As Palestinians in Gaza enter the 9th night in a row of relentless, nearly nonstop aerial bombardment by Zionist warplanes and artillery, Israeli war crimes are quickly stacking up, with the indiscriminate targeting of civilian homes and infrastructure only seeming to intensify as the mask of the 'most moral army in the world' is rapidly being ripped off to reveal the true face of evil hiding behind the one-sided imperialist propaganda. In under 10 days of 'war', Israeli forces have managed to target multiple medical facilities and doctors including Gaza's main hospital by damaging all the main access roads, bomb a number of media offices, level 4 high-rises, destroy countless homes and apartment complexes, a bookstore, a restaurant, numerous other small businesses and various critical infrastructure including over 40 roads and major intersections, and the list just keeps on going.
The question is no longer what Israel has bombed, but what Israel hasn't yet bombed in the name of 'striking terror'.
Meanwhile President Joe Biden has just signed off on a $735 million Israeli weapons deal on Monday, even as the bombs funded to the tune of $10.5 million per day in taxpayer dollars are actively raining down on the besieged Gaza Strip, because nothing sends the message that you seek peace in the region like selling $700 million worth of precision missiles to the biggest war machine in the Middle East in the middle of a conflict. This weapons deal approval comes at the same time as Biden says he supports a ceasefire while refusing to even demand Netanyahu seek one, while US officials simultaneously block a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire for the 3rd time in a row, so it's readily apparent what this superficial US talk of 'peace' really means - blind support for Israel and it murderous illegal occupation and genocidal assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.
By the end of the day Tuesday (May 18), the Palestinian death toll in Gaza had risen to 217, including 63 children, 36 women, and 16 elderly, the Israeli airstrikes also injuring an additional 1,500, about 500 of whom are children.
The decimation of homes and residential complexes has now also displaced at least 40,000 residents.
The Israeli death toll from Gaza-fired rockets on the other hand rose to just 12 today, including 1 child and 3 Israeli soldiers, the latest 2 deaths reportedly both being soldiers killed today (Tuesday) in a Palestinian rocket strike on Eshkol that resulted in heavy military casualties, injuring nearly 2 dozen soldiers.
3 more Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes targeting residential buildings in Gaza overnight into Wednesday morning, bringing the Palestinian death toll there up to 220. After the deadliest day for Gaza on Sunday, the past 2 days have seen particularly blatant targeting of civilian infrastructure and other war crimes by Israeli forces, including the firing of internationally-banned white phosphorous shells after dawn on Monday morning.
"The Director of the Civil Defense in northern Gaza confirms that, since [Monday] morning, the occupation has fired 8 internationally-banned white phosphorous shells," independent British journalist Vanessa Beeley, residing in Damascus, reported, posting video footage of the white phosphorous raining down on Gaza that can be seen below.
Apparently hundreds upon hundreds of precision Israeli airstrikes with advanced conventional weapons targeting Gaza militants and Hamas intelligence operatives, rocket launching pads and munitions depots hasn't been effective at destroying the military targets or even decreasing Hamas military capabilities (as Palestinian Resistance continues to launch rockets at Israel in fast succession without missing a beat), so the Zionists are forced to commit war crimes in broad daylight by using the internationally-banned white phosphorous in order to successfully defeat the 'terrorists' who dare fight back against the illegal occupiers and land thieves boasting the most powerful war machine in the region and imposing a 15-year inhumane military blockade on the enclave...
The targeting of medical facilities would then continue, as later on Monday Israeli warplanes bombarded the Qatari Red Crescent Society office in Gaza as well as the only 'Covid19' testing clinic in the entire Strip.
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"This incident will only hinder humanitarian response at this critical time," Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday of the Israeli bombing of the Red Crescent Office. Gaza's Health Ministry said Israel is blocking the agency from accessing certain health facilities in the Strip.
