Hamas admits deceiving the public

At the Gaza border on Monday, the deaths of 58 Palestinians and injuries sustained by more than 2,000 caused widespread concern and even outrage.

Hamas have repeatedly claimed that the protests along the border have been peaceful – the implication of their claim being that the Israelis are responsible for all the deaths and injuries.

Those deaths and injuries brought severe condemnation of Israel from United Nations officials and prompted a fierce exchange of views in a meeting of the UN Security Council.

However, one of the ‘protesters’ who was captured by the Israelis has told them that Hamas deliberately encourages women and children to approach the border fence with the sole aim of incurring casualties and diverting negative attention away from the terror organisation.

And on Wednesday it emerged that a Hamas leader, interviewed by the Al Jazeera news agency the day before the latest violence, admitted that the terror group was “deceiving the public” when it spoke of “peaceful resistance.”

That deception has been so effective that some Jewish groups have protested against the statement by the Board of Deputies in the UK that “responsibility for the violence lies with Hamas.”

But on Wednesday another crucial detail emerged when a Hamas representative told an Arab news site that 50 of the now 62 dead Palestinians were members of the Hamas terror group, and another 3 were members of the Islamic Jihad group.

Thus it emerges that the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have been far more measured and effective in targeting terrorists than most of the world realises.

That realisation convinced one journalist to issue an apology for his previous criticism of the IDF, writing that:

‘The choice was, quite literally, shoot at people running at you with the stated aim of killing you and your families,
or fail to shoot and let them do it.’

This article was updated on 21st May 2018