You are right!
it doesn’t make sense, UNLESS:

1. You are fighting against an army governed by ethics that would not shoot back when they can see you are surrounded by civilians.
example: Hamas combatants mingled with the women, exploiting the fact that IDF would not fire indiscriminately at a large group of women at the Nasser mosque in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip during an Israeli operation in November 2006.

2. You are firing from far away, launching a rocket and will be able to run away before the response shells hit. Then you can get triple play: take the firing credit (paid to play), create a PR victim event (resulting from civilian casualties) and maybe revenge old clan feud (if you fire close enough to their home). Civilian casualties become the price paid in the “just struggle” against the enemy.
example: mortars fire from UNRWA boys’ school in Gaza 31 Oct 2007

3. You are suicidal and seeking martyrdom
speech by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008: Fathi Hammad: “saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death like you desire life.”

You are right!
Firing at tanks while having civilians in front of the shooter for protection, against a missile that can destroy a building doesn’t make sense, UNLESS:

1. You are fighting against an army governed by ethics that would not shoot back when they can see you are surrounded by civilians.

Example of women used as human shields : Hamas sent 200 women to rescue dozens of operatives from the Nasser mosque in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip during an Israeli operation in November 2006. The combatants mingled with the women, exploiting the fact that the IDF would not fire indiscriminately at a large group of women, and escaped from the combat area.

2. You are firing from far away, launching a rocket and will be able to run away before the response shell hits. Then you can take both the firing credit and create a PR victim event: enemy fired on civil population (civilian casualties would just become the price paid in the “just struggle” against the enemy).

Example: mortars fire from UNRWA boys’ school in Gaza 31 Oct 2007
The footage, taken by IDF aircraft on Monday, October 29, 2007, shows three combatants preparing and then launching the shells from the school.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Pages/MediaPlayer.aspx?MediaUrl=http://switch3.castup.net/cune/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=1401718!!!!ak=null&LANGUAGE_NAME=En

3. You are suicidal and seeking martyrdom
Excerpts from a speech by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008:
Fathi Hammad: [The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the
mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: “We desire death like you desire life.”

As to “leaving ammunition or weapons in unguarded” – who is going to steal it? Yes it definitely endangers the civil population! That’s why its human shield (Hamas as a governing power performing perfidy). It actually makes it easier for Hamas fighters to get to weapons because stashes are all over the place. It’s called distributed warehousing. It would not be surprising to learn that residents are being paid for weapons stored in their homes, They are being patriotic and make some money.

As to “pals do not represent danger to the state” – Self Defense is a Just cause.
Government has an obligation to maintain peace and protect its citizens, and this obligation gives them the right to wage war in order to maintain peace.

Launch of rockets to kill as many civilians as possible in a neighboring country is not self defense, it’s an act of aggression.

Public policy of Hamas, the governing body in Gaza, to destroy Israel is a declarative act of aggression . Hamas government is responsible for the suffering of Gaza people. This suffering is the direct result of their policy and aggression.

Armed Hamas policemen broke into a warehouse in Gaza City and confiscated thousands of blankets and hundreds of food packages intended for UNWRA refugees, an official from the relief and human development agency said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on Tuesday after the Ministry of Social Affairs unsuccessfully tried to confiscate food and other UNRWA supplies that were being transported to the organization’s storage areas and the agency’s staff resisted, said John Ging, UNRWA’s operations director in the Gaza Strip.

A few Hamas policemen confiscated 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food packages prepared for distribution from an UNRWA warehouse on Tuesday afternoon, he said.

“They took it under gunpoint,” Ging told The Jerusalem Post from the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City. “My staff had resisted earlier the confiscation of the convoy, as they are absolutely instructed to do…Compliments to them for that, but unfortunately, later, they came and took it by gunpoint.”

“We are very upset about this,” he said. “This is stealing aid destined for the refugees. We have demanded that it be returned.”

The agency has communicated with Hamas officials regarding its demand, but had yet to receive a response from them as of Wednesday afternoon, he said.

He added: “We expect to get the aid back. This aid is for the refugees, not for anybody else, not for any political parties. This aid was donated to us, through us, for the refugees, and we have to have integrity for the aid effort here in Gaza.”

Responding to the theft, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, who overlooks humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, said the incident was “further proof that Hamas is continuing to make life miserable for the population of Gaza and will use any means to intensify its suffering.”

During Operation Cast Lead, Herzog said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, “Hamas leaders worried about their own welfare and security while totally neglecting the
population.”

He said that Israel would continue to demand that any aid transferred to the Strip be “directed for the welfare of the civilian population only.”

