from Human Rights Watch, hardly a conservative group...
Hamas Must End Attacks Against Civilians
Cease Use of Qassam Rockets
(Jerusalem, June 9, 2005) -- Hamas must cease immediately “Qassam” rocket and mortar attacks against civilian areas, Human Rights Watch said today.
Hamas mortar shells and Qassam rockets killed three civilian workers (two Palestinian and one Chinese) and injured an Israeli woman and her two children in an attack that struck a packing plant in the Israeli settlement of Ganei Tal in Gaza and the Israeli town of Sderot yesterday. Both Israeli and Palestinian analysts suspect that Hamas’s continued use of mortar and Qassam attacks against civilians is an expression of the group’s displeasure at the cancellation of local election results in localities that favored Hamas and the recent postponement of the Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
“Hamas has repeatedly failed to respect a fundamental rule of international humanitarian law by attacking civilians and civilian objects,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. “It is unacceptable for Hamas to express its unhappiness with the political situation by firing on civilians.”
More here:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/06/09/isrlpa11106_txt.htm