this mantra of "HAMAS hides behind women and children" is getting very old, very monotonous, and very ridiculous.. the united nations fact finding mission on the gaza conflict found no evidence of that at all. if anything, they found evidence of the opposite. many people thought israel had it in their hip pocket with a zionist jew as the chairman of the mission but he only began to back away from the missions findings until the south african community slapped a חֵרֶם on him. ther is no reason to doubt the impartiality and obectivity of the other three members of the mission
the IDF had every opportunity to participate and co-operate with this mission but refused. HAMAS was little better. it is absurd to use or rely upon either one of their investigative conclusions.
personally, i think it is a bit callous and almost depraved to keep demonising either side beyond the facts and based upon the conclusions of biased and subjestive investigations. both sides are guilty of committing war crimes, be those crimes of negligence or deliberation. israel happens to commit these crimes more effectively than the palestinians, but one does not justify the other.
Hamas used and using human shields on regular basis.
When saying that, I don't mean that Hamas must take a group of women and children and hold them as shields PER SE.
Saying to the community not to leave their houses KNOWING there is a chance their houses must be bombed, just to prevent IDF from bombing rockets warehouses, IS USING HUMAN SHIELDS.
Sending children to pass rockets from one point to another, IS USING HUMAN SHIELDS.
Sendind kids to the border with a bomb tied wround their hips, telling them that killing soldiers will grant them heaven, IS USING HUMAN SHIELDS.
Sending rockets from a hospital, civilian house, IS USING HUMAN SHIELDS.
As for Israel, it was told that Israel used the method called נוהל שכן, lit. means "The neighbor method". it did it for a very limited time, using a neighbor as "protector" when sinding suspicious people. The military and civilian court highly condemned that method, saying it is against the IDF spirit which says, "Don't harm the uninvolved". this method stopped, thank God.
Now the tactic is much more humanitarian. It is called "knock-on-roof". The IDf "tappes" on the roofd of the houses, or using weapns that are not lethal, causing the civilians inside, if there are any, to leave, then destroyed the house. that is why sometimes you see little Gazan girls next to their ruin houses, in which THEY HAVE BEEN INTO only minute earlier, but the kids are without a scratch.
That is the true IDF spirit.