OPINION:
The Israel Defense Forces are set to launch a ground invasion of Gaza. Hamas has a clear strategy: Sacrifice as many Palestinians in Gaza as possible. And the terrorist group will be counting on the media to help.
The Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,400 Israeli civilians by Hamas and other Iranian proxies has presented Jerusalem with an undeniable imperative. For 16 years, the Jewish state has counted on limited wars and strikes to reduce Hamas’ capabilities.
The failure of that strategy, known as “mowing the grass,” was apparent as Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel and livestreamed their barbarity. Children were burned alive. Babies were shot in their car seats and strollers; women were gang-raped on the corpses of their friends. At one music festival, more than 260 civilians were slaughtered.
The terrorists were proud of their acts. Not only did they film their atrocities, but they also called their families to brag. One terrorist, using the phone of an Israeli woman he had just murdered, phoned his parents: “Dad, I killed 10 Jews with my own hands!” he proudly proclaimed. “I killed 10! Ten! Please be proud of me, Dad.” The terrorist promised to send them footage over WhatsApp.
Hamas’ cruelty extends to its own people. The terrorist group has a long track record of using human shields, storing weapons, and launching rockets from schools, mosques and hospitals.
This tactic predates the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the 1930s, the Palestinian leader Amin al-Husseini, a future Nazi collaborator who launched a bloody uprising that targeted Jews and ruling British authorities, hid in Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to avoid arrest. Husseini and his henchmen also used mosques and schools to hide munitions.
More recently, Hamas has continued to use its own people as cover to launch attacks at civilians — a double war crime. As The Washington Post noted during the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, the terrorist group used mosques to hide “operatives” and “store weapons” and as “sites from which rockets and mortar shells are launched.” Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had become “a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.”
Indeed, when one reporter for France 24 dared to report that the terrorist group was launching missiles from a site next to a kindergarten, Hamas seized him from his hotel and held him in the basement of the hospital.
But Hamas’ strategy has changed. It has become more wanton, even more cruel.
As Douglas Feith, a former U.S. undersecretary of defense, recently observed, Hamas has embarked upon a strategy of “human sacrifice.” In war, Mr. Feith notes, it is “unprecedented for a party to adopt a strategy to maximize civilian deaths on its own sides.” But that is precisely what Hamas is doing as it prepares for the next phase of its war to destroy the Jewish state.
On Oct. 13, the IDF told Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate to the south. However, Hamas ordered Gaza residents to stay put, even placing roadblocks to prevent them from fleeing. This is instructive. The terrorist group has cynically used Palestinians as shields in the hopes of deterring Israeli strikes on legitimate military targets. But Hamas also wants more dead Palestinians.
In Hamas’ eyes, the more dead Palestinians in Gaza, the better. Hamas and its patron, Iran, hope to use their deaths to attack Israel in the court of public opinion.
“This is to generate international pressure on Israel to end its retaliation,” Mr. Feith says, and to “strengthen Israel’s enemies in their depiction of the Jewish state as a villain.” It is, he points out, “innovative in the worst way.”
For years, the IDF has gone to extreme lengths to reduce civilian casualties. After the 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas, then-chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey remarked that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties.” Mr. Dempsey cited “roof knocking” and the IDF’s practice of dropping warning leaflets as proof.
For years, many in the press have omitted Israel’s selective targeting and the great lengths that the IDF takes to minimize casualties. This has likely emboldened Hamas to up the ante and pursue its current strategy of mass human sacrifice.
In addition to dropping leaflets calling on Palestinians in Gaza to move south, the IDF has recently telephoned and asked them to leave. But as one resident told an Israeli officer in a recently released phone call: “Hamas has blocked all the roads. It returns people who want to leave. It shoots at them.”
Sadly, Hamas isn’t mistaken in thinking that it can count on the press to omit crucial context.
Some media outlets uncritically repeat casualty counts provided by Gaza’s “Health Ministry” — failing to note that it is a Hamas-run entity. For example, on Oct. 17, several news outlets repeated the ministry’s claims that the IDF struck Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, killing 500. In fact, U.S. and other intelligence assessments indicate that it was likely an Islamic Jihad rocket that fell short, striking the hospital parking lot and killing from 10 to 50 people. But the damage was done; the decision to treat Hamas’ claims as credible led to rioting across the Middle East, including attacks on U.S. embassies. The incident may not be the last.
Ahead of a major ground invasion, Hamas is looking to create as many human sacrifices as possible. But it can succeed only if others fail to put the blame where it squarely belongs: on Hamas.
• Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
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