This article, translated from yesterday’s Yedioth Aharonoth (p. 6), shows the real value Hamas puts on Gaza’s children. The Israeli children in Sderot are apparently much more sensible, as seen in our photos.
Intelligence Officer: Hamas puts children on rooftops to thwart Israeli strikes
By: Itamar Eichner
According to a senior intelligence officer, Hamas stations children on rooftops in the Gaza Strip to thwart strikes by the Israeli Air Force.
The officer said the IDF has called off planned strikes on buildings where Qassam rockets are assembled or stored in order to avoid hurting the children stationed on the roof.
He revealed the information during a briefing by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to foreign ambassadors. He noted that, before striking a Qassam laboratory or storehouse, the IDF disperses leaflets urging residents to leave the area.
However, Hamas takes advantage of the leaflets and urges children onto the roof to thwart the strike. This “game’ has led Israel to call off several such strikes at the last minute.
Livni told the ambassadors that the Geneva Convention must be somewhere in the Hams lexicon. “We’re working with our hands tied behind our backs because of these laws, because we’re part of the free world, and because of our values. Accidents do happen and civilians are killed by Israeli actions. I’m not ignoring the facts, but I hope this leads to a better understanding of what we’re trying to achieve.”
The IAF is gonna have to realize that if children are being used as shields then they are no longer civilians but legitimate military targets and publicize the fact that Hamas has violated the Geneva Conventions of War.
The Geneva Conventions Additional Protocols of 1977, imposed a minimum age of 15 for recruitment into the armed forces of a state. The same minimum age applied to recruitment by armed groups. The Geneva Conventions Protocols also required that children under the age of 15 should not be allowed to take part in direct hostilities.
Twelve years later in 1989, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child reiterated the 15 year minimum age for recruitment. The Convention bound State Parties and made no reference to armed groups.