Gaza civilians

[Hugh Spencer]

Just about everybody is distressed concerning the civilian casualties in Gaza - that is, except the gunmen. They can have little concern otherwise they wouldn't create their HQ's or supply depots next to or close to civilian accommodation and accept that innocent people will be killed. Or, do the civilians deliberately protect or be in close proximity to the gunmen to help them fight another day. If that is the case, they are as much in the front line as the gunmen. If none of these apply, the bottom line is that in modern warfare there will always be collateral damage and innocent casualties.

[jake-the-peg]

What? so gunmen are based in with civillians so it's their fault and that makes it OK to recklessly attack civillian areas?

Is that your logic?

Perhaps we should have just bombed the whole of the Falls road in the 80's?

[Gromit]

Gaza is a very small area. It is about a 5th the size of London. Within which are crammed 1.5Million people. It is said to be one of the most densely populated places on the planet.

To launch air-strikes and artillery into such an area is very dubious in any sense of the rules of warfare. Civilian casualties are not probable, but inevitable. To bomb places of worship, Univerities, Shopping Centres and Police Stations at best looks like Israel is does not care about killing innocent men, women and children, at worst, it could be interpreted as deliberately targeting them.

[danchip]

these gunmen have located themselves amongst the civilians hoping to use them as a shield against retaliation, this hasnt worked and as a result innocent people are dying!

maybe the civilians should do something about these gunmen themselves and force them to leave these areas

[sqad617]

This is a war.
Collateral damage is a fact of war.
End of story.

[R1Geezer]

What about this for a scenario..... stop firing your bl00dy rockets and this would not happen. The simplest solutions are the best.

There is always going to collateral damage, the difference is that Islam targets the innocent, Israel hits the innocent by error. All the deaths are the fault of Hamas. Have they not an ounce of brains. We fire rocket, Israel bombs sh1t out of us, it hurts, I know, lets stop firing rockets, tada!

[Hugh Spencer]

No, the gunmen are at fault unless civilians go out of their way to assist them. Also, it has been discovered that innocent sounding places have been used to store armaments. Another thing, would the south of England be happy to be bombarded by rockets from France? It sounds a similar scenario.

[Lonnie]

As Hugh says, the Gunmen/Hamas are at fault, because they have deliberately sited themselves in civilian areas, so as civilians get killed and wounded, as is their intention, the media stokes up propoganda against their opponents.

[bazwillrun]

exactly, stop firing rockets into israel, end of attacks.

since Israel pulled out of the Gaza strip in 2006, the thanks they have recieved from hamas has been nearly 8000 fired at them.
But as usual the lefties never let the facts get in the way of their skewd biased opinions

hamas deserves everything they get, but as usual in conflict innocent people also suffer

[nedflanders]

Hamas are a terrorist organisation, running a state. it is the equivalent of the IRA running dublin and firing rockets indiscrimately towards Liverpool. I think that the british public would quite rightly want our government and military to take action. Lets not forget too that it was hamas who did not want to renew the ceasefire agreement that was up for renewal. I have sympathy for innocent civilians that get injured but it was also the same civilian population that voted a terrorist organisation in to power.

[frodsham]

During the second world war when germany were firing there V1 rockets on Britain, it didn't take long for the RAF to bomb the rocket sites when they were found. I am sure if any german civilians had been around the sites "Bomber" Harris would have been really concerned! The main priority for any civilised nation is to stop any aggressors from endangering there subjects. Why dont Hamas build shelters for there subjects as it seems to me as if they intend to continue firing rockets, and therefore provoking Israel and endangering there own people.
How come no-one in the UK seems to want to protest on the side of Israel, is it because the UK is fast becoming an Islamic nation?

[flip_flop]

It is a very simplistic approach, but nonetheless a very valid one. If Hammas stopped firing on Israel, Israel would have no reason to fire back.

It never ceases to amaze me that people are quick to support the homophobic, mysoginist, murdering Hammas over Israel, and I can never quite work out whether this is anti-Semitism or anti Zionism or a mixture of the two.

The bias that the BBC shows in the reporting of the conflict (or at least the bias that I read in to their reporting) concerns me as well.

[Lonnie]

I'd like to reply to flip_flop here,

It can't be Anti-Semitism, because the Arabs are also Semites, although people often do get things mixed up, what this is, pure and simple, is Anti-Jewish, If this conflict was just about Israel, you could say that it was only Anti-Israeli, but its not, because they've said, they want to kill Jews wherever they are.

[Cugetit]

As far as I am aware, "Resistance to Occupation" is legal, according to International Law. As for civilians locating themselves, alongside the "resistance fighters", it has already been mentioned that Gaza is a very small area and for the Israeli's to try to excuse the murders of innocents by claiming that they distributed leaflets instructing the inhabitants to move away ........ to where?? Apparently a UN shelter is the most recent atrocity, a school, where 44 more deaths can be added to the list. How about the rest of the world forcing Israel to abide by UN SCR 242. Personally, I would willingly pull the trigger if Tzipi Livni was the target and I also feel it is about time we supplied Ahmedinejad the technical know-how etc to enable him to fulfill his dream, thus solving many of the world's problems.

[Nautilus]

Let's not forget that it was the indigenous inhabitants who voted Hamas into power.
The phrase 'As ye sow,so shall ye reap' springs to mind!

[nedflanders]

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_un _242.php

How exactly are Israel not complying?

[Cugetit]

Why aren't the Israeli government permitting journalists to enter Gaza?? They have been getting away with murder, literally, for many years and as I have mentioned on other threads they have been committing these atrocities under the umbrella of "the holocaust", strongly supported by the Jewish lobbies in the USA and elsewhere.

[R1Geezer]

just tell us Cugetit, why they keep firing these dam rockets, can you not grasp the logic? Stop firing rockets = nasty jews leave us alone. Is there anyone in Hamas who can grasp this basic fact?

[rov1200]

Maybe if the Israelis retreated to back before the 'land grab' Palestian rockets would be unable to reach them?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorial s/2006-05-15-carter-israel-edit_x.htm

[Cugetit]

R1, the rockets you refer to is "resistance to occupation". There have been 3 schools in Gaza hit in the last 24 hours and they were all UN shelters, the exact coordinates having been given by the UN to the Israeli military. There are many war crimes being committed by the Israelis in Gaza during the present time and it begs the question "Why on earth did we interfere with the Nazis during WWII?"

[R1Geezer]

all irrelevant, stop poking the tiger! Israel have rightly had enough.