It is Time to Call Hamas on the Needless Deaths of so Many Palestinian innocents, Men Women & Children

I watched an interview on CNN with Diana Buttu, a pro Palestinian activist. Rarely have I seen such a disingenuous display of denial and a refusal to acknowledge those who pose the greatest danger to Palestinian innocents in Gaza.

It is time to call Hamas on the needless deaths of so many Palestinian innocents, men women and children!!

Diana Buttu is a lawyer and activist who apparently fights passionately for the rights and wellbeing of Palestinians. Ms Buttu is an accomplished and highly intelligent individual, working and teaching at some of the finest universities in the world. As an ex advisor to the PLO, Ms Buttu is apparently well connected and influential within Palestinian corridors of power.

Why therefore is she not fighting for the lives of innocent Palestinian men, women and children dying needlessly in the current conflict. Why is she denying documented fact, justifying and rationalising illegal activity, and more importantly, why is Ms Buttu not asking the right questions of the right people?

Why is Ms Buttu not asking Hamas why it endangers Palestinian innocents by storing, manufacturing and firing rockets from family homes, kindergartens, schools, mosques and other public buildings?

Why is Ms Buttu not asking Hamas why it is forcing innocent civilians to remain in these same family homes, kindergartens, schools, mosques as human shields, asking them to sacrifice themselves in “the fight against occupation”, while the Hamas leadership cowers in the safety of a basement under Gaza’s main hospital?

Why is Ms Buttu not asking Hamas why it is ordering innocent civilians to ignore Israeli warnings to leave these buildings before they are struck.

In this current conflict as in previous conflicts Israel is calling civilians to warn them that the building they are in is about to be destroyed and that they should leave. Where they have been unable to contact them, they have instigated a practice known as “Roof Knocking” firing a small shell to knock a building as a warning to the inhabitants that it is about to be bombed, allowing them time to escape the building.

Why is Ms Buttu not asking Hamas why it is firing hundreds of rockets at Israel wilfully targeting and terrorising innocent civilians, men women and children, which in itself is illegal but which from Ms Buttu’s perspective of fighting for the welfare of Palestinians; only invites further and greater reprisals from Israel, further endangering the lives and wellbeing of the civilian population.

Why is Ms Buttu not asking herself how it can be that if Israel is as she says is wilfully targeting civilians, how come after hitting over 800 targets in Gaza and dropping more than 500 tons of high explosives on the most densely populated area in the world, Israel has not managed to kill thousands of civilians. Surely with such murderous intentions and density of population, Israel could have killed thousands if not tens of thousands with 500 tons of high explosives?

So the Israeli military is either highly incompetent, pretty poor really, or as it claims the Israeli military is making tremendous efforts to avoid civilian casualties and the death of innocents as it sets about targeting Hamas’ stockpile of weapons, infrastructure and fighters in order to stop the barrage of rockets being fired at its citizens.

Sadly the harsh facts of this conflict are that thus far over 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israel strikes, including 13 women and 24 children with hundreds injured.

Every one of the innocent deaths and injuries is a tragedy and Israel must take every precaution and make every effort to avoid such deaths and injuries, an almost impossible task.

Ms Buttu might however, care to ask herself that in this “asymmetric conflict” where the major price, it must be said; is being paid by Palestinian innocents and the people of Gaza, why is it that in the course of attacking Hamas in Gaza and seeking to protect its own population; Israel seeks to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties, while all evidence suggests that Hamas appears determined maximise civilian casualties amongst its own people.

That is not a racist accusation. That is, in Ms Buttu’s own words reprehensible.