For The Record - The IPT Blog

Twitter's 140-character limit can make it difficult to express complex ideas. But Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, issued back-to-back posts Wednesday which crystallized Hamas ideology as well as any full-length research paper.

Video Shows Hamas Rocket Launcher Near UN Building, Hotel

A France 24 news report showing a Hamas rocket launcher in the shadow of a United Nations building in Gaza City has become the latest bit of evidence to substantiate the terrorist group's use of populated areas to launch attacks on Israel.

Correspondent Gallagher Fenwick reports that the site is roughly 160 feet from a hotel housing foreign journalists. Fenwick and his crew had a close call at the same site last week when a rocket was fired overhead and Fenwick had to take cover. See that video here.

"This type of setup is at the heart of the debate," Fenwick said in his report Wednesday. "The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Palestinian militants of shooting from within densely populated civilian areas and that is precisely the type of setup we have right here. Rockets set up right next to buildings with a lot of residents in them."

Just last week, John Ging, director of the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that Hamas had been firing its rockets in close proximity to U.N. facilities in Gaza.

"The militants, Hamas, and the other armed groups, they are firing also their weaponry, the rockets, into Israel from the vicinity of these [UN] installations and housing and so on, so the combat is being conducted very much in a residential built up area," Ging said.

The France 24 video comes just a day after a crew from India's NDTV videotaped a Hamas crew assembling a launch site outside their hotel room in the minutes leading up to Tuesday morning's ceasefire. NDTV showed rockets being launched, but waited until after its crew was out of Gaza before doing so.

Hamas defenders argue that Israel's claims that the terrorist group uses densely populated civilian areas to fire rockets could not be verified. Now there are two examples on videotape taken by international journalists that prove the Israeli claim.

The two incidents demonstrate how Hamas places these rocket-launch sites in densely populated areas for propaganda purposes – ones discussed in a purported Hamas training manual captured by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

"The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders (resistance forces [i.e. Hamas])," the manual says.

The morality of Hamas' deliberate endangering of Palestinian civilians should be at the heart of the discussion, not Israel's right to defend itself from terrorist attacks against its civilians.

Indian TV Crew Catches Hamas Firing Rocket From Densely Populated Area

Just minutes before a cease-fire started Tuesday morning, an Indian NDTV crew caught Hamas red-handed on video assembling and firing a rocket outside their Gaza hotel room.

The video "establishes something that Hamas has always been accused of – that they actually use densely populated civilian areas to fire their rockets," reporter Sreenivasan Jain said. "You see this is a[n]area that, very heavily built up, a lot of residential and hotel buildings all around."

Jain and his crew noticed a blue tent outside their hotel room window Monday morning that was not there the night before. They couldn't see what was going on inside the tent, but, Jain reported, "We saw three men making a multitude of journeys in and out of the tent, sometimes with wires." They also saw the Hamas men try to camouflage the tent with branches.

All of this happened just feet away from their hotel and a high-rise building. The crew moved closer to inspect the site after Hamas fired the rocket, but left quickly in case Israel launched a retaliatory strike.

This was not the first time Hamas used an open lot next to the hotel, Jain said. He reported hearing a rocket being fired on the first night he and his TV crew stayed at the hotel, which he noted was evacuated following an Israeli warning of a possible retaliatory attack on the site.

The story was released "after our team left the Gaza strip," Jain reported. "Hamas has not taken very kindly to any reporting of its rockets being fired. But just as we reported the devastating consequences of Israel's offensive on Gaza's civilians, it is equally important to report on how Hamas places those very civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones."

But if you ask Hamas defenders including Reza Aslan, the rocket likely was a figment of the TV crew's imagination. Aslan cavalierly dismissed evidence that Hamas previously fired rockets during a debate on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday.

Fellow panelist Andrew Ross Sorkin challenged Aslan for blaming Israel for the deaths of "1,600 people, 85 percent of them civilians" and for killing hundreds of children. Sorkin noted that they had been killed because Hamas fired its rockets "in front of them."

"That is nonsense," Aslan said. "First of all, first of all, Amnesty International, which is on the ground right there, did a month-long review of this. They have found no evidence whatsoever of any kind of human shield being used."

NDTV's footage provides further incontrovertible proof that Hamas has no regard for the lives of those it governs. It also places apologists such as Aslan in the position of having to admit the reality that Hamas is the thuggish terrorist group the U.S., Israel and E.U. have always said it is.