The offices of Tashkeel3D - where Gaza's first 3D printer was built - were also destroyed in the Israeli bombardments on Monday. The company appears to have been a target of the Israeli military because they use 3D printing to manufacture much needed medical devices to support Gaza's medical system from within, and thus not subject to the Israeli siege which often starves the enclave of much needed medical supplies.
"For people in Gaza, access to hospitals and other vital infrastructure has become extremely difficult," the ICRC said in a statement on Monday.
Indeed, Israeli attacks previously targeted the roads to the main hospital, blocking access and impeding rescue efforts, while the World Health Organization had recorded 74 Israeli attacks on health care across the Occupied Territories over the month of Ramadan, including attacks on health care facilities in Gaza this past week, while 2 doctors were killed when Zionist warplanes bombed their homes without warning during the Sunday massacre.
Not only have they been systematically targeting health care, Israeli Occupation has also targeted several buildings of media offices, including the leveling of the 12-story high rise that housed the AP, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye and other international media offices late Saturday, an act the the AP described as "shocking and horrifying."
There has yet to be any evidence provided that Hamas used the building, as as we all know, the targeting of the media is a war crime.
These journalists stand in front of their now destroyed workplace:
Although this is not a war crime that Israel is at all unfamiliar with, however, as Israeli forces were systematically targeting both the press and medical rescue workers throughout the March of Return Gaza border demonstrations as well, where snipers similarly targeted hundreds of unarmed women and children as their warplanes have now been doing the past 10 days. And at the very same time in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Occupation Forces also violently assaulted a Palestinian journalist Latifeh R Abdellatif that reports for Channel 4 News:
And in Hebron occupation forces shot a man dead, preventing medical crews from reaching or evacuating the man while he was still in critical condition before he died, and even opening fire on journalists, preventing them from covering the incident.
Also on Tuesday, Israel's war on 'terror' in Gaza extended to the largest library in Gaza, Samir Book Shop, where we can only presume Hamas rockets were hidden between the bookshelves...
Video footage of the remains of this cultural treasure trove can be seen below:
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Israel must destroy all record of Palestinian history and culture in order to complete its goal of writing Palestinians out of history, and so their destruction of Palestinian culture/education centers continues, Gaza's main library now gone.
Apparently seaside dining was among the Hamas 'terror' targets destroyed on Tuesday, although it's difficult to imagine a militant rocket-launching site would be such a popular dining experience...
Or maybe Hamas leadership just liked to eat out at this particular eatery during their downtime...
Also on the Tuesday hit list was the Salman family home in northern Gaza.
A number of residential houses were also damaged in strikes in Rafah in southern Gaza on Tuesday, as densely populated civilian neighborhoods continued to be mercilessly bombarded.
Israel claims to give warnings to residents to evacuate before bombing homes, but they don't always warn occupants, sometimes the occupants miss the warning because they are fast asleep, and sometimes they threaten one building and then randomly target another, increasing the chance of maximum casualties - as took place with the bombing captured on the video below, after a building housing journalists including PressTV was warned and evacuated and then a neighboring building was instead then bombed.
Entire Palestinian families are being wiped out, with a number of child survivors (and some adults) are the sole survivors of their families.
Half of the Gaza Palestinians killed by Israeli bombings are women and children, and Mahmoud Ramadan Ishtewi, 16, killed by an Israeli airstrike that targeted Al Zaytoun neighborhood on Tuesday, was just one of the latest victims of the Zionist assault on Gaza.
More civilians wounded in airstrikes on Khan Younis on Saturday...
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Sometimes the Israeli missiles don't detonate, and below you can see a photo of Palestinian children sitting on an un-exploded Israeli missile that had targeted their house on Tuesday in the barbaric strikes.
For this family, it was their lucky day...
(Photo: Soliman Gafar)
As the senseless bombardments continue, the terror felt by Gaza residents is real - Israel is indeed 'striking terror', into the Palestinian population.
