Times of Israel Live Blog: Rocket hits near Ashkelon house; Hamas said to offer 10-year truce
The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Wednesday, the ninth day of Operation Protective Edge. On Tuesday, while Israel accepted an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire, Hamas rejected it and continued its rocket fire into Israel. An Israeli was killed by mortar fire. In mid-afternoon, Israel resumed attacks on Hamas targets, as Foreign Minister Liberman called to retake full control of the Strip, an idea Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects. After targeting Hamas leadership in a number of overnight strikes, the death toll in the Strip rose to over 200.Israeli civilian killed by Gaza mortar fire
A Beit Aryeh resident succumbed to his wounds Tuesday after being hit by Gaza mortar fire near the Erez Crossing, marking Israel's first fatality during Operation Protective Edge. Dror Hanin, 37, was a civilian who had come to bring food and drinks to soldiers serving on the Gaza border.Brendan O’Neill: There’s something very ugly in this rage against Israel
Hanin suffered severe injuries to his chest, and despite efforts to save his life, he was pronounced dead after arriving at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. A friend who was standing beside him when the mortar struck was lightly injured.
Anyone possessed of a critical faculty must at some point have wondered why there’s such a double standard in relation to Israeli militarism, why missiles fired by the Jewish State are apparently more worthy of condemnation than missiles fired by Washington, London, Paris, the Turks, Assad, or just about anyone else on Earth. Parisians who have generally given a Gallic shrug as French troops have basically retaken Francophone Africa, stamping their boots everywhere from the Central African Republic to Mali to Cote d’Ivoire over the past two years, turned out in their thousands at the weekend to condemn Israeli imperialism and barbarism. Americans who didn’t create much fuss last month when the Obama administration announced the resumption of its drone attacks in Pakistan gathered at the Israeli Embassy in Washington to yell about Israeli murder. (Incredibly, they did this just a day after a US drone attack, the 375th such attack in 10 years, killed at least six people in Pakistan. But hey, Obama-led militarism isn’t as bad as Israeli militarism, and dead Pakistanis, unlike dead Palestinians, don’t deserve to have their photos, names and ages published by the concerned liberals of Twitter.) Meanwhile, hundreds of very angry Brits gathered at the Israeli Embassy in London, bringing traffic to a standstill, clambering on to buses, yelling about murder and savagery, in furious, colourful scenes that were notable by their absence three years ago when Britain sent planes to pummel Libya.Caroline Glick: The popular Palestinians
And even as Palestinian officials acknowledge the nature of this war, rather than rethink their support for genocidal terrorists anti-Israel activists in the US and Europe redouble their support for the Palestinians, by among other things engaging in violent assaults on local Jews. In so doing, they demonstrate that they share the Palestinians’ ultimate objective.Alan Dershowitz: Media death count encourages Hamas to use human shields
These activists are in turn supported by the leftist academia.
Their efforts are buoyed by the media which, at a minimum, fail to report on the nature of the campaign against Israel and generally, actively strive to obfuscate it. Leftist Jews, while compelled to condemn Hamas rocket fire, (but not rocket fire by Fatah militias), nonetheless make clear that at a minimum, Israel is also to blame for the Palestinian assault because it doesn’t give other Palestinians its heartland and capital city.
Finally, as we see with US-led Western demand that Israel reach a cease-fire with Hamas without first defeating the Palestinian terror machine in Gaza, the activists, the professoriate and the media are joined by political leaders who all agree that inciting and acting on behalf of the genocide of Jewry is not a disqualifying offense.
Proportionality is not judged by the number of civilians actually killed by Hamas rockets, but rather by the risks posed to Israelis. These risks have been diminished, but not eliminated by the Iron Dome system. They have also been considerably diminished by Israel’s counterattacks on the missile launchers and those who employ them. Without these counterattacks, it is highly likely that more Hamas missiles would have made it through the Iron Dome system which has been approximately 85% effective. Israel has every right under the rules of proportionality to attack these military targets, so long as they take reasonable efforts to reduce civilian casualties. They have done so by leafleting, by calling, and by other methods of warning civilians to leave target areas. Hamas leaders, on the other hand, have urged, and sometimes compelled, their civilians to remain in harm’s way as human shields.
