Palestinian women mourn four-year-old Mahmoud Raed Sadallah, who was killed following an explosion in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, 16 November. (Anne Paq / ActiveStills)
This post is a continually updated news resource. Click on the links for Mondoweiss’ coverage of Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; and Day 4 of the Israeli attack on Gaza.
Sunday marked the deadliest day yet for Palestinians in Gaza, as Israel’s heavy bombardment of the coastal strip killed yet more civilians. The death toll has risen to 72 people in Gaza; according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, at least 27 civilians have been killed so far. Additionally, according to the centre, “535 Palestinians, including 520 civilians, have been wounded – this number includes 140 children and 83 women.”
24 people today have been killed, according to Ma’an News.
The New York Times’ on-the-ground reporters have details on a deadly strike on a home in Gaza today:
Israeli forces killed at least 11 people, including several children, in a single airstrike that destroyed a home here on Sunday, as Israel pressed its bombardment of the Gaza Strip for a fifth day, deploying warplanes and naval vessels to pummel the coastal enclave.
The airstrike, which the Israeli military said was meant to kill a Palestinian militant involved in the recent rocket attacks, was the deadliest operation to date and would no doubt weigh on negotiations for a possible cease-fire. Among the dead were five women and four small children, The Associated Press reported, citing a Palestinian health official.
The strike reportedly leveled “the al-Dalou family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City,” Ma’an reports.
Haaretz has more details on the strike on the al-Dalou family:
Earlier reports by the IDF Spokesman to the effect that Israel assassinated the head of Hamas’ rocket-launching unit Yehiya Rabiah today in an aerial bombing in northern Gaza appear to have been inaccurate. Apparently, the IAF mistakenly bombed the home of one of his neighbors, Mohammed a-Dallo, killing 10 members of his family and two of his neighbors. Rabiah seems to have survived the attack.
The Times also reports that “in Israel, 3 civilians have died and 63 have been injured. Four soldiers were wounded on Saturday.”
The occupied West Bank saw intense protests and clashes over the Gaza assault. Ma’an News reports that “over 50 people were injured on Sunday during protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem against Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.”
Two rockets fired from Gaza in the direction of Tel Aviv were struck down by the U.S.-financed Iron Dome system today.
And as our own Allison Deger reports, the “Israeli military targeted two media buildings in the Gaza Strip, injuring six journalists with one losing his leg in an amputation after the bombing.”
Reporters Without Borders condemned the Israeli attack on journalists in a press release:
“These attacks constitute obstruction of freedom of information,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “We remind the Israeli authorities that, under humanitarian law, the news media enjoy the same protection as civilians and cannot be regarded as military targets.
“Even if the targeted media support Hamas, this does not in any way legitimize the attacks. We call for a transparent investigation into the circumstances of these air strikes. Attacks on civilian targets are war crimes and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions. Those responsible must be identified.”
The Committee to Protect Journalist likewise condemned the attack on the media building.
In Egypt, cease-fire talks have reportedly broken down for now, according to reporter Sheera Frenkel. On Twitter, she wrote: “Hamas official Abu Zahri says that ceasefire negotiations in Cairo have failed.” Haaretz reported earlier that a “Senior official in Jerusalem confirms that Israeli envoy has arrived in Cairo for cease-fire talks. According to the official, Israel does not expect any breakthrough in talks, and preparations for a possible ground offensive are ongoing.”
This comes as Egyptian revolutionaries have crossed into Gaza. The Associated Press reports:
About 500 Egyptian activists have crossed into Gaza to deliver medical supplies and show support for Palestinians facing an Israeli offensive…
“We are telling the Palestinians that we are on their side,” said activist Adam Mubarak. “Our visit is a message to Israel that we will not abandon the Palestinians in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has uttered his first public words on the Israeli assault.
“Let’s understand what the precipitating event here that’s causing the current crisis and that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and there’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” said Obama, ignoring the fact that it was an Israeli assassination that decisively broke a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel and that this latest flare-up began when Israel killed a teenage boy.
“Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory,” Obama added at a press conference during his trip to Asia. “If that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable. It’s not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It’s also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they’re much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded.”
minions of Israel on Washington Post are now claiming Palestinians using Iranian made Fajr-5 rockets as well as US made Patriot missiles are being launched into Israel. Do you think they know they are losing the media battle and are getting desperate by the minute? Fajr-5 rockets and Patriot missiles? REALLY? Hilarious
I have always said that with Nuttyyahoo-Barak-Lieberman-Yishai it makes Israel the clown car of the Middle East with that little tiny car crammed chock full of clowns…dangerous ones
Hamas itself claimed on its website that it fired Fajr-5 rockets.
Next Israel will be claiming ICBM’s…
Welcome back VR. Long time no see.
Disgusting that Obama only expressed concern for the well being of Israeli troops in the event of a ground assault, and not for the 1.6 million civilians crammed into this open air prison. How much more loathsome this drone loving, zionist ass-kissing maniac can get, I just cannot imagine.
