Palestinian Terrorist Groups Excelling in Committing Atrocities
More than 360 civilians were killed at the Supernova music festival on 7 October EPA |
"[The terrorists committed a crime against humanity because they launched a] widespread attack directed against a civilian population.""The killing of civilians and taking of hostages were all central aims of the planned attack, and not actions that occurred as an afterthought or as a plan gone awry or as isolated acts, for example, perpetrated by unaffiliated Palestinians from Gaza.""That [the claim that random Palestinian civilians took part in the attack] was a claim that was made very early on, it was made by Hamas in order to distance its own fighters from the abuses, and it was made by Israel to justify attacks on civilians in Gaza.""The intentional killing and hostage-taking of civilians was planned and highly co-ordinated."Belkis Wille, associate director, Human Rights Watch
It
has taken almost a year, but finally Human Rights Watch -- never a
friend of Israel -- issued a report affirming the sadistic savagery
visited upon Israeli civilians on October 7 of 2023 was a deliberately
planned mass slaughter of devastating proportions. Palestinian
terrorists killed some 1,200 people, kidnapping over 250 people of all
ages, taking them to Gaza as human pawns, some 120 of whom remain in
Hamas' hands.
Human
Rights Watch has declared that the attack met the international legal
definition for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Still in Gaza are
115 of the 251 abducted during the fateful early October day of dread
infamy. Still being held for 'trade' agreements are 42 dead Israelis,
among them soldiers captured by the terrorists on their crossing into
southern Israel, who manned Israeli border observation posts.
According
to the HRW report, five different Palestinian armed terrorist groups
engaged in war crimes, violating international law by killing,
torturing, taking hostages, looting and committing crimes involving
sexual and gender-based violence, primarily the mutilation of girls and
women before they were raped and murdered. All the groups were led by
the Hamas Qassam Brigades.
HRW
researchers relied on a report by a special United Nations envoy who
had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Hamas committed sexual
violence during the attack, while claiming its own researchers had been
unable to independently verify claims of sexual violence and rape.
Somewhat akin to Medecines sans Frontieres claiming that since it had
not actually witnessed these atrocities, it could not subscribe to their
condemnation.
At
230 pages in length, the report focused on the October 7 attacks
without examining actions taken by Hamas or Israel linked to the
subsequent war brought to Gaza. As the terrorists launched a "widespread attack directed against a civilian population, theirs was a crime against humanity".
HRW's Belkis Wille had arrived in Israel mere days following the
October attack, spending a month in research with local staff.
Palestinian
terror attacks at 26 civilian sites were examined by the researchers,
who spoke with close to a hundred survivors, along with 50 experts and
first responders to the violent tragedy. The conclusion was reached by
the researchers that following their review of hundreds of photos and
videos the majority of the Palestinians taking part in the atrocities
were terror-group affiliated, not random civilians who had taken
advantage of the open fence.
Footage
of the events observing the terror operatives included those who wore
civilian clothing, communicating via walkie-talkies, taking orders from
commanders, which led the researchers to conclude the operatives who
carried out the worst abuses, particularly in the early hours of the
attack, belonged to 'armed factions'.
Hamas
issued a nine-page response to the report, elucidating that the Qassam
Brigades had planned and led the attack, and the Hamas political
movement was not involved; operatives, they claimed were instructed to
avoid targeting civilians. A claim that even HRW found "false". The
organization concluded their report by calling on Hamas to release the
120 hostages immediately, along with bodies of hostages remaining in
Gaza.
Labels: Crimes Against Humanity, Guilty as Charged, Hamas Invasion of Israel, Mass Atrocities, October 7 223, Palestinian Terrorism, War Crimes
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