The media, by emphasizing the comparative body counts without providing the reasons for the disparity, play into the hands of Hamas, and encourage that terrorist organization, to continue to pursue its dead baby strategy. So the next time those in the media promote a body count without explanation, they should point a finger at themselves for contributing to this deadly count.
World Peace Report- Israel, Rockets & Retaliation
The debut episode of the World Peace Report explores the Israeli response to sustained rocket attacks aimed at its civilian populace. Does the destruction of Hamas terrorist targets fit within the Laws of Land Warfare requirement for proportionality? The simple answer is yes and Jim Hanson explains why. (h/t MtTB)World Peace Report Rockets & Retaliation
How does Israel confront the Gaza of below, without causing unnecessary anguish to the Gaza of above?
Since Israel uses its arms to protect its civilians, whereas Hamas uses its civilians to protect its weapons, there has been a predictable asymmetry of casualties. But proportionality is not a tit-for-tat numbers game. Only perverse logic would deem Israel’s actions more proportionate if Israel allowed more of its civilians to be killed. Proportionality is measured with regard to the threat one faces. In Israel’s case this threat is a stockpile of thousands of rockets and missiles, threatening the bulk of Israel’s population, in the hands of a terrorist regime committed to Israel’s destruction.The Bizarre Moral Criticism Against Israel
Of course, let us not think for a moment, God forbid, that we can be indifferent to the death of innocents. The death of any child, Israeli or Arab, Muslim or Jew, is an unspeakable tragedy that rends the heart. Israel must do everything humanly possible to avoid the civilian casualties; already she issues warnings and calls for evacuation of areas about to be attacked, and must do more. Still, for any country, morality begins with a reasonable measure of security for her own citizens, and it is not right to say that Israel must protect Palestinian civilians at the cost of abandoning her own.The lopsided casualty rate in Gaza proves nothing about responsibility for the conflict
The issue was never “proportionality”; it is the suffering and dying of too many Arabs and Jews. And while there is much that is complicated about the Middle East, ending the violence in Gaza is not complicated. Hamas needs to halt the missile attacks and provide credible assurances to Israel and the world that they will not be resumed. If the rockets stop, quiet can come tomorrow. And tomorrow is not soon enough.
The low Israeli casualty rate is due to the extraordinary efforts of the Israeli government to protect its civilians — including extensive bomb shelters and safe structures on streets. And of course, the Iron Dome system that shoots down rockets heading for populated areas.Syria's army can learn a lot about morality from the IDF, Al-Jazeera host says
So on the one side we have homicidal Hamas maniacs targeting civilians and using civilians as human shields, and on the other side we have Israel trying to avoid killing Palestinian civilians and protecting its Israeli civilians. The result is an imbalance in civilian casualties in Israel’s favor. But that imbalance is not proof of anything other than which side values civilian life.
Israel’s good behavior, however, does not go unpunished. Islamists and leftists accuse the party trying to avoid civilians casualties (Israel) of being the equivalent of Hitler, as they spew their Jew hatred openly around the world.
But it’s not just street mobs who play this perverse game.
Some Western commentators use Israel’s protection of its civilians as evidence that Israel is acting unjustly or even in violation of international law. Here are three examples:
The conversation on the news show "The Opposite Direction" hosted by Faisal al-Qassem centered around Syrian President Bashar Assad's military tactics in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Along with the Israeli army, al-Qassem also praised the moral character of the French military.Al Jazeera Arabic admits France, Israel better
"Why don't they learn from the Israeli army, which tries, through great efforts, to avoid shelling areas populated by civilians in Lebanon and Palestine?
"Didn't Hezbollah take shelter in areas populated by civilians because it knows that the Israeli air force doesn't bomb these areas? Why doesn't the Syrian army respect the premises of universities, schools or inhabited neighborhoods?"
"Didn't they [the Syrian Army] ever hear about principles and morals of urban warfare? Didn't the Syrian army target many civilian areas despite the fact that no fighters were present there?" al-Qassem asked.
