In the news we hear that Hamas as launched thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Predictably, Israel has responded with aerial attacks to stop the rockets, and failing that, a ground offensive. Most disturbing in the news are reports that Hamas has intentionally placed civilians in harms way seemingly to kill as many Palestinians as possible so that world governments would pressure Israel to make peace with Hamas and open the borders.

Hamas has made it clear that they want to completely destroy Israel and are prepared to do this at any cost, even the lives of the people they rule in Gaza. All the concrete and supplies that Israel supplied to Gaza to build schools and hospitals was used to make tunnels into Israel. From these tunnels, Palestinians would conduct raids to kill Israelis.

Israel has been warning residents in certain areas to flee because the area will be hit with bombs, but we hear that Hamas prevents people from leaving so that the casualty numbers will go even higher putting even more pressure on Israel to stop. This is an old tactic.

We read in 2 Kings 3 that Moab rebelled against the king of Israel provoking a response from Israel. Then Moab, thinking they saw a weakness, attacked Israel. Israel struck the Moabites and chased them back into their cities just as Elisha had told them they should do. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him and that there was no escape, he took his own son, killed him and offered him as an offering to his god, Chemosh. He did this on the wall of the city so that everyone could see what he was doing and the effect was to turn the attitudes against Israel for pressuring him to such a desperate measure.

Is this not the same thing Hamas is doing with the people of Gaza?