Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: failed rockets

Showing posts with label failed rockets. Show all posts

Monday, August 08, 2022

Gaza casualties, by the numbers: Islamic Jihad killed more Gaza civilians than Israel did (update)

The Hamas health ministry issued their list of 43 people killed over the weekend. Here is my preliminary analysis.

Bolded names are children.

1- Imad Abd al-Rahim Shallah, 50 Gaza.	With PIJ
2- Youssef Salman Qaddoum 24 Gaza.	PIJ
3- Tayseer Mahmoud Al-Jabari, 50 Gaza City.	PIJ
4- Salama Muharib Abed 41 Gaza.	PIJ
5- Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum, 5 Gaza City.	With PIJ
6- Donyana Adnan Attia Al-Amour 22 Gaza.	Likely PIJ rocket
7- Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Fattah Al-Madhoun, 26 Al-Nada Towers.	PIJ
8- Fadl Mustafa Zorob 30 Khan Younis.	PIJ
9- Muhammad Hassan Al-Bayouk, 35, Khan Younis.	PIJ
10- Ahmed Mazen Azzam, 25 Gaza Strip.	PIJ
11- Tamim Ghassan Abdullah Hijazi, 23 Al-Zana.	PIJ
12- Osama Abdul Rahman Al-Suri, 27, Bani Suhaila.	PIJ
13- Hassan Mohamed Mansour, 26, Jabalia.	PIJ
14- Naama Muhammad Abu Qaida 62 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
15- Nour El-Din Ali Al-Zubaidi 19 Jabalia	Likely PIJ rocket
16- Hazem Muhammad Salem 12 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
17- Ahmad Muhammad Al-Nayrab 13 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
18- Moamen Muhammad Al-Nairab 4 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
19 - Khalil Iyad Abu Hamadeh, 19, Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
20- Ahmed Walid Al-Fram, 18 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
21- Misbah al-Khatib 50 Jabalia agreed.	Jabalia rocket
22- Muhammad Muhammad Ibrahim Zaqout 19 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
23- Ziad Ahmed Al Mudallal, 36 Rafah.	PIJ
24- Muhammad Iyad Hassouna, 14 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
25- Ismail Abdel Hamid Mohamed Salameh, 30 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
26- Hana Ismail Ali Salameh, 51, Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
27- Rafat Saleh Ibrahim Al-Zamili, 45, Rafah.	PIJ
28- Khaled Saeed Mansour 47 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
29- Alaa Saleh Al-Tahrawi, 30, Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
30- Ahmad Muhammad Afana, 31, Jabalia.	Hamas (but not target)
31- Dia Zuhair Al-Borai, 30 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
32- Jamil Ehab Najm 15 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
33- Jamil Najm Najm 6 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
34- Nazmi Fayez Abu Karsh 16 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
35- Hamed Haider Najm 17 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
36-Mohamed Salah Negm 17 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
37- Muhammad Yasser Nimr Al-Nabahin 13 Al-Bureij.	With Hamas (son)
38- Ahmed Yasser Nimr Al Nabahin 9 Al-Bureij.	With Hamas (son)
39- Dalia Yasser Nimr Al Nabaheen 13 Al Bureij.	With Hamas (son)
40 - Yasser Nimr Mahmoud Al Nabahin 45 Al-Bureij.	Hamas
41 - Khaled Ayman Yassin, 27 Zaytoun	Unknown
42- Shady Emad Nimr Kahil, 27 Zaytoun	Unknown
43- Abd al-Rahman Jum’ah al-Silk 19 al-Shuja’iyya.	Unknown

We know seven people were killed by an errant Islamic Jihad rocket in Jabalia. There was another set of deaths, five children, in the Fallujah cemetery in Jabalia that look to be from an errant rocket as well based on photos of the damage. I am counting several other likely errant rockets based on the descriptions of their deaths in PCHR as being from "shrapnel" or, in some cases, in an "open field" where it would make no sense for the IDF to attack.

One Hamas member, Yasser Nabahin, seems to have been targeted by the IDF, and he was near his three sons who were also killed. I don't know if this was an accident or if he was actively fighting with Islamic Jihad. Hamas' obituary does not say he died while fighting, but if he went rogue, they wouldn't say that.

Another Hamas member, Ahmad Afana, was apparently killed when a wall collapsed on him as he was trying to extricate people from a building, so he wasn't killed by Israel.

