Hamas rockets don't distinguish between Arab and Jew

Last week, Hamas promised Israeli Arabs that their rockets would not hurt them, and were only targeting  the "Hebrews:"

We say to [Israeli Arabs], living in Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Lod, Ramla, and the Negev: The rockets fired by the Al-Qassam Brigades will not hit you. We know those parts. We are familiar with the geography and with the history. Not a single Arab Palestinian child will be hit by one of our missiles. Our rockets are aimed at the Hebrews, the murderers, the Israelis, the criminals. Don't be afraid. Go on with your everyday life, and celebrate our victory, just like we will celebrate it here, in Gaza....We say to our people in Haifa: The missiles of Al-Qassam will not hit any Arab home. Rest assured, our missiles accurately target the homes of the Israelis and the Zionists. As Arabs, Muslms and Christians, you must support Gaza in the streets, by demonstrations, with slogans. You must besiege consulates of European countries supporting the occupation.

Hamas lied to the people it pretends to care about.

The first Israeli fatality from a Hamas rocket attack was a Bedouin.

A 32-year-old man was killed Saturday when a rocket fired by Gaza terrorists hit a small Bedouin community near the city of Dimona.

The man has been identified as Alouj Ouda. His wife, son, daughter, and sister-in-law were wounded in the attack.

Ouda’s wife suffered shrapnel injuries to several parts of her body, and is in moderate condition. The couple’s four-month-old daughter is in serious condition with a head injury. Their four-year-old son suffered multiple shrapnel injuries as well, but is in light condition.

The four surviving family members are being treated in Soroka hospital in Be’er Sheva.

Previously, two young sisters were badly injured when a rocket fired by Gaza terrorists hit a Bedouin community near Be’er Sheva. One of the girls was left fighting for her life after suffering shrapnel injuries to her stomach.

An elderly man was seriously injured in the same attack.

The tragedy is undeniable, and the relative lack of attention to this death is unconscionable.

There is another story here, as Times of Israel notes:

The Supreme Court ruled on Sunday that the state is under no obligation to immediately provide additional protection against rockets to Bedouin communities in the Negev Desert, but called on authorities to formulate and publish criteria for civilian protection in the south within 30 days.

The court was responding to an urgent appeal by a group of Israeli human rights NGOs on Thursday, following the injury of two Bedouin girls in the unrecognized village of Awajan, Maram and Athir al-Wagili, by a rocket fired from Gaza on July 14. On Saturday, as the court was deliberating the issue, a Bedouin man was killed and his three-month-old daughter seriously injured near the city of Dimona, also as a result of a rocket originating from Gaza.

Judges Zvi Zylbertal, Yoram Danziger and Noam Sohlberg said they found no flaw in the state’s allocation of outdoor protective concrete structures, known as miguniot, that would justify an intervention.

“There is no argument that the state has a supreme obligation to defend the lives and bodily integrity of its citizens,” they wrote in the ruling. “But the state’s obligation to defend the lives of its residents and citizens in times of emergency can be fulfilled through a wide range of means.”

Israel has no more than 150-200 miguniot (free standing shelters) it can distribute, the state argued in court, and has decided to prioritize areas within a 20-kilometer (13-mile) radius of the Gaza Strip, which have sustained 80 percent of the rocket fire emanating from Gaza. Lying on the ground and taking cover reduces the chance of injury from rocket shrapnel by 80 percent, Israel’s Home Front Command told the court.

The Supreme Court said it rarely intervenes in the operational discretion of the IDF during fighting.

“We have found no flaw in the defendants’ decision regarding miguniot to justify our intervention,” the judges wrote. “The array of current means of defense is too limited to cover all areas within rocket range. Pulling the blanket over one area would expose another.”

It is a matter of triage. There are only so many Iron Domes and shelters, and naturally the priority goes to towns that are closer to Gaza and that are more densely populated.

The Bedouin are living in very spread out areas over the Negev, it is very difficult to give them everything they need under the best of circumstances - and here they choose to live in illegal villages on stolen land. Attempts to fix the problem have been stymied by most of the Bedouin themselves.

I don't know how long it takes to manufacture shelters, and of course if it can be done more quickly to protect everyone, it should be prioritized.

Don't believe the lies about how the Bedouin are being purposefully ignored by or targeted by Israel, though. There is enough blame to go around and there are plenty of people who want to take what is truly a tragic situation and turn it into a propaganda weapon against Israel.

The truth is far more complicated and rarely reported, as I show in this video made last year:




Alouj Ouda didn't deserve to die. No Arabs will be wringing their hands over his death. And Israel needs to ensure that it gives the same priority to saving its Arab citizens as its Jewish citizens.

From what I can tell...they are.