Foreign Journalist 2009:Hamas Forced Gazans to be Human Shields at Gunpoint

In January 2009, Prof. Richard Landes posted on his blog The Augean Stables an English translation of an article by Lorenzo Cremonesi (Italian original here) describing how Hamas forced Gazan civilians to be human shields against Israel:

“Get away! Get away from here! Do you want the Israelis to kill everyone? Do you want our children to die under the bombs? take your missiles and weapons away,” the inhabitants of the Gaza strip yelled at the Hamas militants and their allies in Islamic Jihad. The more courageous were organized and blocked the entrances to their courtyards and locked the doors to their buildings, barricading quickly and furiously the stairs to the highest rooftops.

But for all of that the guerrillas didn’t listen to anyone.
“Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?” This is what they yelled furiously as they broke down doors and windows, hiding themselves on high floors, gardens, using ambulances and barricading themselves near the hospitals, schools and buildings of the UN.

In extreme cases the [Hamas militants] shot those who sought to block them from their streets and houses to save their own families, or they beat them savagely. “The Hamas Militants looked for good places to provoke the Israelis. They were usually youths, 16 or 17 years old, armed with submachine guns. They couldn’t do anything against a tank or jet. They knew they were much weaker. But they wanted the [Israelis] to shoot at the [the civilians'] houses so they could accuse them of more war crimes” asserted Abu Issa, 42, resident of the Tel Awa neighborhood.

Read the whole thing.

After describing further examples of human shields, Cremonesi argues for why he believes the number of casualties reported by Hamas -- and repeated by the media -- is double the actual number.

That will be an issue this time as well.

In any case, The Israel Project has a collection of videos illustrating the use of human shields by Hamas.
Here are 2 of them:






When will Hamas terrorists be held accountable for their violations of human rights by the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians?

-----

If you found this post interesting or informative, please it below. Thanks!

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Pillar of Defense.