Hamas “oppresses life… [with] torture, murder, oppression" and uses civilians as human shields, say PA daily
“Hamas is choosing popular markets as a secure place for its live ammunition storehouses, because the occupation forces (i.e., Israel) cannot blow up the markets” – Amad independent Palestinian news website
“[Hamas is] a militia that oppresses life… in its prisons through despicable torture… Murder, oppression, arbitrary arrests, violent break-ins to search in houses… storage of weapons among people’s homes” – official PA daily
After an explosion in Gaza City last month, the PA and Abbas’ Fatah Movement and others have criticized Hamas and other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip for their disregard for human life and use of civilians as human shields.
Fatah’s Awdah TV reported that human rights organizations as well as eyewitnesses had confirmed that the military wings of a number of factions in the Gaza Strip – i.e., terror organizations – had “placed bombs, explosives, and explosive materials near the homes of the civilians”:
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: “An explosion occurred in a popular market in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of the Gaza Strip, a place full of Palestinian civilians. A number of human rights committees and organizations, and also eyewitnesses and residents of the area confirmed that this storage area was used by the military wings of a number of factions in the Gaza Strip. This disregards the lives of the civilians, placing bombs, placing explosive devices, and explosives near the homes of the civilians and the homes of the Palestinians. [People] whose home was saved from the [Israeli] aggression (i.e., recent Hamas-Israeli war) unfortunately was not saved from the bombs of relatives… The human rights organizations are being accused of turning a blind eye on what is happening [in Gaza]… Crimes against people and against the Palestinian civilians. Crimes that we hear about every day: … The use of civilian buildings and sites to create explosive materials.”
[Fatah-run Awdah TV, July 24, 2021; Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, July 24, 2021]
An article published on the independent Palestinian news website Amad, which is affiliated with former top Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan, similarly criticized Hamas for storing live ammunition in markets relying on the knowledge that Israel would never bomb sites that are full of civilians:
“According to statements given by a number of residents living adjacent to the site of the incident, the house where the explosion took place serves as a weapons storehouse that belongs to Hamas…
Hamas is choosing popular markets as a secure place for its live ammunition storehouses, because the occupation forces cannot blow up the markets. This is because a wave of international rage would rise up against them if they targeted essential popular centers such as markets.”
[Amad, independent Palestinian news website, July 22, 2021]
Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields is not new. Palestinian Media Watch has exposed Hamas’ abuse of its civilian population numerous times, for example during the 2014 Gaza war. Then Hamas openly and intentionally demanded that civilians ignore Israel's warnings prior to airstrikes targeting terrorists hiding among civilians, and taught Palestinians that they “love death for Allah” so that Hamas could use them as human shields for their fighters and rocket launchers.
After the recent explosion, an editorial by the official PA daily likewise criticized Hamas for many systematic human rights abuses, in addition to storing weapons and explosives among civilians, thereby using people’s homes and markets as shields:
“[Hamas is] a militia that oppresses life in its most basic forms in the streets of the Gaza Strip. It oppresses [life] in its prisons through despicable torture, and it is difficult to enumerate the names of the victims here… Murder, oppression, arbitrary arrests, violent break-ins to search in houses, statements by Hamas – most of them on Facebook and Twitter – that contain nothing but threats against people who think to oppose and protest, and not only this:
Also the storage of weapons among people’s homes and in markets, without considering the elementary rules of safety. The proof of this is that some of them have already blown up and caused hundreds of victims, Martyrs, and wounded. We will not forget the explosion in the Nuseirat refugee camp [in 2020], and today we speak of the explosion in the Al-Zawiya market. Proven information confirms that it was caused by explosives stored in one of the houses in the market!”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 27, 2021]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: “First, an explosion [occurred] in a popular market in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of the Gaza Strip, a place full of Palestinian civilians. A number of human rights committees and organizations, and also eyewitnesses and residents of the area confirmed that this storage area was used by the military wings of a number of factions in the Gaza Strip. This disregards the lives of the civilians, placing bombs, placing explosive devices, and explosives near the homes of the civilians and the homes of the Palestinians. Whoever’s home was saved from the [Israeli] aggression unfortunately was not saved from the bombs of relatives…
(The host addresses a representative of the Al-Haq human rights organization -Ed.)
The human rights organizations are being accused of turning a blind eye on what is happening [in Gaza] as if nothing happened: Crimes against people and against the Palestinian civilians. Crimes that we hear about every day: … The use of civilian buildings and sites to create explosive materials and shooting at the residents, at a man who does not stop his car at a checkpoint of Hamas Movement activists. There is an accusation of helplessness against you [against the Al-Haq human rights organization] of turning a blind eye and not mentioning what is happening in the southern districts.”
