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New report says Hamas used kids as human shields

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/57449/full/57449/new-report-says-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/ New report says Hamas used kids as human shields Thursday, March 18, 2010 | by yaakov katz Hamas gunmen used Palestinian children as human shields during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip last year, according to a new Israeli report released March 15. The detailed 500-page report also shows that Hamas established command centers and Kassam launch pads in and near more than 100 mosques and hospitals. To produce the report, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) released hundreds of classified photographs, videos, prisoner interrogations and Hamas-drawn sketches. Malam, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, used the declassified material to produce the report, which aims to counter the criticism leveled at Israel in the U.N.-sponsored Goldstone Report. Malam is a small research group led by Reuven Erlich, a former IDF military intelligence officer who works closely with the army. Work on the report began immediately after former judge Richard Goldstone issued his damning report of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip in September. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has sent copies of the new report to its ambassadors. “The Goldstone Report is one-sided, biased, selective and deceptive, since it simply accepts Hamas claims at face value and presents everything through Hamas’ eyes,” Erlich said. One example of the material revealed in the Malam report: an until now classified sketch of the village of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza discovered by IDF troops during the operation. The sketch details the extensive deployment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and snipers inside and adjacent to civilian homes. The sketch reportedly was discovered in a Hamas operative’s home, together with several IEDs and Kalashnikov rifles. The Malam report also provides an analysis of another sketch found during the offensive in the Atatra neighborhood in northern Gaza City that Erlich said proves Hamas’ culpability for the ensuing death and destruction. “By placing all of their weaponry next to homes, by operating out of homes, mosques and hospitals, by firing rockets next to schools and by using human shields, Hamas is the one responsible for the civilian deaths during the operation,” Erlich said. The Goldstone Report states that its authors “found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack.” <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 360px;"><img alt="MEjta human shield" class="left" height="266" src="http://www.jweekly.com/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/zn03_19_10/MEjta human shield.jpg" title="A screenshot from a video on the Jerusalem Post Web site is said to show " width="360" /> <div class="caption">A screenshot from a video on the Jerusalem Post Web site is said to show terrorists using children as human shields. </div> </div> The Malam report, however, brings declassified videos that show how Hamas used civilians as human shields and deployed its weaponry and command centers inside civilian homes. Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan denied those allegations March 15, claiming that the IDF was spreading “lies and fabrications to avoid international condemnation of Israel for perpetrating war crimes against civilians in the Gaza Strip.” According to the report, the IDF discovered a note in one home that was written in Arabic and read: “We are your brothers, fighters in this holy war, and we used your home and some of your possessions. We are sorry.” This note, Malam’s report said, was a clear indication of how Hamas took over civilian homes to launch attacks on Israeli forces. According to a previously undisclosed interrogation of a Hamas operative, one Hamas cell transported rockets on the back of a wagon in which children were also sitting. In other cases, the Hamas operative said, Hamas fighters disguised themselves as women carrying babies to ensure that they would not be hit by IDF troops. The intelligence information is backed up by videos, including one declassified air force video from Jan. 6, 2009, that shows a gunman shooting at troops from the roof of a building. After spotting an Israeli aircraft, the fighter goes to the building’s entrance and calls to nearby civilians to help him escape. A few moments later, a group of children arrive at the entrance to the home and the man walks out. Another video from January shows a senior Hamas fighter — spotted by an aircraft — walking by himself down a street. After spotting the aircraft, he runs over to an elderly woman walking nearby and continues walking next to her. Later, the IDF discovered that the “elderly woman” was really a Hamas operative in disguise. “Whoever needed more proof of bias and unprofessionalism by the Goldstone fact-finding mission will find it in this report,” said Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The Malam report also takes Goldstone to task for his claim that “the mission found no evidence that members of Palestinian armed groups engaged in combat in civilian dress,” and as a result could “not find a violation of the obligation not to endanger the civilian population in this respect.” In response, Malam interviewed a number of IDF officers who provided testimony that a vast majority of Hamas fighters were dressed as civilians, and Hamas videos that showed fighters during the Israeli operation wearing civilian clothing while firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at IDF troops. The Prime Minister’s Office said, “We appreciate their work. This is further proof of the distorted way that the Goldstone Report was prepared.” The Malam report also reveals intelligence information that Hamas “systematically” used almost 100 mosques inside Gaza to fight against the IDF. That’s in contrast to the Goldstone Report, which claims that the mission was unable to make a determination about the issue. The report also provides evidence that Hamas fired at IDF troops adjacent to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and also hid weaponry and senior operatives inside at least eight Gaza hospitals. The report devotes an entire section to proving how Hamas’ police and internal security forces were involved in military/terrorist activities and were not, as Goldstone claimed, civilian entities whose only duty was enforcing law and order. The IDF is working on another report and plans to release it in the coming months, but it will focus on IDF operations. The Malam report is all about Hamas, its combat tactics and the way it operates, as well as the events that led up to Operation Cast Lead that Malam says Goldstone disregarded. The report points to four basic flaws in the Goldstone Report: It does not deal with the terrorist aspects and ideology of Hamas; it minimizes the gravity of the attacks against Israel, focusing on rocket fire during the six months before Operation Cast Lead while devoting little space to the rocket and mortar fire that began in 2001; it does not deal with the Hamas military buildup in the Gaza Strip in the year preceding Cast Lead that threatened Israel, although it did provide extensive historical coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and it ignores the role Iran and Syria play in Gaza by aiding Hamas and supplying it with explosives and weaponry.

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