Hamas issues fake outrage over "civilian" deaths - as it admits to targeting civilians

The initial reaction on the Al Qassam Brigades website on yesterday's IDF response to rocket fire is instructive.

The Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas", challenged the Zionist enemy to announce the real reason behind this cowardly act in the bombing of a house belonging to the Dalou family.

The military battalions said the Zionist enemy was violating the truce and committing a massacre in the Dalou family home will open the gates of hell itself.

The group said: "...The enemy committed a massacre against our people, especially in the barbaric bombing of the Dalou family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City." and added that their response is only an initial response, and that the enemy in this treacherous action may open the gates of hell on himself, and pay dearly, God willing. The Qassam Brigades defied the Zionist enemy to announce the real reason behind this cowardly act in the bombing of the Dalou house."

Funny, the Qassam Brigades never issued such a statement when any other houses were bombed over the past five weeks. Only this one seems to have caused such wrath (and, of course, nearly a hundred rockets.)

As we now know, the reason is that the IDF was targeting the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif:

Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied on Wednesday that the commander of its military wing was killed in a Tuesday night attack which claimed the life of his wife and son.

Izzat al-Risheq, one the group's political leaders, said Wednesday morning that "we have no choice but to struggle and to win." The security cabinet is expected to meet around noon in Tel Aviv.

Following the late night attack in Gaza, Palestinian sources reported three casualties: Mohammed Deif's 28-year-old wife and his eight-month son, as well as 18-year-old Ahmed Rabah al-Daulo.

Hamas called on members of the public to attend the funeral procession of Deif's wife and baby son, which will leave from the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Strip.

Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk charged on Wednesday after Gaza truce talks collapsed in a spasm of violence that Israel had targeted the group's armed wing leader Mohammed Deif in one of its air strikes on Tuesday in the coastal territory.

Note that the Qassam Brigades didn't say a word about Deif, and indeed its website still doesn't say anything about him or his family, only the Dalou family house that they were hiding in. (Hamas denies that Deif was killed.)

In other words, for as long as possible, the Qassam Brigades is pretending that Israel was targeting civilians and not their terrorist mastermind.

At the same time, Hamas again admitted that it is targeting civilians:

The city of Tel Aviv which is the head of the economy, and the Zionist Ben Gurion airport, has become a strategic goal for the Qassam rockets.