Israeli jets hit targets in Gaza Strip

[Cheese Sandwich]

Source: BBC News

The Israeli military said the targets were Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities, adding that the strikes were in response to two rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

A woman and her young daughter in a nearby house were killed during the air raid, Palestinian officials said.

In the West Bank, Israeli police say a Palestinian woman set off a car bomb at a checkpoint.

She was stopped by police while driving on Sunday morning near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34498442

---

Stabbings


Fierce protests


Signs

[Scootaloo]

1. Give Mercedes-Benz a chance?

[oberliner]

6. It happens

Thai protesters create Mercedes logo instead of peace symbol

RANGSIT, Thailand, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A group of Thai protesters tried to use candles to create a peace sign from the small flames, but instead created the logo of German auto maker Mercedes-Benz.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/01/23/Thai-protesters-create-Mercedes-logo-instead-of-peace-symbol/89421390506295/

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. I like the last picture.

[Purveyor]

3. WP: Gaza Official Says Israeli Airstrike Kills Mother And Child

By Associated Press October 11 at 3:34 AM

JERUSALEM — An Israeli airstrike killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her 2-year-old daughter in Gaza Sunday, a Gaza health official said. In the West Bank, a Palestinian woman detonated an explosive in her car car at a checkpoint, injuring an Israeli soldier and herself.

The attack marks the first use of explosives in the current round of violence following a series of stabbing and shooting attacks. The violence has unnerved a jittery Israel, and prompted the U.S. on Saturday to issue a fresh call for restraint by all sides.

The wave of attacks began weeks ago in Jerusalem and has since spread to the rest of Israel, while violent protests have erupted in the West Bank and along the Gaza border — where nine Palestinians were killed in clashes over the weekend. The Gaza border has been largely calm since the monthlong summer 2014 war between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the

In response to renewed rocket fire toward Israel, the military said it carried out airstrikes in Gaza targeting Hamas weapons manufacturing facilities. Ashraf Al-Kidra, a Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, said a nearby home was struck, killing 30-year-old Noor Hassan and her infant daughter. He said four others were wounded, included Hassan’s husband and son, in the strike in the southern Gaza strip.

more...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/gaza-official-says-israeli-airstrike-kills-mother-and-child/2015/10/11/d60ba590-6fe1-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723_story.html

[Jesus Malverde]

4. When the Israeli's get mad they go on a killing spree.

This will go on until there at 50-100 dead for every Israeli.

Ha-Ba le-Horgekha Hashkem le-Horgo is a teaching of increasing popularity among Israelis. Taken from the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 72:1, its most precise translation is: ‘If someone comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first.’ It seems that every online newspaper Comment section will include this sentence when discussing Israeli aggression: the Gaza offensive? ‘Kill him first’. The Second Lebanon War? ‘Kill him first’ again. A Google search for the expression ‘kill him first’ and ‘flotilla’ yields more than 4,200 Hebrew results, confi rming the centrality of this narrative. This convenient license to kill extends beyond the online community to Israeli decision makers and politicians. Following the Second Lebanon War, Ehud Yatom, a Likud MK, explained the asymmetrical death toll of 44 Israeli civilians and 1,191 Lebanese civilians with the same trump card:

‘and if someone comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first.’ It has been used by Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon when addressing university students about their military reserve service and by Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter when lecturing about IDF strategy.

http://jewishquarterly.org/2010/11/kill-him-first/

Hard to believe we Americans are complicit in this madness. Giving them international cover, funds and sanctuary for their mental sickness.

[oberliner]

5. "Hard to believe we Americans are complicit in this madness"

On October 3, a U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Kunduz, Afghanistan, partially destroying it. Twelve staff members and 10 patients, including three children, were killed, and 37 people were injured. According to MSF, the U.S. had previously been informed of the hospital’s precise location, and the attack continued for 30 minutes after staff members desperately called the U.S. military.

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/07/a-short-history-of-u-s-bombing-of-civilian-facilities/

That civilian slaughter by "we Americans" occurred just a week ago against a country thousands of miles a way.

Mental sickness, indeed.

[Jesus Malverde]

10. Statistics

Let's chat about statistics. The number of dead and their nationalities when the intifada III is over. Killing a pregnant woman and her three year old, is that a reasonable response to an act of terror in Jerusalem? That's like the US bombing Idaho for the shooting in Charlestown.

[Jesus Malverde]

12. She was five months pregnant FWIW.

A pregnant woman and her daughter. Likely all of them didn't give a shit about the Zionist Palestinian conflict.

[Orrex]

19. How many Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket attacks in the past few decades?

I'm pretty sure that the number is dwarfed by the number of Palestinians murdered by the righteous Israeli military in any given year.

