Is Hamas intentionally putting Palestinian children at risk to gain a propaganda advantage?

No one can deny that the fighting and killing in Gaza is horrible. The death of innocent children especially tears at one's heart. We desperately want to say that innocent people, especially children, should not suffer in war regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion. However, as hard as it may seem, one cannot ignore the context of events, even those that take the lives of innocent children.

The Israeli incursion into Gaza occurred in a context. The attack on the United Nations school also occurred in a context. Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel for three years. The recent destruction of an Israeli kindergarten could have occurred in any of those prior rocket attacks at a time when the school was full of children. With each rocket launch Hamas intentionally put Israeli children at risk. Israel exercised tremendous restraint in not taking action sooner, but finally responded to the continuing rocket attacks by Hamas.

Hamas fighters fired mortar rounds into Israel and at Israeli troops from the United Nations school. IDF troops had the right to return fire on the mortar regardless of its location. By using human shields or locating forces in a school, mosque or residential area, Hamas violates international law and bears full responsibility for any resulting civilian casualties. The alternative is to allow Hamas to kill Israeli civilians and military with impunity from mosque or schools.

Because of the noise of mortar rounds being fired, no one in the school could have failed to be aware of the mortar or the risk of remaining in the location. Parents would have known the great risk to themselves and their children from retaliatory strikes by remaining in the school. I suspect that the civilians in the school were not allowed to leave. The Hamas fighters wanted them there as shields or as victims from Israeli fire.

The West can scarcely imagine such callous disregard for the lives of children and other civilians. Yet Hamas and other Islamist organizations have no regard whatsoever for the lives of Israeli civilians or even their own children. In doing so, they hope to gain propaganda advantage when Israeli troops inadvertently kill civilians when they fire on Hamas fighters.