Israel-Gaza Conflict
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 19th, 2012
Good morning.
I really am disliking (and that is saying it mildly) what I have been posting lately, as it all is very sad, tragic, and disheartening to me. But I keep reminding myself that it won’t go away just because I don’t want to personally acknowledge it here that it is happening. That being said, the latest on Israel-Gaza:
Israel-Gaza Conflict 2012: Palestinian Civilian Toll Climbs In Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian civilian death toll mounted Monday as Israeli aircraft struck densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip in a campaign to quell militant rocket fire menacing nearly half of Israel’s population.
An overnight airstrike on two houses belonging to an extended clan in Gaza City killed two children and two adults, and injured 42 people, said Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES)
Shortly after, Israeli aircraft bombarded the remains of the former national security compound in Gaza City. Flying shrapnel killed one child and wounded others living nearby, al-Kidra said. Five farmers were killed in two separate strikes, al-Kidra said, including three who had been identified earlier by Hamas security officials as Islamic Jihad fighters.
Civilian casualties began to shoot up on Sunday, after Israel said it was stepping up attacks on the homes of suspected Hamas activists. After that warning, an Israeli missile flatted a two-story house in a residential area of Gaza City, killing at least 11 civilians, most of them women and children.
It remained unclear who the target of that missile attack was. However, the new tactic ushered in a new and risky phase of the operation, given the likelihood of civilian casualties in the crowded territory of 1.6 million Palestinians. The rising civilian toll was also likely to intensify pressure on Israel to end the fighting. Hundreds of civilian casualties in an Israeli offensive in Gaza four years ago led to fierce international condemnation of Israel.
In all, 87 Palestinians, including 50 civilians, have been killed in the six-day onslaught and 720 have been wounded.
Three Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded. An Israeli rocket-defense system has intercepted hundreds of rockets bound for populated areas.
Monday’s air assault in Gaza City reduced two houses to rubble on either side of a street where residents stepped over piles of cinderblocks and twisted metal. Relatives said Ahed Kitati, 38, had rushed out after a warning missile was fired to try to hustle people to safety. But he was fatally struck by a falling cinderblock, leaving behind a pregnant wife, five young daughters and a son, they said.
One of his daughters, Aya Kitati, clutched a black jacket, saying she was freezing, even though the weather was mild. “We were sleeping, and then we heard the sound of the bombs,” she said in a whisper, then broke down sobbing.
Ahed’s brother, Jawad Kitati, said he plucked the lifeless body of a 2-year-old relative from the street and carried him to an ambulance. Blood stains smeared his jacket sleeve.
Another clan member, Haitham Abu Zour, 24, woke up to the sound of the warning strike and hid in a stairwell. He emerged to find his wife dead and his two infant children buried under the debris, but safe.
Clan elder Mohammed Azzam, 61, denied that anyone in his family had any connections to Hamas.
“The Jews are liars,” he said. “No matter how much they pressure our people, we will not withdraw our support for Hamas.”
Israel launched the current offensive last Wednesday after months of intensifying rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which continued despite the strikes. Overnight, the military said, aircraft targeted about 80 militant sites, including underground rocket-launching sites, smuggling tunnels and training bases, as well as command posts and weapons storage facilities located in buildings owned by militant commanders, the military said in a release. Aircraft and gunboats joined forces to attack Hamas police headquarters, and Palestinian rocket squads were struck as they prepared to fire, the release said.
In all, 1,350 targets in the Gaza Strip have been struck since the Israeli operation began on Wednesday. However, military activity over the past two nights has dropped off as targets change and international efforts to wrest a cease-fire plod ahead.
Israel and Hamas have put forth widely divergent conditions for a truce. But failure to end the fighting threatens to touch off an Israeli ground invasion, for which thousands of soldiers, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, have already been mobilized and dispatched to Gaza’s border.
President Barack Obama said he was in touch with players across the region in hopes of halting the fighting. While defending Israel’s right to defend itself against the rocket fire, he also warned of the risks the Jewish state would take if it were to expand its air assault into a ground war.
