Day 2 of Operation Protective Edge: A summary

[Jefferson23]

The Israel Defense Forces attacked hundreds of targets in Gaza on Wednesday, killing over 50 Palestinians, while more than 180 rockets were fired from Gaza at the Israeli home front.

By Haaretz, Jack Khour and News Agencies| Jul. 10, 2014

The Israel Defense Forces attacked hundreds of targets in Gaza on Wednesday, raising the Palestinian death toll to above 50, while more than 180 rockets were fired from Gaza at the Israeli home front. Since Operation Protective Edge started Tuesday, nine Israelis have suffered light injuries while running for shelter while 59 have been treated for shock, Magen David Adom emergency services said.

Long-range rockets were launched at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and as far north as Hof Hacarmel Regional Council, near Haifa. Iron Dome interceptor missiles shot down dozens of rockets over Israeli cities with a near-90 percent success rate, the IDF said.

Human rights groups in Gaza said many Palestinian civilians, including children, had been killed in the Israeli airstrikes, with houses at times coming down on families. Medical officials in Gaza said some 400 people, mainly civilians, had been hospitalized.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in the afternoon with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, stressing to them that no country would accept incessant rocket fire on its territory, nor infiltrations by sea or through cross-border tunnels.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.604159

[bemildred]

1. Oy.

"Tuesday, nine Israelis have suffered light injuries while running for shelter while 59 have been treated for shock, Magen David Adom emergency services said."

[Jefferson23]

2. Exactly. Institutionalised Disregard for Palestinian Life

Mouin Rabbani 9 July 2014

One either rejects the killing of non-combatants on principle or takes a more tribal approach to such matters. In the case of Israel and the Palestinians, the global outpouring of grief and condemnation over the killing of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank is the moral equivalent of Rolf Harris denouncing Jimmy Savile.

Over the past 14 years, Israel has killed Palestinian children at a rate of more than two a week. There seems to be no Israeli child in harm’s way that Barack Obama will not compare to his own daughters, but their Palestinian counterparts are brushed aside with mantras about Israel’s right to self-defence. The institutionalised disregard for Palestinian life in the West helps explain not only why Palestinians resort to violence, but also Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza Strip.

The current round of escalation is generally dated from the moment three Israeli youths went missing on 12 June. Two Palestinian boys were shot dead in Ramallah on 15 May, but that – like any number of incidents in the intervening month when Israel exercised its right to colonise and dispossess – is considered insignificant.

Binyamin Netanyahu immediately blamed Hamas for the three Israeli teenagers’ disappearance. The White House almost as quickly confirmed Hamas’s guilt, which has since been treated as established fact by the media. Yet the culprits remain at large and their institutional affiliation unclear. For its part Hamas, which like other Palestinian organisations never hesitates to claim responsibility for its actions and is prone to exaggerate its activities, has this time denied involvement.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/07/09/mouin-rabbani/institutionalised-disregard-for-palestinian-life/

[Jefferson23]

4. What a disgusting lie, knock it off...he never implied nor said any such thing. n/t

[Fozzledick]

5. What an absolutely obscene attitude, I'm sick of seeing it on here.

And I'm in no mood for the bullshit excuses used to deny it. Anyone who complains that too few Israelis are being killed is beneath contempt. We've been through this shit before, and it's just an abomination.

[Jefferson23]

6. You're going to defend your lie, to smear somone who has no history of any such behavior.

You're in no mood, I agree..you seem to have become unhinged.

[Fozzledick]

7. I'm in no mood for your twisted games either.

[Jefferson23]

8. Then stop smearing innocent DU members and I'll stop needing to point it out to you. n/t

[bemildred]

9. World Cup fans killed as Israel raid hits Gaza cafe

KHAN YOUNIS (AFP) -- It was supposed to be an evening of entertainment in Gaza, watching the World Cup semi-final at a cafe, a welcome break from 48 hours of Israeli air strikes.

But the evening was cut brutally short when an Israeli raid flattened the Fun Time Beach cafe in the southern Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday, killing nine people and wounding 15.

All that is left of the popular seaside cafe -- where dozens broke their Ramadan fast on Wednesday night before settling down to watch Argentina play the Netherlands -- is a large crater and a few mounds of sand.

