OPINION:
Anath Hartmann correctly notes that Nasser Hospital, the scene of a recent Israel Defense Forces strike, was a “known terrorist operations center” (“Dry your tears for Nasser Hospital,” Web, Aug. 26). Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip, has long used hospitals to store munitions, operatives and hostages. Many in the media and the so-called international community have long looked the other way.
Hamas and its Islamist brethren use hospitals and other public dwellings, including schools, United Nations facilities and even playgrounds, to plot and launch attacks. In so doing, they hope to use their opponents’ humanity against them. The press is a key component of this strategy.
Hamas counts on journalists omitting the long list of evidence — photographic, video, even testimonies from captured terrorists — of the use of human shields in their reports. Those who fail to comply face threats and intimidation, or worse. In 2014, for example, a France24 reporter dared to note that Hamas was firing rockets from a kindergarten. He was promptly imprisoned by the terrorist group and held in a hospital that functioned as the group’s command center.
Hamas hides behind human shields and the press. It is a coward’s way of fighting, and it is one that, perversely, the much-vaunted Fourth Estate often enables.
SEAN DURNS
Senior research analyst
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)
Washington
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