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Sunday, November 19, 2006
IDF soldiers to die as officers honor human shields?

Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 19 November 2006:

Is the IDF about to return to the false morality of Jenin - where Israeli
soldiers literally "died for PR" when a decision by Israeli officials to
honor the human shields protecting Palestinian snipers from aerial attack
gave them the opportunity to kill IDF soldiers?

Another puzzle: what is more moral: giving 2 minutes notice so that people
can literally run for their lives from a building or giving 30 minutes
notice so that impressionable youngsters in the neighborhood can be seduced
by local terrorist leaders to act as human shields in the building?

Why is it moral to allow terrorists enough time to move weapons that can be
used to murder Israelis?
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IDF may use ground forces to combat human shields
YAAKOV KATZ and KHALED ABU TOAMEH, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 19, 2006
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378435257&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Fearing Palestinians will create human shields around every terror target in
the Gaza Strip, the IDF, a high-ranking officer said Sunday, was prepared to
launch ground raids into the Palestinian territory to demolish buildings
that could not be destroyed in airstrikes. The warning came less than a day
after hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the home of a known terrorist to
prevent its bombing by IAF fighter jets.

Late Saturday night, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children,
surrounded the home of Mohammedweil Baroud - head of the Popular Resistance
Committees' (PRC) Kassam rocket cell - after he received a warning from the
IDF late Saturday night giving him 30 minutes to leave his house in the
northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Out of fear that innocent bystanders
would be injured, the IDF called off the air strike.

Calling residents ahead of airstrikes on suspected weapons-storage and
manufacturing sites is a routine tactic the IDF employs in the Gaza Strip
and also used over the summer during the month-long war in Lebanon during
which thousands of targets were struck by Israeli missiles. The incident in
Beit Lahiya on Sunday however, was the first time Palestinians have tried to
prevent such an air strike and represents, officials said, a change in
tactics to try and prevent the IAF missile strikes.

"These human shields will not stop us from reaching every target of ours,"
an IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

"If we can't get to the target by air due to the human shields, we will
reach it by ground and the Palestinians will pay a heavy price."

The officer said that the Air Force as well as the Operations Directorate
has not given up using the "phone-call tactic" and would continue to call
Palestinians before bombing a civilian area.

The IDF might however, he added, change the amount of time it gave the
Palestinians to evacuate the area.

"We are obligated to reach every single target whether from far or up
close," the officer said. "It might be harder now due to the human shields
and require more planning but we will not give up our moral values and
principles."

Palestinians said the decision to resort to the new "human-shield" tactic
was taken over the weekend, when the IDF destroyed a house belonging to Ala
Akailan, commander of the Hamas-controlled "Executive Force" in the Shati
refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

"Since July, Israel has destroyed 58 houses in the Gaza Strip," said a
senior Hamas official. "More than 240 people have been left without a roof."

In the last three days alone, eight houses were targeted, as well as two
workshops, a library and a charity run by Rasha Rantisi, widow of slain
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

The demolition of the houses has created tremendous pressure on the
Hamas-led government, which is being forced to find alternative housing for
those who lost their homes.

The plight of the new "refugees" is amplified by the fact that most people
in the Gaza Strip are afraid to host the fugitives and their families for
fear that their houses would also be targeted by the IDF.

Most of the displaced families have sought shelter in tents supplied by
UNRWA and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

At Friday prayers, several Hamas-affiliated preachers called on worshippers
to "occupy" every house that is threatened with demolition. The preachers
noted that the IDF always phones the owners of the houses and warns them
that they must leave
within 15 to 30 minutes.

"Instead of running away, the owners must stay inside their homes and call
the neighbors and as many people as possible," said one of the preachers.
"The human shields are the best way to protect the houses."

Buoyed by Saturday night's success in Jabalya refugee camp, several armed
groups called on Palestinians not to leave their homes after receiving
warnings from the IDF.

"We have won," said Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance
Committees. "From now on we will form human chains around every house that
is threatened with demolition."

Khaled Abu Hilal, spokesman for the PA Ministry of Interior, lauded the
behavior of the Jabalya residents as "wonderful," describing the Israeli
policy of targeting houses in the Gaza Strip as a "blow to stability." He
also criticized the international community for "remaining silent" toward
Israel's actions.

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