Hamas is winning international sympathy as a result of alleged civilian deaths, some caused by its own misfired rockets.
Mainstream media has emphasized the number of alleged civilian deaths in Gaza the past several days, after believing and headlining a story that the visiting Egyptian prime minister kissed the head of a dead boy, allegedly killed by Israel.
Watchdog sites and Arutz Sheva exposed the fact that that the boy died after one of Hamas’ own rockets misfired and exploded in Gaza. The IDF also stated that there was no military activity in the area where the boy died.
CNN reported a heart-wrenching story on the death but did not correct its report after the guise was discovered.
The IDF has produced an animated YouTube illustrating Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields for terrorist activities, a tactic it perfected in the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in 2006.
The video explains that Hamas used private buildings weapons depots, leaving Israel in the predicament of striking while trying to avoid civilian casualties or allowing Hamas to freely launch missiles on Israel’s civilian population.
The Israeli campaign to explain Hamas’s strategy has had little effect on foreign media such as CNN and The New York Times. The newspaper on Monday headlined that Israel was bombing civilian sites but later changed it to read “government” offices, which are used by Hamas for terrorist activities.
Defining government officials as “civilians” raises the toll of supposed civilians.
The Associated Press quoted on Monday Hamas medics as saying that “farmers” and a child were killed in Air Force aerial strikes.
Foreign media have repeatedly called the counterterrorist operation “deadly” and “relentless,” occasionally mentioning the barrage of missiles on Israeli civilians but without noting that the attacks on southern Israel have continued for years, with limited Israeli retaliation.