y Israeli attack. The entire population of the Strip could easily fit into the network of terror tunnels, as Londoners took refuge from the bombs in the Underground during the Blitz. But Hamas does not let them in. It has not built a single bomb shelter. Its strategy is not one of human shields so much as human sacrifice.
It is time to recognise that Hamas places its own people in harm’s way simply because it understands how the international media will respond, not to mention the United Nations, NGOs and the world’s progressives.
It knew that embedding the hostages in the narrow streets and higgledy-piggledy buildings of Nuseirat would mean that any Israeli rescue would end with the UN’s special rapporteur smearing the operation as “humanitarian camouflage”, in a tweet that was viewed five million times, and the EU’s foreign affairs chief condemning “another massacre of civilians”, gaining another 1.4 million views.
It knew that Sky News’s special correspondent Alex Crawford would highlight the “graphic pictures of what’s being called an ‘horrific massacre’”. It knew that such an operation would trigger intensified calls for a ceasefire, which would allow Hamas to survive….
The way in which Hamas orchestrates the suffering of its own people is a consequence of the response it knows the West will provide. Is it an exaggeration to say that the media has blood on its hands?
As I've said before, it's a strange war where the "attackers" do their best to minimise civilian casualties, while the "defenders" want to see as many dead as possible.