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Dead mothers, teachers and babies in Gaza yet media overwhelmingly focuses on rocket fire into Israel

Israeli Attacks / Eyewitness Accounts

Friday; Israel Carried Out 30 Air Strikes Against Gaza In Less Than 30 Minutes
The Israeli Army continued its escalation against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and carried out, early on Friday morning, more than 30 air strikes against different parts of the Gaza Strip in less than 30 minutes.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64568 

The Israeli army attacked 320 sites in the Gaza Strip on 15 November. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that these sites included “70 underground medium range (up to 40 km) rocket launching sites,” in addition to “squads that were involved in firing rockets toward Israel.” 
 
Three More Palestinians Killed In Gaza, 19 in 24 Hours, 23 Since Saturday
The Israeli army continued it aggression and massive offensive against the civilians in the Gaza Strip, and bombarded on Thursday at night dozens of targets in the besieged coastal region killing three children and wounding several residents. 19 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday evening, and at least 180 have been injured. 23 Palestinians have been killed since last Saturday; most of the casualties are civilians, children and women.

In photos: Israel attacks Gaza
A roundup of photos documenting Gaza under bombardment.
 

Israel moves troops toward Gaza; Barak wants 30,000 reservists
At least a dozen trucks carrying tanks, armored vehicles were seen late Thursday moving toward border area, while buses ferried soldiers; Barak asks government to okay reserves call-up ahead of possible ground invasion. IDF reservist: Time to do what must be done.

 
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — One of the casualties of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip was a teacher at a UN school, the UN Relief and Works Agency said Thursday. Marwan al-Qumsan, 52, was killed on Thursday afternoon in an airstrike on the al-Amoudi area of the northern Gaza Strip. A civil defense crew had to retrieve his body from the rubble. His brother was seriously injured in the same strike. He was an Arabic teacher at UNRWA’s Preparatory Boys School in Jabalia, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a statement.  Israel has killed 19 Palestinians, including at least 10 civilians since Wednesday in a series of airstrikes, tank fire and naval shelling.

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — An Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, the health ministry said, bringing the death toll to 19 on the second day of fighting. Brothers Tareq Jamal Naser, 16, and Oday Jamal Nasser, 14, as well as Fares al-Bassiouni were killed when Israel bombed their home in Beit Hanoun, the ministry said. The brothers’ father and three children were among six injured in the explosion. Witnesses said a fire broke out affecting a nearby mosque after the bombing. 
 

Pregnant woman, two children wounded in renewed Israeli raids on Gaza
A pregnant woman and two children were wounded in Gaza on Thursday in renewed Israeli shelling of the besieged enclave, medical sources said.

 

Photo of journalist carrying dead son in Gaza spurs online grief
The death of a journalist’s 11-month-old son in Gaza on Wednesday has prompted a flood of poignant messages online — and media speculation — when pictures of Jihad Misharawi, a BBC Arabic video editor, showed him carrying the body of his dead son.

 

BBC staffer’s 11-month-old son killed in Gaza
The 11-month-old son of a BBC staffer was killed yesterday during an air strike by the Israeli army on the Gaza strip. Omar Misharawi, son of the BBC Arabic service’s picture editor, Jihad, is said to have died in hospital from shrapnel wounds (though some earlier reports wrongly stated it was from severe burns). His aunt was killed, and his brother and an uncle were critically injured. There is a picture here of Omar. His father told BBC Arabic: “Shrapnel hit our house. My sister-in-law was killed along with my son. And my brother and my other son were wounded. What did my son to to die like this? What was his mistake? What did he do?”

 
A targeted missile strike launched from an Israeli Navy warship has hit a vehicle near the home of Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, according to Israeli media. This comes as Israel intensifies its attacks on Gaza. Residents say the strike destroyed an electricity generator near Haniyeh’s house. It was unclear whether he was at home at the time of the assault. No casualties have been reported from that incident. Meanwhile an Israeli Defense Force spokesperson has said in an official Twitter: “During the past hour, the IDF targeted approx. 70 underground medium range rocket launching sites in Gaza. Direct hits were confirmed.” This comes as Israel is apparently intensifying its assault on Gaza after it launched the operation “Pillar of Defense” a day ago. Three people have been killed in Israel, while the Palestinian death toll has reached at least 16, including children, say medical sources in Gaza.
 

Israel bombs Interior Ministry building in Gaza City
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israel bombed the civil affairs department of the Ministry of Interior in Gaza City early Friday morning after a night of heavy raids across the Gaza Strip. Emergency crews extinguished a huge blaze at the ministry in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood as ambulances transferred wounded Palestinians from residential buildings in the area. Ministry officials reassured citizens that more than 90 percent of personal files and papers were saved electronically and could still be accessed. The building contained 70 years of records of the Palestinian civil registry, the ministry said.

