Is Hamas Doing Enough to Protect Gaza Families?

"Warning Not Enough For Gaza Families"
A10, Tuesday 1/6/09
By Taghreed El-Khodary and Isabel Kershner

This piece further describes the suffering and death of Gaza's civilians, demonstrating that despite Israeli attempts to place them outside of the zone of conflict, they continue to be caught in the cross-fire.

While vividly describing the deaths of Palestinians, even entire families, the article positively includes a key Israel statement that speaks to the reality of Hamas' use of civilian shields in contributing to the high civilian death count:

We have no intention of harming civilians,” said Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman. Hamas “cynically uses” civilians by operating in their midst, she said, adding, “Sometimes there can be situations where civilians get hurt.”

The article also describes in detail a study to be published by the Israeli 'Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center' that "presents Hamas as having methodically built its military infrastructure in the heart of population centers" and "has made a main component of its combat strategy 'channeling' the army into the most densely populated areas to fight — a model that is now playing out."

And while there are the requisite Palestinian statements condemning Israel, civilians are also quoted criticizing Hamas and describing its firing of rockets from civilian areas.

Nonetheless, the title of the article creates the impression that Israel could be doing much more to prevent civilian death. It begs a few questions:

• What viable alternatives does Israel to protect its civilian population and stop Hamas rocket fire?
• Can civilian casualties be avoided in a war of this nature in which the enemy embeds itself within the civilian population?
  
• Why hasn’t Hamas (or the UN) built shelters to protect the civilian population from the inevitable conflict Hamas was provoking?

The Times is unwilling to address these difficult questions, continuing to place the onus on Israel for civilian deaths, when the reality is much more complicated.