The cafe’s multicolored sign is still standing, somewhat crookedly, as colorful bunting and canvas windbreakers lay strewn on the floor, torn down by the force of the blast.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=711864

[Fozzledick]

11. I'm continually amazed at how Palestinians think they can wage war on their neighbors

and not be affected by it.

[bemildred]

12. I'm continually amazed at Israelis who think bombing cafe's will make them stop. nt

[bemildred]

13. Israeli Army Says Killing Of 8 Palestinian Family Members Was Not Intentional

The Israeli army says the killing of eight Palestinians from the same family in the Gaza Strip was made in error, Haaretz reports.

The civilians, members of the Kaware family, died in an airstrike on their home in the city of Khan Yunis. A preliminary Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) investigation released Wednesday said the family was warned that the home — which it says was used as a headquarters for a Hamas commander — would be attacked. The family returned prematurely, the IDF said in the report.

“There was nothing to be done, the munition was in the air and could not be diverted,” a senior air force officer said. “Although you see [the family members] running back into the house, there was no way to divert the missile."

The Israeli army launched its aerial assault on Gaza on Tuesday in response to Palestinian militants firing rockets into Israel. The death toll in Gaza, under a hail of airstrikes, reached at least 75 on Wednesday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/07/10/israeli-army-family-members-killed-error_n_5574298.html

[bemildred]

10. ABC News screws up coverage of Israel-Hamas violence

Last Night on ABC News’s “World News,” anchor Diane Sawyer introduced her network’s coverage of the latest in the violence in Gaza between Israel and Gaza: “We take you overseas now to the rockets raining down on Israel today, as Israel tried to shoot them out of the sky. All part of the tinderbox, Israelis and Palestinians.” It’s an important news story: Israel has been ratcheting up its strikes on Gaza, while Hamas has fired rockets “striking across the length of Israel and disrupting life across the country,” as the Associated Press puts it.

Given the history of this particular conflict, a premium falls on absolute precision in identifying victims. And it’s on that front that ABC News erred. Continuing with her broadcast, Sawyer showed a shot of some people amid ruins and said, “And here an Israeli family trying to salvage what they can, one woman standing speechless among the ruins. ABC’s Alex Marquardt is in the middle of it all.”

Good thing someone at ABC News is immersed in the fine points of the conflict, because whoever decided to pair Sawyer’s reference to “an Israeli family” with the photo below messed things up. That’s a Palestinian family.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/07/10/abc-news-screws-up-coverage-of-israel-hamas-violence/

[bemildred]

14. Map: where are the missiles falling in Israel and Gaza?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10959619/Map-where-are-the-missiles-falling-in-Israel-and-Gaza.html

[bemildred]

15. Egypt opens border with Gaza to allow airstrike casualties in for medical care

Egypt says it has opened its border crossing with Gaza to allow the most critical casualties of Israeli airstrikes access to Egyptian medical care, following accusations that it has abandoned its usual role of mediating between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships.

The opening of the border accompanied statements by Egyptian officials that stressed Egypt's active role in bringing the latest Gaza conflict, which Palestinians say has killed over 70 Gazans, to an end.

The spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry, Badr Abdelatty, told the Guardian: "We have extensive and full contact with all parties concerned, either directly or internationally. Our main objective is to stop Israeli aggression. We are in full contact and pushing very hard to provide all humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in Gaza."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/10/egypt-opens-border-gaza-airstrike-casualties-medical-care-palestinians

[bemildred]

16. Otherwise, what’s the point?

When I was 14 years old, I remember my father, Edgar M. Bronfman z”l, publicly calling for the end of Israeli settlement building. It was 1977, the very beginning of the implementation of the Drobles Plan, and only a few thousand “settlers” lived in what we now call the “Occupied Territories.” At the time I was only a boy, and I did not understand the urgency with which my father spoke against the construction of settlements. “Israel is to be a ‘light unto the nations,’” he would say to me. “Israel must behave according to a higher moral and ethical code.”

“Why?” I would ask. With the look and a tone that only my father could muster, he would reply, “Otherwise, what’s the point?”