 
The Israeli air force on Thursday dropped leaflets over several locations in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that the leaflets contained the following information: “Important announcement for the residents of the Gaza Strip: For your own safety, take responsibility for yourselves and avoid being present in the vicinity of Hamas operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that pose a risk to your safety. Hamas is once again dragging the region to violence and bloodshed. The IDF is determined to defend the residents of the State of Israel. This announcement is valid until quiet is restored to the region. Israel Defense Forces Command.”
 
Palestinian account from Gaza: A speechless girl in Gaza, Malaka Mohammed
This post originally appeared on Malaka Mohammed’s blog yesterday. Gaza is now witnessing difficult moments! I live at Shijaeya, to the east of Gaza City. My region would be the first to be hit in any Israeli invasion. 3 days ago, 6 civilians were murdered and around 40 were injured in my region. Today, the same numbers were murdered but it seems the injuries will be more. I had 2 sleepless nights lacking the ability to focus, study, or even sleep. At 2:00 am last night, I was still up relaxing after my little sisters had managed to go to sleep. Half an hour after sleeping, a house was targeted in the street where I live.
 

In Gaza, my son asks, what do the Israelis want from us?, Rami Almeghari
Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada correspondent in Gaza, struggles to answer his son’s simple question.

 
Beginning at 3:35 pm today, the Gaza Strip has been shaken by several Israeli army attacks from drones, apaches, F-16s, and naval vessels. One of the first people killed was Ahmed al-Jabari, chief of staff of Hamas’ military wing. Palestinian factions vowed revenge, and their armed wings have fired dozens of rockets towards Israel. Since the first attack this afternoon, Israeli forces have carried out more than 50 airstrikes across the Gaza Strip resulting in at least eight fatalities, including two young children and a woman pregnant with twins. The Ministry of Health also reports that more than 90 people have been injured.
 
Israeli Racism and Warmongering
 

Inciting war crimes: Israel minister says force Gaza population into Egypt, cut off water, electricity, Ali Abunimah
Katz, a member Netanyahu’s Likud Party, appears to be inciting war crimes of the kind Israel committed in Lebanon and previously in Gaza.

 

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld: ‘If they dare to strike Tel Aviv… we’ll wipe the whole place out’, Philip Weiss
There is a famous knoll outside Sderot in southern Israel where reporters and other spectators of war gather to watch Israeli operations against Gaza—“we want to see fireworks,” as one young man explained this afternoon– and we had been there only ten minutes when Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesperson on security matters, arrived with a colleague. “There’s a strike, check it out,” he said proudly as a plume of smoke rose from Gaza City. “You can see it well in the setting sun.” Around us, photographers balanced long telephoto lenses on knees or tripods to make the golden shot of destruction about a dozen miles away. Four men seated under a fir tree guzzled bottles of beer.

 
Israeli watching bombing of Gaza from southern Israel: ‘Arabs are less than dogs, kill them all’, Scott Roth
Editor Note: Phil Weiss and Scott Roth are in southern Israel today, following the story of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Roth has been tweeting during the trip.

 
It’s raining Israeli bombs in Gaza yet again and as the death toll mounts some people are having themselves a laugh at the expense of the dead. I’m talking about #HamasBumperStickers, a twitter hashtag that caught on like wildfire yesterday mostly among people who despise Palestinians (and Arabs in general) and think it’s funny when Israel kills them. While I’m not usually one to amplify the trolling rhetoric of heartless bigots, I feel it’s important that these particular individuals be shamed and ostracized for their sick jokes, especially since the hashtag they are using has apparently been trending worldwide.
 
Yesterday, when I wrote about the social media campaign that Israel was waging alongside its attack on Hamas, I thought it was interesting. I thought it was a straightforward and effective way of presenting the cause behind the attack. Whether you thought the offensive was right or wrong, you had to admit the propaganda’s effectiveness. Well, day two has changed matters. The IDF Blog now has atrocious gamification badges with points and rewards for sharing the content to social media. For example, if you visit the site 10 times, you get the “Consistent” badge. If you search the blog multiple times, you’re promoted to “Research Officer.” Yes, Israel has gamified war. This is absolutely horrendous.
 
Palestinian Resistance
 
At a press conference in Gaza City on Thursday afternoon, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum stated that Israel’s current war against Gaza “will not end like the previous one.” 
 
Hamas leader speaks from Sudan during funeral of assassinated military chief Ahmed Jabari. ‘The Israeli enemy is weak. Killing our leaders only makes us more powerful,’ he says.
 
