[News] Israel escalates deadly attacks in Gaza - Despite Ceasefire, Netanyahu ‘Preparing to Continue’ Israeli Escalation
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon May 6 13:42:04 EDT 2019
/*2 aticles follow*/
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/despite-ceasefire-netanyahu-preparing-to-continue-israeli-escalation/
Despite Ceasefire, Netanyahu ‘Preparing to Continue’ Israeli Escalation
May 6, 2019 <http://www.palestinechronicle.com/2019/05/>
<http://www.palestinechronicle.com/despite-ceasefire-netanyahu-preparing-to-continue-israeli-escalation/#>
<http://www.palestinechronicle.com/despite-ceasefire-netanyahu-preparing-to-continue-israeli-escalation/#>
<mailto:?subject=Despite%20Ceasefire%2C%20Netanyahu%20%E2%80%98Preparing%20to%20Continue%E2%80%99%20Israeli%20Escalation&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palestinechronicle.com%2Fdespite-ceasefire-netanyahu-preparing-to-continue-israeli-escalation%2F>
Despite the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said,
on Monday, that Israel is preparing for another round of confrontations
in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hebrew-language news outlets reported that several hours after the
Egypt-mediated ceasefire agreement was declared, Netanyahu said in a
statement:
“In the past two days, we have hit Hamas and Islamic Jihad with
great force.”
As ceasefire goes into effect, Netanyahu says Gaza campaign not over
| The Times of Israel https://t.co/ldd4PM5nVp
pic.twitter.com/hJevp5XOcr <https://t.co/hJevp5XOcr>
— Middle East Peace Plan (@MiddleEastPlan) May 6, 2019
<https://twitter.com/MiddleEastPlan/status/1125371046142644226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Netanyahu pointed out,
“We struck more than 350 targets, hit terrorist operatives and their
leader, and destroyed terrorist infrastructure.”
Netanyahu says Gaza campaign not over; Hamas officials give
ceasefire ultimatum https://t.co/p7T8wGOcdY
pic.twitter.com/8iOWEqiiQC <https://t.co/8iOWEqiiQC>
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 6, 2019
<https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1125362078393491457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
“Still,” he added, “The campaign is not over, it requires patience and
deliberation. We are preparing to continue.”
__________________________________________________________________________
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-escalates-deadly-attacks-gaza
Israel escalates deadly attacks in Gaza
Tamara Nassar <https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar> - 5
May 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/This article has been updated since initial publication./
Israel’s bombardment of the occupied Gaza Strip entered its third day on
Sunday.
By late evening on Sunday, Israeli strikes had killed 19 Palestinians
that day, bringing the toll to at least 27 Palestinians slain since
Israel escalated its lethal attacks
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-killings-spike-ahead-eurovision>
on the territory on Friday.
Health officials in Gaza continued to announce new deaths on an almost
hourly basis, including
<https://twitter.com/press221/status/1125062309955739648> late Sunday
night Amani al-Madhoun, a 33-year-old woman who was pregnant.
She is the second pregnant woman to die in the context of the current
escalation, although human rights organizations continued to investigate
the cause of an explosion that killed a pregnant mother and a young
child on Saturday.
Also Sunday evening, the health ministry in Gaza announced
<https://twitter.com/press221/status/1125098071782764544> that three
people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the north, including
<https://twitter.com/press221/status/1125086229798764545> a baby, though
few details were immediately available.
In Israel, four people have been killed as Palestinian resistance
factions returned fire with barrages of rockets reaching dozens of
kilometers into Israel.
Israeli warplanes and artillery have struck more than 100 sites across
the besieged territory, totally destroying seven large residential and
commercial buildings, at least 14 homes, as well as offices, according
<https://mezan.org/post/28612/> to the Gaza-based human rights group Al
Mezan.
Dozens more homes in areas surrounding targeted buildings sustained damage.
“The raids have caused fear and panic among civilians,” especially
children, who are half of Gaza’s two million population.
