The true face of Hamas.
I brought my girls to Tel Aviv last night for them to meet with other youth and to celebrate the end of 2008/ beginning of 2009. I hope that in the middle of all the misery and all "the dark clouds" above us in this area, we will have the strength to look forward with appetite for life.

As we got up late today we heard that an apartment building had been hit in Ashdod. With so many people staying home I was sure that this would mean lots of wounded and even dead, but to everyones surprice not even one got hurt. The people living in this building had used the staircase for bombshelter. They didn't realize that their building was hit and that there was a need for them to be evaquated. ...
Later we were informed that the top floor had been completely destroyed. The lady living there was not at home as the rocket hit. She was interviewed by the time she got back and told the reporter that she had left for the bank. She is a physiotherapist and had a clinic at her apartment. Because of the situation she had cancelled all the treatments for today. She was on her way back to her home as the alarm went . After the "bom" she received phone calls telling her that she didn't have a home anymore.Nothing is left from her flat. The top part of the building collapsed completely and all the rubble is now in the 8'th floor. Every inhabitant has been evaquated due to severe damage.
When asked about how she felt about having lost all her belongings, she answered "That belongs to the past, now is the time to think forward."

I would like to draw your attention to a web-site called "Palestinian Media Watch"
http://www.pmw.org.il/ You will find enough there to give you a deeper understanding of what I wrote about yesterday. The following has been copied from there.

A Palestinian girl whose family members were killed yesterday in Gaza:"I say Hamas is the cause of all wars."
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Dec. 29, 2008
A Palestinian girl whose family members was killed yesterday in Gaza after an Israeli air attack was interviewed today on Palestinian TV and placed the blame for the war on Hamas:
[Girl] "We were sleeping 7 girls in the room. We were asleep and didn't know what was happening. In the morning all the bricks were on top of my head, and the heads of all my sisters. My 4 year old sister next to me was dead."
[Interviewer] "How many were you?"
[Girl] "Seven.In the other room were my mother, my father, my yonger brother and another sister, who is 13 days old. I say, Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars."[PATV (Fatah) Dec. 29, 2008]
To view video in English click here.

PMW archives:Hamas explains using civilians as human shields: "We desire death as you desire life." [Feb. 29, 2008]
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Dec. 29, 2008
The UN announcement that 51 civilians have died in the conflict in Gaza must be understood in the context of Hamas's declared ideology to use civilians as human shields for Hamas fighters.Indeed, Hamas continues to emphasize and promote the religious ideology that death for Allah is an ideal to be actively pursued. The goal is to convince Palestinians, including women and children, not to fear death but even to face it at the front to protect Hamas fighters.Hamas's placement of its military installations and fighters among civilians reflects this ideology, and has led to these 51 deaths.A Hamas representative in the PA legislative council this year expressed pride in the fact that women and children are used as human shields in fighting Israel. He described it as part of a "death industry" at which Palestinians excel, and explained that the Palestinians "desire death" with the same intensity that Israelis "desire life."The following is the full text of the comments by Hamas representative Fathi Hamad:"For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire life."[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) Feb. 29, 2008]To view video in English click here.
To download the clip in high quality to your computer contact our office.

Mahmoud Abbas: Hamas responsible for violenceby Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Dec. 28, 2008
In a news conference today from Cairo, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas placed the blame for the violence in the Gaza Strip squarely on the shoulders of Hamas. He described how he repeatedly made contact with Hamas and implored them not to break the ceasefire. He lamented that the violence in the Gaza Strip could have been avoided had Hamas not broken the ceasefire.The following is Mahmoud Abbas's statement at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit."I say in all honesty, we made contact with leaders of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. We spoke with them in all honesty and directly, and after that we spoke with them indirectly, through more than one Arab and non-Arab side... We spoke with them on the telephone and we said to them: We ask of you, don't stop the ceasefire, the ceasefire must continue and not stop, in order to avoid what has happened, and if only we had avoided it."PA TV Dec. 28, 2008

Elin Elkouby.