Hamas Kidnapping Shatters Ceasefire

Update: Secretary of State John Kerry is imploring Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey "to use their influence to do whatever they can to get that soldier returned." In a formal statement, Kerry said the U.S. condemned the "outrageous violation of the cease-fire" and called on Hamas to "immediately and unconditionally release the missing Israeli soldier."

Israeli cabinet officials are meeting to discuss a response, but already Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas will pay significant consequences. "Once again, Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza have violated the ceasefire to which they committed themselves to the UN Secretary-General and US Secretary of State Kerry," a statement from the Israeli government said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest called on Hamas to release the soldier and said the attack was "a rather barbaric violation of the ceasefire agreement."

The attackers reportedly emerged from a tunnel that the Israeli forces planned to destroy – which the ceasefire terms allowed – when one blew himself up near the Israeli soldiers. The missing soldier is 23-year-old Second Lt. Hadar Goldin from Kfar Saba.

Heavy fighting on both sides followed shortly after.

"The cease-fire is over," Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told reporters, saying "extensive operations on the ground" were underway to try to find Goldin. Reports say he is a cousin of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon.

Hamas reportedly accepted this ceasefire, which in effect was the same proposal it rejected two weeks ago when casualty counts on both sides were much lower. As those casualties increased, international pressure focused on Israel to end the fighting. Accepting this ceasefire marks at least the sixth time Israel agreed to such requests. Hamas either rejected or violated each of those.

Israel stopped bombing targets Friday morning, adhering to the humanitarian ceasefire. Talks in Egypt would have sought ways to extend the 72-hour lull in fighting, again, with humanitarian aims for the people of Gaza. The hunt for Goldin puts those civilians back in harm's way. Those most concerned about the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza need to consider why the fighting continues to rage on as they mourn each new victim.

Hamas "will yet pay a heavy price," Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni wrote on Facebook. "If it was not yet clear enough to everyone, now the world knows who is responsible for the destruction and blood" in Gaza.

Chicago Imam Urges Jihad for Gaza

In successive Friday sermons, a Chicago imam has urged followers to support the Palestinian jihad by joining the fight or by donation "weapons and money."

In excerpts compiled by the Middle East Media Research Project (MEMRI) taken from sermons posted on YouTube, the Chicago Islamic Center's Mohamed Elimam speaks to "those of you who want to wage Jihad for the sake of Allah, Palestine is calling you and Gaza is crying out for your help" during his July 18 sermon. "However, if you are collaborators with those who give you weapons and money, then keep indulging yourselves with this money of yours."

He criticizes "deadbeat regimes" in Arab states, urging people to "Return to the battle of Jihad in Palestine. Jerusalem is calling you. The children of Gaza are crying for your help. I say to all the honorable mujahideen, to any believer who has ever waged Jihad for the sake of Allah, and to every child who was killed for the sake of Islam... Let the whole world know that the Zionist enemy is not fighting a well-armed army. Rather, it is fighting a defenseless people. It is killing children, and destroying homes. This is how they behaved towards the prophets of Allah as well."

In last Friday's sermon, he called Zionism "unadulterated evil besetting all people" and described Israel as "a thorn in the side of the Arab and Islamic nations. May Allah pull this thorn out, and stick it down their [Western] throats. May they be sent back to their countries in shame and disgrace, Allah willing."

The clips do not indicate that Elimam directly solicited for Hamas or other terrorist organizations. His rhetoric, however, is similar to other imams who wound up being removed from the country for supporting terrorists.

Italian Journalist Describes Hamas Cover-Up of Errant Rockets

An Italian journalist operating in Gaza corroborated Israel's account of an errant Hamas rocket strike on a Gaza school playground on Monday, according to an Israel National News report. At least 10 people were killed, mostly children, in the Shati refugee camp school. Israel was immediately accused; however, it insisted that Hamas rockets caused the death and destruction.

Returning from Gaza and presumably safe from potential "Hamas retaliation," journalist Gabriele Barbati tweeted confirmation that Hamas terrorists quickly tried to cover up evidence of its errant rocket strike.

A Wall Street Journal reporter, Tamer El-Ghobashi, tweeted evidence confirming a Hamas rocket struck Gaza's main hospital. El-Ghobashi deleted the tweet shortly after.

Hamas had as many as 10,000 rockets when Operation Protective Edge began three weeks ago. It has fired nearly 3,000 at Israeli civilians since then, and Israeli military officials say they have destroyed thousands more. Though as many as 5,000 remain, increasing reports indicate that a greater volume of rockets are falling short and landing in Gaza.

