This is Islam > Hamas using kids for shelter; French Intel says Israel did not bomb hospital; Egyptian Journo says Hamas shelters weapons, not people

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Hamas places rocket launchers near kindergartens, schools,

mosques, UN building

OCT 23, 2023 4:30 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

Hamas wants civilian casualties, because it knows how valuable those casualties are in the propaganda war. And the international media eagerly plays along, presenting their claims as fact.

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French military intel concludes Israeli strike NOT behind

Gaza hospital bombing

OCT 24, 2023 8:30 AM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

French military intelligence has determined that an Israeli strike was not behind the bombing of Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza. Yet there are those who remain persistently biased against Israel, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Canada’s Justin Trudeau is one of those, at least as of this writing. Despite IDF proof that was good enough even for Joe Biden, and even after Canadian military intelligence also determined that the strike was “caused by an errant rocket fired from Gaza,” Trudeau now remains “oddly quiet,” following his initial rush to blame Israel.

French military intelligence says Israeli strike not behind Gaza hospital blast

by John Irish, Reuters, October 20, 2023:

PARIS, Oct 20 (Reuters) – A blast at a Gaza hospital was not the result of an Israeli missile strike, but likely caused by a misfiring Palestinian rocket, the French military intelligence directorate (DRM) said on Friday.

Palestinian officials said 471 people were killed in the blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital on Tuesday. Gaza’s health ministry blamed an Israeli air strike, while Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by militants.

“There is nothing that allows us to say that it is an Israeli strike, but the most likely (scenario) is a Palestinian rocket that had a firing incident,” the DRM said.

An unclassified U.S. intelligence report seen by Reuters on Thursday said it judged that Israel was not responsible for the blast and estimated the death toll at 100-300 people.

According to the DRM, the impact crater was too small to have been caused by an Israeli missile.

“The most likely hypothesis is a Palestinian rocket, which exploded with a charge of about 5 kilos,” the DRM told reporters, adding that Palestinian groups had small-calibre rockets with that sort of explosive charge.

The DRM does not usually release such information, but on the instruction of President Emmanuel Macron decided to make its findings public given the contrasting accounts about who is responsible….

Contrasting accounts means truth vs lies.

Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza

Egyptian Journalist Ibrahim Eissa: Hamas Considers Lives Of Palestinians Cheap,

It Does Not Care How Many Palestinians Die; They Built Tunnels 

To Shelter Their Weapons, Instead Of Women And Children

MEMRI, October 18, 2023:

Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Eissa criticized Hamas in his October 18, 2023 monologue on Al-Kahera wal Nas TV (Egypt), saying that Palestinian lives are cheap to them and they do not care about the Palestinian cause. He said that Hamas did not prepare bomb shelters in order to protect its women and children, rather, it has prepared underground tunnels in order to shelter its weapons and ammunition. Eissa said that the result of the October 7 attack is that Hamas is destroying the Palestinian cause altogether, “under the pretext of waging resistance.” He warned that the result of the October 7 attack might be the emigration of more than a million Palestinians or the death of 10,000 Palestinians.

 

Ibrahim Eissa: “For 16 years, Hamas has been ruling the Gaza Strip with an iron fist, but has not dug and built any bomb shelters for the Palestinian civilians. The 3,000 people killed [in Gaza] – 64% of whom were women and children – could have been safe in bomb shelters now. Hamas dug tunnels and built an underground city, for its weapons, ammunitions, and its means of killing and destruction, but did not build bomb shelters for the living. Why? Because life is cheap to them.

“The group behind the [October 7] attack is irresponsible. This is a group that does not take into any consideration whatsoever the lives of people or the future of the Palestinians and their cause. Neither me nor anybody else should defend this attack, or its truly sensational success so long as its outcome is so catastrophic.

“This attack has revealed that this group we are dealing with has not only hijacked Palestinian decision-making, but is losing Palestine altogether, under the pretext of waging resistance. The simple question is whether they should not wage resistance. I say, with all due respect: Don’t.

