Everybody knows the Sinai desert where ohskulon and ashdod are low density in population , the only places where israel is high in density are top of west bank hills jewish settlements , one man's terrorist must be another guy's freedom fighter
Hamas' rocket attacks provoked Israel's ground offensive into Gaza Strip
Date: July 21, 2014
Sharyn Mittelman
Israel is currently under attack as Hamas and other jihadist groups have fired more than 1600 rockets into its territory this month. The rockets have sent millions of Israeli citizens – Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze – sprinting into bomb shelters. They have as little as 15 seconds to run for cover. It is not a situation any county would tolerate.
When Hamas attacks began, Israel initially responded with targeted air strikes aimed at stopping the rockets and sent a message to Hamas on July 3 that "quiet will be met with quiet", adding "Israel has no interest in an escalation. If Hamas reins in the shooting now, we won't act, either." But that peace offering was ignored.
Also rejected by Hamas was a July 15 ceasefire proposal by Egypt backed by the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and accepted by Israel. The rejection revealed Hamas' true colours and was widely condemned internationally, including by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, who rightly noted: "Hamas claims to represent Gaza, yet it has jeopardised the welfare of its own people by rejecting the proposal for a ceasefire."
When PA President MahmoudAbbasimplored Hamas to accept the proposal, Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, said while in Cairo "what are 200 martyrs compared with lifting the siege?"
With Hamas rejecting the Egyptian ceasefire deal and rocket attacks into Israel continuing, the final straw was Hamas terrorists emerging from tunnels into Israel to attack a nearby kibbutz. Israel felt it had little choice but to order the ground operation into the Gaza Strip on July 18 to destroy these tunnels, 34 of which have, so far, been discovered.
While the Israeli army is focused on targeting Hamas and other jihadist groups, civilians in Gaza have been killed in the crossfire. For Israel, every civilian death, be it Palestinian or Israeli, is a tragedy to be avoided; for Hamas, Israeli civilians are the target of their rocket fire. Even ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, said on July 9 on PA TV: "The missiles that are now being launched against Israel, each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity, whether it hits or misses, because it is directed at civilian targets." Khraishi also noted that the Israeli army warns civilians to leave areas before impending strikes.
Yet Hamas leaders sitting safely in their underground bunkers have told Gazans to ignore Israeli warnings and return to their homes, embracing yet again the practice of "human shields". Hamas fighters not only fire rockets from residential buildings but also use civilian infrastructure for their own purposes, including storage of weapons in schools and mosques. For example, on July 16, about 20 rockets were found in a school in Gaza operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The Washington Post also reported on July 15 that Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has become "a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices". Hamas' use of civilian infrastructure is clearly is a war crime as it endangers civilian lives. But, for Hamas, civilian casualties support its propaganda war as the more civilian casualties there are, the more international pressure is placed on Israel.
Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, removing 8000 Israelis and 20 settlements. After a bloody coup in 2007 against its political rival Fatah, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. Hamas is a Sunni Islamist organisation linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and considered a terrorist group by Australia, Israel, the US, the European Union and Canada, among others. Hamas is committed to Israel's genocidal destruction, as enshrined in its charter, and it not only encourages rocket attacks into Israel but is responsible for terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians.
Today, Hamas is widely disliked among the people it purports to represent. A recent Pew Research Centre poll found 63 per cent of Gazans surveyed held negative views of Hamas and 79 per cent were concerned about Islamist extremism. Some speculate that this latest attack on Israel may be aimed at reviving its flagging popularity and its depleted funding, following reports that Hamas is largely bankrupt. Hamas' financial woes, and its lost support from Egypt, were also considered reasons why it agreed to a unity government with Fatah in April.
When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the area could have flourished but hostility was so strong rockets kept being fired into Israel. Israel imposed a security blockade on Gaza precisely to try and stop the flow of weapons into Gaza and rockets fired into Israel. The UN Palmer report found this blockade to be legal under international law.
Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel because that is its raison d'etre. Israel has responded to defend its citizens, who cannot possibly be expected to live under incessant rocket attack. The situation has now escalated into a ground-force operation that Israel did not want. But, as this conflict ensues, it is important to remember that Hamas started this round of conflict and had the opportunity to end it, but now Israel's operation is aimed at degrading Hamas' extensive terrorist structure to stop the rockets now and into the foreseeable future.
