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from https://nypost.com/2023/12/28/opinion/hamas-philosophy-all-civilians-all-children-are-tools-of-war/

Hamas’ philosophy: All civilians, all children are tools of war
By Social Links forDouglas Murray
Published Dec. 28, 2023, 4:22 p.m. ET

A minibus is carrying people who are fleeing from the central Gaza Strip
with their belongings in Deir Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on
December 28, 2023
A minibus is carrying people who are fleeing from the central Gaza Strip
with their belongings in Deir Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Dec.
28, 2023.
ZUMAPRESS.com
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Much of the world continues to condemn Israel for waging its war against
Hamas.

As the casualty figures on both sides grow, Israel is facing the usual
calls for a ceasefire.

A call which this country has rightly not joined in.

But as well as the Hamas supporters and antisemites who hurl accusations against Israel whatever it does, there are also well-meaning people who genuinely do not seem to understand the war that Israel is fighting.

Every time a home is destroyed in Gaza, or a civilian building is
targeted much of the world seems bewildered and outraged.

In the process the worst libels against the Jewish state get repeated.

Claims that the Israelis deliberately target civilians.

Claims that Israel is committing war crimes, and more.

Take the case the other week when photos emerged of Hamas terrorists in
Gaza stripped to their underwear by the IDF.

People who had no desire to speak up when Israeli women were raped
suddenly seemed furious that suspected terrorists might have been
stripped down to their underwear.

Of course these online, armchair warriors seem to presume that they
themselves are experts in counter-terror techniques.

They seem to assume that there either are no Hamas militants in the
Gaza, or that no member of Hamas would ever wear a suicide bomb under
their clothes.

Which is the sort of thing that means that IDF soldiers have to get them
to strip down.

But worse is when people make claims that the IDF somehow deliberately
target civilians.

Even children.

Earlier this week The Post published a story about Hamas hiding
explosives in toy boxes.

That is absolutely true and the tip of the iceberg.

To get a better sense of what the IDF is actually facing on the ground
in Gaza I spoke this week with a man I can only identify as “Major Y.”

He is an American who went to Israel to fight in the immediate aftermath
of October 7th.

He has been fighting in Gaza constantly since then in a special forces unit.

These are some of the things he told me about his experiences there.

The first thing that the outside world does not seem to know is that
Hamas routinely uses civilian houses as weapon stores.

This is a complete flouting of the laws of war, including the Geneva conventions which mandate that armies must not use civilian sites for
military use.

Major Y and other people on the ground I have spoken with say that they estimate about one in every two or three homes in Gaza they go into has military weaponry, including AK47s, grenades and rocket launchers.

And they routinely find entrances to Hamas’s terror tunnels inside
civilian houses.

And not just anywhere, but most often in the children’s bedrooms and
even under cots.

Indeed one member of the IDF I spoke with this week says that this is
such a pattern that when they search a house they now go straight to the children’s bedrooms to uncover weapons caches and entrances to the tunnels.

They recently found an RPG underneath a baby’s crib.

Furthermore, Major Y says that every single mosque they go into has a
Hamas weapons store.

As has every UN school that they go into. Again this violates every rule
of war.

Hamas use places of worship — while pretending to be such “devout” Muslims — because they know the Israelis will not target their places of worship.

They use schools as arms dumps because they know that if Israel targets
an empty school the world will go berserk.

It is a cynical tactic, that of course puts at risk the very
Palestinians who Hamas pretend to be representing.

According to the Major, “every school and kindergarten we go into we
find guns in the basement. In each one we found more than ten AK47s,
machine guns and grenades.”

And that’s when Hamas terrorists are not there.

On the ground, amid the intense fighting in the south of Gaza, the major
tells me the sort of things he has encountered.

On one occasion recently his unit spotted an old lady in a wheelchair
alone on a street corner in the south of Gaza.

They approached the elderly lady “who looked like my grandmother”
according to the major.

And as they approached her they were suddenly fired on by a Hamas terrorist.

He had placed himself under her wheelchair in order to fire on the
Israeli soldiers.

This is the Hamas that pretends to care for Palestinians but would even
use an elderly disabled Palestinian woman as a human shield.

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On another occasion recently the major says that his unit was beside an
UNWRA school.

The soldiers saw a 13-year old boy running with a bag near one of the
schools.

He put it down and ran away.

A few minutes later it detonated, badly wounding one of the Israeli
soldiers nearby.

When people ask how Israel could treat even some children as potential terrorists, this is why.

As the major said, Hamas didn’t think for a moment “about the
Palestinian civilians” who were nearby when the bomb went off.

I ask about the claims that Israeli troops have to treat even people
coming towards them with white flags with suspicion.

I have seen this myself in the Gaza — where the IDF ask people to step forward very slowly even when are waving white flags.

The major says that on many occasions in recent weeks he has seen Hamas
use precisely these people to carry out attacks.

Recently he says “a group of old women and old men” came out of a
building waving a white flag.

Then someone came out from within their ranks and started shooting at
the soldiers.

Because of the civilians the Israelis did not shoot back at the terrorist.

In other words, the Israelis expressed more care for the Palestinian
civilians than this Palestinian terrorist. Situations like this happen
“every day” says the major.

Add to this the rockets and grenades they routinely uncover in UNWRA and
other UN bags.

And the tunnel entrances and weapons stores are everywhere.

One tunnel entrance was just found in a school’s playing fields.

This, then, is the Hamas way of war.

And the Israeli way of war.

One side uses civilians as human shields.

The other tries to locate terrorists.

So how strange it is that so many Americans — especially young Americans
— condemn the Israelis.

It is Hamas that started this.

And Hamas that is the real enemy not just of Israel but of the
Palestinian people.

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FILED UNDER GAZA STRIP HAMAS ISRAEL ISRAEL WAR 2023 PALESTINE 12/28/23 READ NEXT
All these year-in-review round-ups are just making mental ...

Conversation416 Comments

Ayellet Target
1 day ago

As usual, Douglas Murray is correct he always nails it, and I wish the
whole world would read the truth. I cannot wrap my brain around what is
going on and how the world seems to love the terrorist the terrorist
that would be happy to be everyone that marches for them. How ironic is that


Truth B. Told
1 day ago

The only thing left out of his article is the support Hamas gets from
the Palestinian people living in Gaza. I don't believe for one moment
they are

the innocents in all of this barbarity, that some idealists in this
country and

around the world would like to pretend they are.



Miss Fit
1 day ago

"Hamas" are the brothers, fathers, sons, and cousins of those who were
killed by Israel in the past decades.

The brothers, fathers, sons, and cousins of those who are being
exterminated by Israel now, will form a new resistant movement.

People that live under occupation and oppression tend to resist that
occupation and oppression.


6 replies

Show 1 more reply
RHCA57
1 day ago

Thank you for your consistent reporting and speaking on the true nature
of Hamas and the war Israel is fighting. There is such a massive pro
Hamas propaganda machine out there polluting our media and social media,
that it makes your reporting all the more important for the world to
hear. God Bless ...

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