This would mean that the IDF killed 13 terrorists. There were 10 civilians killed as human shields or collateral damage. Islamic Jihad killed (or likely killed) 16 civilians with rocket fire that fell short. Three I do not yet know, and one was an accidental death.

The Jerusalem Post quotes the IDF with somewhat different statistics, but a similar number of people killed by PIJ rockets:

The Palestinians, however, reported a total of 35 deaths out of which 26 were innocent bystanders. Of the 26, 11 were killed in Israeli airstrikes, and 15 were killed by Islamic Jihad rockets that failed to clear Gaza.

I don't know why they say 35 total when the Gaza authorities said 43. (Some reports say 44.)

Either way, Islamic Jihad killed far more civilians than Israel did.

UPDATE: Here is a photo of the room where Donyana al-Amour (#6) was killed. The spray patterns on the walls (small shrapnel holes) indicate it was a PIJ rocket. (h/t Abu Ali Express)

UPDATE 2: Another child, Fatima Abeid, was killed by this rocket that fell on Beit Hanoun as can be seen in this video. (h/t Abu Ali Express)

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Jabaliya: How The Media Listened To Israel's Side Of The Story And Why (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

In the midst of Operation Breaking Dawn, on Saturday night, at about 9pm, a rocket explosion in Jabaliya in Gaza killed 4 children.

As expected, Israel was blamed.

But this time, unexpectedly, Israel was able not only to present its case that it was not responsible, but also to get the media to present a balanced report that presented Israel's contention that the explosion was the result of a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Israel Gets The Media To Notice

The results were media reports that actually were balanced. The Times of Israel had a survey of some of the reporting:

CNN reported:

In one incident Saturday, four children were among seven people killed in an explosion in Jabaliya. The Palestinian Health Ministry initially said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike. Israel rejected the claim and said it was the result of errant rocket fire, and released a video showing what it said was the Islamic Jihad rocket sharply changing course in the air and hitting the building.

The New York Times referred to the incident twice. First, on Saturday:

Three children were also killed on Saturday, though it was not immediately clear whether they were hit by an Israeli strike or a misfired Palestinian rocket. The Israeli military said they were killed by a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch.

Then on Sunday:

Israel said some of those children were killed on Saturday night when an Islamic Jihad rocket misfired and fell short in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it had not been operating in that area at the time. Islamic Jihad has not commented on the Israeli claim.

France's AFP quoted Israeli sources that “it had ‘irrefutable’ evidence that a stray rocket fired by Islamic Jihad was responsible for the deaths of several children in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Saturday.”

Al Jazeera reported:

At least four children were killed in a blast close to the Jabaliya refugee camp on Saturday, according to Hamas, the group that governs the Gaza Strip. It blamed Israel for the deaths, but the military denied any responsibility, saying the explosion was caused by a failed rocket launched by Islamic Jihad. Al Jazeera could not verify the claims immediately.

On Saturday, The Associated Press reported

The Israeli military said an errant rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed civilians late Saturday, including children, in the town of Jabaliya, in northern Gaza. The military said it investigated the incident and concluded ‘without a doubt’ that it was caused by a misfire on the part of Islamic Jihad. There was no official Palestinian comment on the incident.

However, by Sunday the AP apparently decided that in the interests of balance, instead of presenting the two sides as to who was responsible, it would not address the question of responsibility at all and merely reported “among the dead were six children and four women” -- without any mention the possibility that some of them may have been killed by misfired PIJ rockets.

On the other hand, is the German news site Bild, whose headline was straightforward without hedging, "Palestinian missile kills civilians in Gaza."

What Did Israel Do Differently This Time?

One of the criticisms of Israel when it comes to getting its side of the story out to the world is that it is just too slow, allowing the terrorists and Israel-haters plenty of time to get their version of things out and presented before the world audience. Israel just does not react quickly enough.

Not this time.

Lahav Harkov addresses this in her article How Israel shot down false reports on Jabaliya explosion. Israel already started responding on the same day -- Saturday.

“We identified the potential for damage from this incident very quickly,” Head of the Public Diplomacy Directorate Lior Haiat said on Sunday. “We understood it could be a public diplomacy catastrophe that could lead to diplomatic harm that could change the direction of the campaign.”

Within minutes, Haiat, IDF Spokesperson Ran Kohav, representatives of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry discussed the incident. Defense officials were quickly able to determine not only that the IDF was not responsible, but that Islamic Jihad very clearly was.

