General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGaza Residents Share Allegations of Abuse, Claim Israeli Soldiers Used Them as Human Shields
http://www.alternet.org/gaza-residents-share-monstrous-allegations-abuse-israeli-soldiersThe city (Beit Hanoun) was destroyed by Israels Givati Brigade, an infantry division led by the religious nationalist Colonel Ofer Winter. In a July 10 letter to his troops, Winter pledged a "holy war" on the people of Gaza, vowing to punish them for committing the sin of blasphemy.
History has chosen us to be the sharp edge of the bayonet of fighting the terrorist enemy from Gaza which curses, defames and abuses the God of Israels battles, Winter wrote. He added, I turn my eyes to the sky and call with you 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.' God, the Lord of Israel, make our path successful, as we are about to fight for Your People, Israel, against an enemy who defames your name.
At the easternmost outskirts of Beit Hanoun, I met Abdul Rahman, a 50-year-old farmer who had lost almost everything to the Israelis. In 2005, Israeli bulldozers razed his citrus trees to extend the buffer zone, wiping out trees that provided oranges to the entire Gaza Strip. They then destroyed the wells he used to irrigate his land. And when they returned this year, they leveled his four-story home, killed his flock of 80 goats and incinerated the five tons of wheat he had stored. Bees buzzed all around us as we spoke, the remnants of an apiary Rahman had kept until it was obliterated by Israeli bombs. His fate was a reminder of the continuous, unrelenting nature of Israeli violence against the residents of Gazas border communities.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)"Mahmoud said the Israeli troops dragged him back into his house, blindfolded him and wrapped him in a blanket on the floor as they began to blow holes in the walls to use as makeshift sniper slits what US troops in Afghanistan called murder holes. Then the soldiers stripped Mahmoud to his underwear, handcuffed him, slammed him against a wall and began to beat him. With an M-16 at his back, they forced him to stand in front of open windows as they hunted his fleeing neighbors, sniping directly beside him at virtually anything that moved. When they were not using him as a human shield, Mahmoud said, the soldiers left him alone in the room with an unleashed army dog who was periodically ordered to attack him.
It was on the top floor of Mahmouds home, in a darkened crawl space, that an Israeli sniper killed two of his neighbors through a murder hole. Saleh Israibi and Ala Abu Shabab, two young men who had attempted to flee under the intensifying Israeli shelling, were killed in front of their own homes. According to Saleh Israibis father, Suleiman, his 22-year-old son was shot to death while attempting to rescue a neighbor he found bleeding in the street."
Religious extremism, torture, wanton destruction and mass-murder. They are absolutely no better than Hamas.
AND THEN they wonder where the anti-Israel-sentiment comes from.
cpwm17
(3,829 posts)at the American-Israel Political Affairs Conference (AIPAC):
There is no way to rationalize Israel's behavior.
cpwm17
(3,829 posts)As above, the Israeli solders murdered the person that greeted them at the door and then used some of the occupants as human shields:
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israeli-army-uses-gaza-children-human-shields
Next, says Qdeih, the soldiers forcibly positioned members of his family, including the children, at the windows of his home and proceeded to fire from behind them.
They ordered us to take off our clothes and tied our hands up, says Qdeih. They took us to one of the rooms and used us as shields, making us stand at the windows as if we were looking outside. I was at one window and three children from my family at another. The soldiers then began firing around us.