Palestinians factions have fired nearly 150 rockets into southern Israel since Wednesday.  Israel’s air defence system, the Iron Dome, has intercepted 50 of these rockets. Three Israelis were killed by a direct hit from a rocket on Thursday morning.
 

Gaza returns deadly rocket fire on Israel
Three Israelis killed by rocket fire on southern town, as wave of violence that has left 13 Palestinians dead continues.

Rockets fired at Tel Aviv area for first time since Gulf War
For first time in over 20 years, siren heard in Tel Aviv metropolitan area; two rockets land in open areas shortly thereafter; two hours earlier, rocket lands in Rishon Lezion area; no injuries reported in either attack. Beersheba home sustains direct hit, none hurt. Three Kiryat Malachi residents killed in morning rocket attack.

IDF spokesman: Difficult days are ahead
Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai addresses Operation Pillar of Defense, says ‘top priority is to restore peace to south’
 
Three Israelis have been killed after a rocket shot from the Gaza Strip landed on an apartment complex. Akiva Eldar of Haaretz spoke to Al Jazeera.
 
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades says it downed at an Israeli reconnaissance plane over the eastern Gaza Strip on Thursday. The brigades fired a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft during a raid on Gaza and claimed a direct hit. An Israeli military spokeswoman did not immediately respond to request to comment.
 
Images disprove Israeli official’s denial that Palestinians shot down drone over Gaza, Ali Abunimah
Who do you believe? An Israeli official’s denial or your own eyes?

 

Abu Ubaida: bombing Tel Rabii is just a “message” to the Israeli occupation
Abu Obeida, the Qassam Brigades’ spokesman, stressed that bombing the occupied city of Tel-Rabii (75 miles from the Gaza Strip) by two missiles was only a “message” to the occupation.

 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israel’s leaders were literally looking in the opposite direction, and making sure everyone knew it, just before catching Hamas’ top commander in the Gaza Strip off-guard in an airstrike that killed him. In what now appears to have been a diversionary tactic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak paid a visit to the Syrian frontier in the north, hours before the air offensive began in the south. The show of concern over errant mortar shells that have landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria was widely reported during the day by Israeli media.
 
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas will not discuss another ceasefire after Israel broke the last truce mediated by Egypt, a spokesman said Thursday. Israel assassinated Hamas military commander Ahmad al-Jaabari on Wednesday, breaking a truce mediated 48 hours earlier by Egypt. Hamas had committed to the truce, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said at a news conference in Gaza City. He added that any Israeli talk of another ceasefire was “an Israeli deception” to provide cover for more attacks on the Gaza Strip.
 

Thousands lay Ja’bari to rest
Thousands of people marched in the funeral procession of Hamas’s military commander Ahmed Al-Ja’bari, on Thursday including a number of Hamas leaders.

 
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Hamas’ office in the West Bank called on Thursday evening for Palestinians to hold demonstrations in support of Gaza after Friday prayers. A Hamas statement called on national leaders and imams across the West Bank to direct their support to Gaza, where 16 people have been killed in an Israeli assault that began on Wednesday. Labeling it ‘The Friday of Loyalty to Gaza’, Hamas called on Palestinians to head from the main mosques on marches in solidarity with Gaza. On Thursday, Palestinians protested in Nablus, Bethlehem and Ramallah to condemn Israel’s operation on Gaza.
 

Gaza Interior Ministry confirms its readiness to secure back of resistance
The Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza confirmed that the security services would deal seriously with any attempt to tamper with internal security,”

 
Humanitarian Crisis
 
Israel has held up medical supplies for the Gaza Strip at a checkpoint since Thursday morning, the Palestinian Authority said on Thursday night.  PA Health Minister Hani Abdeen told Ma’an the Ramallah-based government had sent 15 trucks with 200 boxes of medicine and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.  ”We sent the first batch of medications this morning and it’s now waiting at Israeli checkpoints for permission to pass to Gaza,” Abdeen said.  The minister said international organizations had promised to help the PA get Israeli permission to deliver medicine to the Gaza Strip.
 

Gaza hospitals struggle to cope
Israel’s campaign of air strikes on Gaza’s continued for a second night.   The number of casualties is rising and Hamas’ retaliation is causing panic inside Israel. For the first time, rockets fired from Gaza have reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Air raid sirens sounded there for the first time in more than 20 years. Inside Gaza, the bombardment is causing so many injuries that hospital staff face being overwhelmed. And the return fire into Israel is also causing casualties.   Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba reports from Gaza.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBPCB1Gd-yU&feature=youtube_gdata

Other Related News
 

Morsi Warns Israel Against Attacking Egyptian Delegates Visiting Gaza
Egyptian President, Mohammad Morsi, warned Israel against attacking official Egyptian delegates who will be visiting the Gaza strip, on Friday, adding that the delegates will be carrying medical supplies to the coastal region.

