There are no few arguing this morning about whether or not Hamas should have known that the yellow bus that it fired upon yesterday was a school bus. Yellow is the color of school buses in the United States and thus this question may result in an immediate “Of Course.” In Israel, school buses are not always yellow. But think about what we are debating here! What is the question for which the answer of whether or not Hamas should have known the bus was a school bus matters?
Seems to me that deliberately firing on any civilian bus is a war crime. It does not matter whether it is a bus of seniors going to gamble in Jericho, a city bus, a tour bus or a school bus. WAR CRIME.
The weapon used by Hamas for the bus attack was a Kornet anti-tank rocket, laser guided directly to the target. It was not a mortar blindly lobbed over the border that happened to hit the bus. Even then, the likelihood that it would hit a civilian target, if it hit anything, would make it a war crime. All of the mortar and rocket attacks coming from Gaza are war crimes. In this case, however, a member of Hamas decided to fire upon the civilian bus and guided the weapon to the target. WAR CRIME.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. They did not apologize for wrongly attacking a school bus, if you were wondering. They did not say that charges will be filed against the people responsible either, in case you were wondering. Hamas policy is to commit war crimes against Israel, to attack civilians deliberately. WAR CRIME.
I wonder when the UN will look into Hamas’ war crimes. I’m not holding my breath.
“In Israel, school buses are not always yellow.”
But yellow buses in Israel are always school buses.
I did find one example of a yellow and blue tour bus that is mostly yellow: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ti1r9TEQKUM/SB1wQHatxtI/AAAAAAAAIW0/Gs3SU3djebQ/s400/_MG_5335.JPG
But admittedly, I could not find another image on a Google image search of a second one. The only image that comes up when you search “Israel yellow bus” is the one attacked. There are no other readily available images of ANY yellow buses in Israel school buses or not.
My point, however, is that either way we’re talking about terrorists deliberating targeting civilians on a bus. War Crime either way.