Over 50 Killed In Gaza As Israel Shelling Is “Fiercest Since 1967 War”

Tyler Durden's picture

While the world’s attention is focused on the tragic events in Ukraine, the fighting in Gaza has entered its 13th, and most deadly day, with at least 50 Palestinians killed on Sunday by Israeli shelling in a Gaza neighborhood, where “bodies were strewn in the street and thousands fled for shelter to a hospital packed with wounded, witnesses and health officials said.” Reuters reports that the mass casualties in Shejaia, in northeast Gaza, were the heaviest since Israel launched its offensive, since expanded to a land offensive including tanks and troops. This has brought the total dead count on the Gaza side to over 400.

A few hours later, Israel agreed to a two-hour humanitarian truce in Shejaiya. The ceasefire was supposed to last from 13:30 to 15:30 local time an Israeli military spokesman said. But a BBC team on the ground reported an exchange of fire less than an hour after the truce began.

According to elderly locals, today’s Israeli shelling was the fiercest they had seen since the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured Gaza. Shifa hospital’s director, Naser Tattar, said 17 children, 14 women and four elderly were among the 50 dead, and about 400 people were wounded in the Israeli assault.

Gaza’s Health Ministry officials said at least 385 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed in the 13-day conflict and about 2,600 have been wounded.

 

On Israel’s side, two civilians have been killed by cross-border fire and five soldiers have died in fighting. More than 50 Israeli troops have been wounded, hospital officials said.

 

Thousands fled Shejaia, some by foot and others piling into the backs of trucks and sitting on the hoods of cars filled with families trying to get away. Several people rode out of the neighborhood of 100,000 in the shovel of a bulldozer.

 

Video given to Reuters by a local showed at least a dozen corpses, including three children, lying in rubble-filled streets, though the footage could not be verified independently.

Meanwhile the IDF is denying all responsibility for the mass killings of civilians, instead saying it had warned the locals to evacuate in advance:In other developments surrounding Gaza, the BBC reports that:

  • Hamas claims it carried out a major attack on Israeli forces in Gaza, causing multiple casualties. There is no comment from the Israeli military on this
  • There has been almost constant shelling by Israel in the past few hours, with tanks and troops reported on the move
  • Hamas is continuing to fire rockets into Israel, with one landing in the city of Ashkelon
  • UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to arrive in Qatar later to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Perhaps most disturbing, and something which has gotten zero coverage compared to the ongoing chaos in Donetsk, is that Israel’s Government Press Office on Saturday warned foreign journalists it was not responsible for their safety in the Gaza Strip, where the Jewish state has launched an offensive against Palestinian militants.

“Gaza and its vicinity are a battleground. Covering the hostilities exposes journalists to life-threatening danger,” an e-mailed Government Press Office (GPO) statement said. “Israel is not in any way responsible for injury or damage that may occur as a result of field reporting.”

 

The GPO, which accredits journalists based in Israel, many of whom also cover events in the Palestinian Territories, charged Islamist group Hamas was using journalists as human shields and advised reporters to take “every possible precaution.”

In other words, if there are no foreign journalists covering the atrocities in Gaza, that would be ideal. In the meantime, it is best to distract the public’s attention with some speculation that the Separatist rebels in Ukraine are doing the same, and try to provoke fury there, but not here.

Below are some photos documenting the sheer destruction in Shejaiya:

The district of Shejaiya came under heavy Israeli bombardment overnight, Palestinians say

 

The Israeli military says the ground offensive has been expanded to destroy a Hamas tunnel network

 

An air strike early on Sunday morning killed four people, including two children, according to medics

 

Israelis who support the offensive faced off with those against it in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening

Finally, the reason why it is all about to get much worse, is that in an interview with Cannel 2 TV, the Israeli Minister of Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz said the military may take control of Hamas-controlled territory for several months to “dismantle the terror army.” Needless to say such an act would provoke a firestorm, literally, of desperation from Hamas which would almost certainly lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent bystanders in the latest sharp escalation of a conflict that goes back countless years.

