Asmaa al-Ghoul writes: Ashraf al-Qadra, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, confirmed to Al-Monitor that the number of martyrs in the Israeli war on Gaza had risen to 101, in addition to more than 700 injured. He added that the martyrs included 21 children, 19 women and six senior citizens.
The Israeli occupation continued to target civilian houses in various areas of Gaza, and the number of homes completely destroyed by the occupation’s aircraft reached more than 120. Among these was the home of the Hajj family, located in the refugee camp in Khan Yunis. Eight members of the family died at dawn on July 10, in the strike that destroyed their home.
Mahmoud al-Hajj, 27, a relative of the martyrs, told Al-Monitor, “I heard a terrifying explosion. I never expected that [it had hit] my uncle’s home. They are a very normal family, none of the family members are involved in military activity. I ran to the area and found people in a state of hysteria, crying and screaming. I discovered that eight members of my uncle’s family had died under the rubble.” [Continue reading…]
Reuters reports: The United Nations human rights chief on Friday voiced serious doubts that Israeli’s military operation against Gaza complied with international law banning the targeting of civilians, and called on both sides to respect the rules of war.
International law requires Israel to take all measures to ensure that its attacks are proportional, distinguish between military and civilian objects, and avoid civilian casualties, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.
“We have received deeply disturbing reports that many of the civilian casualties, including of children, occurred as a result of strikes on homes. Such reports raise serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” Pillay said in a statement. [Continue reading…]
Al Jazeera reports: With tearful eyes, the Al-Aqsa TV anchorman announced the death of Palestinian journalist Hamed Shehab on Wednesday evening, hit by an Israeli air strike while driving home on Omar al-Mukhtar street.
Shehab, 27, was working for local press company Media 24. He was driving a car that had the letters “TV” affixed to it in large, red stickers when it was struck by an Israeli missile. The bombing, carried out on one of Gaza City’s busiest streets, has triggered fear and rage among journalists in Gaza.
“Such [an] attack is meant to intimidate us. Israel has no bank of targets anymore, except civilians and journalists,” Abed Afifi, a cameraman for the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV channel, told Al Jazeera. [Continue reading…]
No. Actually it’s Hamas that is committing the war crimes and crimes against humanity by firing missiles over its border into Israel completely indiscriminately.
In the latest “round” of violence involving rocket attacks, thus far not a single Israeli has been killed. To call this a “crime against humanity” is to render the term meaningless.
Were Israelis and Israel’s supporters less subject to hysteria and hyperbolic outbursts, they might be more willing to honestly acknowledge that in this David-and Goliath-contest, Israel is Goliath.
No doubt, no one wants to live with the risk of a chunk of metal crashing down on their heads, but the Israelis in Sderot who sit outdoors to be entertained by watching Gaza getting bombed, or those who even now are relaxing on the beaches in Ashkelon, are not engaged in some heroic act of defiance. They know that they face a much greater risk of being injured in a traffic accident than being hit by a rocket.
There is no military logic to what is happening right now — it’s all about the psychology of domination. Israel wants to show that it has no tolerance for Palestinian defiance, and a few Palestinians want to show that they refuse to tolerate a position of absolute subservience.
The Zionists who created Israel, believing that Jews having suffered centuries of oppression needed to be able to defend themselves, should actually find it very easy to empathize with the Palestinians’ unwillingness to “go quietly.”
As no doubt you already know, it was former prime minister Ehud Barak who said: “If I were a Palestinian at the right age, I would have joined one of the terrorist organizations at a certain stage.”
Ze’ev Jabotinsky said: “All colonization, even the most restricted, must continue in defiance of the will of the native population. Therefore, it can continue and develop only under the shield of force which comprises an Iron Wall which the local population can never break through.” He had no expectation that the Palestinians were simply going to acquiesce to having their land taken away.
Jabotinsky’s vision is exactly what Israel has become with its Apartheid Wall and its Iron Dome.
If the Jewish state turned out to be an ugly creation, it appears that for some of its founders they never imagined it could be otherwise.
And maybe that’s why for many Jews in the diaspora, as devoted as they might be to Israel’s protection, it’s not where they would choose to live.