Reporting objectively in Gaza is extremely difficult for foreign journalists who are increasingly subjected to Hamas threats. Western journalists operating in Gaza have been threatened and harassed by Hamas for reporting instances of the terrorist groups' use of human shields. Israeli officials have noted that some reporters are intimidated by the terrorist organization and have ceased documenting Hamas' exploitation of civilians throughout the conflict. Some journalists even experience Hamas interrogation and are forced to backtrack their reporting if deemed too critical of Hamas. Other journalists have been forced to leave the Gaza Strip. It is not clear if Barbati will be allowed to return to Gaza for further reporting.

This type of atmosphere prevents journalists from doing their jobs and disseminating critical information out to the rest of the world. The lack of freedom afforded to Gaza based journalists contributes to Hamas' narrative of the conflict, which frequently dominates international and Western media outlets.

MB Cleric Qaradawi Still Loving Hamas and Hating Jews

A good contrast between pragmatism and raw religious hatred came in recent statements from prominent Sunni voices.

Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide and popular Al-Jazeera program host, appeared on the network earlier this month to defend Hamas as "nothing but a group that is defending itself, defending its country, defending its brethren, defending its honor, defending its (Muslim) Ummah." It is not, he added, a terrorist group.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism translated Qaradawi's remarks. He also said Hamas "did not fire at anyone. It's only defending itself. Doesn't Gaza have the right of self defense? People want Hamas exposed. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu said Hamas received building blocks and used it to build the tunnels. No, they built many things that they ought to, and built-among many things, the tunnels. They don't want [Hamas] to have the tunnels to protect them; they want Hamas to remain exposed to their cannons, bombs and jets, from the land, and from the sea and from the air. They want it to be bombarded while exposed so they can kill whomever they want. Is this logical?"

Qaradawi also published an anti-Semitic forgery which purports to show Benjamin Franklin warning his countrymen about "the danger of the Jews. In every land in which the Jews have settled, they have depressed the moral level, and corrupted commercial conscience."

Even the American Muslim website acknowledges the Franklin statement "has been debunked many times over the past 80 years, and still it keeps coming back. Such bigotry is really difficult to stamp out."

That seems especially true when it comes from someone as renowned as Qaradawi. As we have noted repeatedly, many American Islamists hold Qaradawi up as a moderate scholar, overlooking his fatwas justifying attacks on American troops, suicide bombings in Israel and his stated desire to kill Jews.

A retired Saudi Arabian admiral and columnist, meanwhile, makes it clear he has no love for Israel, but says Hamas is to blame for the current conflict and that it is time to recognize reality. "Israel is a state that will continue to exist, a state that the entire world respects more [than it respects] its Arab neighbors," 'Umro Al-'Amery wrote in a Facebook post highlighted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "There is nothing for the Palestinians to do but negotiate for better conditions – but not with this path [of violence]...

Hamas and other jihadi groups "have never, not for one single day, been interested in the welfare of Gaza's residents; they are interested only in slogans and rhetoric," Al-'Amery added.

In a reply to a comment, he dismissed Islamist slogans that religion offers the solution to the conflict. "But Islam is not the solution. Islam is a religion, whereas secularism and democracy are the solution, as in all countries whose people enjoy wellbeing, peace, and religious faith, and Malaysia is a model [worthy] of emulation for us."

Hamas Intimidates Western Journalists, Kills 30 "Collaborators"

Western journalists operating in Gaza have been threatened and harassed by Hamas for reporting instances of the terrorist groups' use of human shields, according to a Times of Israel report. Israeli officials have noted that some reporters are intimidated by Hamas' threats and have ceased documenting Hamas' exploitation of civilians throughout the conflict.

The newspaper says it confirmed instances in which Hamas officials confiscated equipment and pictures from photographers exposing terrorists who were preparing to launch rockets from civilian structures and fighting in civilian garb.

Hamas continues to limit access to its terrorist operations. For example, Hamas converted Gaza's Shifa hospital into a base of operations but reporters are prevented from showing that.

"We know that downstairs there is a Hamas command and control center and that Hamas leaders are hiding there," an unnamed Israeli official told the newspaper. "No reporter is allowed to go anywhere downstairs. They're only allowed to work upstairs to take pictures of casualties, the pictures that Hamas wants them to take."

