Israel carried out at least four air strikes against Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, resuming raids after a truce that failed to get off the ground, AFP correspondents and eyewitnesses said, as the Palestinian death toll rose to 192.
The raids came shortly after Israel’s army announced it was ending a ceasefire it had observed since 9:00 am under the terms of an Egyptian truce proposal.
Hamas had effectively rejected the proposal, saying it was not consulted and would not halt fire without a broad deal that included concessions it has sought.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official told AFP that the occupation forces had been ordered to “act forcefully.”
Late Monday, the death toll rose above that of the previous major assault by Israel on Gaza in November 2012 which claimed the lives of 177 Palestinians and six Israelis over eightdays.So far, no Israelis have been killed in the week-long fighting in and around Gaza, with only four people seriously injured.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said on Sunday, when the toll stood at over 150, that three quarters of the dead were civilians.
And on Monday, a senior UN official said more than a quarter were children.
Israel’s security cabinet met early Tuesday, and ministers voted six to two in favor of accepting the truce.
Two hardliners voted against — Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, both of whom have expressed support for an invasion of Gaza.
Hamas had not received any official proposal, and even if Israel held its fire, it would have “no value” after the widespread damage it has wreaked in Gaza, he said.
Hamas has said it will not hold its fire without Israel agreeing to a list of demands, including an end to its eight-year blockade on Gaza and opening the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
But the Egyptian proposal made no mention of Rafah or when restrictions might be eased. It said only that “crossings shall be opened and the movement of persons and goods through (them) shall be facilitated once the security situation becomes stable on the ground.”
“Last Wednesday night, as he stood on a hilltop outside the Israeli town of Sderot and watched the bombardment of Gaza on the plain below, a Danish newspaper reporter snapped an iPhone photo of about a dozen locals who cheered on their military from plastic chairs while eating popcorn.
Allan Sørensen, a veteran Middle East correspondent for Denmark’s Kristeligt Dagblad, then uploaded the image to Twitter with a sardonic caption that described the macabre scene as “Sderot cinema.”
The image of the Israeli spectators was taken after 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday night, the reporter said, which was about the same time that what was intended to be a “precision strike,” from Israel’s military killed at least eight of their Palestinian neighbors, seated in similar plastic chairs at a beachside cafe in Gaza, waiting to watch the World Cup semifinal between Argentina and the Netherlands.
As his image reverberated around the social network, where it was shared more than 10,000 times, the reporter was surprised by the response. It was, he said in a telephone interview from Israel, “nothing new.” Similar scenes, of Israeli spectators gathered on the high ground above Gaza to view the destruction below, were documented in a Times of London article and a video report from Denmark’s TV2 during Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
…While some partisans of Israel on Twitter accused the Danish reporter of fabrication, the same scene, captured in photographs by several other journalists in recent days, was also witnessed by Mr. Sørensen’s colleague Nikolaj Krak, who wrote: “The hill has been transformed into something that most closely resembles the front row of a reality war theater. It offers a direct view of the densely populated Gaza Strip. People have dragged camping chairs and sofas to the top of the hill. Several sit with crackling bags of popcorn, while others smoke hookahs and talk cheerfully.”
Israelis watched the bombing of Gaza on Saturday night from a couch dragged to a hill overlooking the Palestinian territory.Credit Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
When the bombs find their targets, Mr. Krak reported, “cheers break out on the hill, followed by solid applause.”
…The Israeli blogger David Sheen reported that a far-right rally in Jerusalem on Monday was marked by calls to kill Arabs and send Jews opposed to the bombardment to Gaza….“
“Four out of every five Palestinians killed during Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza have been civilians, including dozens of women and children, the United Nations said on Monday.
The statistic was disclosed by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) amid mounting international concern over non-combatant casualties during an operation Israeli officials have said is aimed solely at rooting out militants and stopping rockets being fired into Israel.
Of 160 deaths that had occurred by Sunday, 133 – 80 per cent – had been among Gaza’s civilian population, OCHA said, including 35 children and 27 women. Only 26 were established to have belonged to “armed groups” while the status of another nine men was unverified.”
“While the rest of the international community is aghast at the deaths of some 200 Palestinians in the ongoing Gaza conflict, the White House is loudly cheering the ongoing conflict, saying Israel’s killing of large numbers of civilians is not “disproportionate” to the zero Israelis killed in the fighting.
…within Israel, the primary impetus for a ceasefire would be to avoid international censure over the mass killings of civilians, and so long as the US is endorsing the killings there is no reason to think any UN resolutions calling for an end to the violence will get anywhere.”
“Norwegian professor Mads Frederick Gilbert is utterly shocked as he checks the corpses of martyrs and the bodies of the wounded as they continuously arrive in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza on the seventh day of the bloody Israeli onslaught on the besieged Strip.
Gilbert, 67, a surgeon, murmurs as he walks in the Intensive Care Unit: “This is outrageous, horrific and unbelievable… what’s happening is no less than premeditated killing and genocide.”
…Gilbert says the Israeli occupation deliberately uses internationally forbidden destructive weapons in its continued onslaught on Gaza.
“Israeli bombs cause injuries that cannot be immediately seen via x-ray,” Gilbert said, “After a period of time, the injury starts to bleed.”
“The material used in these bombs is uncommon, which explains why we cannot cure the injured parts, and in some cases doctors are forced to amputate them,” he says.
…The Norwegian professor repeats that Israel “deliberately” targets civilians, “particularly women and children,” adding that the majority of the victims are women, children and the elderly.
“Regrettably, the Israeli media machine in Europe portrays the victims as members of Hamas. But we will eventually discover that these are lies and rumours. What crime have women and children committed to be killed and bombed?
“If Israel denies my claims, it should open Gaza for international teams to come and see for themselves and issue reliable medical reports,” he said defiantly.
Gilbert is working diligently with other medical teams at the Shifa Hospital to rescue incoming casualties. “Israel is collectively punishing civilians,” he stresses.
“The casualties we saw are horrific and abnormal. Most of them are in the head or chest, and there is no room for cosmetic operations because the type of injuries requires amputation,” he explains.”
“Mark Glenn: This is not a war. This is a massacre. This is a giant exercise in human sacrifice. No different from what the Aztecs and the Mayans and other countries did in times past, where they held together some kind of social and political unity in their country by murdering innocent people. That is what Israel engages in and this is what Israel has always engaged in.
We have to remember here who the invader is, who the attackers are, who the mass murderers are. It is not the Palestinians. The Palestinians are merely trying to defend their land. No different than any other country would do if it were faced with the same situation. The problem of course, is that Israel and her cousins throughout the world own the microphone in the Western media. They are always going to portray Israel as the blameless victim.
Press TV: …do you think the United Nations, the Security Council, then are not doing what they ought to be doing here?
Glenn: No of course not. They are never going to do anything in that regard. They are a rubber stamp for Western and Zionist interests. Remember Iraq was destroyed because the United Nations gave the go ahead to do it. Millions of peoples’ lives were destroyed as a result of that, and yet, all they are going to do is bite their nails and they are going to cry their crocodile tears.”
“The UN aid agency for Palestinians on Tuesday described the damage wrought by Israel’s air offensive on Gaza as “immense,” with more than 500 homes razed.
“The level of human losses and destruction in Gaza is really immense,” said UNWRA spokesman Sami Mshasha.
“According to our latest figure, we are talking about 174 killed and well over 1,100 injured. This number will increase. The numbers are increasing by hours,” he told reporters.
“A good number of those killed and injured are women and children. That is a cause of concern for UNRWA,” he added.
The death toll on Tuesday had risen to 192, according to local officials in Gaza.
Mshasha said that 560 homes had been totally destroyed, while thousands of buildings had suffered damage.
Mshasha said that 47 UNRWA facilities had also been damaged by bombing.
A total of 17,000 people had found refuge in 20 schools run by the UN agency, which has sent their GPS coordinates to Israeli authorities. [NOTE: THE ZIONISTS HAD THE COORDINATED IN 2009 YET PROCEEDED TO BOMB SCHOOLSSERVING AS SHELTERS AND UN STORAGE FACILITIES...]
In a separate statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the bombing had devastated Gaza’s water supply.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are now without water. Within days, the entire population of the Strip may be desperately short of water,” said Jacques de Maio, who heads ICRC operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“Water and electrical services are also affected as a result of the current hostilities. If they do not stop, the question is not if but when an already beleaguered population will face an acute water crisis,” he said in a statement.
Following the deaths of several municipal water technicians, Gaza’s water service provider has suspended all field operations until the safety of its staff can be guaranteed, the ICRC said.
“Gaza’s water system has been deteriorating for years. The latest attacks are the last straw. Safe drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce in the Strip, just as temperatures are soaring,” said ICRC water and sanitation expert Guillaume Pierrehumbert.
“Water is becoming contaminated and sewage is overflowing, bringing a serious risk of disease.””
***
After the morbidity of all of this information, and while the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza hasn’t ceased, it may seem crass to share the following 2 min+ clip. But I think the fact that a widely-watched comedian is using his platform to expose to those who mightn’t normally care the obscene imbalance in the massacre of Gaza… is somewhat heartening. In fact, in recent years we have a number of high-profile figures speaking out for Palestine, among them Roger Waters, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Lowkey and Akala, Lupe Fiasco, Cristano Ronaldo & many other professional footballers, Annied Lenox [...described Zio actions against Gaza as "pornography of destruction,"]… and many others who I can’t think of off the top of my head….who are reaching beyond the already dedicated masses of supporters of justice and self-determination for Palestinians, and an end to the current massacre, and the 8 year long siege of Gaza.
While I don’t agree with Stewart’s lexicon, he does drive home the point to his audience that “Israel” really isn’t the victim.
Media lies are responsible for wars, mass killings, and genocide.
They frame issues (propaganda) and justify killings.
We can STOP this dangerous assault on the truth and save humanity. We must act quickly.
Media’s power comes from its reach – from ratings, which translates into money. We, as individuals and collectively, feed this cycle.
Reduce the reach, lower the ratings, deprive it income. Boycott.
It is DOABLE. We can start with the most egregious (may vary from country to country), boycotting 3 outlets for 3 days until behavioral change is noted (rely on other media outlets to see if change has been instituted. Do NOT watch, listen, or read online the following:
CNN: Parent Company, Time Warner.
Note host Wolf Blitzer, former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Oren as Middle East analyst, Newt Gingrich, Christine Amanpour.
CBS: Owner, Sumner Redstone
FOX: Parent Company NewsCorp
For this to be effective, we must have numbers. This is what must be done:
Enlist at least 5 people (ideally with one of them having a different ideological view from yours – its doable) to commit to the boycott, the stations, and the days – July 21, 22, & 23.
Ask them to enlists 5 people, get commitment and inform you of the accomplishment.
Repeat the pattern.
Keep track of the numbers.
It is no longer sufficient for us to simply blow off steam on FB and other social media. We must act. We must bring the cycle of killing and lies to an end. We must unite and put in the effort. Let us save humanity.
We will plan our next phase in two weeks and after the initial response.
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