Atwan: The Arab Leaders Pray That Israel Will Get Rid of the Palestinians Once and for All
JPost Editorial: War dilemmas
Since the primary objective is to protect Israeli lives, our considerations should be the relative effectiveness of a given tactic or the deterrence it can create. Seasoned military leaders, combat officers and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operatives know what works and what does not.Jonah Goldberg: Attacking Israel with the big lie: genocide
Ultimately, though, the fact that Israeli society is preoccupied with the ethical dilemmas it faces in fighting terrorism is proof of its moral integrity. The fact that Israel chose to resume its assault on Gaza on Tuesday afternoon following repeated Hamas violations of the Egyptian-declared cease-fire only underlines just how inescapable the ethical dilemmas of war are, no matter how much we desire peace.
All one needs to do is delve into the muck of Twitter and read the timelines for such hashtags as #GazaUnderAttack and #GenocideInGaza: "They're killing the women and children to ensure there won't be a new generation of Palestine." "One Holocaust can NEVER justify another."Jon Stewart — so funny, so wrong on Israel-Gaza
And let's not even talk about the globally trending hashtag #HitlerWasRight.
Of course it's not just on Twitter. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the feckless Palestinian Authority, recently condemned Israel for committing "genocide" in Gaza. For decades, political cartoonists and cartoonish politicians have been jaw-jawing about how Israel now wears the SS uniform.
This too is basically a talking point — and a very old one. But this one is plainly a lie.
If the Israelis are, or have ever been, interested in genocide, they are utterly incompetent at it. As slanders go, it's almost funny, like the old paranoid delusion that George W. Bush was simultaneously an idiot and a criminal mastermind.
Stewart: “Both sides are engaging in aerial bombardment, but one side appears to be bomb-better-at it. (Studio laughter at the wordplay.) Most Hamas rockets are neutralized by Israel’s Iron Dome technology, and Israeli citizens can even now download a warning app. (Cut to clip of Israel’s US ambassador Ron Dermer explaining how Israelis can know where and when they’re being attacked.) So Israelis seem to have a high-tech, smart-phone alert system.”Jon Stewart on the Gaza-Israeli Conflict July 14, 2014
Let me see if I understand the point he’s making here: Having falsely implied that Israel is as keen on killing as Hamas is, Stewart now seems to be criticizing Israel for not being as vulnerable as Hamas would like it to be to those Hamas rockets that are sent to kill us. He seems to be bashing us for having those tech smarts. It’s a bad thing that we developed a unique, astonishing Iron Dome missile defense system, without which hundreds of us would be dead? It’s a bad thing that we developed an app to warn us that the rockets designed to kill our citizens are heading this way?
Jon “I’m a Jew When I Need To Be” Stewart Has a Problem With Israeli Technology
Israel has developed an app that will serve as an early missile warning for its citizens, saving lives.Jon Stewart Mocks Israel & Downplays Palestinian Rockets
The Israelis, as a courtesy and humanitarian effort, when they retaliate against Arab aggression, send small bombs in first to warn citizens so they can evacuate.
Stewart has a problem with this. This is fodder for mockulatory criticism, and his a-hole audience gleefully applauds on cue.
Jerks, all. (h/t MtTB)
Well done to Daily Show host Jon Stewart (aka Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz), who pulls the laughs by minimizing the terror me and my fellow Israelis are undergoing, while perpetrating the image of Israel as the big bad wolf and the palestinians as Little (Code) Red Riding Hood.Report: Terrorists Offer 10-Year Truce
Call me humor impaired, but I guess I lost my sense of humor the first time I stood in our safe room with my wife and 5 young kids.
Perhaps he should be praising Israeli ingenuity for developing a rocket warning app, the IDF for going to the lengths they do to warn palestinian civilians (something no other army in the world does), and condemning Hamas for firing rockets at civilians and using their own as human shields.
But I guess that would not be funny. Just the truth.
Palestinian Arab sources reported Wednesday that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have drafted a ceasefire offer that would involve a 10-year truce with Israel.For ceasefire, Abbas proposes PA forces along Gaza-Egypt border
The terrorists want all crossings into Gaza opened, and an international airport to be opened in Gaza. The Rafah crossing is to be opened up to international traffic, under UN supervision, with international observers along the borders.
