Israel may be in the dock, but guilt belongs to Hamas

The reason for being of the Israeli human rights movement B’Tselem, and the way it attracts overseas funding, is to criticise the practices of the Israeli government. Often, in its enthusiasm for doing so, it pays less attention than it might to the actual laws of war under which Israel operates, and the flagrant disregard of these by Israel’s terrorist enemies. This was clearly the case in its latest report, on Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive, which was referred to in your editorial.
The report seems not to have taken account of the fact that, by illegally placing its rocket infrastructure and infiltration tunnels in civilian areas, Hamas deliberately and cynically gave Israel no way of destroying these other than by targeting civilian areas, and that, in those circumstances, Israel had every right to so do under international law.
Sadly, to justify the report’s conclusions, B’Tselem downplayed the efforts Israel took to warn civilians prior to attacks, though experts have described these as unprecedented.
The civilian casualty figures, passed on by Hamas’ health authorities to the UN, which uncritically accepted them, have also been proven by detailed research to be significantly exaggerated.
Justin Said
Australia