By Janet Phelan One of the persistent concerns being levied about the war between Israel and Gaza is the number of Palestinian casualties, now exceeding 32,000, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilian and Hamas-related dead. But is Hamas doing anything to protect the Gazans or is its actions contributing to the death toll? The facts indicate the latter. And there may be a specific strategy behind this. Initial reports revealed Hamas was shooting at Gazans who were attempting to flee the North of Gaza prior to Israel’s stated intent to launch the ground war there. There were also reports of Hamas blocking evacuation routes into Southern Gaza which had been specially delineated as routes for Gazans fleeing the war-torn North. Later reports showed Hamas firing on Gazans attempting to flee a hospital that was under attack by the Israeli Army. The use of hospitals and mosques as Hamas war centers has increased concerns that Hamas is using ostensibly non-military centers as military covers, which invokes concerns that Hamas is employing Palestinians as human shields. According to The Guardian, human shields are defined as follows: “The international criminal court defines the war crime of using human shields as “utilising the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations.” The Guardian goes on to state that “One interpretation of this is that it would be a war crime to fire weapons and to position bases in proximity to heavily populated civilian areas, in particular near facilities that should be protected according to the Geneva conventions, including schools, hospitals or mosques.” That includes the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, which was just cleared in a second IDF operation last week. The IDF reportedly found weapons in the hospital director’s office. The tunnel network, which is under not only hospitals but also schools and mosques, and Palestinian homes, invokes further concerns about Hamas using Palestinian citizens as human shields. According to The Guardian, this strategy by Hamas is not new and dates back at least to the 2014 conflict and Operation Protective Edge.“During the 2014 conflict the UN reported weapons were found inside two UN schools and there have been numerous reports of Palestinian armed factions in Gaza firing rockets and other weapons from close to protected civilian locations. It is also clear that Hamas has operated from residential buildings.” Reports are also circulating which indicate that Hamas is stealing humanitarian aid intended for displaced persons in Gaza. This recent video showed the looters actually shooting at Palestinian civilians. Israel is now facing international accusations of causing a famine in Gaza, even as humanitarian aid shipments increase. Israel contests reports that it is not supplying or is blocking humanitarian aid referring to problems in distribution within Gaza. In fact, videos have recently surfaced showing packages of intended humanitarian aid being sold in Rafah market. The US has also begun airdropping supplies into Gaza. One of these US airdrops reportedly killed a number of Palestinians in aid camps. Hamas was elected as the governing body of Gaza in 2006, following Israel evacuating Jews from the region and turning it over to the Palestinians. So why would a duly elected government attempt to kill off its own constituents? The answer may lie in the actual impetus of Hamas itself. If the intent is not to “Free Palestine /from the river to the sea” from a (certainly since 2005) non-existent occupation, as the pro-Palestinian protestors so glibly declare, but rather to exterminate any semblance of a Jewish presence in the region, then a Hamas strategy of sacrificing Palestinians on the altar of this agenda makes some sense. If Hamas is able to convince people of conscience that the Palestinians are actually the victims here, then Hamas has a better chance of isolating Israel from its sources of support and then launching a regional war, possibly involving Hezbollah or other Iranian proxies, which may strike a mortal blow to the tiny Jewish state. The strategy appears to be gaining ground, as former allies of Israel, including the US, are increasingly distancing themselves from Israel’s war effort. The Biden Administration has gone so far as to present a ceasefire declaration to the United Nations Security Council which makes no mention of the over 130 hostages still held by Hamas. This proposal was vetoed by China and Russia. The fact that bombing Israel would of necessity also potentially obliterate the Palestinians -- well, that is just the cost of warfare, right? After all, the Arab nations long ago abandoned the Palestinians. Hamas appears to be following suit in a pre-ordained agenda. Any questions as to the intent of Hamas can be answered in its published "Covenant," which makes the extermination of the Jews not only a priority but an Islamic religious duty. Hamas Covenant [Full Text] Janet Phelan has been on the trail of the biological weapons agenda since the new millennium. Her book on the pandemic, At the Breaking Point of History: How Decades of US Duplicity Enabled the Pandemic, has been published in 2021 by Trine Day and is available on Amazon and elsewhere. Her articles on this issue have appeared in Activist Post, New Eastern Outlook, Infowars and elsewhere. Educated at Grinnell College, UC Berkeley and the University of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism, Janet “jumped ship” and since 2004 has been writing exclusively for independent media. Her articles previously appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Oui Magazine, Orange Coast Magazine, the Long Beach Press Telegram, the Santa Monica Daily Press and other publications. She is the author of the groundbreaking expose, EXILE and two books of poetry. She resides abroad. You may follow Janet on Parler here @JanetPhelan and Twitter @JanetPhelan14. To support her work, please go to JanetPhelan.

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