Isn't the whole point of hostages or human shields is that you're supposed to not kill them? I think it's generally seen as bad if you kill civilians when taking out "bad guys".
I do not understand why this became such a huge argument for why the Palestinian casualties are so high.
If I understand correctly what you are referring to, I think the general argument is this: Hamas deliberately shoots rockets from civilian quarters, inviting retaliation in the said civilian quarters, and then uses images of dead children as propaganda. I don't think this is true for various reasons* but even if it were we'd again be missing the point framing issue like this because of how disproportionate the violence is and who started and perpetuates it.
* Gaza strip is fucking tiny, first of all, and second, Israel last time I checked has quite precisely bombed several civilian high rises, a TV station, and the ministry of finance--kinda hard to shoot rockets from those; there was also a vid circulating on Telegram today, to make this Hamas-human-shields point, showing Palestinian missile trucks in some city... which then turned out to be old footage of Israeli trucks somewhere in Israel.
Also would like to add they bombed important infrastructure related to electricity and water purification/desalination! and because they have a blockage these things cannot be fixed. causing a massive water scarcity and brown and blackouts, causing rotting food if they happen to have a refrigerator. it makes them even more dependent on humanitarian aid which Israel also is in complete control of (and does the bare minimum possible, sometimes less, causing malnutrition in some kids/people.)
Have you a map of the striken sites? The UN org map of the last one took a couple of month and I wasn't aware there currently is a sensible overview.
I have no, just going off what actual Palestinians have said in the past and other articles speaking on the food and water insecurities. There is bit more to it than just that though, even Netanyahu has spoken about putting Palestinians on a diet
Yeah just knowing how small the area is, where are they expected to "humanely" launch rockets from?
A big empty field with a target painted in bright red on it, most likely.
Qassams are a few dozen kilo in weight, have limited reach and explosive capacities and their range is determined by their fuel amount, its quality and the altitude from which they are started (also their quality in terms of aerodynamics).
Fadschrs on the other hand weigh under a ton and have a reach of around 70kms, when used from higher places it can increase a bit too reach 80+km (eg Jerusalem). The speed is below 5km/s,so if you would be at the height of a four story building at 50m you would gain 3 seconds of flight (so at max 15km extra).
Every meter higher they are fired from they fly much further. This means, yes, ever story helps the reach (and drastically reduces the chance for them to hit buildings in Gaza as - at least four qassams - the solid fuel is very dangerous and not seldom explodes to early or has the wrong mix and thus after starting falls close to the place they are fired from.
To prepare 2000 (as were used within the last couple of days) on fields would mean Israeli intelligence would likely notice the preparations earlier and you would have smaller reach and would be exposed (cause outside Gaza proper the aren't cellars, nor would the IDF warn in some cases that they are going to strike. Which they do sometimes, but not always (eg when they declare a location to be a military Hamas base contrasted with a civilian complex used to fire rockets from OR when they fuck around / 'precision hit' neighbouring buildings instead their targets).
As far as I know, there is no evidence of this at all. The UN looked into it and found nothing to support the claims from the Israeli government that this is happening.
They are a bit misquoting. Which is understandable, as there is a ton of propaganda out there. There is a ton of uncertainty, too.
The UN report also wasn't about proofing the negative of Hamas using human shields ever, but it was about a specific time frame and specific legal definition of human shields and specific cases.
The red crescent for example (you can - especially if you read Arabic - find reports and videos of a member of them who was working as medic in a Gaza strip refuge hospital) has called out Hamas as using the hospital area as place to launch rockets from, which was answered by shelling of them after one dud air strike and then deadly ones (which is practice sometimes, but not always). You can imagine how hard (read impossible) it is for some people who are injured to evacuate in a timely manner.
There are also credible reports that Hamas regularly tortured and killed people in the strip (read:Palestinians) and used hospitals for the torture. You can find the reports of you search for Hamas take over of the Gaza strip. Doesn't mean the other patients are good targets for air strikes then.
I would like to underline that there is a false dichotomy of Israel - the Jews - the IDF on one hand and Palestinians - Palestine - the Diaspora - Hamas - Fatah - sometimes even 'the Arabs' on the other side, which is wrong.
While most of the mentioned groups are involved in the struggle for a safe state without some oppression - and especially only we ought to support fights against oppression - it is important to see how different the actors are and how many are involved. It is also important to see the connections between the individuals - nearly everyone is working class, or forced lumpen.
A socialist solution in the region demands a widening of the narrative above a fictive religious god given homeland and demands critical support - which has to be practical: read this as more than posting - to strengthen the alternatives to semi - religiously motivated forces within the current territory of Israel/Palestine.
There is a Jewish Israeli left, there is a Israeli Arab left (who often isn't as fly as you would guess from twitter in relation to Hamas), there is a Christian minority in the strip and some of them are left. There are also people who are either culturally (rare) or practically atheistic or the above labels don't fit and there are leftists, too.
Within Gaza (no clue how it is in Jerusalem/West Jordan) there is a ton of trauma and hurt, though the multiplicity of thoughts, groups and political action is high. Hamas is not equivalent to the Palestinian people (though got a majority of support a couple of years back, but that doesn't mean there aren't good reasons to see them ambivalent - do you remember what the Jerusalem conflicts started about or do you talk about rockets and arrow strikes only now? It was about the fundamental question of land).
As leftists we should also be aware that (when all of this is over) the uncritical support for some needs to be critical support and we have to look in the problems of Hamas (esp. the violence against leftists, LGBTQ comrades, etc.), but also problematize specific (instead of as a blanket) IDF attacks. The question of land, resources and class are fundamental as tools earlier, but the daily practices of 'securing' are what ought to be looked at - those are related to and build the material conditions of life in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel.
Fuck a UN it's obviously bullshit. Israel is not targeting hamas they are targeting civilians to inspire terror. If only there was a word for that...
“Hamas uses human shields”
Damn Israel and you shoot to kill at them anyway despite that huh?
You need to blend it with the old American line "We don't negotiate with terrorists" to get the final "killing civilians is actually the optimal strategy" end product.
It is also meant to be passing the buck on to Palestinians at large. If you aren't actively fighting against Hamas you're part of Hamas and thus a legitimate target.
This is of course propaganda aimed at making Israeli people more on board with killing Palestinians. Their western allies repeating it to make their citizens more on board with supporting Israel is a side effect.
Hey boomers, remember the good old days when you were a kid and used to go the old watering hole and throw rocks at trains?
And then the train driver arrested you, tortured you, shot your friends and imprisoned you for 20 years?
I think IDF just circle strafes their designated "Hamas guy" for the day until there's a child in line of sight
