BICOM

Key Points

• Over 4,500 rockets and mortars were fired as Israeli civilians during Operation Protective Edge.
• Hamas decisions prolonged hostilities, rejecting ceasefire offers and breaching truces.
• Hamas deliberately endangered civilian lives in Gaza by placing military capabilities in civilian areas.

Indiscriminate attacks against Israeli civilians

• During Operation Protective Edge, over 4,500 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip by armed groups at Israeli cities, towns, and kibbutzim resulting in six civilian deaths, many injured civilians, and significant damage.
• The indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel was recognised as criminal by Ibrahim Khreisheh, the Palestinian envoy to the UN Human Rights Council: “Each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity, whether it hits or misses, because it is directed at a civilian target.”
• Hamas’s intent was evident in the statements of its spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum: “Our rockets are aimed at the Hebrews, the murderers, the Israelis, the criminals … our missiles accurately target the homes of the Israelis and the Zionists.”
• Hamas used tunnels dug into Israel to attack Israeli military and civilian targets. Some 14 were discovered crossed over into Israel, with over a dozen more unfinished tunnels.

Deliberately prolonging hostilities

• Hamas repeatedly broke humanitarian ceasefires and rejected proposals to end the conflict.
• On 15 July, one week into the conflict, Israel agreed to an Arab League-backed Egyptian ceasefire proposal that called on both sides to come to Cairo for indirect talks. Israel suspended its operations but Hamas rejected the proposal.
• Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry blamed Hamas, saying, “The parties that oppose the Egyptian cease-fire initiative bear responsibility for the Palestinian blood being shed.”
• Palestinian groups broke humanitarian ceasefires on 1, 11 and 19 August.

Harm caused to the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza by militants

• Hamas and other groups deliberately used the civilian population as human shields by placing military capabilities in densely populated civilian areas.
• Armed groups sought to blend in to the civilian population by moving between military posts without weapons or uniforms, making it as hard as possible for Israeli forces to distinguish civilians.
• Palestinian armed groups launched 550 rockets and mortars from within or near schools, UN facilities, hospitals and mosques. The UN found missiles in three of its schools.
• Over 250 rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian groups fell short of causing damage and fatalities, including hits on power lines supplying Gaza with electricity on 13 and 15 July and rockets which struck the Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Shati refugee camp killing 10 on 28 July.
• On July 16, it was reported by Palestine Press News Agency that Hamas security services had placed Fatah members under house arrest. IDF forces in Gaza received accounts of civilians being forced, by Hamas, to remain in areas of ongoing hostilities rather than evacuate as instructed.
• On 22 August, Hamas executed 23 individuals which it claimed were ‘collaborators’ with Israel. Additionally, PA President Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of killing Fatah members who violated an imposed curfew.

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