Haiat was able to coordinate a media plan with the others within an hour. [emphasis added]

Here is Israel's statement that came out the very same day, via Twitter:

And that was only the beginning.

The statement was translated into multiple languages and delivered to Israeli embassies worldwide, which then passed the statement on to local media.

The IDF posted a statement as well:

Keren Hajioff, PM Lapid's International Spokeswoman made a video for TV and social media, where she made a similar statement:

Tonight, Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza fired a rocket towards Israeli children, but ended up killing Gazan children instead.

This is the truth about what happened ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/sLVLWlU0tS
— Keren Hajioff (@kerenhajioff) August 6, 2022

Another welcome step, considering Israel's reputation of not dealing well with the media, was Culture and Sports Minister Chilli Tropper being released from an ongoing Security Cabinet meeting so that he could speak to Israeli media on behalf of the government.

Of course, it helped that Israel was able to provide videos to support its claim:

Palestinians accusing Israel of killing 5 kids yet at 20:40 a rocket barrage was reported into Israel. At the same time, the news broke of massacre in Jabaliya in which 5 children were killed. The IDF confirmed NO ATTACKS were carried out in the area at that time by Israel. pic.twitter.com/kIX72TnxR5
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) August 6, 2022

Now that Israel has demonstrated the ability to get its message across and reported in the media, what Israel needs is the ability to do this consistently.

Maybe it can even do a better job in presenting its side in the death of Abu Akleh.

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Here's one way to tell that Palestinians were likely killed by Islamic Jihad rockets

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights puts out bulletins that are the most detailed available on airstrikes in Gaza.

It blames all incidents on Israel, of course. But a little reading between the lines shows that many of the supposed strikes are actually from Islamic Jihad rockets falling short in Gaza.

The IDF has documented well over a hundred of such failed rocket launches:

When PCHR writes about an IDF "shell" causing deaths or damage, it can safely be assumed that this was a rocket. IDF bombs are devastating in the damage they cause and IDF intelligence is quite good at targeting; as far as I can tell the IDF is not using any artillery yet in Gaza.

IDF strikes look like this:

If there is only a small hole in the roof, it isn't from the IDF.

When PCHR says random people are killed by "shells" that indicates a failed Gaza rocket launch.

Here are some:

8/5 16:20: an artillery shell fell on a house belonging to ‘Adnan ‘Atiyah al-‘Amour in al-Fokhari area, eastern Khan Younis. As a result, the owner’s 22-year-old daughter, Doniana, was killed after sustaining shrapnel wounds all over her body.

At approximately 23:20 on Friday, 05 August 2022, 5 Palestinians, including a mother and her 3 children, were injured after an artillery shell landed on Foad Ghazi ‘Abdullah Farajallah’s house in Jabalia refugee camp, causing material damage to it.

At around 00:15 on Saturday, 06 August 2022, an artillery shell fell on the roof of Al-Quds Open University building in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, causing a hole in its roof and damage to the study halls.

15:55: IOF fired a shell at a group of people gathering in front of Hussein ‘Ali al-Zuwaidi’s house, northeastern Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 2 civilians, including the house owner’s son, Nour Al-Deen (18), sustained shrapnel wounds all over their bodies. Due to their serious condition, they were referred to al-Shifa Hospital, where Nour al-Deen was pronounced dead at around 18:30.

We've documented PCHR lies many times. By default, they assume every death is from Israeli fire, and they never correct their information after it is shown that they are wrong.

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Must-read: What the media always gets wrong when there is fighting in Gaza

Every time a war breaks out in Gaza, the media gets it wrong. Spectacularly wrong.

I described many of them in 2021; here is an updated version of that post.

A large percentage of Gaza rockets fall in Gaza, and many Gazans are killed because of them. I've documented this for years. I've shown how Hamas' own videos show rockets falling short.

When a family is killed in Gaza, it is very rare that it is an IDF mistake. Most of the time it is because a terrorist operative is in the house - either because he is a member of the family, sometimes it seems because he is using them as human shields. Other times it is because of Hamas rockets falling short. Sometimes it is because the IDF targeted a legitimate target that had a larger cache of explosives than was thought and it caused far more collateral damage than expected.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad hides the names of most of those killed. They do this to make it look like a larger percentage of the dead are civilians - and they did it in previous wars, too.

