Dutch government says Hamas violates War Law, not Israel...

The Dutch are onside...for now...

The Netherlands does not have the impression that Israel has been violating war law with its offensive in Gaza. Hamas however does operate without a legitimate military goal, says the government in a letter to parliament.

Although the Netherlands "does not have at its disposal its own or otherwise objective observations of the exact Israeli fighting behaviour or military instructions, the impression is that Israeli armed forces restrict themselves to (...) elimination of the military capacity of Hamas with the object of preventing future attacks on Israeli citizens. The fact that there are civilian victims anyway (...) is partly because Hamas deliberately positions and conceals its military installations and weapons among the Gaza civilians. The rockets fired by Hamas are, conversely, pre-eminently aimed at civilians in Israeli cities. They serve no legitimate military purpose."