"Out of fear of losing my children, I have give my brother two of kids and he gave me two. If my house was bombed, someone would remain from mine. If my brother house's was bombed, someone would remain from his," a Palestinian from Gaza said today.
The terror continues for those living under Israeli siege in Gaza, with no end to this brutal assault on Gaza in sight, the attacks becoming more and more intense with each passing day.
As Day 10 of this war dawns, The Times of Israel reported that the the Israeli military dropped 122 bombs on Gaza during a 25 minute period on Tuesday night, and locals are reporting airstrikes continuing into the morning. The latest night of bombing sees a Palestinian journalist killed when his home in Sheikh Ridwan neighborhood in Gaza City was targeted by Israeli airstrike.
"Yusef Abu Hussein was a journalist at the radio station, al-Aqsa Voice, according to the Wafa news agency and the Shehab news agency," al Jazeera reported.
(source)
The assault on Gaza has also targeted communications and other vital infrastructure, and caused severe damage to power supply lines causing widespread blackouts on Sunday night. From the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor - "Many Gazans cut off from the world as Israel targets communications and internet networks":
The Israeli forces' targeting of the Internet and communications networks in the Gaza Strip as part of their continuous military attack for the ninth day is utterly worrying, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said today in a statement.
The attacks also targeted dozens of streets damaging utility poles which carry wires that provided Internet and communication services.
Israeli’s violent bombings have severely damaged or destroyed networks, equipment and devices crucial for many communication and Internet companies, which used to operate in buildings that were unjustifiably targeted.
The attacks also targeted dozens of streets damaging utility poles which carry wires that provided Internet and communication services.
This has led to the disruption of Internet and communication services for many of the population.
The use of disproportionate force against civilian objects and residents heralds unexpected consequences on the citizens of the Gaza Strip considering the deliberate infliction of severe human and material losses.
Euro-Med Monitor talked to Khaled Al-Gamal, an official in the commercial department at the Solution Management Technology Corp. (SMT) which provides fast Internet service (fiber-optic internet). Al-Gamal said the company was destroyed after Israeli warplanes targeted the Al-Jawhara Tower on May 12.
"Many international news agencies and satellite channels have been harmed by the targeting of the company, as they rely mainly on the fiber-optic internet service to transmit information and directly broadcast current events in the Gaza Strip," he said. Euro-Med Monitor also talked to a number of journalists whose work has been disrupted due to the lack of internet service.
This seems to not only be a direct attack on vital civilian infrastructure, but also part of the systematic targeting of the freedom of the press, in the very same way Israeli pressure was responsible for increased social media censorship of Gaza-based Palestinian coverage of the ongoing military assault on the enclave. Just like the never-ending US 'war on terror', this war on Gaza is not a war on 'terror', but a war of terror, being waged against the entire Palestinian People, and all of Gaza is being decimated.
Israel is clearly implementing the “Dahiya doctrine," whereby the entire population of any locale that fires upon Israel is considered to be "a military base" and is thus indiscriminately fired upon. Wikileaks Cables reveal that in any future war, Israel fully intends to use the 'Dahiya doctrine', "a reference to the leveled Dahiya quarter in Beirut during the Second Lebanon War in 2006." Indeed, as recently as Christmas Day of 2019, the IOF Chief of Staff openly threatened that Zionist forces would "forcefully strike" civilian targets "in the next war," which clearly seems to have now been kicked off.
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"We'll also strike at the infrastructure of the host country [of these terror groups,]" he said, adding: "electricity, fuel, infrastructure, we will strike."
And as we can see by the level of destruction in Gaza, that is exactly what is being done, as we witness the 'Dahiya doctrine' in full play.
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Indeed, The NY Times is is now reporting that the Israeli assault "has damaged 17 hospitals and clinics in Gaza, wrecked its only coronavirus test laboratory, sent fetid wastewater into its streets and broke water pipes serving at least 800,000 people, setting off a humanitarian crisis that is touching nearly every civilian in the crowded enclave of about two million people."
