The 2009 PalArab self-death count rises to 47.
UPDATE: Another body recovered plus one I had missed; 49.
Two families said narrowly escaped death when a Palestinian homemade projectile hit their apartments in Al-Farahin, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday night.Working to make Hamas respectable: Representatives from the Carter Center are working on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. They met with Hamas leaders today in Ramallah. No doubt they are trying to find ways that Hamas can keep its desire to destroy Israel but can convince Europe that they don't really mean it.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted the owner of the apartments, Ahmad Abu Duqqa, as saying, “The projectile drilled through the roof causing serious damage."
"Only the heavens prevented a massacre," said Abu Duqqa, "as the projectile hit a bathroom next to my four grandchildren and their mother, who live with us after they fled their home because it is in the range of Israeli fire.”
A Palestinian was killed on Monday morning and four others were injured in a mysterious explosion in the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources reported. One Palestinian, identified as Rajab Usama Subuh, 25, was killed in the blast, while two of four others injured in Beit Lahiya were in critical condition just before noon on Monday.Earlier, Gazans had claimed this came from an Israeli artillery shell, but the IDF denied any activities in the area. The PalArab self-death count in 2009 is now at 29. UPDATE: This was not a work accident, just an apparent case of stupidity:
Palestinian hospital officials say a 25-year-old Gaza man has been killed and five people have been wounded in a blast along the border with Israel.This no longer falls into my definition of self-death (although, as Richard from Augean Stables points out in the comments, it is a Darwin Award candidate,) so we are back down to 28, unless more information comes out.Palestinian security officials say the explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya was caused when people who were melting down scrap metal for recycling inadvertently threw an explosive device into the fire.
(h/t PTWatch)
Since the start of the conflict in Gaza, the “ghost” suicide bombers have isolated themselves from families and friends. They spend their time hidden close to areas where Israeli forces deploy. On the selection criteria for suicide bombers, Abu Moath briefly explained that only young people are chosen from the ranks of al-Qassam’s battalions, which number up to ten thousand fighters. Abu Moath disclosed females are also recruited to the ranks of the suicide bombers. The candidate bombers are secretly scrutinized by al-Qassam lieutenants to make sure they are religiously committed and responsible. The next phase is to notify the bomber of their acceptance and put them through psychological and military training on weapons and tactics, especially those used by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Abu Moath asserts that all through the selection and training phases the suicide bombers are tutored by religious clerics and Islamic preachers. Upon completion of training, the bombers are sent behind enemy lines. Each group of suicide bombers is compartmentalized and does not know the location or composition of other groups to avoid compromising their comrades if one of them is captured by the Israelis. Abu Moath admits such captures happen very often because the suicide bombers operate behind enemy lines. Each suicide bomber is issued special weapons and a custom-tailored explosive belt.By the way, this means that at least some of the women killed in Gaza were not civilians.
Other Hamas units of suicide bombers include the “Booby-Trapped Martyrs.” These martyr units are designed to deploy on the streets and alleys of Gaza’s cities, armed with heavier explosive belts than those used by the “ghosts.” These units are as secret and compartmentalized as the “ghost” suicide bombers and deploy with Hamas commando units tasked with kidnapping Israeli soldiers.
Many lessons can be concluded from the Gaza war. The first is the Palestinians’ great will to sacrifice to defend their home.More like Hamas' great will to sacrifice Gazans.
...one cannot conceal the feeling of being proud of the Palestinian resistance.As they stayed in tunnels underneath hospitals and shot rockets from mosques.
According to the human rights specialist Lyna al Tabal, there is not a single item in the Geneva Convention Israel did not violate.That's right - every single Geneva Convention! Israel must have done biological experiments against Gazans, shot at Hamas parachutists ejecting from damaged planes, and raped Gaza women, to name a few of the hundreds of Conventions.
This is a state that has more than 200 atomic weapons which means two atomic bombs for each Palestinian.You mean there are only 100 Palestinian Arabs?
A state that has wires and check points (a check point means a slow death and daily humiliation for Palestinians) 20 times more than the Nazi check points during the Nazi occupation of Europe.Um....yeah.
The number of Palestinians who have been imprisoned since 1967 is 30 times more than the Europeans who went to prison during the Nazi occupation of Europe.
The number of bombs Israel used against Palestinians is estimated to be 50 bombs or rockets to each Palestinian.Assuming he means Palestinian Arabs in the boundaries of Mandate Palestine, that's 300 million bombs!
