One of the cruelest and most telling barbarities of Hamas is its use of civilians (especially children) as human shields, deliberately firing weapons from densely populated locations, so that counterstrikes will either be deterred or will cause civilian casualties, reveals indifference to the welfare of their own ostensible constituents.  The people for whom they are fighting are nothing but ammunition in the struggle to wipe out Israel and the world's Jews.

In its fight to defend itself against Hamas attacks against its civilians, Israel is faced with moral challenges unprecedented in their complexity. Hamas, as a basic element of its strategy, exploits the Palestinian population as shields for its terrorist operations and infrastructure. This cynical strategy include the following tactics:

- The deliberate launching of rocket from populated areas

- The deliberate use of civilian homes to shield Hamas arms and explosives manufacturing facilities

-The deliberate use of civilians as human shields against anticipated airstrikes.

In order to avoid civilian casualties, Israel sends warning messages before attacking terrorist targets advising civilians to leave. Israel prefers to attack empty buildings used to manufacture rockets, even taking into consideration that the terrorists too will be warned and their lives spared.

Hamas, on the other hand, calls on civilians to come and to protect with their bodies the precise locations they expect Israel to attack. Since they know that Israel will usually strike from the air, they send the children to the roofs to prevent the air force from targeting that building.

During the course of the Israeli operation against terrorists in the Gaza Strip (March 2008), Hamas repeatedly called upon Palestinian civilians to gather near buildings where they feared that the IDF was about to launch air-strikes against Hamas targets hidden within. The purpose of the civilian presence was to have them serve as human shields, exploiting the fact that the IDF avoids harming Palestinian civilians, even if it means aborting attacks on crucial terrorist infrastructure targets.

Hat tip: Dennis Sevakis