National Review Editor Rich Lowry asserted over the weekend that Israelis were not at fault for the deaths of four boys who were killed while playing on a Gaza beach last week because Hamas should have told them to move out of the way.
After the four children were killed by explosions last week, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) explained to reporters that the kids had likely been misidentified as a "legitimate" Hamas target, Haaretz reported.
But Lowry told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the misidentification would never have happened if Hamas had not have provoked the Israelis in the first place.
"The whole idea is to invite retaliatory fire, to tell your civilians not to hide or to flee the areas where the Israelis are about to hit, and then get the civilian casualty numbers up," Lowry explained. "And then use that as a propaganda tool, and hope the media will report it as if it's Israel's fault."
"The four little kids, for example who were killed right on the beach, right on the Mediterranean in Gaza, you think that's Hama's fault?" Carlson wondered.
"Yeah," Lowry insisted. "It's wouldn't be happening, there's no reason for this conflict except for that Hamas is sending the Rockets over into Israel."
"Why don't they tell people, 'When Israel warns you that they're about to hit, please flee, please go somewhere someplace safe'?" he continued. "They don't. And you've had various Hamas officials over the years bragging, 'We're going to win because we love death more than you love life.'"
The Guardian's Peter Beaumont, who witnessed the death of the four children, told Haaretz that there was no "legitimate" target near them.
"The building that was hit was just a shipping container next to where one of the kids' father keeps his boat and stores fishing nets," Beaumont said. "The kids were just playing hide and seek there. They shoot missiles (against Israel) from this neighborhood but none from that location."
