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January 05, 2009

Israel using human shields?

Apparently Israel Defense Forces have decided to adopt Hamas' alleged tactics and are effectively using Palestinian hostages as a human shield from which to fire on Hamas agents and whomever else they decide to fire on.

Israeli troops seized three six-story buildings on the outskirts of Gaza City, taking up rooftop positions after locking residents in rooms and taking away their cell phones, a neighbor said, quoting a relative in one of the buildings who called before his phone was taken away.

"The army is there, firing in all directions," said Mohammed Salmai, a 29-year-old truck driver. "All we can do is take clothes to each other to keep ourselves warm and pray to God that if we die, someone will find our bodies under the rubble." - AP

Obviously, if Hamas were to adopt IDF tactics and just bomb the buildings into piles of rubble - something they appear capable of - then any civilians locked in rooms inside would very likely die too - effectively making them human shields.

In the glibest of irony,

Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said Hamas was to blame for civilian casualties because it operates in densely populated areas.

"If Hamas chose cynically to use those civilians as human shields, then Hamas should be accountable," she said. "Civilians will probably continue to get killed, unfortunately, because Hamas put them in the first lines of fire."

Sickening...

Posted by Kevin at January 5, 2009 11:44 AM