In the past month the IDF alleged on several occasions that Hamas has stolen humanitarian assistance designated for Gaza civilians.

An IDF official said the army noticed the trend already during Operation Cast Lead last month when despite the fighting, Israel transferred close to 80 trucks a day to the Strip.

Wednesday marked the first time that the UN admitted that such a theft had occurred.

Nuaf Atar, a Fatah operative captured during the operation, told the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) that Hamas government officials “took over” humanitarian aid Israel allowed in to the Gaza Strip and sold it when it was supposed to be distributed for free.

Ging said Wednesday’s incident was the first time that Hamas had stolen food or supplies from them and added that he hoped it would be the last.

Ahmad Kurd, the Hamas official in charge of the ministry, did not deny the seizure of the aid Wednesday, charging the UN was giving the aid to local groups with ties to Hamas opponents.

“UNRWA did not do what it said it would do, and began distributing its aid to groups that tie their activities to political activism,” Kurd said.

But Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu demanded an apology and said UNRWA was “spreading false news.” Ihab Ghussein, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the incident occurred because the UN was “storing the blankets in an area not authorized to be distributed.”

Alix de Mauny, a spokeswoman for the European Commission which contributed $626 million to Palestinian in 2008, said “We are very concerned, but this is an isolated incident, we hope. We will react accordingly if this develops beyond an isolated incident.”

An Eye for an Eyelash
Kosovo vs Gaza
1. NATO operational goal was to get Serbia out of Kosovo – Israel left Gaza! No NATO population was under attack.
2. 80 days of NATO high altitude bombardment (no NATO casualties) resulted in between 500 to 1,500 civilian deaths and 170 Serbian military deaths.
3. Israel placed its soldiers in peril on the ground, gave away the advantage of surprise by announcing where and when the next attack will occur and allowed its officers discretion to limit civilians casualties.

Jamie Shea, NATO spokesman, BBC News, May 31, 1999
NATO planes bombed only “legitimate designated military targets” and if civilians had died it was because NATO had been forced into military action. Adamant that “we try to do our utmost to ensure that if there are civilians around we do not attack,” Shea emphasized that “NATO does not target civilians…let’s be perfectly clear about that.”

You may also want to compare recent Gaza urban warfare to that of US operation in Faluhjah, Iraq.

firing at tanks or helicopters while holdding babies in one hand or having one,two, three civilians in front of the shooter for protection against a missile that can destroy a building doesn’t make sense.

likewise leaving ammunition or weapons in unguarded buildings (obviously they weren’t guarded properly or at all) wld endanger residents and make it harder for fighters to obtain them.

in addition, the latest israeli raid is not a defensive action as pals do not represent danger to the state.
it seems the whole purpose for the raid was to perp a carnage. and IOF withdrew killing no more than, let’s say, 300 fighters; which can be easily replaced.
there still may be 10td fighters in gaza and still led by hamas; and they have bodies and nothing to lose. thnx

See An Eye for an Eyelash
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/09/090112_an_eye_for.php

Paras. Targeting Hamas and Preparing the Propaganda for War especially recommended.

2. Documented calls in the Hamas controlled Gaza media for Palestinians civilians to serve as human shields

3. Humanitarian aid to Gaza: by the numbers

4. How many of the damaged buildings, including schools, mosques and others were used as ammunition storage facilities? How does this compare to recent urban warfare like US operation in Faluhjah, Iraq?

5. One can either believe or mistrust Israeli pilot’s testimony about his considerations before pulling the trigger. Discretion used at the field level is an evidence of IDF military ethics at work.

Think of Israel as the United States’ vanguard in the Middle East. What better way to control a region of the planet you do not occupy than by having a well-armed extension of yourself smack-dab in the center of said region? Make no mistake: Israel does heavily influence United States policy in the Middle East for their own nefarious ends, but the United States by extension also has a stranglehold on that part of the world. It is a mutually beneficial relationship. The U.S. wants oil to power its military; Israel wants the U.S. military to be powerful.

– Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

This is CHUTZPAH at it’s most arrogant!
As if Israeli’s army can ever be moral,
any army in the world for that matter?

Bozh, yea, and just who finances the setting up, maintaining and expanding of these “gangs”? Who decides when they are destroyed or replaced?
Key word being “finance.”
I’d wager the “usual suspects.”

Anybody is willing to respond?

The US Empire is a perfect example of this dynamic. Empires come and go. Yes. But as the sordid sorts collapse along with the structure they sprang from…unless they can muster the capacity to re-emerge in the form of fascism ala Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain in the 1930s.