ISRAEL cares more about civilians in Gaza than Hamas ever has, the ex-Israeli ambassador to the UK has warned.
Mark Regev has accused Hamas of trapping civilians within the battlefield and using them as human shields to "protect the terrorist machine".
As the war grinds on for its fifth week, Israeli troops have surrounded Gaza City and moved in – destroying Hamas strongholds and sending tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing from the carnage.
However, Israel says roughly 100,000 civilians still remain in the line of fire.
Regev, who is a senior advisor to the Israeli government, told The Sun Israel cares "much more" than Hamas about the fate of those civilians.
"We didn't want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire. Therefore we were urging them to relocate south for the duration of the conflict.
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"And Hamas, on the other hand, has been saying the opposite. They've been saying, Don't go! Stay! Become martyrs for our crazy cause!"
He continued: "They've also not just done that in words, but they've put up physical roadblocks, and at gunpoint prevented people from fleeing.
"Israel cares much more about the fate of Gaza civilians than Hamas does, who's willing to have them all die."
More than 11,000 people – including 4,500 children – have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its bombardment and ground operations, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
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The former ambassador attributes the high casualty rate to Hamas's widely-reported tactic of hiding military equipment close to schools, hospitals and residences.
"For Hamas the job of the civilians is to protect their terrorist machine, and they do so ruthlessly," he said.
Regev hopes that once Hamas's merciless grip on Gaza has dissolved then there will be a better future for Palestinians.
He said: "Hamas has been ruling the Gaza strip for 16 years, and what have they got to show for it?
"What have the people of Gaza got from them [except] poverty, bloodshed, pain, suffering."
It comes as furious Palestinians have finally begun to turn on their brutal Hamas rulers.
In scenes “unthinkable” a few weeks ago refugees shouted anti-Hamas insults as the terrorists launched their latest midnight missile bombardment at Israel.
A witness told The Sun that hundreds of people in a UN-shelter cursed Hamas which has ruled the strip with an iron fist since it seized control in 2007.
The refugees also called for an end to the war which US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said yesterday had killed “far too many Palestinians”.
Earlier today, the IDF claimed its troops wiped out one of Hamas' top commando units.
The terrorist group's elite Nukhba forces are said to be responsible for ordering the crazed gunmen "to kill everyone and burn their homes" during their October 7 massacre that left 1,400 Israelis dead.
Last night, dramatic footage captured the moment an Israeli airstrike blitzed a Hamas terror headquarters as they carried out "pressure cooker" bombings close to a hospital.
Such bombardment operations include steadily increasing fire on a building in which armed targets are holed up.
Using increasingly heavy weaponry from more and more angles, the bombing keeps going until Hamas either surrender or the building caves in on them.
Footage showed a huge fireball explosion close to the Indonesian hospital as civilians ran in all directions.
The IDF denied targeting the hospital, but Hamas claimed the strike hit the hospital and led to casualties.
“Hamas systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure,” Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
This afternoon, the Hamas-run health ministry said Israel has three hospitals surrounded as the doctors inside battle with fuel supplies running on empty.
Meanwhile, The Sun got an exclusive look inside a a Hamas lair where the terrorists reportedly masterminded their bloody cross-border assault on October 7 that triggered war.
Just a month ago, a battalion commander and his terror troops used the four-bed flat in northern Gaza.
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In the rubble of the terror HQ, toys, children’s clothes and football stickers lay only yards from a bomb factory.
A 3D model was found of what is suspected to be a kibbutz that was targeted during the killing spree along with rolled-up maps, grenades, ammunition and explosives.
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