The protesters frequently hurl rocks and firebombs, and Israeli soldiers respond with tear gas and live fire. Israel, which has been accused of using excessive force, says it does what it must to protect its borders.
The protesters do more than “frequently” hurl rocks and firebombs. They keep trying to breach Israel’s security fence, and they keep up a nonstop barrage of rocks, Molotov cocktails, grenades, incendiary kites and balloons that have already set ablaze thousands of acres of Israeli territory, and even, sometimes, gunfire. They set tires alight to create a vast smokescreen, making it hard for the Israelis to see them, and from within which they can throw those explosives and grenades and let loose those incendiary kites into Israel.
Israeli soldiers do not only “respond with tear gas and live fire,” as the AP reports. They have other ways to handle the marchers. Israeli soldiers use many other means to try to prevent marchers from reaching the security fence. They respond first with tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades. Only when those fail to halt protesters who have reached very near to the security fence do the Israelis use, as a last resort, live fire, taking care to aim below the knees except in the most threatening of circumstances, when the security fence is in imminent danger of being breached. But the AP report suggests that “live fire” is used routinely: the Israelis “respond” — just like that — with “tear gas and live fire.”
Let’s reword those two sentences to convey the truth: “The protesters hurl rocks, Molotov cocktails, grenades, incendiary kites and bombs, and Israeli soldiers respond with tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades, and as a last resort, live fire, initially aimed below the knee. Israel, which the Palestinians have accused of using excessive force, says it does what it must to protect its borders.”
That’s much better.
The U.N. children’s agency condemned the killing of the two Palestinians, warning of the “significant violence” Palestinian children endure.
“Children are children. They must be protected at all times. Children should never be a target. Nor should they be exposed to any form of violence, by any party,” UNICEF Middle East director Geert Cappelaere said in a statement.
Children should “never be a target.” Nor should they be deliberately placed in dangerous situations where they might accidentally be hurt. And if, as UNICEF insists, they “must be protected at all times,” who has not just failed to protect them, but deliberately put them in harm’s way? Who has put these Arab children in danger, “exposed them” to a “form of violence,” if not Hamas itself? Hamas has long used children as shields, sometimes placing its weapons near or within schoolhouses. This terrorist group does not mind when “Palestinian” children are harmed or killed. They become “martyrs”; their stories can become part of the propaganda war against Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, has no desire to harm “Palestinian” children and makes great efforts to avoid doing so. But this does not mean that in the heat of violent exchanges, amidst the smoke from burning tires, with Molotov cocktails and grenades and incendiary kites being thrown at the Israelis, and the Israelis using tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades to halt the Palestinian marchers, that nothing goes awry. When the Israelis start to use live fire (which they do only when they believe there is imminent danger to their forces, or when the security fence is in danger of being breached), they cannot always distinguish through the smoke and distance and general mayhem who is a child. Is an 18-year old boy a “child”? What about a 14-year-old? Targets are constantly moving; some “Palestinians” hold small children in their arms as they rush to the fence. Accidents cannot always be prevented. In one case, a four-year-old Palestinian child was hit by shrapnel. He was certainly not an intended target. Why was a four-year-old brought to an area where violent clashes were in full swing? Hamas encourages families to bring their children to these violent events. It wants them to be harmed, and sometimes, despite Israel’s best efforts to avoid such casualties, some of them are.
In an ever-fluid situation, with Palestinians now marching straight to the fence, and now running amok, and with all kinds of projectiles being hurled at and from either side, with the smokescreen provided by burning fires helping to hide the Palestinians making their way to the fence, children are naturally among the casualties. The AP report fails to mention that while Hamas makes great efforts to cause such casualties, the Israelis make great efforts to avoid them. “Children are children. They must be protected at all times. Children should never be a target. Nor should they be exposed to any form of violence, by any party,” says UNICEF Middle East director Geert Cappelaere. Children may have been wounded, or a few even killed, but they have never been “a target” of the Israelis. And it is Hamas, not Israel, that has “exposed” them to many “forms of violence,” sacrificing their welfare and safety in order to promote the endless Jihad against the Israelis.