I don't think those kids were meat shields for hamas, no, this was not the case here. the case here is a tragic mistake that whoever responsible for it should be thrown behind bars and contrary to popular believes, israel does throw soldiers to jail for errors such as this one.
Can you please explain to me how exactly the beach incident could have happened by accident? Did a particularly clumsy solider trip and accidentally press the fire button twice, adjusting the aim in the middle in a way that happened to track a group of fleeing kids?
I'd also point out that the IDF has blamed Hamas for these deaths, it has not in any way suggested that the incident was accidental.
The only option the world has to give gazan their freedom and prosperity, is to unconditionally support the demilitarizing of the entire gazan strip and rid it of hamas/ISIS/Islamic Jihad influence. hamas have already declined to demilitarize even a single crossing, so that option is a probably just a pipe dream.
Why on earth would they accept a demilitarization deal? Don't they have a right to defend themselves? Also, how would they police other extremist groups in the area if they were demilitarized?
The undeniable truth is that IDF goes out of its way to avoid hitting civilians while hamas goes out of its way to try and hitting them.
This is what the IDF says in its statements, yes. Except we are increasingly seeing evidence that it is not at all true. How can you say it's undeniable when the entire world has now seen them target fleeing children with a shell? In addition, do you not think that the huge number of civilians killed by the IDF relative to the number killed by Hamas makes intent rather irrelevant?
I don't know why you assume they would do that on purpose. There are things like human error, ask the German officer who ordered an air strike on a fuel truck that killed over a hundred (IIRC) innocent people in Afghanistan. Of course prolonged warfare breeds hatred, cruelty and war crimes, but I don't think we have to assume this is always the case, particularly here where the Israeli army is very aware that they can't look like they're targeting civilians on purpose.
I assume that they were killed on purpose because we have video evidence and hundreds of reliable eye-witness statements to that effect. Yes, maybe there is a chance of a
staggering failure of intelligence (a failure so catastrophic and negligent that there would be little moral difference between it and a deliberate attack), but nobody has suggested a way in which that could actually happen.
There's also clearly a difference between accidentally misidentifying a truck and shooting at what are clearly fleeing children.
Hamas is not a separatist group. The situations don't compare. IRA and ETA didn't have a base they ruled, with civilians they could use as meatshields, and they didn't have the resources for a full out war. And as to legitimate claims, Hamas denies Israel's right to existence, it's not like they would be content with just an independent Palestine.
Maybe you could have a compromise solution with PLO, but not with Hamas.
IRA had plenty of strongholds and civilians friendly to their cause, and for a while they did indeed fight a full-out guerella campaign.
Hamas does indeed have some fiery rhetoric, but it's clear that the vast majority of their members would accept a reasonable agreement (note that the IRA disarmed in spite of the fact that its more unachievable demands were never met). Yes, some Hamas extremists might continue to operate, but with the loss of support from the general population they would not be a serious threat, and they could be rounded up like criminals. This is what history has taught us about separatist groups of this nature.
In addition, I'd point out that Hamas has actually released a list of 10 demands that, if met, would allow a 10-year ceasefire. None of them are entirely unreasonable, and I think that if Israel were interested in lasting peace then they could probably negotiate something workable out of them.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=713579hospitals that house the entire hamas command center and shelter thousands of missiles, and no, we didnt tell them to evacuate afterwards, we sent them SMS and called them by phone.
I love the idea that it's reasonable to expect a hospital to evacuate within like an hour. It's a hospital. It's full of sick people who can't move and medical equipment they need!
The claim that it was jam-packed with Hamas militants is also questionable, considering the number of international aid workers who could have seen them and didn't.
And israel MOSTLY doesn't shoot at random houses.
Oh, so Israel
mostly doesn't just kill random civilians? I'm satisfied!