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Steve Hogan
Steve Hogan

This insanity continues as long as Israel has the unquestioning support of the US government. Given that Congress is Israeli occupied territory, no change in course will occur until the dollar collapse. Once that happens, all bets are off.

I’d be very nervous if I were an Israel citizen. Their neighbors hate their guts, and with good reason. If the regime inTel Aviv were smart, they would compromise now while they hold the upper hand.

Nonanonymous

There’s no room for compromise with an enemy sworn to wipe you off the face of the earth, is there?

Again, it’s an easy thing for someone who has never been in a war zone, or currently living in one, to condemn the violence. There is no compromise in war.

It’s also an easy thing to hate Jews and blame all of the world’s problems on them. It’s also quite ignorant.

Given the imperial nature of our federal government since it’s inception, it’s unlikely we’ll be ceding any strategic interests anywhere in the world.

Here’s some advice, the feds should be considering to whom they’re beholden, and making plans to remove the obligation, before the American people remove them.

Steve, you’re an idiot.

Nonanonymous

You can look it up, an eye for an eye. Israel has a right to defend themselves.

I’m not sure how that makes me an asshole, but you’re entitled to your opinion.

MuckAbout

There is no compromise to make.

Israel was born in blood following an immediate attack upon them by Arabs post WWII. The Arabs lost. Israel PM said,”If Arabs stopped shooting at us, there would be no shooting. If Israel stops shooting at Arabs there would be no Israel”.

This has been confirmed for years with two more wars against Israel instigated by Arabs and the Arabs lost both of those too.

Long before the body count on the Arab side approaches 6 million (the approximate number of Jews murdered in WWII), there will been peace in the Middle East for a long time.

Think of it this way. Let’s say you are a family man, a prepper maybe, looking to live peacefully with your neighbors who aren’t particularly friendly. So you make sure the borders of your land are defensible (i.e. Golan Heights, West Bank) You take this land away from your neighbor after he tried to kill you and your family with major efforts three times and failed.

Now, your ugly neighbor lobs rockets into your most sensitive areas (remember – you’re a family so this time he’s rocketing your barns and trying to hit your house!) Also, upon occasion, he finds one of your kids working a field, zips out and kidnaps and kills him. Now and then, he snipes at your family members trying to kill them off one at a time.

There are no cops to call. There is no world organization to plead to for help. (There is no world organization to even condemn such rocket launching and sniping!!! Shows what “World Organizations are worth, doesn;t it!)

There is no communicating with your ugly neighbor because he wants you dead and wants all your property (now nicely developed and prosperous —- where before it was a desert slum when the Arabs were stewards thereof).

So what do you do? Let your nasty neighbor continue a war of attrition (to scale, let’s say there are 12 of your family and lets say there are 13,246 in your ugly neighbors) or take some action to call your nasty neighbors to task and make them stop being nasty.

It would appear that action is called for.

That’s what we’re getting. Only this time, the Israelites should retake Gaza and also escort every Arab (except native born Israeli citizens of Arab decent) out of the West Back and Gaza, period. Fuck “World Opinion” and fuck the MSM.. The MSM only shows poor starving (supposedly) or wounded Arab children with bloody rags rapped around the heads of Arab youth that got dinged while throwing rocks at tanks. (Sound futile? Nope.. Sounds stupid to me.) Did they show the bodies of the four Israeli teens that had been seized and murdered by Palestinian Arabs? Nope. Does the MSM show the launch sites of the rockets set up in school yards , markets and home backyards to insure that when Israel retaliated, civilians are certain to be involved? Nope.

I’m not pro-Israel or anti-Arab but pro-right and anti-wrong and I’m sorry to say I don’t see much right coming out of the Arab side of situation. Another war with a religious foundation, dogma running over the ground like ditch of sewage and a bunch of losers trying desperately to set terms to the winners.

Endgame? I doubt that it will end well for anyone.

MA

MuckAbout

sorry to be so windy..