Last week, a French journalist told Liberation, a French daily newspaper, the circumstances of his interrogation in a Hamas office in Shifa.

"A few meters from the emergency room, where the injured from the bombings kept on coming in, in the outpatient ward, [the reporter] was received in 'a small section of the hospital used as an office' by a group of young combatants,'" according to the article.

The reporter said a Hamas interrogator confronted him, asking, "Who are you? What's your name? What are you doing?" He also was asked whether he spoke Hebrew or had any relationship with the Palestinian Authority. "The young Hamas supporters insistently ask the question: 'Are you a correspondent for Israel?'" he wrote. The reporter insisted that he contributes to French and Algerian media only and was eventually ordered to leave Gaza.

His account matches a report out of Australia. It cites television reporter Peter Stefanovic, who issued a Twitter post describing seeing rockets being fired from a civilian area near his hotel. Hamas supporters accused him of lying, asking "Are you working for the IDF" and issuing a not-so-subtle threat that "in WWII spies got shot."

Meanwhile, Hamas has executed more than 30 suspected collaborators in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel reporting on Palestinian security officials' statements to Palestine Press News Agency. The alleged spies were summarily executed after a brief investigation. Moreover, Fatah appealed to Hamas to cease harassing its members and placing them under house arrest.

Three Israeli Troops Killed in Booby-Trapped UN Clinic

Three Israeli soldiers were killed Wednesday when a tunnel opening they were investigating turned out to be booby-trapped. The tunnel opening was located under a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) clinic, the Times of Israel reports.

The deaths come a day after terrorist rockets were found inside a UNRWA school for the third time this month. The soldiers were in the clinic when the tunnel exploded and were killed when it collapsed. Another 15 soldiers were wounded.

Troops increasingly are encountering improvised explosive devices as they hunt for more Hamas tunnels, Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein told the newspaper. In a briefing, IDF officials said they destroyed four more tunnels in the past day, and are "days away" from eliminating the tunnel threat.

Meanwhile, the UNRWA reported Tuesday that it found Hamas rockets in one of its Gaza schools for the third time since Israel's Operation Protective Edge began, the Times of Israel reports. The agency is devoted to helping Palestinian refugees, yet their premises are consistently exploited for the purposes of Hamas' terrorist operations.

"We condemn the group or groups who endangered civilians by placing these munitions in our school," said UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness. "This is yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all warring parties to respect the inviolability of UN property."

A UNRWA spokesperson stated that the organization gave the rockets to "local authorities," which answer to the Hamas-Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

A senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel that the weapons were essentially returned to Hamas. "The rockets were passed onto the government authorities in Gaza, which is Hamas. In other words, UNRWA handed to Hamas rockets that could be shot at Israel."

Ex-Saudi Intelligence Chief Blames Hamas for Gaza Deaths

The former Saudi intelligence head, Turki al Faisal, publicly blames Hamas for Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the resulting casualties.

Al Faisal's comments came in an interview published Sunday by Al-Sharq-al-Awsat that were then reported in English by the website Algemeiner.

"Hamas is responsible for the slaughter in the Gaza Strip following its bad decisions in the past, and the haughtiness it shows by firing useless rockets at Israel, which contribute nothing to the Palestinian interest," Faisal said.

This increasingly anti-Hamas sentiment is shared by various other Arab writers and officials.

Recently, Saudi columnist Nasser Al-Sarami urged people not to be deceived by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood's intentions. "While the poor, defenseless people... stand exposed to rockets and tanks, the jihadi and Brotherhood leaderships flee to the fortified holes they prepared for themselves. This, in addition to the leaderships that are based in countries outside the conflict zone, hundreds of miles away... This is the [Muslim] Brotherhood, the leaders of Hamas and the savage organizations. Beware of them!"

Hamas has caused more Palestinian suffering than Israel has, Egyptian journalist Kamal Gabriel wrote:

"These Palestinian gangs plunder the cause of the oppressed Palestinian people by repeatedly reenacting the story of Samson, who brought down the [Philistine] temple on his and everyone else's heads. They do this in their own country and in every country that hosts them – in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Kuwait. These organizations have become a curse on the Palestinian people..."

Various writers in Syria and Egypt also blame Hamas' actions for provoking Israeli counter attacks and prioritizing conflict over the safety of Gaza's civilians.

Moreover, Egypt's foreign minister, Sameh Shoukri, blames Hamas for the current escalation of violence, by rejecting Egypt's initial cease-fire proposal.