Thread by @sfrantzman

We need to talk about this phrasing. There is a tendancy among the international organizations involved with Gaza to never mention Hamas. This isn't because of lack of knowledge. Hamas has ruled Gaza for 18 years. They know Hamas is everywhere. They know it goes into schools and hospitals and uses them.

There is a kind of code of silence or omerta that was clearly agreed to many years ago. When Hamas illegally took over Gaza in 2007...the NGOs and UN organizations that work there could have made a point or critiquing Hamas and calling it out when it illegally tried to use civilian areas for its "militant" activities.

However, what you'll notice if you read all the comments by various NGOs since the Oct. 7 war began...is they basically never mention Hamas. Sometimes they will say "armed group" but they will never condemn Hamas, which openly runs Gaza and is hosted by Doha. They won't even mention it.

This omerta was designed so that there is no official paper trail ever that mentions Hamas. Since 2007 there is no record of any documentation or attempt by the NGOs and UN and others to ever mention when Hamas moves into a school or tunnels under a shelter, or takes over a wing of a hospital.

This is not by chance. It's obviously systematic. Any group that wants to work in Gaza is told "never mention Hamas." This isn't written as "don't critique Hamas openly you could get in trouble"...this is about paperwork. Organizations that work there, such as medical orgs...are told to never mention that gunmen enter hospitals, for instance.

Most of these organizations are staffed by people who worked in humanitarian work elsewhere. In other conflict areas these groups do document the presence of "militants" and "insurgents" and you know for a fact that any nurse in a hospital in most countries who saw armed men entering or was told "the third flood of the hospital is the Hamas VIP section"...would report it.

Think about it. If there was a school in any other country and armed men began tunneling under it and also began using one of its floors...the principle and people would evacuate the kids and write a report. You'd have a paper trail of concerns and decisions about "armed men have invaded our school."

Humanitarian organizations have a duty to inform civilians if their school or shelter is being used by gunmen. Imagine being a volunteer somewhere and armed men come into your school...you'd tell the children to leave...you wouldn't run a school where this was permitted.

The fact is that these organizations have partnered with Hamas, either in fact or by silence. Hamas maps out all the schools and shelters and UN sites and humanitarian sites and it uses them...it also diverts and steals aid...but NONE of this is ever documented, there is never a paper trail.

The UN knows how to document theft of humanitarian aid and the presence of gunmen. Let's remember the US and UN intervention in Somalia. "On 5 June 1993, Aidid's militia and Somali citizens at Radio Mogadishu attacked the Pakistani force that was inspecting an arms cache located at the station, out of fear that the United Nations forces had been sent to shut down the SNA's broadcast infrastructure."

The fact is that in Somalia the UN acted to make sure people could get access to aid. So the UN can actually separate gunmen from aid and can document these crimes of diverting aid and occupying areas with armed men.

In Gaza clearly the UN and other groups have been instructed to never mention the word "Hamas" and to never have their local officials document when an area of a shelter or school is diverted for use by armed men.

If you run a school, you know if a bunch of adult men suddenly come and take over a floor. You'd know because you can't use that floor for activities. They know when Hamas arrives. They know exactly what is happening. They are told not to report it and not move civilians out.

Imagine you're running a building designed as a shelter and it's full of civilians and then men, probably armed, enter and take over a floor of the shelter and go in and out with impunity. You'd write a report that men unconnected to the shelter have forced their way in.

Most people running a shelter who saw armed men would get the civilians out. But in Gaza they are told to keep civilians next to Hamas, not report it and then ENDANGER the lives of the civilians. Every intl'l org works to provide cover for Hamas, either through the code of silence or not warning civilians.

These UN organizations have a duty to warn people. Rather than saying they "don't know" if their facility was used by armed men...or they will "investigate"...they have a duty to always warn civilians if men unconnected to a school or shelter begin to illegally access the location.

Similarly every humanitarian org has a duty to document every time armed men get on their trucks and document how much aid is diverted. If they are "taxed" by Hamas and aid is taken, they must write a report.

The entire civilian population of Gaza has been used by Hamas and Hamas has enlisted intl'l orgs for cover to be able to use hospitals, schools, shelters and every civilian area. This is systematic by Hamas. It maps out these areas and moves in.

We need to re-write the rules on how the UN operates in Gaza. The UN says there is "no safe place"....this is because Hamas has taken everything over. It's time for the UN to be required to report the presence of any gunmen or unaffiliated men who enter their facilities within 24 hours...and document it...and remove civilians from areas occupied by Hamas.

We can do this by demanding documentation from every NGO that operates in Gaza. We can do it by having the UN do the same reporting they do in other conflict areas where they DO DOCUMENT when armed men enter their facilities.

To save Gaza from Hamas and end Hamas illegal occupation of Gaza and save lives...we need to require NGOs in Gaza to report the presence of armed men....and help civilians move so the civilians are not used as human shields. Organizations that refuse to report on the presence of illegal armed men should be banned from Gaza.

To get Gaza right it starts with ending the mafia-like omerta taking place there. Replace the people who have refused to mention Hamas. Hamas is the governing authority...it is backed by Doha...it must be mentioned in all reports by groups that operate in Gaza.

In shelters and schools and hospitals...live feed CCTV should be installed to monitor whether floors of these places are being used by armed men or men who illegally enter these civilian sites. Every civilian institution in Gaza with space for more than a dozen people should be monitored.

We can end the Hamas-NGO takeover of Gaza by doing a few simple things. It would save lives. For too long the NGOs have made Gaza unsafe by not reporting on Hamas using their facilities.

Note the language. "Armed groups" is how all NGOs and UN and others who operate in Gaza term Hamas...it's part of the "code" of how they operate. This is used to hide Hamas crimes. It's wording that is designed to never mention the perpetrator.

And the fact is that Hamas was operating there for a while...but because they are not mandated to verify things and investigate and monitor these areas and protect civilians from Hamas and PROTECT CIVILIANS FROM "ARMED GROUPS" they never report this.

They need to be required to report...required to monitor...to use all means possible, including CCTV to monitor and verify, every 24 hours, if parts of their facilities are being used for other purposed...then they must be mandated to WARN. A "duty to warn" must be issued to the civilians that Hamas or "armed groups" are in the facility...

These two methods: Mandate to report and mandate to warn would save and lives and end the Hamas ability to do this. End the omerta. End the mafia-like control. End the partnership of intl'l orgs and Hamas.

Another important issue is the use of language in regards to who is killed. What we see in most statements about Gaza is that they provide the overall casualties but never segment out Hamas members. This is how Hamas also not only shelters among civilians but then when its members are killed they become "civilians." It's important whenever we see a number killed to ask how many are Hamas. In every conflict one should break out the number of combatants versus non-combatants

UN fails to protect civilians from Hamas in Gaza - analysis jpost.com/israel-hamas-w…