There is no official confirmation of the offer and it is being greeted with skepticism, as more of a trial balloon than an actual offer.
In its efforts to help arrange an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the Palestinian Authority is set to propose to Egypt that it open the Rafah border crossing under the supervision of PA security forces, and deploy PA forces along the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt.Poll: Most Israelis Object to Ceasefire with Hamas
Israel does not oppose the idea of PA forces at Rafah, Israeli sources said.
The proposal would mark a significant return of Mahmoud Abbas’s forces to positions of authority in Gaza, seven years after Hamas seized the Strip from Abbas in a coup.
53% of respondents said they opposed a ceasefire with Hamas, while 35% said they support it. 12% said they did not know or refused to answer.Gaza Public Rejects Hamas, Wants Ceasefire
At the same time, a majority of respondents were pessimistic about Operation Protective Edge bringing an end to the rocket fire from Gaza. 92% said they believe that the operation will not end the rocket fire, and only 6% said that they believe that Hamas would stop the rocket fire after the operation.
Respondents were also asked whether they were satisfied with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s performance over the past week. 53% said they were satisfied with Netanyahu's performance, compared to 35% who thought the Prime Minister’s performance during Operation Protective Edge was not satisfactory.
As tensions mounted and Hamas and other Gazan factions began to step up rocket fire last month, the people of that territory were heavily in favor of a ceasefire -- 70 percent of the poll respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Hamas should maintain a ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and the West Bank." This attitude is corroborated by the 73 percent of Gazans who said Palestinians should adopt "proposals for (nonviolent) popular resistance against the occupation." Similarly, when asked if Hamas should accept Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's position that the new unity government renounce violence against Israel, a clear majority (57 percent) answered in the affirmative. The responses to all three questions clearly indicate that most Gazans reject military escalation. Attitudes may have shifted since the poll due to anger at Israeli airstrikes, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the Gazan public still supports a ceasefire.Hamas reaches out to Qatar and Turkey for mediation
Hamas would like to see greater involvement by Qatar and Turkey in mediating a ceasefire with Israel, an Arab daily reported on Wednesday.Gaza doctor rejects cease-fire
Sources close to the Islamic movement told Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat that Hamas was “angry” with Egypt for not consulting it before proposing a ceasefire initiative Monday which Israel accepted and Hamas tacitly rejected by firing dozens of missiles into Israel throughout Tuesday.
One could perhaps interpret this as meaning “Death is better than the life we have here under Hamas,” but there is no indication whatsoever that Dr. Al-Dabour is critical of Hamas – quite the contrary: he generally refers to casualties as “martyrs” and the rockets that Hamas and other terror groups launch from Gaza against Israeli towns are for him “resistance rockets.”Watchdog: Al Jazeera’s Gaza Fatalities Data Indicates Israel Killed Mostly Combatant-Age Males, Not Women or Children
It is thus hardly a coincidence that Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada (EI) was among those who retweeted Al-Dabour’s determined rejection of a ceasefire. Indeed, last year, one of Al-Dabour’s blog posts was cross-posted at EI, and since both Al-Dabour and Abunimah passionately oppose a cease-fire that doesn’t fulfill the conditions set by Hamas, several of Al-Dabour’s related tweets were now featured in an EI post by Abunimah with the typically Orwellian title “Hamas did not reject a ceasefire, Israel did.”
Data published by Al Jazeera on Monday shows that in its ongoing operation in Gaza Israel killed mainly combatant-age males, not women or children, according to CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, contradicting media reports that tried to paint Israel’s Operation Protective Edge as indiscriminately killing civilians.Why doesn’t Israel publish figures and details of Gaza casualties?
In a study published on Monday, CAMERA said that a close read of the data “shows that, as in past hostilities, the fatalities are disproportionately [compared to the overall population] among young males, which corresponds with the characteristics of combatants. Males over 40 years old are also disproportionately represented. Some of the fatalities in those over 40 years of age likely represent senior members of terrorist organizations.”