Speaking of, the Gaza Health Ministry and the "human rights" NGOs in Gaza (PCHR and Al Mezan) downplay any mention of terrorist casualties and often call terrorists "civilians" when they report the circumstances of those who have died. (Amnesty's obscenely dishonest "Gaza Platform" with statistics from the 2014 war relied on PCHR's initial reports, and as a result it lists more "civilians" than even the UN does. They know they are lying, I've let them know enough times, and they refuse to correct it.)

The media still has no idea what "proportionality" means in the context of international law. They make scorecards of how many have been killed on both sides as if the results are supposed to be "fair," implying that if only more Jews would be killed, then they can all be happy.

The media (and human rights groups) also don't understand the principle of distinction, pretending that it means that Israel cannot bomb a high value target if there are civilians around. It can, under proper circumstances.

Then again, the media is also part of the problem. Hamas has almost complete control over the media in Gaza. Citizens who speak freely to media know that they will be punished. Everyone sticks to the Hamas-approved script. International reporters know that they will be kicked out if they say anything not to Hamas' liking. Yet the media hardly ever mentions this, giving a false impression that their reporting is objective.

The media will also ignore most of Hamas' war crimes. Using ambulances or "press" credentials to transport weapons, using Gazans as human shields, using mosques as weapons depots, shooting from schools- - I once counted 19 different war crimes that Hamas has done in the Gaza wars, but "human rights groups" somehow only notice and denounce one.

Some other must-read background that will make you more knowledgeable than the most presigious journalists from the New York Times, the BBC and CNN:

Israel's success in keeping civilian casualties to a minimum in an urban war zone where the military targets are purposefully placed among civilians is unparalleled.

The decisions as to what Israel targets in Gaza is detailed, lengthy and adheres to international law. The media and Israel haters portray Israel as a spoiled baby who lashes out at anything that moves and I've never seen a serious mainstream media article that describes anything close to the reality that military experts understand.

If the media would miss one or two of these topics, there wouldn't be a problem. They are in the job of simplifying things for readers. But they consistently get basic things wrong, and always in the direction of making Israel look bad.

It is no accident.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Is the US Holding Israel’s Iron Dome Hostage to an Iran Nuke Deal? (Guest post by Dave Bender)

Is the US Holding Israel’s Iron Dome Hostage to an Iran Nuke Deal?

While President Biden, Senate, and Congress slow-walk and bicker over replenishing Jerusalem's dwindling defensive missile shield supplies, PM Bennett says his country won't be bound to any rickety renewed nuke deal - nor stand idly by to Iran's increasingly genocidal threats

By Dave Bender, northern Israel

Administration and Capitol political horse-traders and ideologues are holding hostage the lives of some two million Israelis -- specifically the Gaza Envelope and northern border areas. Their domestic foot-dragging endangers Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Bedouin citizens, alike.

This, while P5+1 group (US, UK, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the EU) reps wrangle with Iran in Vienna through - so far - no less than eight contentious sessions over terms of restarting the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

But Jerusalem doesn’t trust the Viennese diplomatic waltz nor Iranian double-crossing promises; they’re preoccupied with Tehran’s ruling and military leaders’ incessant, bellicose threats to “turn Tel Aviv and Haifa into dust,” “wipe Israel off the map,” and taking note of videos of simulated strikes against Israel’s cities, military targets, and reputed nuclear facilities.

“...the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere,” the Tehran Times histrionically boasted in a December 2021 front-page article, entitled, “Just One Wrong Move.” https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/tehran-times-publishes-targets-iran-will-attack-in-israel-688785

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, told the Knesset parliament’s crucial Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that, “Israel is not a party to the agreements,” and warned that the Jewish State “is not bound to what will be written in the agreements if they are signed,” according to a JNS report. https://www.jns.org/bennett-sends-message-to-iran-vienna-talks-wont-tie-israels-hands/

And so, Israel is “investing in security rearmament,” to the tune of an immense NIS 60 billion ($19.2 billion) due to what Bennett called an “[Iranian] octopus that constantly threatens Israel.”

Military analyst Seth Frantzman at The Jerusalem Post breaks down the tentacled threat matrix:

“Both Hamas and Hezbollah maintain large stockpiles of ballistic rockets, in addition to mortars, anti-tank missiles, and other munitions. While Hamas does have Iranian-made weaponry, a significant amount of its arsenal has historically been indigenously made, as a result of the ongoing blockade against the Gaza Strip. Hamas has produced several types of rockets, notably the Qassam series. Hezbollah’s stockpile has in the past consisted of former Soviet models, including Grads and Katyushas, but, like Hamas, now has Iranian-made heavy and long-distance rockets like the Fajr series.

