A leading human rights group has urged Palestinian armed groups not to endanger civilian lives by encouraging "human shields" to prevent threatened Israeli attacks on militants' homes. Human Rights Watch issued the call after hundreds of Palestinians in recent days flocked to homes of militants in the Gaza Strip to avert air strikes. Israel's military generally gives prior warning that buildings will be destroyed.
"Palestinian armed groups must not endanger Palestinian civilians by encouraging them to gather in and around suspected militants homes targeted by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)," the New-York based group said Wednesday. "There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group's Middle East director. Not even Zionist Occupation of the Homelands™ is an excuse? Wow.
She called on the Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya, head of the internationally boycotted Hamas-led government, to denounce the tactic. "Prime Minister Haniya and other Palestinian leaders should be renouncing, not embracing, the tactic of encouraging civilians to place themselves at risk," counselled Whitson.
HRW also questioned Israel's "military objective" in targeting Palestinian homes it has ordered to be evacuated. "The IDF should immediately explain what its military objective is in targeting the homes that it has ordered to be vacated," said Whitson.
The group also reminded the IDF that any destruction of civilian property must be done strictly in compliance with international humanitarian law. "An ostensibly civilian object such as a home can be the subject of attack only if it is being used for military purposes at the relevant time and its destruction makes a direct and immediate contribution to the fighting."
There, that should be flexible enough to allow us to condemn any Israel attacks we want.