The Israeli airforce did not say "Oh, there is a pregnant mother living near a weapons facility, and if the materials in the facility explode just right, her house will be shaken and collapse, thereby killing her."

You're probably right. If they worried about it at all, they probably said "well, civilians might die, but fuck them--we'll blame Hamas."

that Hamas chose to human shield by placing it next to civilian homes.

That's propaganda, ignoring the fact that just about every place in Gaza is "next to civilian homes."

Further, what exactly qualifies as a "weapons factory" in your view? A guy making a pipe bomb at his kitchen table? A guy reloading brass cartridges for use in his rifle? Or an actual manufacturing facility?


Make no mistake: as the dominant military power in the region, supported by the dominant military power in the world, Israel is necessarily held to a higher standard than "they made us do it." They haven't been able to claim the moral high ground for many years, if ever they were, and yet they rant and seethe as though they're the innocent victims even as they bomb the shit out of civilians, blaming the civilians for failing to live far enough away from their neighbors.

Israel has stacked the deck so that Palestine simply can't win the argument. If a Palestinian stabs an Israeli civilian, Israel says "See? They're attacking innocent civilians! We need to bomb the fuck out of them, and we're 100% justified in doing so!"

If a Palelstinian were to attack a military target, Israel would say "See? Now they're attacking military targets! We need to bomb the fuck out of them even more, and we're even more justified in doing so!"

Palestine's only option, according to Israel, is to lie down and take whatever atrocity Israel cares to inflict upon it.

[Orrex]

24. I'll do you one better!

If Israel can't bomb the fuck out of a suspected terrorist without being reasonably certainty that they won't also bomb the fuck out of innocent civilians, how about they don't bomb the fuck out of anyone?

The greater moral obligation is on the greater power, in this case Israel. Every now and then it would be nice if they could be held just a little accountable for all of the Palestinian civilians they murder.

[Orrex]

32. You realize that that's a dumb question, right?

do you think stabbing civilians is ok if the civilians are Israeli?

Since I have never stated or posted anything like that, the question is stupid to the point of offensiveness.

You, however, have already asserted that the murder of Palestinian civilians is justified as long as Israel can claim that some sort of nebulous terrorist target is somewhere in the vicinity. Like Israel, you have no moral authority to preach to anyone on this subject.

Lots of people who themselves have nothing to lose from it encourage the Palestinians to "go for it."

And these people whom you imagine to say this? They're wrong, too. But not as wrong as the people who cover for Israel's decades-long occupation and campaign of murder.


From what you've posted so far, I do not anticipate that you will suddenly bring anything of value to this conversation. I will not engage with you further.

[fingrin]

37. Heres a radical thought

Lets ask ourselves why a Palestinian going to University to become a Lawyer suddenly decides his life is now longer any worth.
What makes someone who worked hard at his grades to make it to suddenly decide to stab an Israeli?
Could it be the Inhumane treatment by his oppressors?
At what point must Israel accept some accountability for the current situation

[Marrah_G]

31. Here is a good spreadsheet up to 2014

http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000639

[Orrex]

33. Not a very even match-up, is it?

One would hope that the dominant military power would have the integrity to act with restraint, rather than claiming the right to kill with impunity while painting itself as the brutalized victim.

[Marrah_G]

34. Not even close

The violence will not end until the oppression ends.

[fingrin]

36. Another great Hasbara talking point

Gaza is the most populated area on earth. Where would you like Hamas to store their weapons? after all Israel has stolen most of the good locations. As for " Human shields" what BS There are ample HRW reports and documented footage on YouTube showing the IDF using Palestinians as human shields. Israel has no right to the moral high ground on this issue.

[sulphurdunn]

29. Of all the Palestinians shot by Israelis

only a tiny fraction are shot for harming Israelis. Most are shot for being Palestinian.

[6chars]

30. No.

Piling on the ridiculous Israel demonization. You people sure do have your sense of who is the most evil in the world.

[fingrin]

38. I guess where you and I differ

A personal belief is if you beat a dog don't be surprised when it bites back. Something Israel relies on to oppress Palestinians.

[fingrin]

35. Well grab a big brush and paint over the facts

That seems to be the modus operandi of some posters.

"The death of the woman and her child is regrettable. It was not a response to an act of terror in Jerusalem and it was collateral damage from an airstrike that destroyed a Hamas weapon factory in response to Hamas intentionally firing rockets at civilians in Israel"

I suppose Reports of a missile hitting the house and photos of the bomb crater were dug by the Palestinians? Never mind the reports the Hamas site was 300 meters away from the bombed house.
Which brings me to my next point. There is no evidence of confirmation of responsibility from Hamas for the missiles fired that caused no damage or injuries. In FACT Israel automatically blames Hamas even when their is no evidence.