 
Israel to hold fire in Egypt premier’s Gaza visit
An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Egypt that Israel would be prepared to suspend its military offensive in the Gaza Strip during the Egyptian prime minister’s visit there.
 
Egypt president to dispatch PM to Gaza
Egypt’s Islamist president has ordered his prime minister to lead a senior delegation to Gaza in a show of support for the coastal strip’s Hamas rulers in the face of Israel’s offensive.
 

Netanyahu Seeks International Support For Offensive
Israeli TV, Channel 10, reported that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is holding talks with different world leaders, including U.S. President, Barack Obama, to ensure international support as Israel widens and intensifies its escalation against the Gaza Strip.

Knesset Speaker supports dialogue with Hamas in Gaza
As the political and security leadership in Tel Aviv continue their assessment of the recent military escalation against the Gaza Strip, the Speaker of the Knesset has said that he supports the concept of dialogue with the Islamic Resistance Movement in Gaza. Seven Palestinians have been killed, and dozens more have been wounded, in Israeli attacks against Gaza over the past few days.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange index declines after aggression on Gaza
The price of Israeli currency, shekel, and the Israeli bourse have registered a sharp decline, following the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the resistance’s responses.
 
The campaign Twitter account for the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted, then quickly deleted a statement thanking President Obama for his support. “Wouldn’t give it any significance,” a spokesman responds.
 
Support for Gaza
 
BEIRUT (Reuters) — Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged Arab states on Thursday to use all political means possible, including raising oil prices, to end Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, suggesting this could be as effective as military attacks. The leader of Lebanon’s powerful resistance faction, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, called on countries with ties to the United States and the West to pressure them to help stop the airstrikes. ”No one is telling Arab countries today, ‘Please go open your borders and begin the operation to liberate Palestine.’ What we want is to end the attack on Gaza,” Nasrallah said in a televised address to mark the first day of the Shiite holiday of Ashoura. ”This is everyone’s battle … We’re not asking you for a solution, we’re asking for effort.”
 
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Thursday detained two teenagers in Nablus in the northern West Bank during a protest against Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. Yasser al-Qanna 18, and Mosaab Akouba, 17, were detained during a demonstration at Huwwara checkpoint in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, witnesses told Ma’an. An Israeli military spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
 
Today around 4- Around 15 women reached to Beit El military camp carrying Palestinian flags and a banner that says ” ” 8 women managed to climb to the roof of the military camp (though a ladder that they brought with them)- they managed to stay for around 15-20 min, before massive amounts of Israeli Soldiers realized that the women were there, surrounded the area, climbed to the roof and pulled the women down, and put them in Israeli jeeps and took them far away. The message from todays action ” to support the Sumoud of our people in Gaza- The women chose Beit El Military camp because it is a symbol of the presence of Israeli occupation and military rule inside the westbank.” 8 women were arrested and are still under detention till this moment. At night around 10 managed to get back to the military camp.. in attempt to release the arrested ones.. soldiers attacked them violently and tried to arrest them.
 
Angering Israel supporters and local officials.The silent rally came a day after Jabari was killed by Israeli forces at the start of an offensive against Hamas to stop rocket fire on the south of Israel. The operation, dubbed Pillar of Defense, touched off a barrage of missiles from Gaza amid threats of a wider ground incursion by Israel. The protesters, most of whom were Arab-Israelis, did not wave flags or banners, nor did they chant slogans.
 

Mass rallies in refugee camps in Lebanon to denounce aggression on Gaza
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon organized mass rallies to denounce the assassination of the Commander in “Al-Qassam Brigades” in Gaza, Ahmed Jabari, by the Israeli occupation.

 
Egypt PM to visit Gaza in support of Hamas against Israel
GAZA (Reuters) – Egypt’s prime minister prepared to visit the Gaza Strip on Friday in an unprecedented display of solidarity with Hamas militants embroiled in a new escalation of conflict with Israel that risks spiraling into all-out war. Two rockets from Gaza crashed near Tel Aviv in the first such attack on Israel’s commercial capital for 20 years. One fell into the Mediterranean Sea and the other in an uninhabited part of one of the Tel Aviv suburbs south of the city.

Egyptian consensus to support Gaza
Dr. Yasser Ali Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency said that President Mohamed Morsi, has commissioned the PM Hisham Qandil to go to the Gaza Strip on Friday at the head of a high-level delegation.

