middle east unrest spreads, page-16

TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND
Hamas terrorists brag of hiding behind kids
'Palestinian people have developed methods of death and death-seeking'

Posted: March 13, 2008
10:19 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

"A prominent member of Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, has been captured on video boasting of using women, children and the elderly as human shields in its firefights with Israeli soldiers.

WND reported at the time, just two weeks ago that the Israeli government had described Hamas' use of human shields as Israel pressed ahead with its battles against rocket-fire from Gaza into Israel.

Israel launched ground and air assaults on Hamas positions in Gaza following massive rocket bombardments of Jewish cities by Palestinian terrorists at the end of February and early March.

Hamas had been firing long-range Grad rockets at the strategic port city of Ashkelon, home to about 125,000 Israelis. Ashkelon houses a major electrical plant that powers most of the Gaza Strip.

During the fighting, focused largely on the minor Hamas infrastructure in the city of Jabaliya about one mile into the Gaza Strip, an Israeli commander speaking to WND Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein from inside Gaza said Hamas has been drawing Israeli forces into populated civilian areas, shooting at Jewish fighters from occupied civilian homes while women and children were inside.

Now a video posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute revealS Hamas MP Fathi Hammad boasting of using such human shields.

The video, which was aired on Al-Aqsa TV on Feb. 29, revealed Hammad saying the enemies of Allah "do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land.

"The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine," he continued. "It is as if they were saying to the Zionest enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life.'"

WND earlier reported on once case in which Hamas sent a 10-year old boy into the battlefield in full view of the Israeli military to remove a gun from a felled terrorist and then pass the weapon to another terrorist. The commander at the scene said he ordered his troops to halt their fire as the Israeli military watched the boy remove and then transfer the weapon to another gunman.

Another commander speaking to WND said Hamas snipers used the windows of a Jabiliya house that was clearly occupied by women and children to shoot at his unit.

"The aim is to draw us into killing civilians to bring about international pressure to end our operation," the commander said, speaking on condition his name be withheld due to Israeli military restrictions on media interviews by fighting forces.

MEMRI is an independent, non-profit organizations that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58837