(AP/Ben Curtis) (AP/Ben Curtis)
Children sacrificed in Gaza

“The Palestinian blood that is spilled is precious, but the goals for which this blood is spilled are even more precious.” – Khalil al-Hayya, deputy chairman, Palestinian Legislative Council

Faced with nonstop pictures of death and destruction in Gaza, the country’s National Information Directorate launched a social media campaign on Tuesday showing pictures of Gaza misery above quotes by Hamas heads admitting the value and importance of human shields.

“The Palestinian blood that is spilled is precious, but the goals for which this blood is spilled are even more precious,” Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was quoted as saying on July 21, over a picture of a crying woman.

Campaign Proves Hamas Planned Bloodshed in Gaza

The name of the campaign is “Hamas sacrifices Gaza for its extremism.”

Another picture quotes Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh as saying on July 21 that “the resistance protects its people who are paying with their pure blood.” And another picture quotes Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri as saying on July 9, “The blood of the shahids (martyrs) killed in this campaign is the fuel of our victory.”

One government official involved in the campaign explained the rationale as the belief that the the only way to try to counteract the images of carnage beamed across the world from Gaza was through arguments telling the world that Hamas wanted and planned that carnage, and providing the quotes to back up that argument.

This campaign was also providing visual support for one of Israel’s key messages in the campaign: that Hamas is responsible for the misery in Gaza because it fires on Israel and places its command centers in civilian areas.

The official said that Israel wanted to impress upon the world that it is not as if the battle started elsewhere and “rolled into civilian areas” like Shejaia, but rather that Hamas set up its command centers, rocket launchers and attack tunnels in the civilian areas to begin with.

Hamas Sacrifices People on Altar of Radical Ideology

The purpose of the campaign, the official said, was to show the context to the suffering in Gaza, and that Hamas is “sacrificing its people on the altar of its radical ideology.”

In addition to launching the campaign on English social web sites, it is also appearing on various Arabic social websites.

This report, published in The Jerusalem Post, was written by Herb Keinon, JPost diplomatic correspondent.