During the Ongoing Israeli Offensive on #Gaza
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Strip: Israel Targets Press Offices and Cultural
Institutionshttps://t.co/x32KrST5Bx pic.twitter.com/GXyTbg9jW5
<https://t.co/GXyTbg9jW5>
— PCHR (@pchrgaza) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/pchrgaza/status/1125075910888165376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
In one such attack late Saturday night, an Israeli airstrike completely
destroyed a building in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, belonging to Ahmad
Abu Zaida. The three-story building had been the home to 16 people
including eight children.
Heavy attacks were continuing into Sunday night, according to
Palestinians in Gaza.
Explosions are literally non stop. Every second. A huge rocking
explosion. Ears hurt. Colon is acting up. Sisters are panicking. Dad
is angrily looking at me since I insisted on letting me get ice
cream. What's happening. #Gaza
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#GazaUnderAttack
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/GazaUnderAttack?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/1125060347617062913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
This video shows the total destruction of a building in the Sabra
neighborhood of Gaza City on Sunday evening:
لحظة تدمير طيران الاحتلال لعمارة أبو قمر في حي الصبرة بمدينة #غزة
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
قبل قليل. pic.twitter.com/s25EuBRYOv <https://t.co/s25EuBRYOv>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1125063717861904386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#شاهد
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%AF?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>..
طائرات الاحتلال عمارة "أبو قمر" في غزة مساء اليوم.
pic.twitter.com/YVU2JSZhaZ <https://t.co/YVU2JSZhaZ>
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1125075959143641090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Since Saturday, Israel has completely closed access to Gaza’s
territorial waters and closed all goods crossings, except for allowing
the entrance of fuel for the territory’s only power plant.
“The crossings cannot be used as an instrument of war to pressure the
civilian population in the Strip,” the Israeli human rights group Gisha
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gisha> stated
<https://gisha.org/updates/9975> on Saturday. “Even in the current
security climate, at a very minimum, humanitarian access must be allowed.”
Extrajudicial killing
On Sunday, Israel further escalated the confrontation by carrying out an
extrajudicial killing in Gaza – reportedly the first of its kind in four
years
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/430-gaza-rockets-fired-at-israel-one-israeli-dead-six-palestinians-said-killed-1.7199036>
– when it fired a missile at the civilian car of Hamed Ahmad Abed
al-Khoudari, whom it claims
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-says-latest-gaza-strike-killed-hamas-chief-iran-liaison/>
was responsible for transferring money to Gaza from Iran.
Palestinian media posted video of the car moments after the Israeli
missile attack:
اللحظات الاولى بعد استشهاد حامد الخضري باستهداف سيارته بحي الدرج
بغزة، قبل قليل.#غزة_تحت_القصف
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9_%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%81?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
pic.twitter.com/8HpmflRg7Q <https://t.co/8HpmflRg7Q>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1125013743274995713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Media circulated this photo of al-Khoudari following his death:
صورة الشهيد حامد الخضري "34" عاما والذي ارتقى قبل قليل جراء قصف
الاحتلال لسيارة كان يستقلها بمنطقة السدرة.
pic.twitter.com/uy4tW9y7Ny <https://t.co/uy4tW9y7Ny>
— وكالة الرأي (@alrayps) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/alrayps/status/1125009485997723648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Israel’s resort to this tactic may be a sign that it feels that its
strategy has so far failed to dictate an end to the confrontation on its
own terms – effectively that Palestinians return to a status quo of
granting Israel peace and quiet while Gaza remains under an unrelenting
blockade that is causing the humanitarian situation in the territory to
spiral downwards.
“Efforts by the United Nations and Egypt to broker a ceasefire between
Israel and terror groups in the Strip yielded no concrete results as of
Sunday afternoon, as neither side appeared interested in returning to
the conditions laid out before the outbreak of violence,” /The Times of
Israel/ reported
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-more-israelis-killed-by-gaza-fire-idf-assassinates-hamas-moneyman/>,
using derogatory terminology Israel uses to describe Palestinian
political and military resistance organizations.
The publication added that on Sunday “the Israeli security cabinet held
a meeting about the fighting in Gaza and later instructed the military
to intensify its attacks in the Strip.”
