According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Amir Mansi, the commander of the Hamas rocket launching program in the Gaza City area, was killed on Saturday, January 20, 2009 by IDF fire with assistance of the Shin Bet a/k/a Shabak, the Israeli Security Agency.

Mansi was also the leading Hamas authority on the terrorist group’s Grad long range missile launching program.

According to the IDF, Mansi directed and actively fired dozens of rockets at Israel, killing and wounding Israeli civilians. Mansi was spotted firing a rocket in the Jabal al-Rais area during a ground force operation today. The forces opened fire, killing Mansi and injuring two additional terror operatives.

Hamas used human shields again when terror operatives fired mortars from a U.N. school in Jabaliah / Jabalyah, Northern Gaza today.

Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar were among the two (2) Hamas slain gunmen identified amongst the dead.

An initial IDF inquiry concluded that in “response to the incoming enemy fire, [Israeli] forces returned mortar fire to the source.” which came directly from the school.

This is yet another example of Hamas repeatedly using civilian population centers as human shields.

What were U.N. school authorities doing to prevent such blatant violations of the U.N.’s use of the property for educational purposes? What will Ban Ki-moon have to say about the latest incident using children and school employees as human shields?

The following video taken by an IAF drone in 2007 shows an attack in progress when terrorists launched rockets from a U.N.-operated school in Beit Hanoun, Gaza. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon deplored the attack, calling it a an “abuse of UN facilities, which is a serious violation of the UN’s privileges and immunities…[and the type of] actions that endanger the lives of civilians, especially children.”

With Israel’s current military operation in Gaza has generated renewed interest in Hamas’ strategy of using human shields as a central tool in the terrorist organizations strategy.

Israel’s Defense Force is targeting Hamas weapons caches to reduce the number of long-range missiles, rockets, munitions, and arms. On a practical level, however, Hamas leaders and terrorist fighters deliberately use human shields to hide themselves and their arms in mosques, schools, and crowded residential areas.

But Hamas’ calculated strategy of putting Palestinian civilians in harms way is anything but new. It is an core part of the group’s terror machine.

Just read and watch to Hamas MP Fathi Hammad’s proud February 2008 confession in Gaza on Al AqsaTV, captured by the MEMRI TV Project:

The enemies of Allah do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its (methods) of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: “We desire death like you desire life.”

Listening to his exhortation is like watching Hitler’s fanaticism.

There is a disturbing parallel between Hamas’ and the Nazi’s shared hatred of, and desire to eliminate, the Jewish people.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in Israel to show solidarity with the country’s citizens facing Hamas rocket and missile attacks from Hamas, and for the IDF’s military operation in Gaza.

He criticized Hamas terrorists for using Gaza’s civilians as human shields. by locating command centers in densely populated areas and firing missles from such locations.

Bloomberg also experienced a Hamas rocket attack from Gaza first-hand when Sderot’s public address system warned of an incoming attack. “Get inside now! Move!” the mayor was told by Israeli security and his own security detail.

On Saturday, Bloomberg told Ashkelon’s mayor that he and most “Americans…think that Israel is doing the right thing in defending itself. It has a responsibility to defend the citizens.”