On Gaza’s human shields
emerged about how Hamas has deliberately used Gaza’s civilian population as a propaganda tool by employing them as human shields. Indeed, the IDF now claims it has recovered a copy of a Hamas manual on urban warfare that reportedly details the “benefits of human shields”, and suggests the use of civilians against the IDF has been “intentional and pre-planned”.
The IDF’s claims appear to be supported by reports from a handful of Western journalists who have reported seeing rockets fired by Hamas from civilian areas in Gaza. For example, John Reed, the FT Jerusalem Bureau Chief, this week tweeted seeing “two rockets fired toward Israel from near al-Shifa hospital, even as more bomb- Con Coughlin is the Daily Telegraph’s Defence Editor