Neighbors Didn't Stop Hamas for Fear of Being Labeled Spies

This jumped out at me in a New York Times article posted tonight:

Shireen Shihab, 30, a resident of Gaza City, said Monday that she had seen Hamas fighters firing rockets toward Israel from a site two blocks away from her home. She said she and others could not express any opposition for fear of being labeled spies.

We read something similar in a New York Times story from Jan 3 from Salah Abu Rafia, a man accompanying wounded relatives to Shifa hospital:

He said that Hamas fighters had been in the area, but that he had been afraid to tell them to go away.

But Shireen Shihab is more specific. She helps us understand that to complain could lead to being labeled a spy. And we know that would be a death sentence, as we learned here. So the choice is to complain to Hamas fighters who are shooting rockets from your neighborhood and face certain death, or let them continue and face the possibility of injury or death.

I also want to look at one sentence in the middle of this latest article and juxtapose it with one at the end of the article. First we read:

Ten days into Israel’s offensive against Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, the civilian toll was rising alongside that of the militants.

But the article ends:

Among the survivors of the Samouni family, opinions were divided. Some blessed the resistance. But Hamada Al-Samouni, 28, who was lightly wounded by the Israeli rocket and was clearly still in shock, said this was all happening “because of the rockets” fired by Hamas.

He said he had seen the bodies of eight Hamas fighters dressed in civilian clothing lying in the streets around Zeitoun. They had been lying there for two days and nobody had come to collect them, he said.

Hmmm, I seem to remember that yesterday the same reporter was remarking that it was puzzling that there were no wounded or dead Hamas fighters arriving at the hospital:

A week ago, when Israel began its air assault, hundreds of Hamas militants were taken to the hospital. Yet on Sunday, the day Israeli troops flooded Gaza and ground battles with Hamas began, there appeared not to be a single one.

The number of deaths is being counted based on who is brought in to the hospital. So, leaving the bodies of Hamas fighters in the streets drives down the Hamas fighter body count and drives up the civilian to Hamas fighter ratio. And if the Hamas fighters are wearing civilian clothes, wouldn't that also cause miscounting of Hamas fighter deaths as civilian deaths?

Hamas is cowardly, hiding among the civilian population and firing rockets from their neighborhoods. Hamas does not protect its citizens, but endangers them, while seeking to protect itself. And Hamas is deceitful, manipulating the body count to over-count civilian deaths and under-count Hamas fighter deaths. Hamas has not only brought death to the people of Gaza, Hamas has brought shame on the Palestinian people.