SOURCE: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4295601-human-sacrifice-is-central-to-hamass-strategy/
Pro-Hamas groups — like the multi-campus Students for Justice in Palestine, whose national leadership endorsed the murderous October 7 attack as an “historic win for Palestinian resistance” — will never deliberately acknowledge Hamas’ true nature. But two of Hamas’s top officials just did.
One, Moussa Abu Marzouk, a prominent member of the Hamas political bureau, was asked in an interview why Hamas built over 300 miles of tunnels in the Gaza Strip but has never built bomb shelters for Gazan civilians.
“We built the tunnels because we are fighting from inside the tunnels,” Abu Marzouk replied. He offered no explanation at all as to why Hamas has not separately constructed bunkers for Gazan civilians below their apartment buildings, schools and workplaces.
Hamas certainly has the financial resources to protect Gazans. It receives $450 million per year just from taxes and unofficial fees on smuggled goods. But such protective structures would defeat the organization’s purpose. The value to Hamas of a Gazan human shield would be lost if the human shield were given a place to hide.
In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, Hamas is counting on human shields and the effect of their deaths on international opinion as their best way to restrain, if not halt, Israeli military force. Hamas considers two million Gazan civilians, including children, as martyrs, whether they want to be or not.
“We are called a nation of martyrs,” said another top Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad. “And we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.” He promised more attacks: “There will be a second, a third, a fourth.” When asked whether he sought the annihilation of Israel, Hamad matter-of-factly replied, “Yes, of course.”
This is not simply terrorism, which is the use of illegal violence to achieve political objectives. It is cold-blooded human sacrifice, and on a scale that evokes the ritual slaughters of ancient times.
Five days after the Oct. 7 attack, the IDF urged civilians in Gaza City to evacuate “south for your own safety and the safety of your families.” The message was delivered by air through 1.5 million leaflets and with tens of thousands of cell phone messages and phone calls. Hamas told Gazans to “remain steadfast in your homes,” and recently attacked Israeli forces attempting to open a corridor for evacuations from northern Gaza.