CAMERA based its conclusions on comparing the data of 150 men and 20 women reported to have been killed to the broader population make up in Gaza, where men and woman each account for 50 per cent of the population and the median age is 15 years old.
In order to ascertain who was killed and whether the victim is a terrorist or a civilian, the center’s staff looks up their names on Palestinian websites and searches for information about their funerals and for other hints that could shed light on a person’s background.Fourth Lesson From the Gaza War: Don’t Trust Body Counts and Hamas Propaganda
The authorities in Gaza generally count every young man who did not wear a uniform as a civilian — even if he was involved in terrorist activity and was therefore considered by the IDF a legitimate target, military sources said.
And yet, no official Israeli government body releases any information about casualties caused by Israeli airstrikes in real-time. We simply cannot know what we hit, several officials said. In the West Bank, IDF forces are able to ascertain who dies as a result of IDF actions, but since Israel has no military or civilian presence in Gaza, no information is available during or right after a strike. To be sure, the IDF does investigate claims about casualties, but results are usually only released weeks after the hostilities have ended. By then, the world, gauging Israel’s conduct in part on the basis of available information on civilian casualties, has turned its attention elsewhere.
The final reason the Palestinian casualty toll is higher than that of Israel is that Israel has a superior army, and it’s winning this war. Those who win wars almost always have fewer casualties than those who are defeated. In Israel’s case, that’s a good thing. Israel need not feel guilty or defensive about winning. It’s a lot better than losing, as the Jewish people have learned from centuries of bitter experience as helpless victims.IAF delays strikes in northern Gaza to allow residents time for evacuation
Anyone with knowledge of history can appreciate how misleading casualty statistics can be. In World War II, the United States suffered about 360,000 military deaths. The Germans lost 3.2-million soldiers and 3.6-million civilians. Does that mean America was the aggressor, and Germany the victim? Japan estimates that it suffered 1 million military deaths and 2 million civilian deaths. Does that mean America attacked Japan, and not vice versa?
The IDF was yet to launch an expected bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning after having warned residents to evacuate the area believed to have a heavy concentration of rockets.Israel warns Gazans to flee as air campaign intensifies
The IDF had originally instructed them to leave the area by 8:00 a.m., but delayed the operation to allow Gazans more time to evacuate their homes.
Israel on Wednesday warned 100,000 Gazans to leave their homes as the military intensified its nine-day air campaign, after Hamas snubbed an Egyptian ceasefire effort the day before.Israel chalks up another first in the history of warfare
During the morning, the Israel Air Force dropped flyers while recorded phone calls and SMS messages to residents warned a series of military strikes was imminent, the military said.
The flyers said the military would carry out air strikes against targets in Zeitoun and Shuja’iya, two flashpoint districts east of Gaza City, noting that “a high volume of rocket fire” had been directed from there. Residents were advised to evacuate to Gaza City by 8.00 a.m. local time.
When the US attacked Iraq in 2003, one of the first weapons delivered by Tomahawk missiles was the BLU-114/B.IDF Hits 100 Targets in 24 Hours, Including 47 Buried Launchers Among the targets hit
Sometimes called the ‘soft bomb’, ‘blackout bomb’ or graphite bomb, it is a canister packed with tiny electrically conductive filaments made of graphite. It is employed like a cluster bomb, in which many bomblets are dispersed over the target. Unlike the cluster bomb, however, it is not directly harmful to humans.
Rather, it is death to electric power grids. The filaments are dispersed in a cloud, and settle on insulators, switchgear, transformers, etc. Since they are conductive, they produce short-circuits which can give rise to massive arcs which melt equipment, start fires or even cause explosions.
But strategic warfare is apparently not permitted to Israel. In fact, the opposite is true. Israel has supplied Gaza with food, water, medicines, fuel and electricity during all of the ongoing conflict, and it would likely be accused of crimes against humanity if it stopped.
The IDF Spokesman said Wednesday morning that the military attacked 39 terror targets in Hamas-run Gaza overnight. Over 1,750 terror targets have been hit since Operation Protective Edge began, on July 7.IDF BLOG: How is the IDF Minimizing Harm to Civilians in Gaza?
