How Hamas Uses Hospitals, Churches, Schools, Kids as ‘Human Shields’

(Video screenshot)

This article originally appeared on WND.com

Guest by post by Peter LaBarbera 

Egyptian: ‘They garner sympathy over the corpses of children. This is part of the strategy of the Islamists’

A new report by the Middle East Media Research Institute features leaders and pundits from Arabic countries describing Gaza-based Hamas terrorists’ immoral and deceptive tactic of using hospitals, churches, schools and children to wage military war against Israel.

The MEMRI report, released Wednesday, is titled, “Hamas Is Known To Use Hospitals, Ambulances, Mosques, Churches And Schools As Shields For Its Military Activity.”

It states: “Testimony from previous rounds of fighting in Gaza has indicated that Hamas conducts military activity from within hospitals, mosques, churches and schools, or from areas adjacent to them. This, in order to prevent Hamas’ leaders, operatives and weapons from being targeted by Israel, and sometimes also in order to deliberately provoke Israel into attacking these sites.”

In an Oct. 13, 2020 video interview provided in the report, Dirar Belhoul Al-Falasi, a member of the UAE’s (United Arab Emirates’) Federal National Council, said on Kuwait’s Diwan Al-Mulla Online TV: “People from the Red Crescent told us that they built a hospital [in Gaza]… This hospital was for treating Palestinians. People from Hamas fired a rocket from the hospital’s roof, so that Israel would bomb this hospital. Just see how low they can go….”

The interview can be viewed on the MEMRI website. Another video quotes Egyptian-American writer Magdi Khalil, from a 2014 interview with Al-Jazeera TV, criticizing Hamas’ self-serving notions of having the moral high ground against Israel.

MEMRI video of 2020 interview on Kuwaiti TV network with UAE’s Dirar Belhoul Al-Falasi, who describes how Hamas fighters launch rockets against Israel from the roof of a hospital (Video screenshot/MEMRI website)

“Is it moral to launch missiles from hospitals, from schools, from bedrooms, from mosques, and from the roof of a church, where thousands of Gazans had found refuge? The church’s priest was interviewed on CBN and said: ‘From the roof of this church, Hamas members are launching missiles at Israel. We welcomed them in our church, but they began launching missiles at Israel from the roof.’ Is this the moral high ground that my colleague is talking about?!” Khalil said.

“Is it moral for Hamas leaders to hide in Al-Shifa Hospital, thus risking the lives of regular people? Is this the moral high ground? They are fleeing like rats, hiding behind patients in Gaza hospitals. Is it moral for Hamas leaders to hide behind these patients? he said. “They garner sympathy over the corpses of children. This is part of the strategy of the Islamists. They consider sympathy garnered over the corpses of children to be a victory….”

Khalil told the liberal network: “The whole world knows that Hamas does not care about the spirit of humanity. They do not care about the children, about their people, about the losses, about the destruction of their country, or about the number of casualties.”

MEMRI is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization founded in 1998 that provides “timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, Turkish, Russian, and Chinese media.” It translates videos and reports to fulfill its stated mission to accurate information on the Middle East to the world, including to American and allied “counterterrorism officials, law enforcement agencies, militaries, and other authorities.” MEMRI states: “In this way, we assist them in tackling threats and fighting extremism.”

Nothing has changed

How little has changed since then. As WND reported Wednesday, various “mainstream” corporate media reported Tuesday that a bomb attack on a Gaza hospital had allegedly killed 500 Palestinians and severely damaged a hospital – as they overly relied on Hamas’ claim blaming the attack on Israel. Pro-Hamas advocates worldwide denounced alleged Israel bombing as part of its “genocidal” campaign against the Palestinian people. But the story quickly fell apart as new facts and photos emerged showing the bomb hit a hospital parking lot and left no crater, and left hospital buildings intact (with windows blown out).

Reuters reported Wednesday: “An Israeli army spokesperson said an analysis of the operational systems of the Israel Defense Forces indicated that a barrage of rockets was fired by militants in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the hospital at the time it was hit..’Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.’”

The report continued: “A military spokesperson said there was no structural damage to buildings around the hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike. The spokesperson said Hamas had inflated the casualty numbers and said the group could not know as quickly as it claimed what caused the blast….The military also released an audio file and a transcript of what it said was a conversation between two Hamas militants saying an Islamic Jihad rocket had misfired. It was not possible to verify the material independently. The audio was edited including with bleeps to obscure words and names….Hamas did not immediately comment on the audio.”

Ultimately, President Biden took Israel’s side and conservatives blasted the media for regurgitating Hamas propaganda about the strike. Many pro-Hamas commenters continued to maintain that Israel bombed the hospital.

Another MEMRI video from 2014 shows Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an Oct. 13, 2009 speech at the Arab American University in Jenin criticizing Hamas militants during what MEMRI says was “during the round of fighting between Israel and Gaza in December 2008/January 2009 [when] Hamas leaders had used ambulances to flee Gaza, leaving the populace to do without these emergency vehicles.”

The Middle East reporting group video shows Abbas saying: “When the [Israeli] aggression took place, [Hamas leaders] in Gaza and abroad said: ‘We don’t care if Gaza is erased.’ They do not care if Gaza is erased. All they care about is that the Hamas movement continue to exist. They said this. Haniya and Mash’al said: We don’t care what happens. Mash’al went even further and said: ‘What is happening in Gaza is insignificant and does not affect us.’ Then they said that the Hamas movement is alive and well. This was at a time when there were thousands of martyrs from among our people, thousands of wounded from among our people, and tens of thousands of destroyed houses. To this day, 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza are homeless, with no place to live. Yet the Hamas movement is alive and well.”

Abbas continued: “The Hamas movement was hiding under the domes [of mosques]. The Hamas leaders – and I say this for the first time – fled to the Sinai in ambulances, leaving their people behind to be slaughtered. Then they say: We put up resistance.”

Meanwhile, the conservative Heritage Foundation put out a video in which a foreign policy expert describes the Palestinian terrorist group to Fox News this way: “Hamas is a parasite. They embed themselves in the organs and tissue of the host, and they ultimately will kill the host so that they can go after a larger enemy, which in this case is Israel.” He said any money or aid sent to Hamas will be used to wage war against Israel.

And PragerU released a video presented by Noa Tishby titled, “Israel: Who are the indigenous people?” that is getting lots of attention:

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