 

Massive rally in Istanbul against Israel’s military attacks on Gaza
Hundreds of Turkish citizens on Wednesday evening flocked into the open square opposite the Sultan Mohamed Al-Fateh Mosque in Istanbul city to protest Israel’s military aggression against Gaza.

 
Close to 1,000 New Yorkers came out in the cold earlier tonight to denounce Israel’s escalation against the Gaza Strip. The emergency rally, organized in one day, was put together by a host of Palestine solidarity groups including Adalah-NY, Al-Awda NY, American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and more. The rally was held across the street from the Israeli Consulate in Midtown Manhattan.
 
 
Al-Kahlawi: civil society in Tunisia will respond to Israeli aggression
The head of the National Association to support Arab resistance stated that the assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari on Wednesday represents a serious Israeli escalation that requires a strong response.

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniyeh received a phone call from Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki in support of Gaza amid Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave, Haniyeh’s office said Thursday. Marzouki told Haniyeh that Tunisia fully supports the Palestinian people and leadership in Gaza.  Fifteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since an airstrike killed a senior Hamas commander on Wednesday. Three Israelis died early Thursday when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a house in south Israel.
 

A London based organization calls on Egypt to defend Gaza
The Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain called on the Egyptian government and people to “take urgent action to defend by all means possible the residents of the Gaza Strip.

 
ACTION: Global list of scheduled protests against Israel’s attacks on Gaza
Emergency actions for Gaza are being called this week in more than 100 places around the world, from Israeli consulates to public parks to university campuses.

 

BDS Movement: Stop a new Israeli massacre in Gaza — boycott Israel now!
Occupied Palestine, 15 November 2012 – On November 8, Israel carried out an attack on civilians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, shooting 13-year-old Ahmad Abu Daqqa while he played football with friends. By November 14, Israel had intensified its attacks on Gaza and begun to implement an intensive plan of aggression that at the time of writing has killed at least 15 Palestinians, including at least 6 children, and injured over 150, predominantly civilians.

 
As the Israeli army rains shells on the Gaza strip Thursday, it’s also gone on the offensive online, posting videos of its attacks on Hamas targets and live-tweeting its campaign. Now the hacker group Anonymous has responded with a digital bombardment of its own. In a series of attacks it’s calling “OpIsrael,” Anonymous went on a spree of website defacement and takedown attacks Thursday, calling on members to flood forty sites with junk web traffic designed to knock them offline and defacing websites including the privacy firm Israeli Security Academy and a blog the group described as belonging to the Israeli Defense Forces. “We Anonymous will not sit back and watch a cowardly Zionist State demolish innocent people’s lives.” reads one message posted to a defaced site, along with an image of smoke rising over what appears to be a Palestinian city.
 
Support for Israel
 
Panetta speaks to Barak, reiterates American position — that Israel has a right to protect its citizens
 
The latest attacks by Israel against Gaza have been condemned as a violation of international law. However the US and UK have given their unwavering support to the new strikes on Gaza. US President Barack Obama “reiterated US support for Israel’s right to self-defense in light of rocket attacks from Gaza” in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. Meanwhile UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also stepped forward in Israel’s defense, claiming that Hamas “bears principle responsibility” for the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Israel has now reportedly hit over 200 “targets” in Gaza, killing 13 and injuring over 120 people. The unwavering support by the US and the UK is astounding, considering Israel has yet to comply with to any of the resolutions passed (see list) by the United Nations in relation to the Middle East conflict.
 
Media Bias
 
While countries across Europe and North America commemorated military casualties of past and present wars on November 11, Israel was targeting civilians. On November 12, waking up to a new week, readers at breakfast were flooded with heart rending accounts of past and current military casualties. There was, however, no or little mention of the fact that the majority of casualties of modern day wars are civilians. There was also hardly any mention on the morning of November 12 of military attacks on Gaza that continued throughout the weekend. A cursory scan confirms this for Canada’s CBC, the Globe and Mail, Montreal’s Gazette, and the Toronto Star. Equally, for the New York Times and for the BBC.
 
You know the drill by now: an escalation occurs in the Gaza Strip that is automatically blamed on Palestinian fighters. The New York Times does it, as the Electronic Intifada’s Maureen Murphy points out, and now theWashington Post prints a story with a similar narrative.
 
Not one word about Palestinian casualities:  In Israeli Border Town, Rubble and Blood, ISABEL KERSHNER

When a rocket crashed into a building in Kiryat Malachi, or City of Angels, on Thursday morning, it took the first Israeli casualties in this round of violence.