[Fatah-run Awdah TV, July 24, 2021; Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, July 24, 2021]
Excerpt of an op-ed by Fadel Al-Manasfeh
Headline: “The explosion in Gaza – a call and analyses”
“This morning, Thursday [July 22, 2021], a large explosion took place at a house in the Al-Zawiya market in Gaza City. As a result, a Martyr died, a number of people were wounded, and great damage was caused to the adjacent houses. According to statements given by a number of residents living adjacent to the site of the incident, the house where the explosion took place serves as a weapons storehouse that belongs to Hamas…
This incident brings us back to a similar incident that took place last year, when at least 25 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in a fire that broke out in a popular market in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The [Hamas] Ministry of Interior said that it was caused by a gas leak.
It becomes clearly apparent here that Hamas is choosing popular markets as a secure place for its live ammunition storehouses, because the occupation forces cannot blow up the markets. This is because a wave of international rage would rise up against them if they targeted essential popular centers such as markets.”
[Amad, independent Palestinian news website, July 22, 2021]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “A child and a rifle”
“One of the residents of the Gaza Strip wrote on his backup Facebook page: ‘It seems that “the resistance members” are convinced that wherever they are there is no state, no law, and no civilians – there is just a child and a rifle.’ …
[Hamas is] a militia that oppresses life in its most basic forms in the streets of the Gaza Strip. It oppresses [life] in its prisons through despicable torture, and it is difficult to enumerate the names of the victims here. Children (i.e., youth) from this militia shoot the civilians at checkpoints without consideration, as they did to civilian Hassan Abu Zayed (i.e., a man killed by Hamas security forces at a checkpoint in Gaza)…
Murder, oppression, arbitrary arrests, violent break-ins to search in houses, statements by Hamas – most of them on Facebook and Twitter – that contain nothing but threats against people who think to oppose and protest, and not only this:
Also the storage of weapons among people’s homes and in markets, without considering the elementary rules of safety. The proof of this is that some of them have already blown up and caused hundreds of victims, Martyrs, and wounded. We will not forget the explosion in the Nuseirat refugee camp [in 2020], and today we speak of the explosion in the Al-Zawiya market. Proven information confirms that it was caused by explosives stored in one of the houses in the market!
[It is the] rule of a militia, a child and a rifle, weapon storehouses among houses, and military adventures that are all for show, which have whetted the appetite of the Israeli aggression for additional wars and additional destruction in the wounded Gaza Strip!”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 27, 2021]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: "The national quarantine"
"At a time when humanity is attempting to cooperate in order to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, without regarding national or religious identities or political and other disagreements of any sort, Hamas insists on adhering to its political party's identity… It announced that the Gaza Strip has no interest in the state of emergency (!!) [parentheses in source] that was declared by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas at an early stage in order to stop the Coronavirus epidemic, as if the Gaza Strip is not a part of Palestine…
Even enemies and opponents are attempting to form alliances today in order to fight the Coronavirus, but Hamas, which isn’t seen as an enemy or even an opponent – but rather as a sister that has strayed from the right path… sees not only the PA, but primarily the PLO, as its sworn opponent…
We clearly see that Hamas is not interested in the wellbeing of anyone but itself; it has not regarded the Coronavirus pandemic as a threat to human lives and reagrded the struggle against the pandemic as one that has no connection to politics and political conflicts. Hamas has endangered the lives of our people in the wounded Gaza Strip for a long time, and it hides behind the mask of 'resistance' and the deception of its populist slogans…
From the time they came [to power] and until this moment, Hamas has nothing but an appetite for power. This has become clearer in a way that proves that the public welfare is not one of its goals or interests. See for instance, as just one example, what happened in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where a large fire burned up its main market and has so far caused the deaths as Martyrs of 25 of the camp's residents – not because of the fire itself, but because of Hamas' recklessness, which allowed the storage of its explosives and weapons in tunnels throughout the market of the disaster-stricken refugee camp. Their explosion caused the fire to spread in an alarming way! Since Hamas does not want anyone to know this truth, it closed the file on the fire through investigations for propaganda purposes, which placed the responsibility for the disaster on a gas tank, abakery owner, and the municipality (!!) [parentheses in source], while the [Izz A-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades] militia (i.e., Hamas’ military wing) sealed the openings of the tunnels that were opened as a result of the explosion of the ammunition and weapons with cement so that the truth would not be revealed!"
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2020]