“Estimates of Hezbollah rocket stockpiles vary from 150,000-200,000, while Hamas’ is estimated to be around 10,000.” https://www.jpost.com/tags/rocket-attack-on-israel

Additionally, the Alma Research and Education Center, reports that Iran has deployed a wide array of “medium-range and long-range surface-to-surface missiles inside fortified shafts,” at a site near Palmyra, in eastern Syria. https://israel-alma.org/research/

“The missiles we mentioned above can threaten almost the entire territory of the State of Israel: Northern Israel (distance of about 186 miles, about 300 kilometers, from Mount Muhammad Ben Ali by air), Haifa area (distance of about 223 miles, about 360 kilometers), Tel Aviv area (distance of about 261 miles, about 420 kilometers) and even threaten the area of the city of Beer Sheva and south of it.”

But while last summer's unfulfilled promises to resupply crucial defensive measures remains a vital concern to Israelis, the regional conflagration the delay could yet ignite apparently remains - seriously and serially - misjudged and maybe even selectively ignored by the US Administration and its cohorts.

The May conflict with Gaza saw over four thousand rockets fired at metropolitan areas, and some 16 Hamas-Hezbollah rockets fired south out of southern Lebanon into civilian areas later in the year, with the Iron Dome successfully downing some 90 percent of them.

However, 12 Israeli civilians and an IDF soldier were killed, and over 300 wounded, and millions of dollars in economic damage was sustained in the 11-day operation, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Operation-Guardian-of-the-Walls-10-May-2021.aspx

In Gaza, the IDF said some 460 misfired rockets fell short within the coastal enclave, killing and maiming an unclear number of reported non-combatants. Hamas-affiliated medical officials reported some 260 deaths to the UN and Human Rights Watch, although Israeli researchers say almost 50 percent of them were affiliated with terror groups.

So without freeing up funding (which is invested in American jobs to design and construct the strictly defensive interceptors), recalcitrant US lawmakers need to plainly know: your foot-dragging is likely to get many more people killed.

We in Israel see you and we hear you, and the results, if not intent, of your deeds - and misdeeds - are clear to us:

If the State of Israel is hit in any future conflict by volleys of even more thousands of incoming rockets or payload-carrying UAVs and cannot respond sufficiently due to a lack of Tamir interceptors, the government and IDF will have no other choice but to respond with far more kinetic firepower than anything seen so far - and at targets very near and very far - in order to suppress and stop the deadly salvos aimed at heavily-populated civilian areas and strategic facilities.

And even at that, despite the “standalone measure that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support,“ but still withheld in the Senate, rebuilding the supply of interceptors takes time, due to the relatively slow manufacturing process, with cost (and likely Covid) being an inhibitor.

On the other hand, Hamas and PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] use less sophisticated - but no less deadly - rockets that are manufactured quickly, at a much lower cost.

In order to stop them before they are even launched, the sanctimonious caterwauling over previous IDF pinpoint strikes on terror targets on and cross-border will be deafened into silence by the unleashed fury out of Zion.

Speaking as a nearly-two-decade IDF artillery NCO and infantry grunt (St.Sgt.- ret.) who served in and around Gaza, and as a two-decade reporter in Israel please understand: the howling existential threats uttered by Iranian-financed, trained, and led regional proxies and their determination to eradicate us will not deter us, but the countdown to the next steel rainstorm is ticking very loudly in our ears these days.

So forgive us for being distracted by the growing chorus calling for our demise; beyond the virtuous, virtual moral Disneyland of “knowing what's best for us" hectoring, "America first!" jingoism, and unrequited "tough love" missives penned from six thousand miles away - we’ll bleed real blood and treasure due to those withheld projectiles.

And so, in order to defend our families and the sole Jewish homeland against sworn foes bent on our collective destruction - despite an unspoken defensive arms embargo - don’t be too surprised by the justified ferocity and extent of Israel’s response.

And our lack of apology for stopping our would-be killers and their murderous plans.

---

Dave Bender is a US-born, four-decade Israeli immigrant and self-described, two-decade “ever-recovering reporter,” in Israel, and was an award-winning reporter at two NPR affiliates in the States. Since then, he’s developed a photography/videography career and would, mostly, just as soon be beekeeping with his wife, and enjoying his kids and grandkids.