“If we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future,” Obama said.
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Readers: Comments? I have read the comments from yesterday and I just can’t help but want to scream. I guess it is because I had a weekend filled with bliss and relaxation only to come home to men (James, comes to mind) who can never know what it is like to carry a baby…men who will never be able to relate to what women endure because of what men have decided is “right”…men who will never have to consider someones else’s opinion over their bodies because they have total control of their bodies, yet they demand such control of ours and toss aside our own desires to make our own decisions. Ugh! I just want to shout “Stay out of any business that has to do with my pussy unless I invite you!” And yet, I don’t know if I am more disgusted and upset at the men who say such things and write such laws, or the women who give them the control to do so, when we could so easily take control if we just stuck together and supported each other as men tend to do. It is a battle in itself, to get women to take control, but I have faith women will come to their senses and prevail.
With respect for today, this is the mens’ war as it always is. Except for wanting and wishing peace, my heart and support goes out to the women and children, I am at a loss to say anything more this morning. If you want to comment, say what you will. If it’s not something you want to talk about, that’s fine, broach something else. Perhaps, it is the demise of the “Twinkie”. Whatever. The forum is open to all topics and types – blog me.
Alycedale: Nothing surprises me anymore but I am always still horrified. Thanks for the good wishes. I HOPE you are doing good, and that “situation” is rectified. As always, I love seeing you here, and value your input.
Juli: Wise words. Can we now just get all the ladies onboard?
I’m done for now…peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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November 19th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Baile #3 Yesterday:
Israel, like any other nation, must defend itself against attack from hostile terrorists who only want to destroy Israel.
Israel has every right to retaliate. Just as America and any other Nation would do.
The News Media shows photos of injured people in Gaza after they sent 150 rockets toward the innocent population of Tel Aviv every night and Israel retaliated.
I lived in Israel during the first Gulf War when Saddam Husein sent Scud missiles to Israel every night and everyone had to carry a gas mask in a box and stay in their sealed rooms after the Air Raid sirens sounded and the Scuds dropped out of the sky.
I, and every Israeli I knew was frightened but did what they had to. They went to work in the morning and tried to live a somewhat normal life.
There is nothing wrong with being frightened — but you must be brave for your Country.
Am Yisroel Chai
HOWIE
November 19th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Welcome back, Howie.
November 20th, 2012 at 6:26 am
Howie, look at a map of the region from 1946 – 2012. It saddens me of the arrogance of certain Jews feel it is okay, or perhaps even their god’s wish or design, to be able to murder innocent people because Anonz’s and governments created the borders to this land mass. The simple reason that those borders were created in 1947 was so that there could be measured instability in a region that holds large quantities of oil. The small group of Anonz’s of the world which create this sort of political game will state they hold no responsibility to this genocide. The war profiteers and Israeli Jews will kill, mame, destroy, all so that the United States can maintain “peace” in the region, then go to their Synagogue and pray for continued peace in the region. Sick…
What you describe is a political game. Get politics and dogmatic religion out of the way and everyone in the region wants the same thing.
All of this current happenings stem from greed, politics, and man made or alien delivered religious beliefs.
November 20th, 2012 at 6:29 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=27esxkQtfTc
November 20th, 2012 at 10:34 am
Anon#3, if you are going to make such a declamatory statement, then you should have the common courtesy to leave a name(pick one) so that others can respond.
Frankly after you have had your “we should all get along moment,” the rest of us have to live in the real world.
You obviously have never been in a war situation. Bet you are one of those peace-niks that will form any alliance to avoid combat.
How did you feel when a bunch of lunatics bombed your twin towers without concern for the lost of innocent lives? Oh yes, since you were not in danger, it was something you could understand.
Israel is not murdering innocent people. Israel is defending itself from a group that has absolutely no regard for innocent life.
These are men who regularly torture or murder their own women for the slightest infraction of their religious rules designed to make women the property of men.
If they care so little about their mothers, the mothers of their children, their sisters and and other female relatives, how can anyone else expect civility from them?
You try negotiating with a bunch like that.
Abrahamit