Toll sparks debate on civilians as human shields

GAZA CITY: Militant rockets can be seen launching from crowded neighbourhoods. Hamas fighters have set traps for Israeli soldiers in civilian homes and stored weapons in mosques and schools. Tunnels have been dug beneath private property. With international condemnation rising over the Gaza death toll, Israel points to its adversaries' practice of embedding forces throughout the crowded coastal enclave of 1.7 million people.

"Hamas uses schools, residential buildings, mosques and hospitals to fire rockets at Israeli civilians," PM Benjamin Netanyahu told his Canadian counterpart. "Hamas uses civilians as a human shield for terrorist activity."

There is no evidence that Hamas forces civilians to stay in areas that are under attack - the legal definition of a human shield under international law. But it is indisputable that Gaza militants operate in civilian areas, draw return fi re to civilian structures, and on some level benefit in the diplomatic arena from the rising casualties. They have at times encouraged residents not to flee their homes when alerted by Israel to a pending strike and, having prepared extensively for war, did not build civilian bomb shelters.

Israel says it takes precautions to avoid killing civilians, but has accepted as inevitable that there'll be civilian casualties when it strikes at certain targets. "It's a bit of a fluid concept," said Bill Van Esveld of Human Rights Watch. "If you have any choice, you shouldn't be fighting from an apartment building full of civilians."

"Hamas knows it works to its advantage, politically and diplomatically, as the civilian death toll mounts, there is increasing pressure to end the war immediately, and what that typically entails, if past is precedent, is making some concessions to Hamas," said Nathan Thrall, co-author of a recent International Crisis Group report on Gaza.

Israeli leaders point to rockets the UN reported finding in two of its Gaza schools recently. The Israeli military released a map that had red, highlighted areas that it said were "Hamas military compounds with rocket caches and openings to terror tunnels" next to blue-shaded civilian houses, a mosque, and a hospital.

Another showed "rocket-launch sites" in a field adjacent to five Gaza City schools. On Tuesday, the military said a paratrooper was killed by a missile fired from within a mosque. On Wednesday, a report said the military had struck a hospital in the Shejaiya area after militants fired on troops. At the root of the duelling allegations are the two sides' different views. Many Palestinians see the militants as a legitimate resistance force. Israel sees the militants as terrorists guilty of exploiting the deaths caused by the response to garner sympathy.

http://ift.tt/1qlJHw5 sparks debate on civilians as human shields,Militant rockets