An escalation of Palestinian terror group use of civilians, particularly children, as human shields.

We know that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups regularly use civilians, particularly children, as human shields.

Rockets are fired from positions in residential areas, and next to hospitals and apartment buildings.

If Israel tries to take out the launchers, there is a likelihood of civilian casualties, which then is used by the anti-Israel media propaganda and “human rights” machine to accuse Israel of war crimes. We documented this tactic extensively during the 2014 Gaza conflict.

We summarized these findings in our 2017 post, Confirmed (again): Hamas used hospitals to launch rockets during 2014 Gaza conflict.

The recent attempts to breach the Gaza-Israel border fence, under the banner of the “Great March of Return,” again used civilians and children as cover for Hamas and other terrorist operations.

Despite the presence of hundreds of children and thousands of civilians acting as cover, almost all of the Gazans killed at the border fence were Hamas and other terror operatives. This demonstrates, contrary to the media narrative, how careful Israeli is in not targeting civilians.

We now have more examples of Hamas and other terror groups using children, but this time not as human shields. Much worse, a group of children was sent to the border fence to entice Israeli soldiers to approach to remove them.

Then Hamas sprung the trap, and a sniper targeted the Israeli soldiers who approached the children. Ynet News reports:

An IDF officer was moderately wounded on Wednesday evening after being shot by a sniper from the Gaza Strip during the most serious outbreak of violence between Israel and the coastal enclave since the two sides reached a ceasefire on Saturday…. The shooting took place in the Kissufim area just 400 meters away from where IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi was killed by a Palestinian sniper on Friday afternoon on the Gaza border…. According to an initial investigation, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops from the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Infantry Battalion who were conducting routine operations near the border fence when they were called to to disperse a “bait” riot staged by children to lure soldier within the sniper’s range.

A Palestinian sniper in Gaza fired at IDF troops under the cover of 20 children that were sent towards the border fence as decoy. This is the second sniper attack against the IDF in a week. IDF retaliated against Hamas positions. — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 25, 2018

Israel retaliated for the sniper ambushes that killed one IDF soldier and wounded another, killing three Hamas terrorists

Keep the Palestinian terrorist use of civilians, particularly children, in mind if the situation escalates.

[Featured Image: al-Qassam Twitter]



