Alwayswriteagain: Hamas Combat Manual Reveals Truth of ‘Human Shields’

Officers in the Israeli Defence Forces struck gold when they captured a Hamas Combat Manual explaining the benefits of using human shields.

For almost a month since the start of Operation Protective Edge the outside world has denied how Israel’s enemies have used their own civilians as cannon and campaign fodder to feed their war of attrition against the Jewish state.

But now the truth is known. A Hamas manual on "Urban Warfare" found by IDF personnel proves that the terror group encourages civilian casualties among Palestinians and pushes its fighters to engage in battles in civilian areas of Gaza to draw an Israeli response.

The IDF Blog reports that the manual, discovered in the Gaza Strip, belongs to “the Shuja’iya Brigade of Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades… (and) reveals that Hamas’s callous use of the Gazan population was intentional and pre-planned. This Hamas urban warfare manual exposes two truths:

(1) The terror group knows full well that the IDF will do what it can to limit civilian casualties.

(2) The terror group exploits these efforts by using civilians as human shields against advancing IDF forces.

In a passage, “Limiting the Use of Weapons,” the manual details how:

The soldiers and commanders (of the IDF) must limit their use of weapons and tactics that lead to the harm and unnecessary loss of people and [destruction of] civilian facilities. It is difficult for them to get the most use out of their firearms, especially of supporting fire [e.g. artillery].

Hamas knows the IDF will limit its use of weapons in order to avoid harming civilians, including refraining from using larger firepower to support its infantry. The manual goes on to explain that the “presence of civilians are pockets of resistance” that cause three major problems for advancing troops:

(1) Problems with opening fire
(2) Problems in controlling the civilian population during operations and afterward
(3) Assurance of supplying medical care to civilians who need it

Last, the manual discusses the benefits for Hamas when civilian homes are destroyed:

The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders (resistance forces[i.e. Hamas]).

This proves that Hamas desires the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, knowing it will increase hatred for the IDF and support their fighters.

It is also very important that the manual belongs to the Shuja’iya Brigade because the IDF fought a major battle in the Shuja’iya district, which had been turned into a terrorist stronghold. The discovery of this manual suggests that the destruction in Shuja’iya was always part of Hamas’s plan.

Earlier this week, an American Arab woman, Brigitte Gabriel revealed on Fox News that she was used as a Palestinian terrorist ‘shield’ as long ago as the 1970s.

I conclude with this clip of a terrorist showing a little girl how to fire a gun through a window: