You hear this all the time from the critics of Israel’s bombing of Gaza as if it is proof that Israel is a cruel bloodthirsty country.

My response: why not? It’s not like Hamas hasn’t been the recipient of billions of dollars in Western aid, no less the blood money they get from their allies in Iran and other outlaw regimes.

Why not?

— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) October 12, 2023

There is one reason why Gaza citizens are in the line of fire, why they are being subject to bombings, why they will be in the streets during vicious street-to-street fighting shortly, and why their hospitals and schools are getting destroyed: Hamas wants it that way.

Hamas builds bunkers and tunnels, stores ammunition in schools and hospitals, and plans its evil among civilians. It tears up its water infrastructure to build rockets. It demands citizens act as human shields and parades the bodies of Palestinians who got killed for the sole purpose of providing propaganda benefits. They do it so that their allies in the West can claim that Israel is the real aggressor.

❗️Israel blew up an underground tunnel filled with Hamas rocket manufacturing equipment and rockets in Gaza strip. Secondary explosions visible. pic.twitter.com/rVSTZIQnSx

— ZOKA 🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@200__zoka) October 13, 2023

Hamas is pure evil. Not only does Israel have to fight its way through the human shields to get to the terrorists who slaughter innocents, but they have to do so because Hamas demands that Gazans be part of the Jihad whether they want to or not.

This entire neighborhood in Gaza has been wiped out by four days of Israeli airstrikes. Rimal was known as the cultural hub of Gaza.

2.3 million Palestinians are trapped in Gaza. They have nowhere to hide – there are no bomb shelters in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/NHF0r8MzrR

— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 11, 2023

Comparisons to Hitler are too easily made, but Hamas looks to Hitler as a model. During World War II many Arabs looked to Hitler as an ally and supported his extermination of the Jews–a goal explicitly adopted by Hamas in its charter. Criticizing Israel for making war in Gaza and assigning the fault for civilian casualties is not different than faulting the Allies for German and Japanese deaths in the wars on their regimes.

“There are no bomb shelters here.”

Sounds of Israeli strikes could be heard in the background of a CNN interview with an American doctor, Dr. Barbara Zind, stuck in the besieged enclave of Gaza

🎥: CNN pic.twitter.com/Ovi37lN1PE

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 11, 2023

The casualties are regrettable, but also the inevitable consequence of those regimes’ policies. The alternative was to give succor to the evil governments.

Hamas knew this war was coming because they planned and executed the attacks. To the extent that their civilians are defenseless, it was by choice. After all, Hamas certainly knows how to build tunnels and bunkers for its own soldiers and leaders. They simply chose to expose the people they supposedly represent to the full might of Israel’s wrath.

This is their MO pic.twitter.com/f1Z1rekGaM

— RExLibNat (@LGlobalcitizen) October 12, 2023

Mainstream media outlets spreading the “There are no bomb shelters” propaganda need to ask “Why not?” There are in Israel because the Israel government cares about its citizens. Why doesn’t Hamas?

Don’t accept the premise that somehow innocents are being attacked and slaughtered by Israel. It is no more true than arguing that the citizens of Germany were mere victims of the Allied bombings. That is absurd.

Hamas must be treated as the Nazis were: unconditional surrender, or else.