So ask yourself, if this man is so despicable when it comes to human lives, what is he going to do regarding the “fiscal cliff” he keeps talking about? Here is the answer, he will throw the people off the cliff, because if you will not even protect the helpless and poor as in the case of the Palestinians, there is not anything that you are incapable of doing to harm the weak and helpless anywhere (either by omission or commission).
He really is the epitome of an ‘ass-kissing’ politician.
His campaign – more so in 08′ – is such a scam. However, at the same time it goes to show how far the US has come if a black president can be as cowardly, two-faced and sycophantic as a white president.
Our democracy is the sum our of institutional prejudices. Keep that in mind next time some agent provocateur (partisans such as ethno-religious nationalists) tries to cite a poll as gospel.
Rice went all over pop TV, preaching how Obama had “decimated” Al Quaida, in the wake of the terrorist attack on our embassy. She stressed how there was nothing to see there, it was just a protest against a crappy anti-Islam movie clip made in USA.
The other Rice woman use to tell us about an Iraqi nuclear holocaust.
American domestic political hasbara is killing us, not to mention fallout on the World.
We need a new, updated version of Griffith & Gone With The Wind.
There has been a lot of good stuff over the weekend.
1. Judah Magnes on Israel’s regular cleansing of Gaza and how the game is rigged, via Marc Ellis
link to jeremiahhaber.com
2. Yishai wanting to bomb Gaza back to the Middle ages
link to dnaindia.com
3. Peres saying “Basically, our purpose is peace. Their purpose is to destroy Israel”
link to guardian.co.uk
4 The CNN bomb video
link to mondoweiss.net
5 Danaa , along with abierno and anonymous comments on the real Israel
link to mondoweiss.net
6 MRW’s deli story
link to mondoweiss.net
7 Greenwald in the Guardian
link to guardian.co.uk
If one wants to defend US support for Israel on the merits – on the ground that this escalating Israeli aggression against a helpless population is just and warranted – then one should do so. As I wrote on Thursday, it’s very difficult to see how those who have cheered for Obama’s foreign policy could do anything but cheer for Israeli militarism, as they are grounded in the same premises.
8 Whoever said that it is very hard to see where Israel goes from here to reach Erez Israel Hashlemah
Very, very good work from the Mondo team. Well done.
This says it all ~
link to mediacdn.disqus.com
Gilad Sharon (son of butcher Ariel Sharon) in the Jerusalem Post:
“The residents of Gaza are not innocent, they elected Hamas. The Gazans aren’t hostages; they chose this freely, and must live with the consequences….
….We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.”
link to jpost.com
Israel is like a spoiled brat who thinks that he can make up his own rules, whatever it takes, to win a game. And those made-up rules don’t apply to others.
It’s the arrogance and the Khutzpah of Israel.
Great comment on Haaretz story:
“I like the notion, that Hamas “hides in tunnels” whereas heroic IAF-mebers bombard Civilians from several kilometers in the sky with no fear of ever facing a danger.Fighting Israeli style.”
link to haaretz.com
More and more does Israel remind me of the protagonist of that tired old joke about the man on trial for the murder of his parents, who, as an orphan, requests that he be treated mercifully. For forty-five years following Israel’s 1967 brilliantly choreographed and just as brilliantly propagandized land grab have Israeli “facts on the ground” provided those self-fulfilling prophecies enabling Israel to render permanent its contravention of international law.
● RE: “Israeli forces killed at least 11 people, including several children, in a single airstrike that destroyed a home here on Sunday . . . Among the dead were five women and four small children, The Associated Press reported, citing a Palestinian health official.” ~ New York Times
● DICK CHENEY SEZ: “So?”
• “So?” says Dick Cheney [VIDEO, 00:51] – link to youtube.com
● DONALD RUMSFELD SEZ: “Stuff happens and it’s untidy, and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.”
• “Stuff Happens!” – Rumsfeld on looting after fall of Baghdad [VIDEO, 00:27] – link to youtube.com
● P.S. I am feeling so darn good about having voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party rather than “O’bomber” who obviously signed off on Israel’s current “Pillar of Cloud” assault on Gaza. I do not believe Netanyahu would be able to “play” her (“for a fool”, or “like a violin”) like he is able “play” Obama.
I guess I should thank my lucky stars that I don’t live in a “swing state” where I might have been tempted to vote for Obama/O’bomber as the (not very) “lesser evil”!
Israel is the “little sadist”, but the United States is the “Big (Global) Sadist” ! ! !
• Jill Stein - link to jillstein.org
• The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) - link to gp.org
• Green Party: The U.S. must press Israel not to launch a new war on Gaza; Greens urge an immediate truce and resumption of negotiations – link to gp.org
P.S. [FROM THE GREEN PARTY, WITH MY EMPHASIS]
Green Party: The U.S. must press Israel not to launch a new war on Gaza; Greens urge an immediate truce and resumption of negotiations
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES – http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Friday, November 16, 2012
The U.S. is ignoring the source of the conflict and chain of incidents leading up to the current Gaza crisis, say Greens
SOURCE – link to gp.org
Huckabee show, Fox News now:
Interviewing IDF Special Forces leader, a personal friend of Huckabee:
Israel has been in the land for 3800 years, while others come and go. Americans need to know you can’t stop Arab terrorism except in the same way you eliminate cancer. The Arab Spring includes the Palestinians, who are out to murder Israeli kids in their beds. One million Israelis are now cowering in shelters from the terror of the Arab rockets. Israel gave them Gaza for peace, but what Israel got in return is rockets from Gaza. You cannot negotiate with terrorists. And they are using their children as shields. Israel will defend its innocent children from them even if they hide behind their own Arab children. Americans need to know this, that we are going to hit them big time to defend our own innocent people. This is a war of spirits, the spirit of good will versus the terrorist culture.
