{"id":182027,"date":"2014-08-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T21:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=182027"},"modified":"2019-03-11T21:18:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T21:18:11","slug":"auto-insert-182027","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-182027\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas fires deadly rockets targeting Israeli civilians,using Palestinians as human shields – Letter from Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Identical letters dated 27 August 2014 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the Â鶹APP addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Over the past 50 days, more than 4,000 rockets have been shot at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Thousands of these rockets were launched from densely populated areas. Hamas is committing a double war crime — first by using Palestinian civilians as human shields and second by intentionally targeting innocent Israeli civilians.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Deadly rockets were fired daily from launch pads located in hospitals, mosques and schools in Gaza only to explode in homes, synagogues and kindergartens in Israel. While Israel has been using missile defence to protect its civilians, Hamas has been using civilians to protect its missiles.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hamas deliberately embeds its military operations in residential areas with the clear intention of using its own people, including women and children, as protection. One does not have to look any further than Hamas’ own combat manual on urban warfare to see how the terror organization has institutionalized its disregard for human life. Its combat strategy guidelines explicitly instruct terrorists to use civilians as human shields. This is not a new tactic — it has been the modus operandi of Hamas each and every time it has waged hostilities against Israel.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Evidence of this criminal strategy is mounting and the examples are too numerous to count. Hamas has routinely fired from schools, playgrounds and hotels, as described below:<\/p><\/div>\n