The Israeli army showed a reinforced tunnel beside Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Wednesday, complete with a bathroom, kitchen and an air conditioned meeting room that it said had served as a command post for Hamas fighters.
I find it weird that people so vehemently deny that Hamas builds infrastructure near civilian sites. It’s well documented. Doesn’t excuse the thousands of civilians that Israel has killed in this horrible war, but that level of collateral damage is one of Hamas’ aims to shape public opinion. Israel is foolish for feeding into that, they’ve squandered international good will for a goal I don’t think is attainable.
No one denies it. What they deny is that the Hospital itself was a command center for hamas. It wasn't. It was a hospital. And Israel killed a bunch of innocent people to dig outside and find the tunnel. There is no excuse for slaughtering innocents. It is a war crime regardless of any justification.
The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded.
Emphasis mine. Because was there a reasonable warning? "Take these intensive care patients through an active war zone, oh and btw you're surrounded" doesn't seem to apply
And...
The fact that sick or wounded members of the armed forces are nursed in these hospitals, or the presence of small arms and ammunition taken from such combatants which have not yet been handed to the proper service, shall not be considered to be acts harmful to the enemy.
Which seems to be a all that was going on. The tunnels are everywhere, and do not constitute the hospital being used to commit acts harmful to the enemy.
I guess you may be trolling (Because I hope this is not just how you write) but this type of claim is common. Doesn't pass the sniff test and I am yet to see a convincing legal justification
"The fact that sick or wounded members of the armed forces are nursed in these hospitals, or the presence of small arms and ammunition taken from such combatants which have not yet been handed to the proper service, shall not be considered to be acts harmful to the enemy."
Thus far the only actual evidence is that there were tunnels below the hospital. Everyone already knew that. The entire place is a web of tunnels. No one was running anything but health care inside the hospital.
It's been mind-boggling to see. I mean, "well documented" is kind of an understatement. And so is "near," actually. Hamas tries to literally merge their infrastructure with civilian infrastructure, making it impossible to differentiate between the two, with the express purpose of using civilians as human shields.
And yes, "foolish" is also an understatement. Israel's conservative-controlled government has responded exactly as Hamas wanted them to. It was a trap, an obvious one, and they fell right into it.
So far there's zero proof they did. Having to knock a building down to gain access to the entry point would heavily imply that it wasn't recently used and probably hasn't been done Israel walled it of with cement.
There's better evidence that smuggling tunnels that existed before Hamas was even a thing have been used offensively by both sides at one point or another though no credible evidence has surfaced of their use in this conflict.
Honestly it would be kind of dumb to use such shallow tunnels because Israel has flying gpr that can detect tunnels. It's why tunnels weren't super common fighting isil or al queda, it's a ton of time and energy when hiding in plain sight is cheaper less resource intensive and less obvious when your imports and exports are controlled externally by an adversarial nation.
Hamas attacked, committed the most sickening acts (murdered and kidnapped baby's and women to rape) and took hostages back to gaza. Israel was never going to sit back quietly after that (or could anyone).
That was Hamas's plan though. Cause as much suffering as possible to their own people to generate propaganda against Israel and hopefully isolate them for later attacks.
The most sickening thing is the Hamas betrayal of their own people. To use them in this way is beyond barbaric.