Why Israel’s bombardment of Gaza neighborhood left US officers ‘stunned’ The cease-fire announced Tuesday between Israel and Palestinian factions — if it holds — will end seven weeks of fighting that killed more than 2,200 Gazans and 69 Israelis.
But as the rival camps seek to put their spin on the outcome, one assessment of Israel’s Gaza operation that won’t be publicized is the U.S. military’s. Though the Pentagon shies from publicly expressing judgments that might fall afoul of a decidedly pro-Israel Congress, senior U.S. military sources speaking on condition of anonymity offered scathing assessments of Israeli tactics, particularly in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. Video journalist, translator killed in Gaza. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Associated Press video journalist and a freelance Palestinian translator were killed Wednesday when ordnance left over from the Israeli-Hamas war exploded as they were reporting on the conflict's aftermath.
Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash died when an unexploded missile believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up as Gaza police engineers were working to neutralize it in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Police said three police engineers also were killed. Four people, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa, were badly injured. Moussa told a colleague that they were filming the scene when an initial explosion went off.
He said he was hit by shrapnel and began to run when there was a second blast, which knocked him out. 448 children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, UN says. The 72-hour ceasefire had barely expired when Israeli airstrikes on Gaza resumed on Friday.
As Israel claimed it is targeting “terror sites,” its first victim was a ten-year-old child in Gaza City. Ibrahim Dawawsa was killed while playing with some friends in the yard of a mosque close to his home, when a missile ended his life and injured his two young friends. During the nearly month-long military offensive on Gaza prior to the short ceasefire, Israel killed 448 children and injured 2,502, according to United Nations estimates. As of 8 August, the death toll in Gaza had reached 1,922. Death toll rose even when bombing stopped. Israel and Gaza in context. “Concentrate” and “exterminate”: Israel parliament deputy speaker's Gaza genocide plan. Moshe Feiglin, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, has published a plan for the total destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
His detailed plan, which calls for the use of concentration camps, amounts to direct and public incitement to genocide – a punishable crime under the Genocide Convention. “They were war crimes”: The specific, legal case for international charges against Israel. Israeli officials have prided the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) on abiding by principles of international law at war, or international humanitarian law (IHL) as it is commonly referred to.
In fact, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, declared that the IDF deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for its “unimaginable restraint.” The civilian death toll for the past three weeks alone in the Gaza Strip has risen over 1,500, hundreds of which are children. This is a clear indication that the Israeli forces are not exercising restraint, but rather, are committing war crimes. Article 51 of the UN Charter states clearly: “Nothing shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations.”
'Please don't shoot me': Evidence of a summary execution in Gaza. KHUZA'A - Raghad Qudeh had nowhere to run except the home of her uncle, Mohammed Tawfiq Qudeh, 64, who had a basement.
For two consecutive nights, Israeli forces had used all manner of weapons and missiles to hit her family home. "They use pesticides, as if they are just killing insects," Raghad said. Then on Friday, 25 July, next door to Raghad's house, the home of her neighbour, Helmi Abu Rejela, was hit and the bodies of his family lay under the rubble. After the bombing, Israeli soldiers were shooting all around Raghad's house. In a moment of calm, Raghad and her family found shelter at her uncle's house, next door. Gaza: Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Fleeing Civilians. (Gaza) – Israeli forces in the southern Gaza town of Khuza’a fired on and killed civilians in apparent violation of the laws of war in several incidents between July 23 and 25, 2014.
Deliberate attacks on civilians who are not participating in the fighting are war crimes. Seven Palestinians who had fled Khuza’a described to Human Rights Watch the grave dangers that civilians have faced in trying to flee the town, near the Israeli border, to seek safety in Khan Younis. These included repeated shelling that struck apparent civilian structures, lack of access to necessary medical care, and the threat of attack from Israeli forces as they tried to leave the area.
“When will there be justice for the civilians in Khuza’a, who suffered shelling for days, then faced deadly attacks by Israeli soldiers after being ordered to leave the town?” Asked Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. Human Rights Watch interviewed displaced residents from Khuza’a in Khan Younis.
Evidence Emerges of Israeli “Shoot To Cripple” Policy In the Occupied West Bank. August 8, 2014 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. At 10 PM on August 8, a twenty-year-old resident of the Al Amari refugee camp named Muhammad Qatri arrived dead at the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah. Israel rejects talks as it signals end to Gaza attacks. The Israeli army has said that Hadar Goldin was killed in action.
Photograph: Handout/Reuters Israel has said they had scientific evidence that Hadar Goldin, the soldier feared abducted by Hamas on Friday in an ambush that shattered a humanitarian ceasefire, was killed in action and his remains taken into Gaza by militants. The announcement, by Israel's chief military rabbi, came just hours after prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu indicated that Israel's military operation was coming to an end. Army personnel met the soldier's family at their home in Kfar Saba on Saturday night to inform them.
Hundreds of people from around Israel gathered outside praying and showing their support. Earlier, Netanyahu said that, once demolition of Hamas's tunnels into Israel was complete, "the military will prepare for continuing action in according to our security needs and only according to our security needs". The IDF said four tunnels had been destroyed. Hamas had denied it was holding Goldin captive. Oz: 'Lose-lose situation for Israel' Amoz Oz: I would like to begin the interview in a very unusal way: by presenting one or two questions to your readers and listeners.
May I do that? Deutsche Welle: Go ahead! Question 1: What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap and starts shooting machine gun fire into your nursery? Question 2: What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family? With these two questions I pass the interview to you. Israel killing, intimidating journalists amid Gaza communication blackout.
Israel is targeting journalists in the Gaza Strip like it did during its last two major attacks on the 1.8 million Palestinians there. Since the current assault began on 7 July, Israel has killed at least seven Palestinian journalists and media workers and directly struck at least four media offices. The latest journalist to be killed, Rami Rayyan, was reporting on families going to the market during what they thought was a four-hour ceasefire on Wednesday afternoon when Israel shelled the Shujaiya market. The Electronic Intifada spoke with journalist Yousef Al-Helou just after the attack. “Journalists say it is an Israeli attempt to silence the truth,” Al-Helou said. “But Palestinian journalists are determined to continue their work because they say that it is their duty to expose Israeli actions in Gaza that amount to war crimes.”
In Gaza, 11 members of a Palestinian family are killed in a single strike. JABALYA, Gaza Strip — The Balatas, like many Palestinian families, disliked Israel but also sought to distance themselves from Hamas. For more than three weeks, as the conflict has stretched on, the Balatas’ lives have revolved around how to best protect their large family, extending over several generations, in one of the most war-torn enclaves in Gaza.
Now, trapped between the ambitions of Israel and Hamas, they have paid a heavy price. Eleven members of the family were killed in a single strike Tuesday, their bodies now buried in two fresh graves on a sandy hilltop cemetery near their homes. The corpses — one man, eight women, a boy and a baby — were shrouded in white, in accord with Muslim custom. As the conflict rages, displacing hundreds of thousands, U.N. and Palestinian officials say some families have made a macabre calculation: to split up, with each group seeking refuge in different parts of Gaza. Israel Bombs Gaza back to Stone Age: Razes only Power Plant & Plunges Strip into Darkness.
By Juan Cole Israel launched a 7-hour campaign of intensive bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, destroying its only power plant. Gaza can no longer generate its own electricity. Without electricity, the water purification plants cannot operate and the drinking water ends up being mixed with sewage or salt water. Live from the Gaza conflict: war resumes.