In particular, last night the IDF carried out targeted attacks on four prominent terrorist leaders, and additional attacks on operational infrastructures that serve as part of Hamas's base for terror activity against Israel.
In addition, the Navy carried out an attack on a terrorist position on the coast, from which operations were launched against Israel. Tank fire was also directed towards a terrorist position in Khan Yunis, killing one terrorist.
The IDF does everything possible to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. Hamas exploits these efforts by encouraging Palestinian civilians to ignore the IDF’s warnings.IDF Urges Civilians to Leave Areas of Gaza Targeted for Strikes
Phone Calls and Text Messages
As part of its efforts to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, the IDF makes phone calls and sends text messages to civilians residing in buildings designated for attack. In the following video, you can hear a recording of an IDF soldier calling a Gazan to warn him of an impending airstrike in his vicinity.
IDF Postpones Strikes on Hamas Targets after Identifying Civilians in the Area
Operation Protective Edge: A Week in Review
Massive Secondary Explosions After IDF Strikes Terror Sites
Iron Dome in Action
Netanyahu: Israel Expects 'Full Support' From World Leaders
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he expects "full support" from world leaders for Israel's military operation to end rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, after Hamas rejected ceasefire proposals and fired a barrage of rockets at Israeli towns and cities Tuesday.Liberman: IDF Operation Should 'Go All the Way', Retake Gaza
Speaking before a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Netanyahu pointed out that Israel had accepted the ceasefire, which stipulated that both sides should immediately end hostilities. Hamas claimed the truce amounted to a "surrender" on its part, since it did not include the conditions they had stipulated for a ceasefire - which included prisoner releases and a lifting of the Israeli and Egyptian blockades on Gaza - and responded by escalating its attacks against Israeli civilians.
"Our goal was and remains putting an end to rocket fire from Gaza on our cities, and providing the citizens of Israel with the sustained peace and quiet which they are entitled to," the prime minister said at a pre-meeting press conference.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman repeated his calls for Israel to retake the Gaza Strip Tuesday, stating that Operation Protective Edge should not stop until the entire territory is under full Israeli control.US lauds Israeli 'restraint' after Hamas failure to uphold ceasefire
"We returned every last meter to the '67 lines in the Gaza Strip," said Liberman, referring to the 2005 Disengagement Plan, during which the entire Jewish community of Gaza was expelled. "We evacuated all the settlements and all the residents and handed it over to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]."
Israel demonstrated restraint for hours after Egypt's proposed ceasefire was set to take effect, the United States said on Tuesday, as Israel and Hamas in Gaza resumed attacks on one another this afternoon.Statesmen Call on UN, EU to Condemn “Terrorist Aggressor” Hamas
"The Israelis welcomed the ceasefire, the cabinet supported it and as Hamas continued to fire rockets, Israel declined to respond for several hours," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.
A group of international notables issued a statement Tuesday condemning Hamas’s terror war against Israel and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and demanding that “policy makers, international institutions, the UN, and the European Union” do the same.Bennett Calls on Hamas 'Cowards' to Stop Using Human Shields
The statement came from the Friends of Israel Initiative, founded and headed by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Economics Minister Naftali Bennett rejected criticism from leftist NGOs over Israel's military operation against terrorist rocket fire from Gaza, and said the moment Hamas decided to invest in improving the lives of the people of Gaza instead of attacking Israel, the Jewish state would be first in line to help.Bennett on BBC: Hamas a coward. Killing its own children
In an interview with the BBC's Gaza correspondent, Bennett was asked "what it would take" for Israel to end Operation Protective Edge. His answer was simple, and echoed statements by other senior officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu: "for Hamas to stop shooting rockets and missiles at Israel... they just need to stop... and this whole thing will go away."
"Hamas has decided to export misery and terror on its own citizens and it's shooting rockets across Israel," he continued, noting that his own infant children were currently being forced to run to bomb shelters in central Israel. "If they decide to stop and disarm the whole thing will stop within one second."