 

Fox News on Gaza, As’ad AbuKhalil
If Israeli bombs are not incinerating children in Gaza, one would have found Fox News coverage of Gaza to be rather comical.  The correspondent today was trying hard to transmit a fake sense of panic among all Israelis.  He was screaming: missiles are falling indiscriminately everywhere, he said.  And then added: and there is total destruction.  This air-conditioner in this room is now totally gone.  Such is the power of the Gaza missiles on Israel.

 
Analysis / Op-ed of Gaza Attacks
 
Ahmad Said Khalil al-Jaabari was Hamas’ most powerful man in the Gaza Strip. Those close to him called him Abu Mohammad, but Israel knew him as the “military chief of Hamas.”
 
Israeli air strikes have continued into the night in Gaza, after a missile killed the military commander of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari. Dozens of rockets have been fired back into southern Israel following the strike. One has hit a shopping centre in a major Israeli city. At least eight people have been reported killed in Gaza so far – including three civilians. Residential buildings are among those destroyed. Al Jazeera’s Shakuntala Santhrian interviews Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian American journalist, and co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an online publication about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
 

How Israel shattered Gaza truce leading to escalating death and tragedy: a timeline, Ali Abunimah
Israel’s narrative that it’s “responding” to rocket fire is false.

 
Norman Finkelstein: If you look at the sequence of events, there was a lull between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza up until November the 8th, on November 8th Israel killed a Palestinian child and there was some Palestinian retaliation, they blew up a tunnel injuring an Israeli soldier, and then subsequently they fired on an Israeli jeep, injuring 4 Israeli soldiers, then Israel killed two more Palestinian children and during the funeral of the two children who were killed Israel fired on the tent where the attendees at the funeral were present. Then the conflict escalated until November the 12th when there was a ceasefire negotiated and it seemed as if the ceasefire was taking hold, then Israel used the occasion of the ceasefire to assassinate what you might call the strong man of Gaza and also as the Israeli newspapers pointed out, Mr Jaabari who they killed was Israel’s enforcer in Gaza, those are not my words, they belong to the military correspondent for Hareetz, a leading Israeli newspaper.
 
When BBC ignores Israeli murder of its own cameraman’s baby, what hope for other Palestinians?, Asa Winstanley
In a new low for the BBC’s objectively pro-Israel coverage, the British state broadcaster seems to be doing its best to downplay the murder by Israel of family members of one of its own cameramen.

 
Israel has dealt a harsh blow to the resistance in Palestine. Its assassination of the prominent Hamas military commander Ahmad al-Jaabari was a vengeful move, which will affect Hamas in several ways.
 

Mohamed Morsi’s approach to Gaza air strikes falls short for many Egyptians, Abdel-Rahman Hussein
Egypt’s president is taking a diplomatic route over Israeli assault, but response is unlikely to placate anger at home. There will be no call to arms to support fallen brothers in Gaza. Instead, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government has adopted a more prosaic approach to the Israeli offensive on Gaza, centred on diplomatic avenues and multilateral efforts. Usually slow to react in a crisis, this time the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, responded quickly with a series of diplomatic gestures. He recalled Egypt’s ambassador from Tel Aviv, had the foreign minister summon Israel’s ambassador to Cairo to hand him a letter of protest, instructed Egypt’s UN envoy to call for an emergency session of the UN security council and urged the Arab League to convene immediately. Morsi also delegated his prime minister, Hisham Qandil, to make a one-day visit to Gaza on Friday.

The only courageous American journalist?, As’ad AbuKhalil
“Meanwhile, most US media outlets are petrified of straying too far from pro-Israel orthodoxies. Time’s Middle East correspondent Rania Abouzeid noted this morning on Twitter the typical template: “Just read report in major US paper about Gaza/Israel that put Israeli dead in 1st sentence. Palestinian in 6th paragraph.” Or just considerthe BBC’s headline. Worse, this morning’s New York Times editorial self-consciously drapes itself with pro-Israel caveats and completely ignores the extensive civilian deaths in Gaza before identifying this as one of the only flaws it could find with the lethal Israeli assault: “The action also threatens to divert attention from what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly described as Israel’s biggest security threat: Iran’s nuclear program.” In what I know will be a fruitless attempt to avoid having this discussion subsumed by that tired script: I will recommend several outstanding, truly must-read pieces written by others over the last 24 hours in lieu of my own reciting of the various arguments. Begin with this article by Yousef Munayyer in the Daily Beast setting the crucial context for the rocket attacks from Gaza; then read this Daily Beast news-breaking account from Gershon Baskin, who details how the provocations from the Israelis were geared toward disrupting an imminent peace deal with Hamas (“The assassination of Jaabari was a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of a long term ceasefire”); also vital is this time-line of events leading up to the rocket attacks from Gaza, with ample documentation from Ali Abunimah; and finally, there is this very succinct but poignant summary of what Israel has done over the last three weeks.”
 

