They were heavily infested with Hamas
militants
"This war is also child's play because of its victims.
About a third of those killed in Gaza have been
children - 311, according to the Palestinian Health
Ministry, 270 according to the B'Tselem human rights group - out of
the 1,000 total killed as of Wednesday. Around 1,550 of the 4,500
wounded have also been children according to figures from the UN,
which says the number of children killed has tripled since the
ground operation began.
This is too large a proportion by any humanitarian or ethical
standard.
...
It is enough to look at the pictures coming from Shifa
Hospital to see how many burned, bleeding and dying children now
lie there. History has seen innumerable brutal wars take countless
lives.
But the horrifying proportion of this war, a third of the
dead being children, has not been seen in recent
memory.
...
One can say Hamas hides among the civilian
population, as if the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv is not located
in the heart of a civilian population, as if there are places in
Gaza that are not in the heart of a civilian population. One can
also claim that Hamas uses children as human shields, as if in the
past our own organizations fighting to establish a country did not
recruit children.
A significant majority of the children killed in Gaza did not die
because they were used as human shields or because they worked for
Hamas. They were killed because the IDF bombed, shelled or
fired at them, their families or their apartment buildings. That is
why the blood of Gaza's children is on our hands, not on Hamas'
hands, and we will never be able to escape that
responsibility."
- The IDF has no mercy for the children in Gaza
nursery schools
The bomb is not
banned. It is
unfortunate that Hamas military activities always take place in
civilian places, making it dificult to enforce the guidelines for
using phospherous bombs.
"Video showing injuries consistent with the use of white
phosphorus shells has been filmed inside hospitals treating
Palestinian wounded in Gaza
City.
Contact with the shell remnants causes severe burns,
sometimes burning the skin to the bone, consistent with
descriptions by Ahmed Almi, an Egyptian doctor at the al-Nasser
hospital in Khan Younis.
Almi said the entire body of one victim was burned within an
hour. It was the first time he had seen the effects of what he
called a "chemical weapon".
The Israeli military has denied using white phosphorus during
the assault on Gaza, but aid agencies say they have no
doubt it has been used.
"It is an absolute certainty," said Marc Garlasco, a
senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. He had seen Israeli
artillery fire white phosphorus shells at Gaza City, Garlasco
said.
...
Human Rights Watch compares the use of white phosphorus shells
over Gaza to the impact of cluster munitions, which scatter
"bomblets" over a wide area. Children may kick and play with a lump
of phosphorus, stirring up the embers and producing more fire and
smoke.
The use of white phosphorus as a weapon – as opposed to
its use as an obscurant and infrared blocking smoke screen – is
banned by the UN's third convention on conventional
weapons, which covers the use of incendiary devices.
Though Israel is not a signatory to the convention, its military
manuals reflect the convention's restrictions on using white
phosphorus.
[Now, what is the difference when
even though it may be claimed that it is used as a "smokescreen",
but ends up harming and killing hundreds of civilians. Isn't that a
definition of a weapon?]
Israel initially claimed that it was not using white phosphorus.
It later explained that shells being loaded for a howitzer,
identified from photographs as phosphorus rounds, were empty
"quiet" shells used for target marking. However, images of
exploding shells and showering burning fragments are now
acknowledged by independent observers as having been
phosphorus.
At the centre of the controversy is the way white
phosphorus air burst shells have been used in heavily built-up
urban areas, with an overwhelmingly civilian
population.
..."
- Video shows evidence of phosphorus bombs in
Gaza
No concrete evidence. If
IDF is accused of mass-killing civilians, what's the point of IDF
holding families as human shields?
Massing-killing civilians by
indiscriminate bombing is different from using families as human
shields as one is conducted from the air while the other is a
tactic used by ground troops. Of course you will deny it even
though Amnesty International accuses Israel of the crime. In the
first place, you are not willing to accept that the Israeli
military, just like all militaries, are trained to kill, but in
this case, the killing is mostly the murder of civilians under the
guise of killing Hamas members.
"Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty investigator in
Israel, is quoted in today's Guardian as saying: "It's
standard practice for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up
the family in a room on the ground floor and use the rest of the
house as a military base, as a sniper's position. That is the
absolute textbook case of human shields.
"It has been practised by the Israeli army for many years and
they are doing it again in Gaza now."
Here's your proof:
Israeli [Army] using Palestinian Kids as Human
Shields
IDF to appeal human shield ban
When Hamas does it,
everyone condemns it. But when Israel engages in it, people like
you disregard it and even when Israel is caught doing it, its
alright given how the IDF shows it audacity by appealing to the
Israeli Supreme Court to continue the practice. That sure makes a
lot of sense. Israel
HAS been caught doing it, and when Amnesty International, working
to relieve the humanitarian crisis on the ground in the Gaza
reports on it, of course I would believe it rather than your biased
reasoning based on ZERO experience that you need proof that you
wouldnt even accept. And of course Israel doesnt want news of this
kind getting out, thats why they have prevented the foreign media from
accessing the Gaza Strip, even when an Israeli High Court allows
them access. Again, dont ignore this blatent violation of
Israel's own Laws and legal system.
UN and red cross
ambulances are known to have transport Hamas
militants.
Injured militants or ambulances
that have been hijacked? The video you posted didnt make that
clear. In the first place, it is a violations of the Geneva
Convention to deny medical treatment to the wounded, which Israel
is doing. Then, even if the ambulance has been hijacked, it doesnt
provide future immunity to Israel to attack the property and
personnel of international humanitarian organisations. If so, then
how the hell are the Palestinian people supposed to get
aid?
"ISRAELI shells set ablaze a food warehouse at UN headquarters
in Gaza yesterday, destroying tons of emergency rations intended
for needy Gaza civilians, a senior UN official said.
...
Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said the military fired
artillery shells at the UN compound after Hamas militants opened
fire from the location, a version of events John Ging, director of
Unwra in Gaza, rejected as "nonsense"
Mr Ging said Israeli shells first hit a courtyard filled
with refugees, then struck garages and the UN's main warehouse,
sending thousands of tons of food aid up in flames. Later, fuel
supplies ignited, sending a thick plume of smoke into the
air.
...Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, called the attack
"indefensible", saying the UN's mission in Gaza "is purely
humanitarian, bringing relief to civilians suffering in appalling
conditions as a result of the ongoing military actions and
restrictions on food and medical supplies entering
Gaza".
..."
I doubt it. Show evidence
for us(or me) to verify.
Obviously you are not prepared to
acknowledge any wrong-doing on the IDF's side even when the death
toll is staring right in front of you. I already said, I'm not
condoning or siding with Hamas (it is clear that Hamas has
committed and is committing acts of terrorism), my case is to
present the overlooked side of the story that you and other
immovable Israel supporters have willfully ignored. If you cannot
even acknowledge wrong when it is committed, how can you claim to
be objective (despite all your caustic comments)?
When the Hamas used its citizens as human shields,
everyone condoned it. When IDF used an enemy as bait, everyone
condemned it. 