The number of displaced Palestinians from their ancestral home in more than 415 villages and cities, due to the European Zionist invasion of Palestine, is about 5 million Palestinians.A neat trick, considering that there were less than a million total Palestinian Arabs in 1948.
Therefore the Palestinian resistance is a reaction to occupation. The occupation comes first; the resistance comes as a natural reaction.See my last post about the Arab murders of Jews in 1914.
Palestinians have every right to resist the occupation following article 1 of the additional protocol of the Geneva conventions 1977 which states clearly that:Even if this applied, this means that they are covered by the Conventions, it doesn't mean that they can flout them.
(Armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination).
Weakening the fist of Zionism is in the interest of all Europe, which the Israeli atomic bombs can reach it in few minutes.Ah, yes, the Europeans are threatened by Israel far more than from Islamic terrorism.
Palestinians prefer to compete with the Jewish community in Palestine in football grounds and in musical halls and not in wars. This view is related to the Palestinian vision which views as Palestine more than a piece of land, but rather as a unique place where God is glorified through synagogues, churches and mosques.A sentiment that I have not seen a single time - ever - mentioned in any Palestinian Arab media, from years of reading them. And keep in mind how many synagogues survived in the Old City of Jerusalem one month after Jordan ejected the Jews there - zero.
A Palestinian man on Thursday accused Islamist Hamas militants in control of the Gaza Strip of torturing and killing his brother for publicly criticizing them.This is confirmed in the PalArab media.Osama Atallah, a teacher, was a supporter of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the sworn enemy of Hamas, whose gunmen drove Fatah militia out of Gaza in 2007 and fought Israel's army in a three-week war this month.
His brother Bassam said masked gunmen in two jeeps arrived at the family home in the city of Gaza on Tuesday. They identified themselves as members of Hamas internal security and they arrested his brother Osama.
Bassam said the Hamas security service told the Atallah family Osama would be released in a matter of hours. But a Hamas government official, who is also a member of the Atallah family, later denied the teacher was in custody.
The family subsequently received a telephone call from hospital that Osama Atallah was in critical condition.
He later died of his wounds.
The 2009 Palarab self-death count is now (estimated) to be at 42.
A 14-year old boy was fond dead in a well in the West Bank, but that seems to have been accidental. But a new murder I was not aware of happened last month of a 13-year old, and I adjusted the self-death count from 2008 accordingly.
With great regret that I am one of the Gaza Strip who have lived a war from beginning to end and talk with regret that the Zionist trueI don't know how to translate that last phrase but I often see it in the context of sadness at tragedy, making this comment seem more likely to be legitimate.
Hamas has taken the peaceful citizens and children as human shields and were firing rockets from among them and escape and hide among children and also the launch of rockets from crowded places and people's enthusiasm was in line with Israel to kill the largest possible number of people of Palestine in Gaza
Suffice God yes agent
The controversial discussion about the quality and significance of the victory and the size of destruction caused by the war is legitimate and healthy. But, despite the massive destruction in Lebanon, the Arabs seem to be better off after the war.This is not some crazy member of the "Arab street". This is someone who has a respected job as an intellectual, who is saying that anything that is bad for Israel is, by definition, good for the Arabs. The Arab world, and a large number of its supporters, look at the Middle East as a zero-sum game where when one side wins, the other loses.
Logically, when Israel is in a worse condition, which is the case now, Arabs are definitely better off.
Although Israel was not routed in the battle, it surely seems defeated and frustrated. It is also living in a state of doubt and comprehensive review of its military and political performance during the war.
The equation of victory and defeat between the Arabs and the Zionist state has always been and will remain zero equation. This means that when Israel is defeated, Arabs have the right to celebrate victory.
Hatred of Israel can be found in the genes of all Arabs. Although it is hereditary, its intensity varies from time to time. All facts on the ground indicate that the Arab rejection of the Zionist entity reached its peak after the aggression.
The unification of Arabs in their deep enmity against Israel is a positive matter.
Still I have not heard until now a single person who could explain to us reasonably: why are they firing rockets against Israel? What are the reasons? What is the purpose?Everyone who has answered that question in the explosion of anti-Zionist articles that have been written recently uses a variant of this zero-sum answer. Rockets hurt Israel, therefore it is obvious that they must be good for Arabs. Hurting Israel is a worthy goal in and of itself, independent of any consequences. From their perspective, Israel's pain equals Arab gain.
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The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
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