Optics matter, and yesterday, after Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas command center in Gaza City where displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering in place, the optics indeed looked bad for Israel.
Around 90 or more Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the air strike, and inevitably, Israel was subjected to a wave of international condemnation.
At least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed in the attack, and the Israel Defence Forces published an infographic of their names and photographs. This vital piece of information proved once more that Hamas cynically embeds itself in civilian infrastructure, but it was either overlooked or ignored by Israel’s legion of critics.
Even the United States, Israel’s chief ally and weapons provider, issued a critical statement. “We know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm,” National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris chimed in as well. “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed,” she said while calling for a ceasefire to end the ten-month-old Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
To be sure, yesterday’s air strike was not an isolated incident.
Over the past month, Israel has struck 17 school buildings in Gaza, killing an estimated 163 Palestinians, according to the United Nations. Hamas has deliberately used these sites, where displaced people have sheltered, to regroup and wage battle against Israel.
As Israel has incrementally destroyed Hamas’ mammoth maze of tunnels, its foot soldiers have increasingly sought shelter above ground in schools, mosques and hospitals and converted them into command centers and supply depots. As a result, they have been in Israel’s crosshairs as legitimate targets.
Hamas is fully aware that its disgusting tactic endangers civilians, but this is of no concern to Hamas’ leadership, whose overarching goal is survival in the face of Israel’s massive air and land offensive.
As Israel’s military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, pointed out yesterday, Hamas has calculatingly transformed schools, hospitals and shelters into bases and exploited civilians as human shields. But in carrying out attacks against these sites, Israel has done so in accordance with international law so as to reduce or eliminate civilian casualties.
“Since the beginning of this war, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have been systematically abusing the civilian population and infrastructures in Gaza for their terrorist activities against the state of Israel,” he added “This includes Hamas’s massive network of underground tunnels which go under towns, hospitals, mosques, schools, and UN facilities, and are used by terrorists to command attacks, store weapons, and hold Israeli hostages captive.
“It also includes hospitals across the Gaza Strip, which have been repeatedly infiltrated and weaponized by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and where terrorists, tunnel shafts were found. Increasingly, in recent months, Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terror attacks.”
In reference to the school building Israel struck yesterday, Hagari said, “Over the last few weeks, our intelligence has been closely monitoring an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility, where approximately two dozen Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating. After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists … we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians … the IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound. An area that, according to our intelligence, no women and children were present.”
Unfortunately, women and children were, in fact, huddled in the building, resulting in their deaths. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are at fault for this tragedy.
Israel is fighting cruel and cynical enemies in its just war to dismantle Hamas and Islamic Jihad and to ensure they can never rule Gaza ever again. This is an existential war that Israel must win so that its citizens can live in security.
Regrettably, due to the cavalier attitude Hamas and Islamic Jihad have adopted toward the sanctity of human life, innocent Palestinians will continue to be victimized by the war that these malevolent groups started on October 7.