Israel can continue to call its relentless genocidal assault 'self defense' all it likes, but the world is beginning to see through the facade, and recognize the true face of evil in this fight.
For while the Palestinians have no army, no navy, no air force, no air defense, no sirens and no bomb shelters, Israel is both an illegal occupier/aggressor, and the most powerful war machine in the Middle East with the full backing of the US empire and the whole of the western imperial power structure. And this time, the Palestinians are uniting in their resistance, and fighting back.
For better or for worse, the 3rd Intifada (uprising) has begun, and Israel has nothing but its own Zionist apartheid policy to blame for the chaos it is now facing, as civil unrest which is now spread across the entire occupied Palestine intensifies, and rocket fire from Gaza in response to its military offensive continues, Hezbollah one small step away from joining the fight with tensions also high and rising along the Lebanese border.
Idk man. I think this ones a but more complicated than just 1 sided imperialism. Their holy war has been raging for a century. People tend to dislike the more powerful side which in this case is Israel. Both sides are firing artillery. Both sides fighting for their place in history. Sad to see destruction no doubt. Even in the U.S people are trying to stand up for Palestine and the 2 state solution. I dont know that much about Hamas but it doesnt seem like they are all about peace either. Maybe religious war due to Islam being a factor. Hamas might be hiding their artillery in schools too. Just going off of things ive heard. Good write up though man, keep on rockin.
People tend to dislike the more powerful side? That's not what I've observed about human behaviour, or in this case specifically. Israel is cheered by people (mainly statists) the world over, and championed in the media, and talked up by Hollywood, and so on. The bully is the favoured winner here. People like to bet on a winner. It appears you haven't looked into this issue aside from hearing what the MSM wants you to think. "Hamas hides behind children" tells me you've been fed propaganda and don't have the full picture.
Daaaaam son, goin off on a brotha lol. Im always open to learning man. Its not an easy situation. If it was so clear it would make perfect sense. Im the opposite of being fed propaganda man, trying to think on my own and from good sources.
Keep digging.
Me sorprende en gran manera lo que somos capaces de hacernos los seres humanos solo por el odio racial y religioso. Si analizamos la historia de ambos bandos, a los que indiscutiblemente han dominado por mucho tiempo otras naciones o imperios, nos damos cuenta que tras haber sido influidos por los sirios, caldeos, egipcios, romanos, griegos, otomanos, y otros imperios de paso, en realidad parece que ya no queda nada de la doctrina original que en sus inicios ostentaban, en realidad ya no queda nada que defender para ellos, solo que no se han dado cuenta. Lo peor es ver como los niños, inocentes como vemos en las imágenes y sin tener que ver en absoluto con este conflicto, son los que tienen que cargar con el miedo, las heridas, la orfandad, la pobreza y pagar las consecuencias de la sed de venganza de sus lideres.
It's a bit weird that it's being talked about in the terms of the location, but the name Israel or Palestine, that represents people, so, what are the commnities doing to rectify themselves? What do they even want to live like, do they even know yet or is everyone just boshing each other hoping something will pop into creation?
What do you mean?
Unfortunately, this is almost a complete copy of your last post! :(
So I say again:
#freepalestine #powertothepeople
Yes, sadly, although the majority of the information is new, it seems almost like a copy and paste... I guess that's about how predictable Israeli behavior is :( And yet for the families being ripped apart, it's new every day. I can't even imagine what it must be like to live under such conditions day in and day out. I wish there was more that us on the outside could do to help. This madness must end.
#FreePalestine indeed!
It makes me feel powerless to stop, so I just try to keep raising awareness and hoping people will begin to see it how it really is. Not that I understand it fully either... it's a complicated situation of course. I hate seeing anyone treated that way and I've been speaking against it (starting on YT) for a good decade. Keep up the great work!
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