By Daled Amos
The Hamas deliberate disregard for human life -- Gazan, as well as Jewish -- is not a secret, though this indifference never dissuades Hamas's admirers.
Last week, The Algemeiner reported on blatant examples of Gazans killed by Hamas:
The volleys of over 600 missiles fired into Israeli territory by Palestinian terrorist groups since fighting began Monday has included at least 150 errant rockets — falling short within the Gaza Strip and causing casualties that Hamas officials have wrongly blamed on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).These statistics come from Israel.“We know that one third of the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip did not reach Israel and fell inside Gaza,” [IDF Spokesperson Hidai] Zilberman said. “What we can learn from this is that many Gaza residents who were injured or killed were not hit by Israeli airstrikes but the civilians were hit by rockets from the terrorist groups themselves.” [emphasis added]
But you don't have to take their word for it.
Elder of Ziyon points out that corroboration for Gazans being killed by Hamas rockets comes from a pro-Palestinian group too. The anti-Israel NGO, Defense for Children International-Palestine, admits that Gazans -- with no place to take shelter -- are being killed by Hamas rockets:
In a second incident around 6:05 p.m., initial investigations suggest a homemade rocket fired by a Palestinian armed group fell short and killed eight Palestinians, including two children. The rocket landed in Saleh Dardouna Street near Al-Omari Mosque in Jabalia, North Gaza, according to evidence collected by DCIP. Mustafa Mohammad Mahmoud Obaid, 16, was killed in the blast, and five-year-old Baraa Wisam Ahmad al-Gharabli succumbed to his injuries around 11 p.m. on May 10.
Palestinian security sources and explosives experts indicated the cause of this explosion was a Palestinian armed group rocket that fell short. Another 34 Palestinian civilians were injured in the blast, including 10 children, according to DCIP’s documentation.
And as more and more rockets are fired by Hamas in the direction of Israeli cities, more and more rockets fall short, landing in Gaza, causing destruction and even death.
A group on WhatsApp that provides updates from the IDF noted on Wednesday:
This is not the first time Gazans are dodging Hamas rockets.
These
faulty rockets were documented in 2014, even before the start of Operation
Protective Edge that year.
The blog My Right Word posted documentation by the Gaza Strip NGOs Safety Office (GANSO) from March 2014:
The website no longer exists, but
a cached copy of the complete report as a PDF is still accessible online.
The link to the site now forwards you to the American Friends Service
Committee.
Hamas rockets crashing into Gaza was recognized as an ongoing occurrence, as mentioned in an earlier report in January, indicating the number of Hamas rockets crashing into Gaza rose from 30% to 50%. Here is a copy of the first page of that report. The cached copy of the complete report is here.
But Hamas-inflicted casualties in Gazan has never dampened Hamas enthusiasm
for firing faulty rockets.
Instead, 2 years later -- in 2016 --
Hamas offered to sell their rockets to any Arab country interested in using
them to kill Jews:
According to the MEMRI translation:
Fathi Hammad: "This army has its own industry. Incidentally, we are now ready to sell our missiles to Arab countries. These are advanced missiles. If you look into the missile or weapon industries of developed countries, you will find that Gaza has become the leading manufacturer of missiles among Arab countries - I'm not saying Islamic countries. We are prepared to sell them (to Arab countries) - so that they will launch them against the Jews, not for infighting among themselves."
There was no word of any Arab takers, but then again that is not the point. This was all about bragging rights, just as Hamas now claims to be the defenders of Al Aqsa against encroachment by Israel.
Casualties are irrelevant.
They mean nothing to Hamas.
They certainly mean nothing to Iran.
And they don't mean anything to Hamas supporters on social media.
As for Hamas, on May 12, they bragged that they were using up their older, outdated rockets and getting ready to use newer, more efficient ones. That would be a conscious choice to knowingly fire faulty rockets that were sure to cause damage and even death, before using newer rockets that supposedly would avoid damage and death to their own people.
Maybe it was one of those newer rockets that Hamas fired on May 15 -- and landed in the West Bank town of Azzun.
Even Lebanon is getting in on the act. On May 18, six rockets were fired towards Israel -- and all 6 rockets fell short and crashed into Lebanon.
And all the while, social media is thick with the cynicism of anti-Israel attacks against Israel's self-defense against terrorist rockets, ignoring not only that unarmed civilians are the targets but also that the people of Gaza are themselves the victims of Hamas.
Is the support for Hamas 'resistance' any more genuine than the support for
BDS that never seems to lead to genuine assistance for the Palestinian Arabs
themselves?
Or is this just one more tactic for publicly undercutting Israel in the
media?