Read more:
Hamas' rocket attacks provoked Israel's ground offensive into Gaza Strip
Gaza conflict takes toll on Hamas rocket stocks and tunnels
IDF says it has destroyed 30%-40% of militant rockets and six tunnel shafts; Hamas has killed 29 soldiers and disrupted flights
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
theguardian.com, Thursday 24 July 2014 00.47 AEST
An Israeli military convoy outside the central Gaza Strip. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters
After more than two weeks of intense fighting in
Gaza, both
Hamas and
Israelhave racked up significant military achievements, albeit at the cost of hundreds of lives.
About 140 militants have been killed in Gaza over the past two weeks, amounting to around 20%-25% of the total Palestinian death toll, which is mostly civilian. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says it has destroyed 30%-40% of militant rocket stocks. Adding in the 2,100-plus rockets fired from Gaza since the start of the conflict, it says the overall rocket capability of Hamas and other groups has been halved.
It says there has been a 30% decline in rocket fire in recent days, although the Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said on Tuesday it was too early to say whether this was a significant trend.
Israeli troops on the ground have discovered at least
66 shafts leading to 23 tunnels – usually used for smuggling and storing goods and weapons – six of which have now been destroyed. Approximately half the tunnels lead under the border into Israel, says the IDF.
According to the military analyst Alex Fishman, about 3,000 tons of explosives have been dropped on Gaza in the first 15 days of the conflict – more than was deployed in the 22-day
Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9.
On the other side, by Wednesday morning Hamas had killed 29 soldiers, a huge morale booster to its fighters and a grievous blow to Israel. It says it has also
abducted a soldier, though it is thought more likely that it is holding a soldier's body – still a significant bargaining chip.
Its rocket fire has caused fear and panic among Israelis in south and central Israel, with sirens sounding many times a day warning people to seek shelter. A big achievement from Hamas's perspective has been the
disruption of flightsto and from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. Airlines from the US, Europe and elsewhere suspended flights, citing security concerns, after a rocket hit a house near the airport.
Hamas has rockets in its arsenal capable of reaching most cities and towns in Israel, apart from the far north and south – a big advance on previous conflicts. The Syrian-made M302 has a range of 160 miles, according to the IDF. However, Hamas's missiles have so far failed to cause serious damage or casualties. Two Israeli civilians have been killed to date, and more than 420 rockets have been shot down by Israel's vaunted missile defence system,
Iron Dome.
The asymmetry between a well-resourced and equipped professional state army and paramilitary groups that have been operating under siege conditions for seven years or more is clear in this conflict. Even so, the IDF has encountered fiercer fighting than it expected on the ground.
"We have to admit we were facing good fighters, very well equipped with sophisticated weapons systems, accurate weapons, heavy weapons including mortars, booby traps," a senior military source told the Guardian after the
battle of Shujai'iya, Israel's bloodiest assault in the two-week Gaza conflict. "It was very difficult fighting. It's very difficult for us to surprise them. They were simply waiting for us."
He said Hamas had the advantage of knowing when and where Israeli ground forces would strike following warnings given to civilians to evacuate specified areas by given deadlines. Hamas fighters hid in apartment buildings ready to ambush the IDF. They had also booby-trapped buildings and tunnels.
Israeli forces have discovered a much more extensive network of tunnels than expected. The labyrinth of interconnected passages, bunkers, command centres, weapons stores and underground rocket-launching sites, with multiple shafts, has been dubbed Lower Gaza by some. Hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete have been used for construction of tunnels, some of which are 30m below ground and run for several miles.
The tunnels have posed huge tactical challenges for the IDF. Large numbers of troops are needed to guard military engineers who are exposed to Hamas sniper fire, anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades while working on detonating tunnel shafts.
The IDF has tacitly admitted it may not find, let alone destroy, the entire network. "The end position of this mission needs to determine that these [tunnels] no longer lead to Israel," Lerner said.
The senior military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Our goal now is to finish the job by destroying as many tunnels as we can, if not all of them. It's very difficult for me to say all of them because there's always a chance we don't know [the location of] all the tunnels – and what you don't know, you simply don't know."
Israel's political and military leaders will have to weigh the danger of getting drawn deeper into ground fighting in urban areas, where Hamas has considerable tactical advantages and could inflict significant losses on troops.
Fishman said diplomatic efforts to
broker a ceasefire were adding to the pressures on the IDF. "We are entering a race against time until some kind of ceasefire is decided. At that point, the political and military echelons will face a genuine dilemma: which infrastructure can [Israel] give up [on destroying] and which infrastructure must be destroyed? For this reason, the army is already focusing its efforts against the most vital infrastructure," he wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest-circulation newspaper.