America is a partner in Israel’s wars
On 15 November, 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) National Council, a body representing all Palestinians, declared an independent Palestinian state. The gesture did not change life for Palestinians under occupation or in exile, but that wasn’t the intention. The pronouncement was sugar coating major, unreciprocated political concessions, for the declaration also endorsed Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and gave implicit recognition to Israel. Thus, US conditions to open communication channels between the PLO and Israel were complied with. Why did these UN resolutions become so critical in America’s political lexis? More than a decade earlier, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had bestowed on Israel special powers over US policy in the Middle East. In 1975, he pledged that there would be no negotiation with the PLO as long as it did not recognise Israel and accept UN Resolutions 242 and 338.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/4634-america-is-a-partner-in-israels-wars

 

Israeli-Palestinian violence threatens US-Egypt ties
Washington puts onus on Hamas; Cairo denounces Israel’s ‘unacceptable aggression’

 
Israel’s assault on Gaza raises doubts that it has any interest in finding the lasting peace settlement it proclaims to want. Does the campaign have an alternative objective as part of a strategy to engineer a strike on Iran? It’s probably the world’s most tragic never-ending story.For almost 65 years now, Israel has been bombing, maiming and humiliating the Palestinians, bulldozing their homes and placing Gaza in lock-down mode turning it into the world’s largest concentration camp. In the latest outbreak of violence this week both sides are accusing the other, “You started it!”Who knows? At this stage, does it really matter anymore who started the violence? On Wednesday 14th, an Israeli helicopter attack killed Hamas military wing leader Ahmed Jabari, triggering a violent reaction from Hamas which rained little rockets over southern Israeli towns, which in turn brought in more Israeli air attacks killing 19, injuring 100 and leaving six children dead.
 
What comes after Cast Lead is worse, Allison Deger
Indeed no one cares about Gaza. Since Hamas rockets launched into the Southern Tel Aviv region earlier this evening, Israel has hit and taken out 80 targets in Gaza. While the martyred, the dead of the coastal Mediterranean Strip, are carried into al-Sheefa Hospital and mourned with the blares of gunshots busting into the air, mere Kilometers away Israeli life continues. “I want to live quietly,” said Ariel Siegal, 33, from a kibbutz just outside of Sderot, Hamas’s bulls eye zone. But Siegal continued by expressing a palpable lack of concern for Palestinians in Gaza, “I don’t know what’s going on with them. I suppose what they cook they will eat.” Siegal is like many Israelis in the Southern region who live with continuous warning of rockets, yet still carry on normal life. On Thursday November 15, 2012 Siegal went to work at a computer store in Kiyrat Gan, while his wife and child left for the north. The night before, when the sirens alarmed of incoming rockets, he jumped into the protective bomb shelter that comprises one room of his home. “I am not afraid,” he said, “but my wife is.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/11/what-comes-after-cast-lead-is-worse.html
 
Hypocrisy of slaughter: Israel’s Orwellian account of Gaza campaign (Op-Ed)
Israel’s assault on Gaza raises doubts that it has any interest in finding the lasting peace settlement it proclaims to want. Does the campaign have an alternative objective as part of a strategy to engineer a strike on Iran?, It’s probably the world’s most tragic never-ending story.For almost 65 years now, Israel has been bombing, maiming and humiliating the Palestinians, bulldozing their homes and placing Gaza in lock-down mode turning it into the world’s largest concentration camp., In the latest outbreak of violence this week both sides are accusing the other, “You started it!”Who knows? At this stage, does it really matter anymore who started the violence?


News from the West Bank

Land Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Restriction of Movement / Apartheid & Occupation
 

Occupation to evacuate a Jerusalemite village for building landfill
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper revealed in its Tuesday edition that the Jerusalem municipality initially approved a plan to evict some 120 Bedouins from their east Jerusalem village.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s76jIr7QzLeuXI88ojrK79SozRY%2bvD6%2fE6AMBNnFkZXZ%2b%2fpilOZ4CT8RdJpQmiKJCsKgrqVdT3BMb9Od32GxM5Ob8FUn3cAiqVXMmYQNHZRes%3d

 
Other Israeli Violence & Terrorism
 
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces raided Hebron’s al-Arrub refugee camp in the southern West Bank on Thursday night, locals said. Soldiers entered the camp at around midnight and raided residents’ homes, witnesses told Ma’an. Israel’s Channel 7 TV reported earlier that Palestinian youths had thrown a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler bus in the area, causing the vehicle to set on fire and lightly injuring one passenger.
 
