Israel Matzav

Using children in battle

Some of you may (have) take(n) offense at my caption below referring to children fleeing from Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip as 'human shields.' But the 'Palestinians' constantly use children in battle, as can be seen from the pictures shown here, and as can be seen from this report from today's Washington Post. I'd like you to read this article and think how you would behave and what you would do with your children if God forbid, you were in a similar situation. Somehow, I doubt you would behave like the 'Palestinians' do.

The neighborhood's narrow streets, some of them only sand and dirt, are lined by two- and three-story concrete houses. Many remained shuttered, although some families gathered on rooftops to watch the fighting less than a quarter-mile away. [What is this? July 4th fireworks? CiJ] Rifle shots sounded from some of the roofs.

...

More and more gunmen appeared along the dirt roads crisscrossing the neighborhood, some drawing rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from bags. One of them dashed along the white walls with a grenade launcher, popping off a shot at an Israeli tank and sprinting into the garage of a nearby home to reload. A cheer of "God is greatest" arose from a pack of children who had assembled to throw stones at the tanks. [Do you allow your children to go outside into a battle zone to throw stones at tanks? I would get my children as far away as possible if God forbid there was ever a battle zone in my neighborhood. CiJ]

...

Not long afterward, an Apache helicopter appeared overhead, casting off two flares to mark the area of the heaviest combat. Two blasts from Israeli rockets quickly followed, hitting a group of Palestinians, including at least some gunmen, on a street corner less than a half-mile from Abu Ubaida's force.

Over the next few hours, emergency wards filled with dozens of wounded. Mourners surged into morgues to examine battered bodies, some charred beyond recognition, others dismembered.

At al-Shifa Hospital, where five bodies arrived to a throng of people gathered in the courtyard, doctors yelled angrily at gunmen and children alike to leave an emergency room overflowing with patients and visitors. [Would you take your child to hang around a hospital emergency room where there are 'gunmen' in the same courtyard and dead bodies being brought in all the time? CiJ]

In a shared room on the hospital's fourth floor, Wissam al-Sheik Khalil recovered from a bullet wound to his hip. Khalil, a 16-year-old with an adolescent's wispy mustache, said Hamas gunmen forced him to carry an explosive charge across a street watched by Israeli soldiers.

"As soon as I picked up the box I was hit," he said. [And where were his parents? Based on this boy's description, do you think that the 'Palestinians' are trying to avoid children being killed or are trying to cause children to be killed? CiJ]

Anyone reading this who would NOT behave differently from the 'Palestinians'?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:47 PM