Report: Israel attacks flotilla, 10 die

[CaptainHaplo]

Originally stated by OTH - quoted (and so I actually saw it at first) by another poster:

Where are Americans being murdered? Or Israelis for that matter? All I see are aggressive wars and murderous acts committed by these two nations.

Finally we see the proof of the matter. Where are Israelis being murdered? All he can see is the fault of these nations...

In addition, Hamas leaders seem to have claimed that rocket attacks against Israeli civilians are justified as part of their resistance tactics against Israeli occupation. In an interview on May 5, head of the Hamas political bureau Khaled Meshal appeared to acknowledge that Hamas rocket attacks intentionally targeted Israeli civilians. In the course of describing why Hamas had decided to stop firing rockets for the time being, Meshal said:
"Not targeting civilians is part of an evaluation of the movement to serve the people's interest. Firing these rockets is a method and not the goal. The right to resist the occupation is a legitimate right but practicing this right is decided by the leadership within the movement."
Any party which partakes in hostilities, irrespective of the basis on which they assert a right to do so, must comply with the laws of war which provide that civilians are protected from attack and prohibit directing attacks against civilian objects and attacks that will have indiscriminate or disproportionate impact on civilian objects.
According to the website of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the group launched 345 Qassam rockets, 213 Grad rockets, as well as mortar rounds and other munitions from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009. The Qassam Brigades website claimed responsibility for each of the three Israeli civilian deaths caused by rocket attacks in late December 2008, which Human Rights Watch investigated.
Previous Qassam Brigades statements also indicated an intent to target civilian areas. A Qassam Brigades statement dated June 11, 2006, said that in response to an Israeli attack that targeted a group of fighters, that the group had carried out a rocket attack against Sderot and would continue attacking Sderot "until its residents flee in horror. We will turn Sderot into a ghost town."
The absence of Israeli military forces in the areas struck by the rockets indicates that many of these attacks are deliberately intended to strike Israeli civilians and civilian structures.
In addition the rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups cannot be reliably aimed. Civilian structures damaged in Israel by rocket attacks since December 27, 2008 include a kindergarten, a synagogue and private homes. The inability to fire these rockets with any degree of accuracy has resulted in rockets also striking areas inside Gaza: on December 26, 2008 a Palestinian rocket hit a house in Beit Lahiya, killing two Palestinian girls, ages 5 and 12. Under applicable international humanitarian law, such weapons are inherently indiscriminate when directed towards populated areas.
Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have also violated the laws of war by firing rockets from within populated areas. While fighting in urban areas is not prohibited under the laws of war, firing rockets from within or near populated areas places Palestinian civilians at grave risk of Israeli counter-attacks, and violates the laws-of-war obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid placing military targets within or near densely populated areas and to protect civilians from the danger resulting from military operations.

Source - Human Right Watch: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86177

Hamas own words - they are "evaluating" when to target civilians. They intentionally put civilians in danger by their actions - yet want to scream when those same civilians are harmed because of their proximity to Hamas.... Makes perfect sense... NOT!

But of course, OTH will try and claim that they are somehow justified in targetting civilians, while the IDF is to be eviscerated for using lethal force after being attacked by knife and metal rod bearing pro-hamas "peace activists".

And he probably wonders why he is landing on so many ignore lists......