Watch: Arabs Rejoice as Missiles Fall Near Them in Ashdod
A Facebook video of missile strikes on the port city was apparently taped by Arab workers from atop a building under construction.Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer Says Gaza Must Be Demilitarized
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer was on Tuesday's Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the ongoing conflict between the Jewish state and the terrorist organization. The two looked into the future and what Israel would like to see done when the conflict was over. Dermer had two wishes: "We have to create a dynamic where the use of human shields is considered to be an illegitimate tactic of war," and "The world has to demand that Gaza is demilitarized."Erdogan: 'Ayelet Shaked has same mindset as Hitler'
Hewitt began the segment by asking what Israel looks for in support from the United States. Israel, Dermer said, Israel was looking for strong public support for his country's right to defend herself. He added that the world must mount a specific effort against using civilians as human shields.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked to Hitler on Tuesday, in remarks criticizing Israel’s actions against terrorists in the Gaza Strip.ICRC: Gaza's Water Supply Suffering from Operation
Erdogan gave a fiery anti-Israel speech in which he said Ankara will not normalize ties with Israel as long as Israel continues to “kill innocent children and continue its operations in Gaza.”
Red Cross delegation leader claims clean water, electricity to Gaza suffering as a result of operation. But is it true?Hamas Wants to Die
Israel has continued to send humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the operation, and continues to provide the bulk of Gaza's water, electricity, gas, and communications infrastructure - despite the fact that Hamas has fired over 8,500 rockets on Israeli civilians since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Electricity was stymied for 70,000 Gazans earlier this week, as a result of Hamas terrorists misfiring its rockets on a power plant. The Israeli Electric Company did not send in technicians to repair the damage out of fear for their lives while under fire.
Israel provides 100 megawatts of electricity to Gaza on a regular basis, much of which is purchased by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which owes Israel 1.4 billion shekels (nearly half a billion dollars) for unpaid electric bills.
Several months ago, the director of the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) called on the Israeli government to cut off the supply to the PA until it pays its debt.
Hamas wants to die, obviously and visibly. That thought horrifies Westerners. As a number of Israeli commentators observe, Hamas doesn't particularly care about having a Palestinian State. It wants to destroy the Jewish State and is willing to die in the process. It wants to die in such a way that Israel will die, too. There is something utterly surreal to Hamas crowding civilians around military targets, and Israeli pilots declining to attack them. It recalls joke about the sadist and the masochist. The masochist says, "Beat me!," and the sadist says, No…suffer."Hamas got rich as Gaza was plunged into poverty
Hamas, to be sure, proposes to die in an accelerated time frame and a particularly disgusting fashion, but it should be kept in mind that self-willed extinction is the norm. West of the Indus, Israel is the only survivor among the thousands of little nations that flourished between 10,000 BC and 600 AD. To be sure, there have been plenty of small tribes that wanted to live but were trampled by conquering hordes. The rule, however, is that civilizations die of their own disgust with life. Most of the industrial nations are dying, some very quickly. Most of the Muslim world would rather die than accommodate modernity (although some of it may choose to cease to be Islamic).
With multi-million-dollar land deals, luxury villas and black market fuel from Egypt, Gaza's rulers made billions while the rest of the population struggled with 38-percent poverty and 40-percent unemployment.US blocked Qatari funds intended for Hamas employees
While the fighting is only expected to worsen the distress of the residents of Gaza, the Strip's economic outlook for the Strip was never good. The unemployment rate in Gaza stood at approximately 40% before the latest conflict, with a similar proportion being classed as living under the poverty line.
But while most of the Gaza population tries to deal with the difficulties of daily life, it seems that one sector at least has had few worries about their livelihoods - Hamas leaders and their associates.
A diplomatic source in the Gulf state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Qatar had transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Arab Bank for the salaries of some 44,000 Hamas civil servants. Those civil servants — employed by Hamas in Gaza since its takeover of the Strip in 2007 – were rendered jobless by the unity agreement with Fatah last month.Hamas is not alone in Gaza
But the money was never processed by Arab Bank and delivered to Hamas, the source told The Times of Israel, due to pressure from the Americans, who consider Hamas a terror organization.
“This is strange, since funds from Qatar have never been blocked in the past,” the source said, referring to the $400 million aid package pledged by Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa during his visit to Gaza in October 2012.