My father’s words became more and more strident as the decades passed. But as we grapple with the wrenching pain of the murder of Jewish and Muslim youth today, they have never rung so true. Why do I hear my father’s words about settlements at this time? Simply put, the settlements are the greatest impediment to enduring peace in Israel, and the deaths of four innocent children last week should cause us to examine our own beliefs and actions.

I am shocked and sickened by the kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Fraenkel. The outrage and the pain emanating from Jewish communities everywhere affirm the guiding principle that all Jews are a single family. At the Samuel Bronfman Foundation we believe in that connection between the Jewish people, throughout the world and in Israel. I am profoundly pained for the families of our murdered sons, and I denounce in the strongest terms these despicable acts.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/otherwise-whats-the-point/

[Jefferson23]

19. If there is any one individual within the Israeli cabinet that even remotely thinks like this

man's father..he needs to get to a microphone quick.

[bemildred]

20. I saw a twitter pic this morning

of some people on a hill near Sderot watching the bombing and cheering when there was a big explosion (so it says).

I refrained from posting that and a lot of other inflammatory things.

I keep thinking of the movie "Ran" this morning.

[Jefferson23]

21. Horrifying. Where exactly are the 100, 000 Palestinians going to flee to? n/t

[bemildred]

22. There is no place to go.

I read another interview with a guy in Gaza (also not posted) and that's what he said, you can be killed any time, that's just how it is.

[bemildred]

17. It Looks Like Israel Is Sending Ground Troops To Gaza — And That's Trouble For Everyone

Currently, there are several thousand Israeli troops amassed at the Gaza border, and the IDF has already issued evacuation orders to Gaza border areas.

Despite this buildup and an escalation of tensions over the past several days, recent history suggests that the Israelis aren't eager to commit a full-scale ground operation in Gaza.

In 2009, Israel launched its largest-ever offensive against the Islamist militant group Hamas, an operation that the organization later admitted had killed as many as 700 of its fighters. Many of Hamas's battlefield commanders were killed, and its rank and file suffered losses that few conventional militaries would tolerate. Moreover, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert mobilized over 75,000 reservists, and even sent ground troops into the Strip.

But the Israelis pulled back. The ground operation never expanded to Gaza City, and therefore never had a real chance of eliminating Hamas. As this map from the Federation of American Scientists demonstrates, in 2009, Israeli forces successfully isolated Gaza City. But they never went in, even in the midst of Israel's largest-ever assault on Hamas:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-coming-ground-operation-in-gaza-2014-7

[Jefferson23]

18. Madness, where is the US...Abbas claims he is getting no where and Egypt has said

for Israel to end the aggression but, those are mere words.

[bemildred]

23. It has a logic of its own.

You always get the human shields issue, Hamas sees them as martyrs and effective PR weapons (and after all Israel really did do it), and Israel really does want to avoid unseemly events, and also wants to make it all as much Hamas' fault as possible, so we are regaled with it each time.

And it's always the Israelis trying to suppress "resistance", whatever form it takes at the time, and Palestinian's trying to not be suppressed for long enough to make Israel think it over before acting out next time.

It is very asymmetrical, and thus it gets very strange at times. The Israelis and Palestinians both trying to inflate Hamas' capabilities for example. The human shield strategy, which Israel tries to use against Hamas, and which Hamas also embraces as a source of martyrs and PR ammunition, and perhaps from some hope it may bring Israeli restraint. I think it probably does work that way.

[Jefferson23]

24. I agree, and their history supports this. Far too many moments here where you could see the

train wreck coming, again. The red flags were pretty obvious, although you don't know when
your best opportunity will come along. No doubt many will die, there are always more deaths than
anyone can control. I have only one hope that Israel will finally bring themselves to the
brink politically with the international community and they'll respond as they should in the aftermath.


This one coming feels bad, worse than others because both Hamas and Israel seem equally
going for broke. I hope I am wrong.

[bemildred]

25. It seems very unpredictable to me.

Edit: how it comes out. They all have the bit in their teeth and think they are headed for the barn.

As you say ...

[bravenak]

26. This is horrifying.nt