MA

overthecliff

The only way a war can be stopped is for oen side to kill the other until they stop fighting. It sucks but that is the way it is.

overthecliff

one

Nick A
Nick A

Interesting to compare the (mostly) unquestioned Israeli territorial expansion, and the equally unquestioned (by the West) NATO expansion post-reunification.

Seems the agreement for no further eastward expansion of NATO has been simply “forgotten” by a certain group (but NOT by the Russians!)

Llpoh
Llpoh

Muck – you are absolutely right. If Israel wants peace, it needs to remove the Palestinians. The Muslims will never stop attacking Israel. Never. From the first day Israel was created after the war, until this moment, Israel has been under attack. No matter what they would or would not have done, it would have made no difference. The attacks would have continued, and without the buffer zones they would have been over run.

Everyone should stay out of it. What will be will be.

Civilian casualities are the unfortunate byproduct of war. It is sad, but it is always thus.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Steve suggests Israel should compromise. Yep, that will work.

Hamas, ISIS, etc., will not compromise. They might say they will, but they in the end will not. The only thing they want and will settle for is the destruction of Israel. And after that, they will want Islam to be world-wide. That is what they want, and that is what they intend. Historically, they are a very patient people. I do not know if they will ever change.

IraK, commenting on Jesus, just wars, and Jews,
IraK, commenting on Jesus, just wars, and Jews,

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:39-44)

Does Jesus’ teaching that we should turn the other cheek and love our enemies mean that it is always wrong to go to war? Should the world have turned the other cheek to Hitler? Or the Japanese who bombed us and killed Americans at Pearl Harbor? Or the Arabs who attacked us on 9/11?

Consider, Luke 3:14 allows military service, Jesus in John 18:36 acknowledges the right of the sword to earthly kingdoms, and Romans 13:3-4 grants governments the right to use force to restrain and punish evil. As the Scriptures teach that it is right for a nation to engage in a just war, it follows that it is therefore right for a Christian to fight in such a war.

Also, if you’re the least bit familiar with the Bible, you will know that Moses and Joshua, for example, knew that when necessity demanded it, Biblical law didn’t apply and God’s Chosen People needed to slaughter tens of thousands of people to protect themselves. The Palestinians are only today’s Amalekites, Moabites, or Ammonites who blood needs to nourish the soil of Israel.

AWD

In 3+ years on TBP, I’ve NEVER seen admin say he loves someone. Wow….

comment image

AWD

Yea, sarcasm. My mistake…

Sensetti
Sensetti

Wars have consequences, Israel is entitled to the land it won in the 67 war. Just as my first wife kicked my ass in the divorce. Can I now cry foul and demand my shit back? No it’s fucking over, shut the hell up and move on. If those fucking RAG Heads don’t like it why don’t they pick up an AK, form a skirmish line and attack the IDF and take the land back. They are pussies that hide behind women and children.

steve
steve

All you joo haters are such effing hypocrites. “Palestinian” blood matters when it is spilled but not the joo blood? Rocketing Israeli people ( which includes mooslims!!)is self defense , and Israel is supposed to just sit there and count the bodies? You guys really are totally bankrupt of any objective reality based honesty. You think you’re morally superior because you keep rooting on the ” underdogs” ??…. Give me a break. I think there’s a huge contingent of closet neo-nazis frequenting this otherwise informative and cutting edge blog. Give the joo hating a rest will ya

Sensetti
Sensetti

Steve I cracked open a bottle of Makers 46 bout three hours ago reading for comprehension is work at this point. But I love them God Damn Joo bankers that run this country. So please don’t include me in your hate and discontent. Now I got a friend on this platform name of Z – he really does hate them Joos.
Here’s what I desire, I want the entire middles east to choose up side, ignore All international laws and common fuckinng decency and go to war winner take all. Then shut the fuck up .

Nonanonymous

Admin, I’m not taking the bait. Steve can stick up for himself, and I still think he’s an idiot.

I’m curious, however, why you think I’m an asshole, in your not so humble opinion.

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