Israel hits back at war crimes charges Tuesday, January 27, 2009
By: ICEJ News
IDF documenting Hamas misuse of civilian areas, human shields
The Israeli military has gone on the offense in recent days to counter growing charges of ‘war crimes’ against it by releasing documents showing how Hamas used civilian areas in Gaza as military posts and exploited the local population as human shields.
The new strategy hopes to turn the tables on Hamas by emphasizing the terrorist group's own humanitarian violations. In one example, a slide show of aerial photographs shown to journalists exposed how Hamas located sniper posts, explosives charges and other military assets inside and adjacent to civilian structures with special status and protection, such as mosques and medical facilities, describing it as part of Hamas's "modus operandi."
The use of such structures, the presentation emphasizes, "renders them legitimate military targets." It then stresses that this behavior by Hamas "is in breach of international law and amounts to war crimes."
The IDF talking points blast Hamas for "intentionally and systematically endangering civilians by imbedding themselves within the civilian population," and condemn Hamas's "despicable methods of warfare" which "have forced the IDF to fight within densely populated areas."
A similar strategy was evident in a recent publication of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an NGO with close ties to Israel’s intelligence community. The document, titled "Using the Civilian Population in the Gaza Strip as Human Shields," contains aerial shots labeled to show Hamas's use of civilian buildings for military purposes. The headings of the photographs indicate a fortified position on the roof of a residential building, an explosives detonation point inside a mosque, and infantry positions, mine holes and tunnel openings meters from other mosques.
Meantime, the IDF finally released an official estimate of Palestinian casualties in its three-week Gaza offensive, concluding so far that between 1,100 and 1,200 people were killed, including 700 terrorists and 250 civilians. The IDF has yet to verify the identity of some 200 fatalities, mostly men in their 20s.
Israeli President Shimon Peres also joined the fray on Monday, lashing out at those who decry the ‘disproportionate’ Palestinian casualty ratio in Operation Cast Lead. Citing statistics of Israeli casualties from Palestinian terrorism in the past decade or so, Peres noted that 842 civilians and 325 soldiers had been killed in recent years, making a total of 1,167 fatalities. "So where is the disproportion?" he queried.