Contrary to popular perception, Hamas is not solely responsible for the rocket fire – Fatah is also participating in the bombardment. A number of armed groups affiliated with the 'Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades' have already announced involvement in the present rocket barrage. This is the same Fatah which Abu Mazen heads - the same Abu Mazen who formed a unity government with Hamas, called on the international community to intervene and restrain the dangerous Israeli escalation and at the same time condemned the rocket fire on Sderot. According to sources in Gaza, some of those hundreds of armed terrorists still receive a salary from the Palestinian Authority. The members of one of these organizations, Jaish al-Asifa ("The Army of the Storm"), even boasted that it fired 35 rockets towards Israel.Five notes on tunnels, re-occupation and other aspects of the Hamas war
Another significant organization operating in Gaza are the 'Popular Resistance Committees' This organization, established by former Fatah member Jamal Abu Samhadana, attracted activists from a variety of organizations including Fatah, Hamas and others. The Committees draw their inspiration from Hezballah for their extreme Islamist outlook, seeing Jihad and "resistance" - terror and armed struggle – as the only means to destroy Israel and liberate all of Palestine from the "Demonic [i.e. Zionist] entity". The organization, which works closely with Hamas and is sometimes even considered its "sub-contractor", has been involved in dozens of terror attacks over the years, the most famous of which is the attack on Kerem Shalom and abduction of Gilad Shalit - to say nothing of the rockets, of course.
With roughly two divisions of combat troops perched outside Gaza, a battered ceasefire proposal still fluttering in the distance, and reinvigorated violence –125 rockets were launched at Israel from 9 a.m. to late night Tuesday – here are five thoughts about the still unfinished mini-war:Hamas spokesman defends policy of using civilians as human shields
1. A tunnel that the army and the Shin Bet found near Kerem Shalom – an allegedly dark work of art, equipped with lighting and ventilation and 300 tons of reinforced concrete – was not just an expression of Hamas’s understanding that, in the age of Iron Dome, it needs offensive tools beyond rockets, but also part of the comprehensive conclusions drawn in the wake of the November 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri: "The resistance (i.e., Hamas) is truly glorifying our people and our nation. We are paying a price, but we remember our brothers in Algeria, who had at least a million and half Martyrs... In 1945, in a single day in Algeria, 45,000 Algerians died. In a single day. It wasn't described in Algeria's history as forsaking the blood of the Algerians, as some defeatists are describing today the number of Martyrs as 'trading with Palestinian blood and forsaking Palestinian blood'... We are not leading our people to execution as we stand by and look on. No. We are leading them to death - I mean, to confrontation."[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), July 14, 2014
60 Seconds On How Hamas Uses People As Human Shields
Hamas gets Hebrew grammar 101
Hamas has targeted many Israelis with a spate of threatening Hebrew-language text messages. But one recipient — Elizabeth Tsurkov, who works for the Israeli NGO Hotline for Refugees and Migrants — is taking issue not just with the messages’ content, but their grammar.Hamas Militant Can’t Wait to Be Killed by Superior Firepower (satire)
In a Twitter exchange with @qassamhebrew, which identifies itself as the military arm of Hamas, Tsurkov pointed out a missing definite article and an incorrectly gendered verb, concluding, “The Hebrew in your texts is often pretty poor and therefore isn’t very frightening.”
Ahmad Dahlan 22, is in many ways your typical resident of the Gaza Strip: young, unemployed, fervently Muslim and uncompromisingly anti-Israel. He also boasts an infectious enthusiasm for being shot, dismembered, burned, crushed or otherwise killed in a looming confrontation with the Israeli Army.
“Ahmad reminds us what it’s all about, with his youthful exuberance,” said Mahmoud Salah, his commander in the Izzedin-el-Qassam Brigades, the main Hamas fighting force. “Most of us walk around with bravado, boasting of the Zionist soldiers we’ll kill, the tanks we’ll blow up, the aircraft we’ll shoot down. Ahmad is different. He’s all about the pure experience of being overwhelmed by superior firepower and dying in a painfully frustrating fashion.”