RSS
Hiding Terrorists in Schools Is a Fundamental Hamas and Palestinian Authority Strategy
Several days ago, the Israeli military conducted an airstrike on a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command center located within the Taba’een school in Gaza City.
Hamas originally claimed that more than 90 people were killed in the strike. However, after the IDF posted a picture of 19 terrorists killed there, Hamas revised its numbers to say that only 40 had been killed. Subsequently, Israel listed the names of 38 terrorists who were killed. In all likelihood, there were no civilian casualties.
This does not change the fact that for years, Hamas has boasted about its use of human shields. The organization’s officials have taken pride that the Palestinians have “created a human shield of women, children, the elderly, and the jihad fighters”:
Hamas Political Bureau member Fathi Hammad: “For the Palestinian people, death became an industry at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly, [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death, as you desire life.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), February 29, 2008]
Hamas officials have called for more Palestinians to become human shields as a strategy:
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri: “The people oppose the Israeli fighter planes with their bodies alone … I think this method has proven effective against the occupation. It also reflects the nature of our heroic and brave people, and we, the [Hamas] movement, call on our people to adopt this method in order to protect the Palestinian homes.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), July 8, 2014]
The late Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh put it in other terms, literally asking for the blood of Palestinians:
The blood [spilled] in the Gaza Strip, alongside the resistance and the Al-Qassam [Brigades] will defeat this occupier, will defeat this enemy … As I said, and I repeat every time, the blood of the children, women, and elderly — I do not say that it shouts out to you, but rather we need this blood so that it will ignite within us the spirit of revolution, so that it will arouse within us persistence, so that it will arouse within us defiance and [a forward] advance. [emphasis added]
[Website of Al-Jazeera TV, Oct. 26, 2023]
However, the ideal of dying for Allah either actively or passively is by no means exclusive to Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) also openly advocates for the use of human shields and civilian deaths. Many PA leaders often extol the value of Martyrdom.
One example is from PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who has said that whomever seeks Martyrdom will be given that status even if he dies in his bed.
Other examples can be found in statements such as this one, made by a senior leader of the PA’s ruling party:
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Tayseer Nasrallah: “The Palestinians’ iron will is revealed when our people accompany a Martyr. The entire Palestinian public unites around the choice of Martyrdom — Martyrdom is a sacred value for us.”
[Official PA TV, April 24, 2024]
Both the PA and Hamas have turned the Islamic religious idea of dying for Allah — Martyrdom — into the central component of their PR strategy. By embracing tactics such as using children to perpetrate terror attacks and having them get killed in the process, they give ammunition to biased international organizations that can then blame Israel for civilian and children’s deaths.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post Hiding Terrorists in Schools Is a Fundamental Hamas and Palestinian Authority Strategy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
RSS
Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
RSS
Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.