A rocket being fired from Gaza towards Israel. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Palestinian terror group Hamas hints that it fired rockets from residential areas amid mounting evidence from Israel that the terror group used civilian areas as cover during the recent Gaza operation.

“Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone,” said Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, The Associated Press reported.

“The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,” Hamad added, in the first acknowledgement by a Hamas official that rockets may have been fired from civilian areas.

The Israeli military has compiled dozens of videos throughout the Gaza operation that appear to show Hamas terrorists firing from residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schools and mosques.

“Hamas’s excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF [the Israel Defense Forces] and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,” said Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.