"As for other casualties, it is true that a number of Palestinians have been shot after they stabbed Israelis. To characterize this as a killing spree on the part of Israelis, you would also basically be saying that it is preceded by a "being stabbed spree" by Israelis".

Fact: so far this month 42 Palestinians have lost their lives, on average 3.5 per day. Unverified reports and video shows in one case a Palestinian woman who slightly injured a Israeli in a knife attach who when confronted by security forces were urged on by Israeli bystanders. "kill her, Kill her"

"You may badly want to believe certain things about the morals of Israelis in order to make other parts of your worldview consistent, but that does not make them so".

What else can you say really when Israeli soldiers dress up as Palestinians and incite violence, then arrest the Perpetrators and when they are subdued, point a pistol point blank and their leg and shoots him?
Video evidence does not lie.

[dougolat]

15. As ridiculous and unfair as the demonization of Americans for PNAC schemes!

You know: Gen. Wesley Clark, 2003, 'Seven Nations in Five Years!'

It's morphed to 'Twelve Years In And Five Down, Two To Go'

We may wish deny blame, but that PNAC madness still staggers along, mowing 'em down.

[Darb]

7. Israel bombs its own cities,

again.

[sulphurdunn]

22. No Israeli cities

or legal settlements lie beyond the green line.

[Jesus Malverde]

27. Since they have soundly rejected a two state solution

These are their cities.

[sulphurdunn]

28. That's like saying stolen goods

belong to a thief caught red handed if he refuses to give them back. It's still a crime and the property still belongs to the victim regardless of what the thief believes.

[Darb]

42. So there is a Palestine after all?

Which is it?

Your analogy isn't too clear either, btw.

[sulphurdunn]

43. Palestine is the area

beyond the green line agreed to in the 1949 armistice. The area that has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and is being slowly annexed in violation of international law. That Palestine.

[Fred Sanders]

9. American manufactured weapons have been killing innocent civilians all over the world lately.

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. I grew up with great sympathy for Israel. The Israelis have helped me get over it.

Demolishing the homes of thousands of Palestinians.

Stealing Palestinian land on a daily basis.

Destroying Palestinian olive groves.

The daily humiliations.

The thousands of Palestinians imprisoned, tortured, killed, abused.

The bad joke of the "peace process."

Israeli has made a science of fascistoid thuggery.

Fuck 'em.

[Cheese Sandwich]

16. Well I wouldn't paint with a broad brush because any nationality has

horrible things and also some good stuff. I'm sure some Israeli people are working to change the situation but they are too marginalized to have much impact.

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. Now Israel is shooting human rights investigators.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/11/israel/palestine-human-rights-watch-investigator-shot

Israel/Palestine: Human Rights Watch Investigator Shot
Seven Protesters Wounded at Same Demonstration

(Jerusalem) – Israeli forces shot and wounded a research assistant working for Human Rights Watch on October 6, 2015, as she was observing a demonstration outside Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

She was observing the conduct of demonstrators and security forces, in the context of the current escalation in violence that began with the shooting death of an Israeli couple October 1. At least seven protesters were wounded at the same demonstration.
Indiscriminate or deliberate firing on observers and demonstrators who pose no imminent threat violates the international standards that bind Israeli security forces. It is particularly troubling when those seeking to monitor the security forces’ conduct are among the casualties.

“Indiscriminate or deliberate firing on observers and demonstrators who pose no imminent threat violates the international standards that bind Israeli security forces,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “It is particularly troubling when those seeking to monitor the security forces’ conduct are among the casualties.”

The research assistant, who also freelances as a journalist, was observing and photographing the demonstration and wearing a flak jacket marked “press.” At approximately 11:30 p.m. on October 5, she observed some Palestinian demonstrators throwing stones and armed Palestinians firing live shots at Israeli soldiers. However, at the time she was shot, at approximately 1 a.m. on October 6, the demonstration was peaceful, she said.

Two rubber-coated steel bullets of the type used by Israeli forces struck her flak jacket, one in her back and one that deflected off her upper torso and injured her jaw. One of the rubber bullets was recovered in her clothing. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any cases in which Palestinians participating in demonstrations fired rubber-coated bullets, which are used by security forces to disperse crowds. A third bullet, apparently live, either grazed her hand or exploded nearby, sending shrapnel into her hand. The forces opened fire without warning, the research assistant said, and she observed no use of or imminent threat of violence by the protesters at that time. She was treated at the Ramallah hospital and then released.

At the time she was shot, between 100 and 200 protesters and observers were milling around, including families and young people, some of whom were singing. She was not aware of any Israeli forces in the vicinity, other than those at a checkpoint approximately 500 meters away from where she stood. She was standing in a group of about 10 people when the shots rang out. She did not see from where they were fired.

