Hamas uses human shields

Hamas Using Gaza Civilians as Human ShieldsThe White House on Tuesday condemned Hamas for using Gaza civilians as human shields, hours before the Associated Press carried eyewitness reports of Hamas fighters firing at Israeli soldiers from a school run by the United Nations before Israeli troops returned fire. The incident came amidst reports that the terrorist group had been hiding in hospitals, storing weapons in mosques, schools and homes and forcing fleeing residents back into their homes at gunpoint to act as human shields. The Iranian-backed terrorist group has been documented firing rockets from other UN-run schools and heavily populated areas, and its fighters have hijacked ambulances for use as personnel carriers in the hopes of avoiding the Israeli military. "For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry," Hamas MP Fathi Hammad told Al-Aqsa TV last February. "This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahedeen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine." Israel takes considerable steps to prevent civilian casualties—dropping flyers, calling residents and firing warning shots, among other measures—but it faces extreme difficulty in fighting an enemy that both targets innocent Israelis and hides behind its own civilians.