This is the kind of stuff that ticks me off, to put it nicely:
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS – The United States on Thursday urged Israel to do more to protect civilians caught in the crossfire between the Israel and Hamas, after Palestinian Arabs claimed to international media that four children were killed during an IAF air strike.
“We ask (Israel) to redouble their efforts to prevent civilian casualties. We believe there is more that can be done,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “We believe that certainly there is more that can be done.”
“The tragic event makes clear that Israel must take every possible step to meet its standards for protecting civilians from being killed,” Psaki added.
It is unclear what else the State Department believes can be done to prevent the civilian casualties, after the IDF has proven over and over again that Hamas has been encouraging Gazans to become human shields.
You’re dang right it’s unclear. Israel has shown time and time again what they are doing to protect against civilian casualties while Hamas has brazenly tried to increase civilian casualties. We even have video of Hamas defending this practice!
But the bigger point is that there would be no air campaign or ground campaign if Hamas weren’t constantly trying to kill Israelis with rockets. There would be no war if Hamas didn’t want to eliminate the State of Israel.
If there are ANY casualties in this war between Israel and Hamas, they are the fault of HAMAS AND HAMAS ALONE. End of story. If the US wants to send statements out about civilian casualties, they need to send them to Hamas, not Israel.
Israel doesn’t just have the right to defend itself and its citizens, it has the right to pummel Hamas into the ground until they are destroyed.
Heck, if it were up to me, I’d take back the Gaza Strip and make it part of Israel and run it like Judea and Samaria (aka. The West Bank).