The current escalation has been blamed
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-killings-spike-ahead-eurovision>
by analysts and diplomats on Israel’s refusal to implement
understandings to ease the siege on Gaza, reached in order to end the
last major confrontation prior to Israel’s 9 April election.
More violence
Israeli leaders have been demanding more violence against Palestinians
in Gaza.
“We must increase our reaction in Gaza until there is quiet, and to
return to targeted assassinations,” Israeli public security minister
Gilad Erdan <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gilad-erdan> said
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/430-gaza-rockets-fired-at-israel-one-israeli-dead-six-palestinians-said-killed-1.7199036>.
But any return to “quiet,” even if a ceasefire is reached, will be
short-lived without a fundamental change in Israel’s policy.
“There is no military solution that can usher in long-term quiet,” Gisha
stated <https://gisha.org/updates/9975>.
“Regional stability will only be made possible once Israel makes
substantial, forthright steps to protect the human rights of Gaza’s two
million residents and allow the Strip’s shattered economy to recover and
develop.”
“Ceasefire agreements and ‘gestures’ by Israel to ‘ease’ the closure on
Gaza cannot substitute long-term solutions, including an end to the
occupation,” the Israeli human rights group added.
There is also likely to be little change while the so-called
international community continues to favor Israel.
On Sunday, United Nations envoy Nickolay Mladenov
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nickolay-mladenov>, who has been
attempting to broker a ceasefire, issued a one-sided condemnation of
Palestinian rocket fire into Israel, but no condemnation of Israel’s
attacks on Palestinian civilian sites and its collective punishment of
the entire population in Gaza:
I condemn the continuing launching of rockets from #Gaza
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>.
Enough #Palestinian
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Palestinian?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
and #Israeli
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israeli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
lives have been lost, people injured, houses damaged and destroyed!
It is time to de-escalate and return to the understandings of the
past few months before it is too late. #UN
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/UN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/nmladenov/status/1125031226350428164?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/federica-mogherini> similarly
expressed
<https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/61848/statement-high-representativevice-president-federica-mogherini-continuing-gaza-escalation_en>
condemnation exclusively of Palestinians, and addressed “condolences”
only for Israeli victims of violence.
Rockets reach further
Israel says that more than 600 rockets
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/430-gaza-rockets-fired-at-israel-one-israeli-dead-six-palestinians-said-killed-1.7199036>
have been fired from Gaza, claiming four lives.
On Sunday, rockets fired by Palestinian resistance factions reached
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26F74xmj3uA> as far as Bir al-Saba,
called Beersheva by Israelis, some 40 kilometers from Gaza.
Moshe Agadi, 58, died
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-man-killed-after-gaza-rocket-strike-in-ashkelon-1.7198901>
of shrapnel injuries he sustained from a rocket that hit a family home
in Ashkelon overnight Saturday. He was pronounced dead at Barzilai
hospital in Ashkelon on Sunday.
Zaed al-Hamamda, 50, was killed when a rocket hit a factory in Ashkelon
on Sunday afternoon.
He was a resident of a Bedouin community, according
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-man-killed-after-gaza-rocket-strike-in-ashkelon-1.7198901>
to the newspaper /Haaretz/.
Another person who was not immediately named was killed in that same attack.
A fourth Israeli in the port city of Ashdod was pronounced dead Sunday
afternoon after sustaining shrapnel wounds.
On Saturday, the joint operations room of Palestinian resistance
organizations had warned
<https://twitter.com/AliAbunimah/status/1124825097422999557> that armed
groups would extend the range of their targeting if Israel continued its
attacks on Palestinian residential buildings.
Islamic Jihad, one of the main resistance factions, warned
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/islamic-jihad-threatens-attack-on-dimona-nuclear-facility-ben-gurion-airport/>
that it could target Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona and disrupt the
Eurovision Song Contest <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/eurovision>
that is being hosted in Tel Aviv from 14 to 18 May.