● RE: “. . . there’s no country on Earth that would
tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its
borders” ~ Obama / “O’bomber”
● MY QUESTION FOR OBAMA / “O’BOMBER”: What country on Earth would tolerate being subjected to an illegal blockade for more than five years? ? ?
Israel is the “little sadist”, but Obama, AIPAC and the United States are the “Big (Global) Sadists” ! ! !
● SEE: “U.N. experts say Israel’s blockade of Gaza illegal”, By Reuters, 9/13/11
LINK – link to reuters.com
● P.S. RE: “What country on Earth would tolerate being subjected to an illegal blockade for more than five years? ? ? Israel is the ‘little sadist’, but Obama, AIPAC and the United States are the ‘Big (Global) Sadists’ ! ! !” ~ me (above)
● SEE: “Obama’s kill list policy compels US support for Israeli attacks on Gaza ~ by Glenn Greenwald, http://www.guardian.co.uk, 11/15/12
The US was once part of the international consensus against extra-judicial assassinations. Now it is a leader in that tactic.
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to guardian.co.uk
● P.P.S. AND ALSO RE: “What country on Earth would tolerate being subjected to an illegal blockade for more than five years? ? ? Israel is the ‘little sadist’, but Obama, AIPAC and the United States are the ‘Big (Global) Sadists’ ! ! !” ~ me (above)
● SEE: “Stop pretending the US is an uninvolved, helpless party in the Israeli assault on Gaza”, by Glenn Greenwald, http://www.guardian.co.uk, 11/18/12
The Obama administration’s unstinting financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel is a key enabling force in the conflict.
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to guardian.co.uk
P.P.P.S. ONE MORE TRY:
• UPDATE
According to Haaretz, Israel’s Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, said this about Israel’s attacks on Gaza: “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages.” Let me know if any of the US Sunday talk shows mention that tomorrow during their discussions of this “operation”.
• UPDATE II [Sun.]
Gilad Sharon, the son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has an Op-Ed in today’s Jerusalem Post in which, among other things, he writes [emphasis added]:
Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch today went to Twitter to announce: “Obama [is] making excellent statements on Israeli situation.”
Stop the war co.uk headlines:
Time to break the taboo and say what Gaza is: a concentration camp
18 November 2012 Arthur Silber Palestine and Israel
It is as if everyone realizes, but will never state, that we are engaged in an elaborate charade, a pageant of gesture and indication, where substance and specific meaning have been banned.
more at link link to stopwar.org.uk
Anyone noticed this little gem?
link to 972mag.com
Fake pictures seem to be a trend in Israel.
See this:
link to 972mag.com
I posted two comments citing fake Palestinian pictures, both comments didn’t pass moderation.
The first case was a photo of a dead child being embraced by his father in a hospital. It was posted on Twitter by the al-qassam brigades from Gaza. Turns out the photo is from three weeks ago, from Syria.
The second was a BBC news report, also picked up by CNN in which a Gazan man, apparently wounded or dead, is hauled away by his buddies.
A few moments later he’s seen walking around
As I write the number of killed has risen to 95 and the number injured is now well over 800, mostly civilians
link to democracynow.org
The fact that my tax dollars, as an American, are spent supporting this carnage makes these relentless attacks on Gaza even more difficult to live with. Please take a moment to sign my petition asking President Obama to divert one day of American military aid to Israel ($8 million dollars/day) to Hurricane Sandy victims. Ends at midnight today. link to change.org
Today in a staged farce on CNN a guy reporting from an “Israeli” town bordering Gaza hit the ground microphone in hand complete with twisted camera angles for dramatic effect reacting, rather over-reacting to a purported oncoming rocket, but the laughable part is that the rocket never materialized there and the whole scenario turned into embarrassing journalistic overkill.
Meanwhile while CNN was reporting a non-event in “israel” and coming off as real stoopid, Israelis killed a family of ten and more children and babies were slaughtered and burned bringing the total dead to just over 100 and wounded to over 800 with real death and destruction everywhere you turn, but obviously CNN doesn’t consider this REAL tragedy newsworthy; they’d rather make asses of themselves on international t.v.
Zionist media ACTING like SNL.
Pillar of Cloud changed to Pillar of Defense lest a barrage of lightening should strike Israel.
Zionists love, love, love to read God’s mind first pretending that Zionism is fulfilling God’s supposed agenda for the “chosen” and now pretending that this onslaught on Gaza is Messianic inspired.
INANE ZIOHUBRIS.
Way to go IDF taking out the Dalua family in a surgical strike. No wonder that former Shin Bet head went to Belarus for a transplant, eh?