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Hundreds of settlers visited Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus overnight Tuesday, local sources told Ma’an. Around 15 buses protected by Israel’s military entered the tomb compound after midnight to perform religious rituals. The buses left at 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrested three men from the nearby Balata refugee camp. Clashes with local youths broke out during the arrest operation. Nidal Najwan al-Sheikh Khalil, 24, his brother Muhammad, 22, and Ahmad Naji Abu Hamadeh, 23, were named by locals as those detained.
 
Illegal Arrests
 

Two Palestinians arrested in Jerusalem clashes
Two Palestinians were arrested after violent clashes between Israeli occupation forces and young men near Qalandiya refugee camp north of occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday.

 
Other Prisoner News
 
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel has prevented a 22-year-old prisoner, who was arrested aged 14, from receiving visits from his father for five years, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said Wednesday. Abdel Abu Habel, who was arrested in 2004, has only been allowed six visits during his 8-year imprisonment. ”I have already lost one son, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2006, and having to live without seeing another son for such a long time is nothing but painful,” his father Mohammad Abu Habel told PCHR.
 

IOA prevents prisoner Abbas Sayed’s wife from visiting him since 4 years
A Palestinian human rights center condemned the occupation authorities’ continuous prevention of the wife of the prisoner and leader Abbas al-Sayed from visiting her husband.

Protests / Solidarity / Activism / BDS
 
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour and PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi have accused Israel of timing the recent attack on Gaza, in part, to challenge Palestinian efforts to seek UN non member state status. Although Israeli military escalations and attacks prior to Israel’s parliamentary elections are widely perceived as a familiar  tradition,  the accusation from officials that the “Pillar of Cloud” attack was initiated, in part, to thwart the UN bid slated for November 29 is fresh.
 

Brown Univ committee recommends considering divestment from companies that profit from Israeli occupation, Adam Horowitz
Brown University SJP sent out the following press release today: (Providence, RI – November 14, 2012) — The Brown Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) has asked the Brown Corporation to consider divestment from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. On Monday, ACCRIP sent a letter to Brown University President Christina Paxson.

 

Political Developments / Other News
 
Jordan’s opposition vows to hold more protests
Jordan’s Islamist-led opposition looked to harness growing popular anger with the government, vowing Thursday to keep up a wave of demonstrations this week that have rattled the U.S.-allied kingdom.

 

Israel: a Non-nuclear Weapons State?, Stuart Littlewood
Tired of listening to Agent Cameron and his foreign secretary William Hague trying to pick a fight with Iran and ratcheting up sanctions aimed at ruining that country’s economy and hurting innocent Iranian women and children, I asked my MP, Henry Bellingham, to table the following written Parliamentary Question (PQ): “Israel refuses (unlike Iran) to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and open its nuclear programme to international inspection. It has not signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. It has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, similarly the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Israeli regime continues to defy international law and UN resolutions with its illegal occupation, ongoing confiscation of Palestinian lands, destruction of homes, arrest and imprisonment of civilians, its inhuman blockade of Gaza and many other crimes against humanity – including lethal assaults on peaceful shipping on the high seas bringing humanitarian aid. Instead of rewarding Israel with pledges of everlasting protection and special trade agreements, should not Britain and the international community now discharge their obligation to make Israel accountable?”

 
Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election last week was greeted with general unease in Israel. Surveys conducted outside the US shortly before polling day showed Obama was the preferred candidate in every country but two — Pakistan and Israel. But unlike Pakistan, where the two candidates were equally unpopular, he scored just 22 percent in Israel against a commanding 57 percent for Mitt Romney. Given these figures, it is unsurprising that Israel’s right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made little effort to conceal his political sympathies, laying on a hero’s welcome for Romney when he visited Jerusalem in the summer and starring in several of his TV campaign ads. Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister, accused Netanyahu of “spitting” in the president’s face, warning that Israel would now be exposed to Obama’s second-term wrath (“Olmert blasts Bibi on Iran, relationship with Obama,” The Daily Beast, 6 November).
 
www.TheHeadlines.Org
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“Dead mothers, teachers and babies in Gaza yet media overwhelmingly focuses on rocket fire into Israel”

Of course. The media is lousy with people who view the world through the lens of western Imperialism and with zionists, so what else can one expect?

Here’s the view from the USA: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/santorum-obama-support-israel/2012/11/15/id/464365?s=al&promo_code=10C1E-1#

This is the less coded version of what’s going on in Gaza that US mainstream media is blaring to Obamaland, as distinguished from Mittland. In the end, it’s de facto all America, and hence, de facto dead Arab kids, babies, etc.

The MSM count how many rockets are fired at Israel but have no detail on how many bombs are dropped on Gaza.

This is the IDF narrative par excellence.