Gunfire wounded at least seven other people at that demonstration, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the research assistant’s observations, including two injured together with her and five injured previously, during the earlier part of the demonstration on October 5.

A medic who witnessed the shooting, Fadi Asmar, 27, said that he brought his 5-year-old son to the protest after the earlier clashes had ended. “We didn't see any soldiers near us,” he told Human Rights Watch. “That’s why we felt safe. No one was throwing rocks or anything. Soldiers just started shooting.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions regarding the shooting.

Human Rights Watch has documented the unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces in policing demonstrations in the West Bank over many years, and in particular firing live ammunition that hit protesters, journalists, and human rights activists who posed no imminent threat to the forces. The shooting of the Human Rights Watch research assistant is but the latest example.

It comes during an escalation of violence that began with the shooting death of two Israeli settlers in the West Bank on October 1. Since then, there have been attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, and demonstrations that started in the West Bank but spread to Gaza, where Palestinians protested near the border with Israel.

Going into the weekend, more than 1,300 Palestinians have been injured in clashes since October 1, including at least 800 people treated at public hospitals, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and nine Palestinians were shot dead at demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza, including a 13-year-old boy. Palestinian assailants have killed three Israeli civilians and one soldier in civilian clothing during October and wounded at least 28 Israelis, according to Israeli police and military. Five of the suspected assailants were shot to death.

Human Rights Watch has asked the Israeli authorities to investigate the October 6 shooting into the crowd of demonstrators. A long record of impunity marks any attempt to investigate alleged violations by Israeli forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. According to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, even on the rare occasions in which the Israeli military investigates soldiers suspected of violent criminal activity against Palestinians and their property, it closes 94 percent of the cases without prosecuting. In July 2014, Israeli forces shot and killed another human rights activist, who was working for a children’s rights organization and was peacefully participating in a protest near the West Bank town of Beit Ummar. No one was prosecuted.

When policing demonstrations, Israel security forces should abide by the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. The Basic Principles provide that all security forces shall, as far as possible, apply nonviolent means before resorting to force. Whenever the lawful use of force is unavoidable, the authorities must use restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense. Law enforcement officials should not use firearms against people “except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury,” the Basic Principles say. Intentional lethal use of firearms is permitted only when strictly unavoidable to protect life. Law enforcement officials must give a clear warning of their intent to use firearms, with sufficient time for the warning to be observed, unless, in exceptional circumstances, this would not be possible.

[Cheese Sandwich]

18. I think the recent escalating violence in Israel-Palestine is becoming a major news story

Last edited Sun Oct 11, 2015, 02:30 PM - Edit history (1)

[sulphurdunn]

20. During the last 16 years

approximately 44 Israelis have been killed by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza (the exact figure is hard to come by). This low casualty figure is attributed to Israel's state of the art air defense system and to the fact the rockets are mostly small yield, short range, unguided and crude. In retaliation, large sections of urban Gaza have been leveled in massive retaliation using advanced air, naval and land power. This reaction has indiscriminately killed and wounded thousands of Gazans, the vast majority of whom were civilians.

Obviously, proportionality and rational threat assessment are concepts the Israelis know as well as anyone else but choose to ignore. Not only do the Israelis ignore the norms of civilized nations, they even blame their victims.

[Cheese Sandwich]

21. The issue just doesn't get a lot of coverage in the US.

People really don't know a lot about it. I think the more we can show what's going on this will be better.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. If they knew the two targets were Hamas weapons manufacturing plants,

why would they need to tack on an excuse about the strikes being in response to rocket attacks?

[fingrin]

39. Palestinian youth was unarmed when killed by Israel, new video confirms

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinian-youth-was-unarmed-when-killed-israel-new-video-confirms

Israeli media claimed that Alloun was shot while “trying to escape from the security forces that began chasing him. After refusing to release his grip on the knife, the forces shot and killed him.”

“However, a new video that captures the scene from a different angle shows that Alloun wasn’t holding a knife when he was shot, and therefore did not pose a threat,” John Brown writes.

He adds: “this was the reason an officer who stood near the person filming the incident chose not to shoot Alloun. He chose neither to shoot nor [threaten him with his weapon] as Alloun walked by him. He didn’t shoot when the teenagers nearby yelled ‘Shoot him, bitch!’ or ‘Pepper spray? What kind of policemen are you?’ while warning Alloun that he was ‘about to die.’”

After Alloun was gunned down, the police officer who refused to shoot was targeted by harsh verbal abuse from members of the mob.

Mob justice Israeli style......

[Mosby]

41. Electronic intifada is a hate site.

Last edited Mon Oct 12, 2015, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Check out the banned members in IP, the last one was banned because he wouldn't stop using electronic intifada after the host asked him to stop. There is an ata thread about it.

Eta link to the ata post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12598689