Hamas terrorists have turned Gaza’s ‘civilian centers’ into outposts in which they hide abused hostages, torture Israelis, and force Palestinians to shield them.
Israel rescued four Israeli hostages from Nuseirat in central Gaza today: Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
In the weeks leading up to this rescue — one many didn’t think was possible — the usual media suspects threw themselves into a tizzy reporting on Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on Gaza’s “civilian center” in Nuseirat. The New York Times reported one day before the hostages were rescued that “an Israeli airstrike on Thursday hit a United Nations (UN) school complex in central Gaza that had become a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians and, Israel said, Hamas militants.” Israel said.
Israel targeted three classrooms and killed several members of Hamas. One Israeli military spokesman said that he was “not aware of any civilian casualties” resulting from the strike. Palestinians, meanwhile, gathered in the streets to praise their “martyrs” and claimed that those killed in the attack included women and children. Hamas denied that their men hid inside the UN school Israel targeted and Gaza’s “media office director” Ismail al-Thawabta (Hamas) said “the occupation uses false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people.”
And then, of course, media also reported that Israel targeted Gaza’s “last functioning hospital” in Nuseirat. But al-Shifa hospital was lauded as Gaza’s “largest hospital” before it was exposed as one of Hamas’s largest hideouts. Every time Israel targets another terrorist outpost in Gaza, it seems that a nearby hospital always receives a new superlative affixed to its name, doesn’t it? Some interesting headlines from this week prior to Israel’s hostage rescue: “Israel Strikes Another School Building“; “Mourners Gather to Pay Respects to Nuseirat Mayor Killed in Airstrike,”; “School strike contradicts ‘all moral values.'”
Nuseirat’s mayor, the “martyred” Iyad Al-Maghari, who one Palestinian said died holding the Quran, was targeted because he was part of Hamas. Gaza’s media office (Hamas, as well) called his killing “a war crime aimed at creating a state of chaos. [Al-Maghari was a] faithful example of diligent and continuous service.” Close to Nuseirat is next week’s “Gaza’s last functioning hospital,” al-Aqsa Hospital, where Palestinians brought the bodies of women and children purportedly killed by Israel this week. Hospital records originally claimed that nine women and 14 children were killed in an attack. Records were later amended to three dead women and nine dead children. Al Jazeera reported that “it was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy” (hint: Hamas).
The emphasis on every report coming out of Gaza should be how Hamas exclusively hides among civilians. Hamas terrorists have turned Gaza’s “civilian centers” into outposts in which they hide abused hostages, torture Israelis, and force Palestinians to shield them. How, after Israel rescued four innocent people from Hamas’s hell, does the world continue to chide Israel for seeking to eliminate terrorists who rejoice in the death of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians?