The Israeli military launched attacks on more than 10 sites in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least three people, and recalled its team working on a permanent ceasefire with Palestinians in Cairo after three rockets landed in Israel.
Palestinian medical officials reported six deaths, including three children and two women and 16 injured in israeli recent air raids. Rafah was under massive Israeli attack this morning.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, confirmed that it was involved in the latest violence. No one was injured in the rockets attack, the Israeli army said, but Hamas' military wing lauched more than 56 rockets until this morning.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators left Cairo, with the Palestinians blaming Israel for their failure. “Israel thwarted the contacts that could have brought peace,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Azzam al-Ahmed. The Palestinians had presented a final set of demands, but Israel was “trying to impose what they want. This is impossible for us as Palestinians to accept that … the process of procrastination and stalling continues.”
The violence apparently spells the end of efforts in Cairo to secure a permanent ceasefire to end the war in Gaza, in which more than 2,000 people have died. Most of the dead are Palestinian civilians.
An Egyptian compromise proposal calls for "easing" the blockade, but not lifting it altogether and opening the territory's air and seaports as Palestinians have demanded. The plan would give Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted by Hamas in 2007, a foothold back in Gaza running border crossings and overseeing internationally-backed reconstruction.
The wife and the two-year-old daughter of Mohammed Deif, chief of Al-Qassam Brigades, whom Israel has tried to eliminate for years – were killed in his house in Gaza City on Tuesday evening. A third unidentified person also died and at least 15 people injured.
Israel justified the murder of Mohamed Deif's wife and child saying that he "deserves to die just like bin Laden, He is an arch murderer and as long as we have an opportunity we will try to kill him", israeli interior Minister Gideon Saar told the army radio today.
Well, Mohamed Deif is a General, as the Palestinians consider al Qassam Brigades a legitimate resistence army. Since when generals are assimilated to terrorists and are considered criminals? If that's so, the Chief-General of IDF is more of a murderer than anybody else. Let's take both men to the Hague and let an impartial jury jugde them. The Israelis have no moral grounds to judge and execute anybody. It is called murder. Al-Qassam plays dirty too, sometimes, but at least it is defending its people from foreign invaders. And the IDF? A criminal is somebody who kills in cold blood, like the IDF does with its assassination campaign of Paletinian leaders that began 14 yeas ago in the West Bank and in Gaza. It's unbelievable that Israelis confess to crimes, publicly, and get away with it.
More than 2,000 people – including almost 550 children – have been killed in fighting since 8 July and at least 10,000 have been injured, according to the Gaza ministry of health. More than 17,000 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged, along with scores of mosques, schools and hospitals.
A poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 92% of Jewish Israelis believed the war was justified. Forty-eight per cent of those questioned thought an appropriate amount of force had been used by the Israeli military; 45% said too little force had been deployed; and 6% thought too much had been used.
From Ferguson to Palestine, in NYC
Houve mais de 16 feridos e seis mortos nos bombardeios israelenses de ontem pra hoje. Todos civis. Dentre eleste, três crianças e duas mulheres.
E ontem à noite a IDF matou a mulher e a filha de dois anos de Mohammed Deif, chefe das Brigadas Al-Qassam que Israel há anos tenta assassinar. Ele não estava em casa é claro. Estava em combate e todos sabiam disso. Visaram mesmo foi a família de Deif. O que só vai fazer piorar.
O problema da violência vai continuar enquanto a Palestina for ocupada. Todo e qualquer acordo que for feito terá efeito paliativo com efeitos colaterais nos meninos em Gaza e na Cisjordânia que vão crescer com ódio.
Alan Hart entrevista o jornalista-documentarista australinano John Pilger
Alan Hart interviews Australian journalist-documentarist John Pilger
Reservista da IDF, forças israelenses de ocupação,
Shovrim Shtika - Breaking the Silence
"Among the difficult reports streaming in from Gaza over the past few weeks, two especially painful events have captured my attention.
The first was the shelling of a UN school building in Jabaliya, where a number of families that had escaped or been forced to flee their homes had taken refuge. At least 15 civilians were killed, and dozens more wounded. Israel argued they were targeting an area from which fire had been directed at Israeli forces.
The second was the bombing of a bustling market in the Shuja'iya neighborhood. At a time of precious few opportunities for civilians to safely buy food and other vital supplies, 16 people were killed and around 200 were wounded. Shops, stalls and merchandise were burned or destroyed.
Harsh criticism of Israel followed each incident but -- as in the past -- Israel defended its actions, arguing that it was targeting militants and doing its best to avoid civilian casualties.
I served as a crew commander in the Israeli artillery corps at the beginning of the Second Intifada, and I feel compelled to counter this claim from Israel. The images, evidence and army reports from recent operations in Gaza -- of more than 1,900 deaths (a number which will likely increase by the time you read this) [It did, it's 2.016] and a large amount of the population left without shelter -- show that Israel has deployed massive artillery firepower. Such firepower is impossible to target precisely.
Artillery fire is a statistical means of warfare. It is the complete opposite of sniper fire. While the power of sharpshooting lies in its accuracy, the power of artillery comes from the quantity of shells fired and the massive impact of each one.
In using artillery against Gaza, Israel therefore cannot sincerely argue that it is doing everything in its power to spare the innocent.
The truth is artillery shells cannot be aimed precisely and are not meant to hit specific targets. A standard 40 kilogram shell is nothing but a large fragmentation grenade. When it explodes, it is meant to kill anyone within a 50-meter radius and to wound anyone within a further 100 meters.
Furthermore, the humidity in the air, the heat of the barrel, and the direction of the wind can all cause unguided shells to land 30 or even 100 meters from where they were aimed. That is a huge margin of error in somewhere as densely packed as Gaza.
The imprecision of this weaponry is so great that Israeli forces are compelled to aim at least 250 meters away from friendly troops to ensure their safety -- even if those troops are sheltered. In military terms, this distance is called the "safe range of fire."
In 2006, when shelling was first used against the Gaza Strip, the "safe range of fire" for Palestinian civilians was reduced from 300 to just 100 meters. Shortly afterwards, a stray shell landed inside the home of the Ghabeen family in Beit Lahiya, killing a young girl, Hadeel, and wounding other members of her family.
In response to this and similar tragedies, human rights organizations appealed to the Israeli High Court of Justice to cease this lethal practice, and in June 2007 the Attorney-General announced that no more artillery fire was to be used in the Gaza Strip.
But just a few years later, during Operation Cast Lead, extensive artillery fire was again aimed at the heart of the Gaza Strip. And up until the recent ceasefire, throughout Operation Protective Edge, Israel has fired thousands of artillery shells into Gaza -- causing intolerable harm to civilians and widespread destruction, the extent of which will only be fully exposed when the fighting ceases.
It's true that in at least some cases, the army has informed civilians of its plans to attack a certain area and advised them to leave. But this in no way excuses the excessive damage and huge toll on civilian lives.
I write this with great sorrow for civilians hurt on both sides. Sorrow for our soldiers who have fallen in this operation, and sorrow for the future of my country and the entire region. I know that as I write, soldiers like me have fired shells into Gaza.
They had no way of knowing who or what they would hit.
Faced with so many innocent casualties, it is time for us to state very clearly: this use of artillery fire is a deadly game of Russian roulette. The statistics, on which such firepower relies, mean that in densely populated areas such as Gaza, civilians will inevitably be hit as well. The IDF knows this, and as long as it continues to use such weaponry, it will be hard to believe when it claims to be minimizing civilian deaths.
As a former soldier and an Israeli citizen, I feel compelled to ask today: have we not crossed a line?"
Idan Barir, served in the Israeli artillery corps during the Second Intifada and is a member of Breaking the Silence
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