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| By: Israel Insider staff |
| Published: August 21, 2007 |
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Palestinian militant groups do not target civilians, and IDF soldiers take public transportation so as to use fellow bus-goers as human shields, claimed Hamas representative Osama Hamdan in an interview in Lebanon earlier this month, reported the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
"Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian resistance force intentionally killed civilians," stated Hamdan in the interview, which was aired on August 6 on Al-Kawthar TV.
During the interview, Hamdan rationalizes suicide bombings on Israeli buses by claiming that most of those attacked are soldiers, and that any non-military Israelis cannot be considered civilians. Therefore, the attacks do not target civilians.
According to Hamdan, most of Israel's inhabitants came from abroad to live in the country either before or after it's establishment, and are thus considered the enemy.
"As for those who immigrated from various countries - they are not Jews. Anyone who comes to live in a war zone is a combatant, regardless of whether he wears a uniform," said Hamdan, claiming that the only group that can be called Jewish are the Jews living in Nablus.
Hamdan goes on to defend Palestinian militant groups who targeted buses, "which is protected by various security measures," as opposed to civilian targets such as schools, theatres and stadiums.
"Why were buses targeted? Because they are the means of transport used by the soldiers as well. [...] In my opinion, the occupation soldiers also have a security motive in using public transport: They shield themselves behind the so-called 'civilians' within the Zionist entity," stated Hamdan.
The Hamas representative suggests that either soldiers refrain from riding on buses, or Israel prevent them from doing so, as they are the ones that are targeted.
"The Zionists never announced, for example, that 20 children were killed, or that 50 women were killed. On the contrary, if you were to examine who was killed in martyrdom operations that targeted buses, you would find that 70% were occupation soldiers, and they may even have been in uniform at the time of the operation," he said.
Echoing the repeated calls of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to whip Israel off the map, Hamdan concludes with the ultimate goal of "the resistance."
"We are making the preparations for a confrontation. This is not because we need to be prepared for an Israeli act of aggression - after all, aggression is intrinsic to this entity - but because the final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity off the face of the Earth. This goal necessitates the development of the capabilities of the resistance, until this entity is wiped out."
At the close of the interview, Hamdan is asked whether Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas "plays the role of a policeman, who is thwarting the Intifada, the resistance, and the jihad against the Zionist occupation in the Palestinian lands?"
Hamdan answers: "He plays a role that is even worse than that. [...] [He] was brought in by the Americans to serve as prime minister in order to confront Arafat. In my opinion, he plays this role willingly and out of conviction, which is worse than if he were doing it out of commitment to the occupation." |
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