“If this resistance leads to the destruction of the Palestinian cause… If this resistance leads to the emigration of 1.1 or 1.2 million people, nobody really knows the numbers yet… If as a result of this resistance 5,000 [Palestinians] will die… They say: ‘But we killed 2,000 of them.’ Really? Are our lives that cheap? Are lives so cheap that it does not matter if 5,000 or 10,000 of our people die, so long as we know that we killed 2,000 people from the other side? This is how [Hamas] views Palestinian lives. This is the culture of death they are possessed with.”

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The Underground Children of Donetsk

Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - As the shelling came closer to 10-year-old Artyom's neighbourhood, he was forced to swap his local playground for a bunker -- just like children across rebel-held east Ukraine.

Whenever the boom of artillery bombardments echoes over the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, Artyom's grandmother Lyudmila Tarasova quickly grabs him and hurries down to an underground shelter by their apartment.

But with fighting having intensified in east Ukraine for the past 10 days, that survival reflex means Artyom and his grandmother have been living in their subterranean retreat constantly.

"Sometimes I go out to get some fresh air, but I can't stay and play for too long," Artyom tells AFP, his large, dark eyes gazing out from under his woollen hat.

The children of Donetsk -- once a bustling industrial hub of a million people -- have a strangely pale complexion these days, with eyes that focus on a point somewhere in the distance.

The thud of mortar fire has replaced the ringing of school bells as the 10-month conflict has worn on, and with the days punctuated by the sound of silence and artillery, the local children struggle to combat fear and boredom.

About 1,000 children around the city are forced to regularly seek shelter underground, the United Nations children agency Unicef estimates.

- 'My friends have left' -

Ania, 11-years-old (L), Alesia, 4-years-old (C), and Michal, 4-years-old (R),

In the cavernous Soviet-era bunker that houses Artyom and his granny, there are another two children among the 40 people seeking safety behind the concrete walls and thick metal door.

"Almost all of my friends have left," Artyom mumbles in a monotone voice.

Now, he plays hide-and-seek among the makeshift beds with twins Sofiya and Rada, who are five years his junior.

Sometimes he likes drawing, he says: cars, his favourite football team's logo, people, the planet Earth.

Hanging from the walls, however, are only pictures of tanks, artillery pieces and missile systems.

Another photo shows a rebel fighter standing in front of three kneeling Ukrainian soldiers. "Sorry for the bombing," "We won't do it anymore," and "We promise," captions depict the three government troops saying.

Little Sofiya likes to draw too. "Mainly ponies," she says. "And my bed."

Artium,10-years-old, stands at the entrance of
a bomb shelter in Donetsk's Kiyevski district

Concentrating on her colouring book, she does not lift her eyes as she sings a song extolling the virtues of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the prompting of her grandmother.

"I want to be a painter when I grow up," she says.

- 'Homework like a holiday' -

In the Petrovsky district in the west of the city, Anya, 11, and her sister Olesya, 3, rarely venture out of their basement.

Shells fall regularly in this area only around two kilometres (just over a mile) from the frontline.

"I don't go any further than just outside the door," says Anya, sporting a pink jacket.

Three metres (yards) away, a crumpled electricity pylon shows how close danger has struck.

"During the night when it goes 'boom' right nearby, it wakes me up," the young girl says.

Now, though, the two sisters have become used to the fighting and don't cry, their grandmother says.

As time drags on in their shelter, Anya looks forward to Wednesdays most, when her teacher calls her on the phone and gives her a few lessons.

"I love all the subjects, but my favourite is maths," she says shyly.

Schooling for the children of Donetsk is sporadic at best.

Schools reopened in October when clashes died down. But since the fighting has picked up again in recent weeks, they've been gradually closed again.

"Doing homework feels like a holiday," says Anya's grandmother.

As the shells fall, four-year-old Misha carries on playing a car racing game on his basic computer console.

"There is nothing to do here beside eat and sleep, sleep and eat," says his mother, Natalia Snizhkovskaya.