both buildings were badly damaged in subsequent Israeli airstrikes.
There was other evidence of Hamas having used civilian facilities: Early in the conflict, the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees announced that it discovered weapons stored in its schools as they stood empty during the summer.
'I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip,' said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches.'
The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
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Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
US State Department on Israel, 'Time is not on our side here'
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'Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?' said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. 'The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate.'
The war erupted on July 8 when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups - part of an escalation that began with the killing by a Hamas cell of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
The Israeli army says Hamas fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel, including 600 from close to schools, mosques and other civilian facilities, and scores of mortar shells. Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes, in addition to using powerful artillery and gunship fire.
Frequently, Israeli arms struck hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, factories and office towers. Israel said the buildings had been used for cover by militant fighters, and that whenever possible, it provided warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming.
Israel disputes the makeup of the Palestinian casualty figures, saying that nearly half the dead were militants.
Nevertheless, the death toll and number of civilian deaths have led to harsh condemnations of Israel and raised questions on the proportionality of Israel's response. In an apparent attempt to head off international investigations, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties.
Hamas also has been sharply criticized for launching rockets aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Israel says its own civilian death toll would have been much higher had it not been for its rocket defenses.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to look into the latest fighting. Its report is expected no sooner than March.
UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields | New York Post
......The report also confirmed something Israel’s been saying all along: Hamas stored mortars and other weapons in at least three UN schools during last summer’s war and fired rockets at Israel from two of them.
Israel repeatedly made that point during the conflict to explain why it was firing on schools (and mosques and hospitals) where Palestinians had taken refuge.
Because Hamas, desperate to win world sympathy by any means, has always been happy to use Palestinian innocents as human shields — the more casualties, the better......'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away.
Not to mention that there are no permanent launching sites. Launchers are carried in by hand or mounted on trucks. Rockets are launched and a minute later the perps are down the road. Israel kills the civilians anyway even though there are no fighters in the area.
Do you have links to all that shit?Your assertion that the Islamic terrorists have never used meat shields is both interesting and a proven lie.Oh jeese, not Israel's old human shield canard again.
Hamas DID use schools and hospitals in Gaza Strip as 'human shields' | Daily Mail Online
Hamas appeared to admit using human shields to fire rockets into Israel for the first time today, but refused to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed in retaliatory airstrikes.
In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory.
But while Ghazi Hamad claimed they took safeguards to keep people away from the violence, he admitted 'mistakes were made', blaming Israel's heavy-handed response for the deaths of civilians.
'Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone,' said Mr Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.
Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.
'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,' Hamad told The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, militants fired rockets from or near residential areas or civilian facilities.
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The questions lie at the heart of a brewing international legal confrontation: Did Hamas deliberately and systematically fire rockets at Israel from homes, hospitals and schools in the hope that Israel would be deterred from retaliating, as Israel claims? Or did Israel use force excessively, resulting in deaths among people not involved in combat operations?
The answers could help determine whether Israel - or Hamas - or both are ultimately accused of violating the international laws of war in a conflict that caused tremendous damage.
According to Palestinian figures, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed - roughly three quarters of them civilians and including more than 500 children - and 11,000 were wounded. The war also left some 100,000 homeless. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
Survivor: Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
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Men evacuate a survivor of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. But many members of her family were not so lucky
Ahead of a U.N. investigation, the Israeli military has released reams of evidence, including satellite photos and aerial footage, to support its claims that it acted responsibly and attempted to minimize Palestinian casualties. It asserts that Hamas made no effort to disguise its attempt to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.
Throughout the war, the Israeli air force compiled dozens of video clips showing alleged wrongdoing by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction.
These videos, many of them posted on YouTube, appear to show rockets flying out of residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schoolyards and mosque courtyards. There are also images of weapons caches purportedly uncovered inside mosques, and tunnels allegedly used by militants to scurry between homes, mosques and buildings.
'Hamas' excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,' said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
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Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
Abbas criticises Hamas for delaying acceptance of ceasefire
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But a black-and-white satellite image released by the Israeli military illustrates the difficulties in proving the point. The army says the image, taken of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, shows four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and a nearby residential neighborhood.
Such images, it says, are evidence that Hamas used built-up areas for cover - and carelessly exposed civilians to danger in Israeli retaliatory strikes. However, the image itself is grainy and shows no clear signs of rocket activity, though rocket launchers are often hidden underground. The army refused to say how it had made its conclusions.
