Facts about Hamas Reuters, BBC & the Guardian won't tell you about

Hamas has now admitted that Thursday's explosion at a house in Beit Lahiya in Gaza which killed a baby and five adults, as well as wounding 50 others, 15 of whom were children, was the result of a "work accident". In other words, the terrorists in the house blew themselves, the baby and the other innocent women, children and men up. Hamas proudly explains this achievement  

"Members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were trying to prepare for a Jihad operation," the Hamas movement's armed wing said in a statement

The BBC reports all this--but it doesn't begin to tell us half the story. Ha'aretz gives us the full text of the official Hamas statement, which makes it clearer that this was no sideshow by an offshoot:

An announcement Friday on the official Web site of Hamas' military wing says the group's martyrs died while putting the final touches on a plan to carry out a special holy war mission. 

But then, here, from the Jerusalem Post is an explanation of exactly who some of the terrorists who died were:

Also killed in the explosion were the finance director in the Hamas Interior Ministry - who was also a member of Izzadin Kassam - a commander of the Hamas anti-aircraft unit and a commander of the group's rocket manufacturing unit, Israel Radio reported.

Let's just reflect on that for a moment. It's as if Britain's Financial Secretary to the Treasury and the Chief of Air Defence were suddenly revealed as members of an Ulster Loyalist hit squad who had blown themselves to pieces in the course of preparing a car bomb. None of this is revealed in the BBC report; the Guardian doesn't even report the admission at all, though it has a whole web page devoted to "Israel and the Palestinians"

Now consider the original Hamas commentary on the Thursday news reports, which you can hear on the video clip above, from Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Musri, blaming the explosion on Israel:

The Zionist enemy is carrying out crimes and acts stupidly by destroying a home over the heads of inhabitants, innocent people, children, the elderly and women. We stress that it is not the place to talk about a tahidya (calm) at the time when the Palestinians are massacred and the enemy should know that for every stupid act there is a price to pay, and the resistance won't sit with folded arms, and with God's help, they won't even dream of quiet and tahdiya as long as crimes are committed against our people.

Al-Musri is at least absolutely correct in one respect. It is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions to prepare and conduct military operations in civilian areas, let alone in a house where babies and children are, and which is deeply populated with other innocents. It is also a war crime to store and prepare military explosives and weapons in a civilian house.

So was Hamas prepared to announce the criminality and stupidity of the acts by its own organization, initially announced as the responsibility of the "Zionist enemy"? Or to condemn the involvement of its own senior civil servants in carrying them out? 

No chance. 

This is what Ismail Haniyeh had to say about the attack on the day it happened, when they surely knew that their own men had blown themselves, their families and their neighbours up:

the armed Palestinian organizations, headed by Hamas' military wing, are protecting the rights of the Palestinian people and allowing the Palestinian leadership to uphold its principles.

 

For those UK and European Parlimentarians who insist that the only way to achieve peace is to talk to Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh had an equally clear message:

We will not recognize Israel even if the siege on Gaza persists

Instead, with a cynicism one can only wonder at, Hamas used the excuse of the supposed Israeli attack to launch a bombardment on southern Israel of over 50 mortars and rockets. 

No doubt none of this will dent the position of the politicians like Peter Hain who argue that "we must talk to Hamas", because they see the Hamas stance as analogous to that of the IRA in the Northern Ireland dispute, namely based on local political grievances, and unlike that of Al Qaeda. Hain differentiates Al Qaeda and excludes it from being an organization to be talked to on the grounds that:

It is not rooted in political objectives capable of negotiation, but rather in a reactionary, totalitarian ideology completely opposed to democracy, freedom and human rights. Negotiation with al-Qaida and its foreign jihadists is, therefore, politically and morally out of the question.

It's unclear quite how Hamas' objective of the destruction of Israel and its substitution of an Islamist theocracy is to be seen as a set of political objectives capable of negotiation. And this report from Khaled Abu Toameh on Sunday shows exactly how committed Hamas is to democracy, freedom and human rights:

"We urge you to move quickly to end the criminal and terrorist actions of the Hamas militias against the sons of Fatah," the Fatah representatives wrote. "These militias are continuing to kidnap and torture our members in the Gaza Strip despite your initiative." The letter pointed out that scores of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip had been summoned for questioning by Hamas security forces over the past few weeks, including top Fatah officials Issam Najjar, Abdel Rahim Najjar and Abdel Rauf Abdeen. "Do these black [Hamas] militias have the right to do whatever they want to Fatah while you are sitting in the West Bank doing nothing?" the Fatah activists asked. "Are you aware of the fact that the Hamas militias have even banned people from sitting in public places and are beating them? Why are you sitting in the West Bank doing nothing? Are you waiting until Hamas kills all of us?" The Fatah members urged Abbas to "completely wipe out" Hamas in the West Bank before it's too late, warning that otherwise he and his followers would be overthrown by the movement. The letter also complained that the Fatah-controlled media had stopped reporting about Hamas's practices against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip in an apparent attempt to avoid escalating tensions between the two sides. "Why has Palestine TV stopped reporting about the abduction of Fatah members in the Gaza Strip?" it asked. "Why are you sitting on the side while those who fought for you are being targeted by these militias?" Fatah activists claimed that Hamas banned families of slain Fatah members from visiting cemeteries on Saturday. They said that dozens of Hamas policemen sealed off the main cemetery in Khan Yunis. Hamas also banned Fatah supporters and relatives of Fatah men who were killed in the fighting with Hamas from marching in the streets or holding public rallies to protest against the Islamic movement's "coup," they said. The families of some 450 Palestinians who were killed in the Hamas-Fatah fighting on Saturday called on Abbas to work toward bringing the "murderous" Hamas militias to trial for their role in the "atrocities." They said that some of the victims, especially those belonging to the Fatah-dominated security forces, were killed in cold blood after being taken prisoners by Hamas.

Comments

[Richard]

I'm afraid there is an essential problem in talking of Hamas violations of international law etc. The problem is this: Hamas do not recognise international law, neither are they a state recognised by Israel, therefore they cannot recieve sanctuary under international law.
In the old terminology of empire days, Hamas are "rebels" or "bandits", lawless criminals. The old fashioned approach was to invade, capture their leaders and publically hang them.
Did it work? Oh yes.