Hamas loves to use human shields. That is one reason they take hostages and the major reason why Gazans are suffering from the shortage of fuel we keep hearing about.

It’s not that there is no fuel left in Gaza–there is plenty of it. Rather, Hamas has a war machine to run and civilians be damned.

NBC News: Hamas is stockpiling 200,000 gallons of fuel to supply rockets and support electricity for its elaborate network of underground tunnels. This as hospitals and relief organizations in Gaza warn they’re perilously low on fuel.https://t.co/otBxYjkW4P

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) November 2, 2023

As U.N. officials say hospitals in Gaza are running dangerously low on fuel, Hamas is maintaining a stockpile of more than 200,000 gallons of fuel for the rockets it fires into Israel and the generators that provide clean air and electricity to its network of underground tunnels, according to U.S. officials, current and former Israeli officials and academics.

The statements come as President Joe Biden called for a humanitarian pause in Gaza and U.N. officials warned that aid agencies, water treatment plants and bakeries there may soon run out of fuel. Israel, which has allowed a limited number of trucks carrying food, water and medicine into the enclave, continues to ban deliveries of fuel, which it says Hamas will use for military purposes.

Hamas, meanwhile, has repeatedly demanded fuel deliveries to Gaza during negotiations to allow foreign nationals to leave the enclave and in talks about the release of 240 people it kidnapped.

The lack of fuel for civilians in Gaza has been one of a few powerful talking points for Hamas sympathizers who are demanding a cease-fire. Without fuel, civilian hospitals and other vital services will collapse.

Think of the old, infirm, and the children!

It’s a compelling image, and one created solely by Hamas because it has the power to prevent the evils they are blaming on Israel. As with so many of the images that pull our heartstrings and make us call out for the madness to stop, the humanitarian crisis has been manufactured by Hamas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before Congress on Tuesday that Hamas is refusing to share its fuel with hospitals in Gaza.

“Hamas has its own supply stockpile of fuel,” Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “If it cared a whit about the people of Gaza, it would make sure itself that it used that fuel to have the hospitals be able to operate the incubators, stay turned on, etc. But, of course, it doesn’t.”

Hamas keeps pumping out images of the suffering in Gaza City, but what they don’t show is the second city they have built underground. It is a city dedicated solely to Hamas’ fighters, its war-making infrastructure, and its leadership. And that city is well-stocked with fuel to maintain the power, light, and air circulation, and to ensure that all those rockets they aim at Israel (and that misfire and kill civilians in Gaza) can keep killing people.

It’s not just fuel that Hamas keeps for itself. As we keep hearing about the lack of clean water few people seem to know that Hamas has been digging up the water pipes–often installed by foreign aid–to build its rocket arsenal.

All of this is to say that for Hamas, the civilians of Gaza are nothing more or less than a human resource, from whom to recruit fighters and a propaganda prop whose suffering they cause to generate sympathy.

Their strategy is transparent: they are holding the civilians in Gaza about whom we care hostage as well. The more that Gazans suffer, the more Hamas benefits. Antisemites get more incensed at Israel, and decent people around the world just want to make the suffering stop.

Who wouldn’t want the suffering to end? I do.

This is the genius of Hamas’ PR strategy. The more harm that comes to Gazans the better, because Israel gets the blame. And Hamas has enormous power to cause harm. Israel, which does everything it can to avoid war crimes, is facing an organization whose entire strategy is committing war crimes.

Hamas’ headquarters are, conveniently, located at and below the largest hospital in Gaza. Israel revealed this recently, but everybody in the MSM knew it long ago.

Why? Because that is where Hamas leaders would do interviews with them. It wasn’t even a secret. This is a war crime, but if anybody at Shifa Hospital gets hurt it will be Israel who gets the blame. Shifa is actually a legitimate military target now, but if Israel tried to take the headquarters out there would be an outcry the likes of which have yet to be seen in this war.

The strategy is working. Israel is getting pressure from around the world to stop its war against Hamas. That would just set up Hamas for the next round, which they are already planning. They tell us so.

Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated.

Stay Up to date with Salem News Channel & https://t.co/pz06TOfmIV pic.twitter.com/NhPTGEnlZM

— Salem News Channel (@WatchSalemNews) November 1, 2023

This means, of course, that the international community is asking Israel to just take the punishment for the sake of Hamas’ own citizens. Since Hamas won’t care for them, Israel must.

At best the call for a cease-fire based on the suffering of Gazans is giving Hamas’ strategy of taking its own citizens hostage a major victory. At worst, it is actually a call for Israel to commit a slow, agonizing suicide.