A visit to the area this week found three separate military sites - possibly training grounds - slightly larger than football fields located close to the state schools.
Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
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Smoke trails behind multiple missiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip
The sites are mostly concealed from street view by barriers made of corrugated iron, but one bore the sign of Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, while another bore the sign of the Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas. The bases were deserted. Visible from the outside were human cutout figures and what appeared to be exercise hurdles.
There were no overt signs of rocket launchers or craters in the ground outside, though dirt appeared to have been disturbed either by some sort of blast or the work of heavy military-type trucks. There were pieces of mangled concrete scattered on the ground. The school buildings appeared untouched.
Hamas tightly restricts access to such facilities, and it was impossible for photographers to enter the sites. Israel confirmed the area was targeted in airstrikes.
Another location identified by the Israeli military as a rocket-launching site is in northern Gaza around the newly built Indonesian hospital. Immediately to the north of the two-story hospital and across the road to the west are two Hamas military facilities. Both stand in close proximity to residential homes. The hospital stands intact, while nothing is visible from inside the bases.
Hamad, the Hamas official, argued that many of the buildings shown in Israeli videos were either a safe distance from the rocket launchers or that the buildings had been kept vacant during the fighting.
The ground in Sheikh Radwan, for instance, lies some 150 meters (yards) away from the neighborhood, and the schools were empty for summer vacation.
During 50 days of fighting, many observers witnessed rocket launches from what appeared to be urban areas. One piece of video footage distributed by the AP, for instance, captured a launch in downtown Gaza City that took place in a lot next to a mosque and an office of the Hamas prime minister. Both buildings were badly damaged in subsequent Israeli airstrikes.
There was other evidence of Hamas having used civilian facilities: Early in the conflict, the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees announced that it discovered weapons stored in its schools as they stood empty during the summer.
'I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip,' said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches.'
The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
+7
Palestinians gather as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
US State Department on Israel, 'Time is not on our side here'
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'Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?' said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. 'The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate.'
The war erupted on July 8 when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups - part of an escalation that began with the killing by a Hamas cell of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
The Israeli army says Hamas fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel, including 600 from close to schools, mosques and other civilian facilities, and scores of mortar shells. Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes, in addition to using powerful artillery and gunship fire.
Frequently, Israeli arms struck hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, factories and office towers. Israel said the buildings had been used for cover by militant fighters, and that whenever possible, it provided warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming.
Israel disputes the makeup of the Palestinian casualty figures, saying that nearly half the dead were militants.
Nevertheless, the death toll and number of civilian deaths have led to harsh condemnations of Israel and raised questions on the proportionality of Israel's response. In an apparent attempt to head off international investigations, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties.
Hamas also has been sharply criticized for launching rockets aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Israel says its own civilian death toll would have been much higher had it not been for its rocket defenses.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to look into the latest fighting. Its report is expected no sooner than March.
UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields | New York Post
......The report also confirmed something Israel’s been saying all along: Hamas stored mortars and other weapons in at least three UN schools during last summer’s war and fired rockets at Israel from two of them.
Israel repeatedly made that point during the conflict to explain why it was firing on schools (and mosques and hospitals) where Palestinians had taken refuge.
Because Hamas, desperate to win world sympathy by any means, has always been happy to use Palestinian innocents as human shields — the more casualties, the better......'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away.
Not to mention that there are no permanent launching sites. Launchers are carried in by hand or mounted on trucks. Rockets are launched and a minute later the perps are down the road. Israel kills the civilians anyway even though there are no fighters in the area.
They were still in the school and hospital grounds, and as the UN stated the sites were targetted and the arab muslim human shields ran towards them. Many are portable but many are also fixed in civilian areas to protect them. But it does not matter if you read the Geneva conventions the threat does not move when the users leave. The target is valid until it is destroyed
I haven't heard that one.How about "A land without people for a people without a land" that was a good one.Not all Jews are Israeli
True. But when one says "pillar of existence", one means a fundamental aspect of Israel's creation and culture. Which means "Jews". And he's admitted it now, so my accusation stands firm. And since you agreed with his post, I can only assume that you subscribe to the same thought.
Which confirms my belief, long held, that there can be no peace between Israel and Palestine until the ideology of the Palestinians fundamentally changes and moves away from this underlying anti-semitism.
If you want another, just ask.
I prefer the one much used by islamonazi's " cos allah gave us the land innit "