Israel Matzav

Lawhawk: Hamas caused beach explosion

An Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer has confirmed that the explosion that killed eight Palestinians on Friday, was caused by a stockpile of Hamas explosives.

"Shortly after we stopped defensive firing at Hamas rocket launch pads which were deployed behind Palestinian human shields, members of Hamas scrambled to fire more rockets at our positions," said Col. M. "We have eyes on every meter of Gaza, from the sky, from the ground and from the sea. One of their rocket tripods collapsed inadvertently setting off an explosion of a stockpile of Qassam rockets. The Palestinians killed their own children. And this was not the first time."

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More importantly, it isn't the first time that Hamas and the Palestinians have smeared the Israelis for killing Palestinians despite the fact that the facts and circumstances all point to Palestinians doing the killing.

Israel shouldn't be apologizing for the deaths, but instead holding the Palestinians and Hamas in particular accountable for their heinous actions. Indeed, Hamas used the self-inflicted casualties as an excuse for further rocket and missile attacks against Israel. Israel should not limit its retaliatory response only to those firing the rockets, but expand its response to include the Palestinian leadership who is extolling and exhorting the foot-minions to kill Israelis. This is a war of the Palestinians own making and the leadership should be made to feel the pain they're inflicting on Israel and on the Palestinian civilian population (though one has to wonder just what a bunch of civilians were doing hanging around terrorists setting up rockets and mortars - knowing full well that Israel could and would fire counterbattery fire to eliminate threats).

And on that question, there is unequivocable evidence that the Palestinians simply use civilian populations (especially women and children) as cannon fodder for this kind of media outrage against Israel. The Palestinians know that the media will quickly cover any deaths of civilians, and never pay heed to the questionable circumstances - or bald-faced lies of the Palestinians.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:44 PM