ABOUT GAZA Part 2

Late  at night after I had scheduled this blog for 6:30 am posting there was news of an "Israel tank shell" hitting a Gaza school with 16 dead and 200 injured. Subsequently from various sources including BBC there was modification of the report stating  that origin of the "shell was premature and that there might be a possibility that it was a Hamas rocket. That there is an UN investigation in process. I cannot conceive that Hamas would aim at their school. Of course there could be a misfire which does happen, with tragic results. As of this moment judgement should be withheld pending the UN report. We must expect some plausible response from Israel including an admission and provable explanation  if it was their ROCKET. Note the BBC report says "rockets". 
"At least 16 people were killed after rockets struck a U.N.-run school sheltering Palestinians in northern Gaza, officials said on Thursday.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 200 people were wounded in the attack. This marks the fourth time that a UN facility has been hit since Israel began Operation Protective Edge on July 8, the BBC reports."

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The question which we must find an answer is who bears the moral responsibility for the civilian deaths in Gaza. Is it Israel who for the past two weeks has been conducting ground and aerial military operations in the vicinity of Gaza City?

Or is it  Hamas who had been randomly bombarding   Israel with up to several hundred rockets daily from installations interspersed among residential homes; or could it be the Gazans who in 2006  by a majority vote over the more moderate Fatah welcomed the terrorist Hamas as the authority in that area?

Hamas has declined to participate in any diplomatic effort unless all its major objectives were met before discussion, any but instead has not only increase the number of rocket launching to hundreds daily but also sent small attack parties through the tunnels knowing that it would provoke Israel’s military reaction. Perhaps the people of Gaza who by majority vote accepted Hamas’s sovereignty over the more moderate Fatah must share responsibility?

Or should the finger point not only to the Islamic countries that not only have refused after almost 70 years to recognize Israel as a country, but have supplied Hamas with the sophisticated rockets being used;  but also to all the UN nations and commissions that have been antagonistic  and that would isolate Israel against the world?

Or Israel whose weapons are killing civilians. An Israel that cannot stand by while its citizens are terrorized daily by the multiple threats of death from Hamas rockets.

Everyone from a person to a country is entitled to the right of self-protection. To condemn either for a strong reaction when no one rises to their defense is unconscionable.

The Geneva conventions which prohibit attacks on civilians of which Israel has been accused; also prohibits the placing aggressive war weapons among civilians; which Hamas has been documented that Hamas has done but has not been called to task.

This is from the 7/23/14 Times:   “UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday said he was "alarmed" to hear that rockets were placed in a U.N.-run school in Gaza and now "have gone missing," and he demanded a full review of such incidents.

A statement by the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon expressed the U.N. chief's "outrage and regret" at the placement of weapons at a site run by the global organization. The U.N. says that has happened at least twice so far in the current fighting.

"Those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children," U.N. staff and anyone seeking shelter, the statement said.

The rockets had been placed at one of the schools run by the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza.

A week ago, UNRWA said that during a routine check it discovered about 20 rockets hidden in one of its vacant Gaza schools and called on militants to respect the "sanctity and integrity" of U.N. property. It said the incident was "the first of its kind in Gaza."

On Tuesday, UNRWA reported a second incident, saying it found rockets hidden at a vacant school during a regular inspection. "UNRWA staff were withdrawn from the premises, and so we are unable to confirm the precise number of rockets," its statement said. "The school is situated between two other UNRWA schools that currently each accommodate 1,500 internally displaced persons."

Thursdays WSJ repeating that story noted that the vacant schools “was close to two other UN schools being used to shelter displaced Gazans”.

From the same day Times: “When Hamas sent a barrage of rockets into Israel, simmering hostilities, and back and forth strikes, erupted into war.

At first, when Hamas rockets were being intercepted mainly by Israel’s Iron Dome system as Israel hit Gaza with devastating force, the group strove to persuade its supporters that it was having enough impact on Israel to wrest concessions: Its radio stations blared fictional reports about Israeli casualties.

But as it wore on, the conflict revealed that Hamas’s secret tunnel network leading into Israel was far more extensive, and sophisticated, than previously known. It also was able to inflict some pain on Israel, allowing Hamas to declare success even as it drew a devastating and crushing response. Its fighters were able to infiltrate Israel multiple times during an intensive Israeli ground invasion. Its militants have killed at least 27 Israeli soldiers and claim to have captured an Israeli soldier who was reported missing in battle, a potentially key bargaining chip.

But as the recent fight with Israel has revealed, Hamas was importing tons of cement — desperately needed for Gazan schools and houses and construction jobs — to reinforce the tunnels it built to infiltrate Israel and hide its weapons.”

And more: GAZA CITY — Militant rockets can be seen launching from crowded neighborhoods, near apartment buildings, schools and hotels. Hamas fighters have set traps for Israeli soldiers in civilian homes and stored weapons in mosques and schools. Tunnels have been dug beneath private property.” (7/24 Times Internet news).

There is enough documentation to confirm Israel’s claims that Hamas is using the presence of humans as a shield for its weapons.

Another point that Hamas must shoulder most of the blame for the collateral damage- a polite phrase for civilian casualties- is the fact that it has refused to agree to three proposals for a cease fire, the latest by Egypt. Hamas has said it will not agree to one without concessions which would be the equivalent of a victory and a defeat for Israel.

Think about it; if your neighborhood was subject to repeated barrages of gunfire so that you and your children were frequently in danger would you not have the authorities take every step possible to eliminate the problem even if others are held in hostage as a Human shield?

Next; possible solutions.

FYI From Bloomberg News.
Hamas, a spinoff of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, was founded in 1987 amid the first Palestinian uprising and later gained notoriety for a campaign of suicide bombings that killed hundreds of Israelis.
The group won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. It took control of Gaza the following year after a bloody confrontation with forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank.
The group is led by Mashaal, 58, who operates from Qatar. The rest of his political team is divided between Gaza and several Arab countries while the Qassam Brigades are in Gaza. There have historically been tensions between the outsiders and those in the Palestinian Authority, Gazans and West Bankers, hawks and doves, politicians and fighters.
At the start of the fighting there were conflicting reactions that hinted of divisions when Egypt came up with its cease-fire proposal. Qassam quickly rejected it while the political leadership took a few days before dismissing it.