The group’s military wing claimed <http://saraya.ps/post/56375/> on
Saturday that it had fired a new type of rocket with a more powerful
warhead “in response to [Israel’s] targeting of civilians, children and
residential buildings.”
Erdan, the Israeli minister, said
<http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262705> in response
that Eurovision “should not be a consideration of the intensity of the
blow” Israel would deal against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli schools were canceled across the south on Sunday.
Gaza’s education ministry announced
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1124583321026138112> that schools are
free to decide whether or not to close.
Gaza has no bomb shelters.
Palestinian fighters killed
Two separate Israeli missile strikes killed four fighters from Saraya
al-Quds, the military wing of Islamic Jihad on Sunday.
Al Mezan named Mahmoud Subhi Khamis Bawadi, 25, and Fawzi Abd al-Halim
Fawzi Bawadi, 24, as the two fighters killed in an Israeli missile
strike on farmland near al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Pictures of the two circulated on social media following their death:
🔴#صورة
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>||👇👇
الشهيدان المجاهدان من سرايا القدس: فوزي بوادي ومحمود عيسى.
pic.twitter.com/03Y2o079wm <https://t.co/03Y2o079wm>
— Ahmed Abu Aziz (@Ahmed_AbuAziz) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/Ahmed_AbuAziz/status/1124862814609379330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Another Israeli missile strike on a resistance facility in al-Shujaiyeh
neighborhood of Gaza City killed two fighters from the same military wing.
Al Mezan named them as Bilal Muhammad Abd al-Banna, 29, from the Sabra
neighborhood in southern Gaza City, and Abdullah Nofal Muhammad Abu
al-Ata, 21, from al-Shujaiyeh.
Pictures of them circulated in local media:
الشهيد عبدالله أبو العطا والذي ارتقى بقصف للاحتلال شرق حي الشجاعية
بغزة، قبل قليل. pic.twitter.com/MnWr60iIlN <https://t.co/MnWr60iIlN>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1124994312020926464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
الشهيد بلال محمد البنا والذي ارتقى بقصف للاحتلال شرق #غزة
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>.
pic.twitter.com/Dh7cOL8MYq <https://t.co/Dh7cOL8MYq>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1124997952777400320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Dispute over lethal strike
Saba Mahmoud Abu Arar, a child of one and a half years, and her pregnant
mother, Filastin Saleh Ahmad Abu Shihma, 35, died after an airstrike
reportedly hit their family’s home east of Gaza City on Saturday.
Another child in the home was moderately injured, according to the Gaza
health ministry.
Early Sunday, the Israeli army stated that “Palestinian weapons caused
the tragic death of a mother in Gaza and her baby,” adding that its
“assessment indicates that the incident had nothing to do with [Israel
Defense Forces] strikes.”
Yesterday, Palestinian weapons caused the tragic death of a mother
in Gaza and her baby. Hamas blamed Israel. Journalists amplified the
lie. Our assessment indicates that the incident had nothing to do
with IDF strikes.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1125001868667760641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said
<https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=12442> the origin of the airstrike remains
“undetermined” and its field workers are “still investigating the
circumstances of the explosion.”
Al Mezan also did not attribute a cause for the explosion that killed
the mother and child.
“Peaceful holiday destination”
The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah appeared on Al Jazeera English on
Saturday to discuss Israel’s attack on Gaza.
“The Israeli government thinks it’s a fantastic idea to keep more than
two million people, half of them children, living in a caged ghetto cut
off from the outside world,” Abunimah said.
“The siege is violence, it’s constant violence, it kills people, it
kills their lives. And this is what people in Gaza are trying to end.”
“As long as Israel thinks this is a really great way to treat two
million people in the Gaza Strip, this will keep happening, because
people in Gaza have to get the message out that they are human,”
Abunimah added.
“Israel cannot continue to terrorize and besiege and kill them in this
way and have a lovely Eurovision Song Contest where it falsely presents
itself to the world as this lovely peaceful holiday destination which is
just being terrorized by these awful people in the Gaza Strip.”
/Ali Abunimah contributed reporting and analysis./
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