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Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh holding a child (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff August 22, 2007 |
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IDF troops in Gaza killed a senior Hamas commander in an air strike on Wednesday, along with three Hamas militants and two children on Tuesday, according to Haaretz. The commander has been identified as Yehia Habib.
Hamas' Islamic Jihad reportedly used two children on Tuesday to collect rocket launchers in Gaza directly after the militants fired missiles into Israel. The militants fled, exposing the youths to IDF retaliatory fire. An IDF tank shot and killed the two children, 9-years-old and 12-years-old.
The IDF said it saw two figures approach the launchers right after they had been used and shot at them.
"Children have no business being near Qassam rocket launchers," IDF officers said in a statement last night.
The only reason anyone approaches the launchers after rockets are fired is to gather or reload them, IDF sources said, according to the paper, so there was no way to avoid shooting at the people near the launchers.
An IDF spokesman issued a statement Tuesday criticizing Hamas' abuse of children.
"If these were children or youths, we regret the use that the terrorist groups are making of them," the statement read.
IDF sources say that this phenomenon, however unfortunate, is not rare and is done in part to sully Israel's reputation.
"This is a cynical use of children but we are no longer surprised by anything we see. A 14-year-old child has already fired an RPG rocket against an IDF force, a grandmother aged close to 70 fired a light weapon against a Givati [Brigade] force recently in the Strip. What were these children doing there anyway? The militants fled immediately after the launch and then sent the children to collect the launchers," one of the sources added.
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