Funny how HRW did not bother to mention anything about the indiscriminate rain of rocket fire – literally thousands of rockets, missiles and mortars — that Hamas poured down upon Israeli families.
But the group claimed that Israel “did not appear to target a military objective” in two out of three of the attacks near UNRWA schools, specifically in Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya. The group also said the third attack, in Rafah, was “unlawfully disproportionate.”
Israel has documented with satellite imagery the rocket and missile terror attacks that emanated from within and directly next to Beit Hanoun on July 24; Jabaliya on July 30; and Rafah on August 3.
It was in Rafah that Hamas carried out an ambush 90 minutes after the start of another supposed cease-fire, with a suicide bomber murdering two soldiers while a second group kidnapped Lt. Hadar Goldin, dragging his dead body into a nearby terrorist tunnel. The unit that Goldin commanded carried out the ‘Hannibal protocol’ as they had been taught in such circumstances, attempting to rescue their commander and if not, then to prevent the further progress of spiriting his body away.
HRW referred to all three attacks as “deliberate or reckless” and thus tagged them as war crimes.
The group also accused the IDF of a past history of not meeting international standards for “credible, impartial and independent investigations” to determine whether its forces committed war crimes. At present, some 99 incidents that occurred during Operation Protective Edge are under investigation by the IDF.
To this day, Hamas has yet to conduct even one investigation into its own conduct; thus far the group — like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — has publicly executed more than two dozen civilians, simply on the suspicion they may have collaborated with Israel. Perhaps there is something wrong with my memory, but I don’t recall any public executions in Israel to punish those suspected of treason — even the Israeli Arab MK who actually did commit treason and managed to sneak out of the country, and still remains at large — or for that matter, even legislated death sentences passed against convicted murderous terrorists. Even the United States has a death sentence — and many states carry it out on a regular basis. Check out that record in Texas, for instance.
But the State Department is scolding Israel. What’s wrong with this picture?