Gaza conflict takes toll on Hamas rocket stocks and tunnels
IDF says it has destroyed 30%-40% of militant rockets and six tunnel shafts; Hamas has killed 29 soldiers and disrupted flights
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
theguardian.com, Thursday 24 July 2014 00.47 AEST
An Israeli military convoy outside the central Gaza Strip. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters
After more than two weeks of intense fighting in
Gaza, both
Hamas and
Israelhave racked up significant military achievements, albeit at the cost of hundreds of lives.
About 140 militants have been killed in Gaza over the past two weeks, amounting to around 20%-25% of the total Palestinian death toll, which is mostly civilian. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says it has destroyed 30%-40% of militant rocket stocks. Adding in the 2,100-plus rockets fired from Gaza since the start of the conflict, it says the overall rocket capability of Hamas and other groups has been halved.
It says there has been a 30% decline in rocket fire in recent days, although the Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said on Tuesday it was too early to say whether this was a significant trend.
Israeli troops on the ground have discovered at least
66 shafts leading to 23 tunnels – usually used for smuggling and storing goods and weapons – six of which have now been destroyed. Approximately half the tunnels lead under the border into Israel, says the IDF.
According to the military analyst Alex Fishman, about 3,000 tons of explosives have been dropped on Gaza in the first 15 days of the conflict – more than was deployed in the 22-day
Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9.
On the other side, by Wednesday morning Hamas had killed 29 soldiers, a huge morale booster to its fighters and a grievous blow to Israel. It says it has also
abducted a soldier, though it is thought more likely that it is holding a soldier's body – still a significant bargaining chip.
Its rocket fire has caused fear and panic among Israelis in south and central Israel, with sirens sounding many times a day warning people to seek shelter. A big achievement from Hamas's perspective has been the
disruption of flightsto and from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. Airlines from the US, Europe and elsewhere suspended flights, citing security concerns, after a rocket hit a house near the airport.
Hamas has rockets in its arsenal capable of reaching most cities and towns in Israel, apart from the far north and south – a big advance on previous conflicts. The Syrian-made M302 has a range of 160 miles, according to the IDF. However, Hamas's missiles have so far failed to cause serious damage or casualties. Two Israeli civilians have been killed to date, and more than 420 rockets have been shot down by Israel's vaunted missile defence system,
Iron Dome.
The asymmetry between a well-resourced and equipped professional state army and paramilitary groups that have been operating under siege conditions for seven years or more is clear in this conflict. Even so, the IDF has encountered fiercer fighting than it expected on the ground.
"We have to admit we were facing good fighters, very well equipped with sophisticated weapons systems, accurate weapons, heavy weapons including mortars, booby traps," a senior military source told the Guardian after the
battle of Shujai'iya, Israel's bloodiest assault in the two-week Gaza conflict. "It was very difficult fighting. It's very difficult for us to surprise them. They were simply waiting for us."
He said Hamas had the advantage of knowing when and where Israeli ground forces would strike following warnings given to civilians to evacuate specified areas by given deadlines. Hamas fighters hid in apartment buildings ready to ambush the IDF. They had also booby-trapped buildings and tunnels.
Israeli forces have discovered a much more extensive network of tunnels than expected. The labyrinth of interconnected passages, bunkers, command centres, weapons stores and underground rocket-launching sites, with multiple shafts, has been dubbed Lower Gaza by some. Hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete have been used for construction of tunnels, some of which are 30m below ground and run for several miles.
The tunnels have posed huge tactical challenges for the IDF. Large numbers of troops are needed to guard military engineers who are exposed to Hamas sniper fire, anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades while working on detonating tunnel shafts.
The IDF has tacitly admitted it may not find, let alone destroy, the entire network. "The end position of this mission needs to determine that these [tunnels] no longer lead to Israel," Lerner said.
The senior military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Our goal now is to finish the job by destroying as many tunnels as we can, if not all of them. It's very difficult for me to say all of them because there's always a chance we don't know [the location of] all the tunnels – and what you don't know, you simply don't know."
Israel's political and military leaders will have to weigh the danger of getting drawn deeper into ground fighting in urban areas, where Hamas has considerable tactical advantages and could inflict significant losses on troops.
Fishman said diplomatic efforts to
broker a ceasefire were adding to the pressures on the IDF. "We are entering a race against time until some kind of ceasefire is decided. At that point, the political and military echelons will face a genuine dilemma: which infrastructure can [Israel] give up [on destroying] and which infrastructure must be destroyed? For this reason, the army is already focusing its efforts against the most vital infrastructure," he wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest-circulation newspaper.
How can you say it is anti-semitic and islamofascist to broadcast and report on the excessive brutal Palestinian casualties by Israeli shelling and airstrikes on populated civilian areas? T_T
The same way that a pro-Israel news article is tagged as propaganda by zionist media.