RT coverage of Gaza

Here is RT's coverage

Decision bombing? Israel's 'election attack' triggers Gaza war spiral

Israel is bombarding Gaza for a second day, with 13 Palestinians killed, including four children, and over 100 injured. The attack’s timing is under question with a looming Israeli election, as is the precision of airstrikes which kill civilians.

RT,

15 November, 2012

Israel’s military operation started on Wednesday with a strike killing Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari. Since then, reports say, the IDF has struck around 200 targets in Gaza. Furthermore, Israel is threatening to go as far as initiating a ground operation, sparking fears of a repetition of the Cast Lead scenario.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF), which has engaged in a Twitter showdown since the very beginning of the strikes, said it targets only “terror sites”. However, this has been questioned by witnesses on social media who point out that only four people of the 13 so far killed by Israeli airstrikes were Hamas militants, while the rest were civilians, including women and children.  

Civilian casualties included the baby of BBC Arabic journalist Jihad Masharawi, who lost his 11-month-old son, along with his sister-in-law. He also has a brother wounded by a strike.

A Palestinian boy pushes his bycicle through the rubble in an area targeted by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City in the early hours of November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

Israeli strikes have led to a spiraling escalation of conflict, with Hamas already saying it is now in a state of “open war” with Israel and threatening to send in suicide bombers. 

The IDF stated that more than 130 rockets were fired from Gaza at locations in Israel during the last 24 hours. Three people have been killed on the Israeli side.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has announced it is launching “Operation Shale Stones” in response to Israel’s “Pillar of Defense”.

These kinds of statements call into question how long the conflict is actually going to last and spark fears of even further escalation which would draw more civilian casualties. 

Palestinians check their damaged house after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Suhaib Salem)

‘Timing of attack no coincidence’

Meanwhile, experts are starting to question the timing of the Israeli attack on Gaza which is not viewed as accidental. Israel will hold a general election on January 22 and conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to retaliate harshly against Hamas.

Eric Draitser, a geopolitical analyst for Stop Imperialism sees the attack as fitting in with the pre-election campaign to influence Israel's general election. 

“The timing of the attack is not a coincidence. Even though Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen as the only option, he was also pushing hard for Romney to win,” Draitser told RT. “And now this attack could be one of the ways Netanyahu is trying to exercise his own power in the country, showing that Israel is not weak and that the administration will push forward with this imperialistic agenda no matter who won the US election.”

Palestinians watch the funeral of Hisham Ghalban in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Said Khatib)

Freelance journalist Lior Sternfeld has drawn a direct parallel between the pre-election November 2012 attack on Gaza and the 2008-2009 pre-election attack. 

Even though Netanyahu does not face much opposition, “he knows that the way to ensure his victory in the upcoming elections will be by diverting the public discourse from demands of social justice to existential threats imposed on Israel by the bogeyman – Hamas,” Sternfeld argues in his column for Informed Comment.

He also believes that Hamas’ retaliatory response was predictable and even more so, encouraged. 

“With the 2013 elections just months away, Israel decided to break a ceasefire and assassinate the Hamas senior military persona, Ahmed Jabari,” Sternfeld writes. “And as expected Hamas responded with firing rockets on Israel’s southern regions and a full-scale war is being evolved.”

Palestinians inspect a destroyed building in an area targeted by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City in the early hours of November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

War rhetoric, civilian casualties, anti-war protests

 

Israel’s National Security Minister Avi Dichter stated that “we have no intention to end this round of fighting and suffer more hits in the next.”

But Israeli civilians are already suffering. Three people were killed by a rocket strike from Gaza on Thursday, and there are dozens of injured including three children.

There have also been reports of Israeli residents experiencing panic attacks from Hamas rockets that were sent back in retaliation.

All schools within a 40km range of Gaza have been closed. People living within a 7km range of the Gaza border are not allowed to leave their homes and gatherings of over 100 people in one place are prohibited, Yeshiva World News reports.

About 100 people protested outside Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s apartment in Tel Aviv Wednesday night following the start of the offensive on Gaza. The activists were shouting “Money for welfare, not war," thus indicating that they see the operation as an attempt to distract people’s attention from Israel’s own internal problems.

A Palestinian man sits amid the rubble in his bombed house following an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

Palestinian protesters also marched in the West Bank city of Ramallah in support of the people of the Gaza Strip and against Israeli airstrikes.

“It is killing children and women; it is injuring scores of people. The way it tries to assassinate military targets is illegal because it is using indiscriminate and reckless amounts of force,” documentary maker and activist Harry Fear, who is currently in the region, told RT.

“Tomorrow Israel expects to launch the ground incursion of the Gaza Strip, including central parts of Gaza City. International reporters and activists on the ground believe this is the beginning of another full-scale war similar to the one in 2008-2009,” he added.

US backs Israel’s ‘right to defense’ amid global condemnation

Israel’s offensive on Gaza has drawn sharp condemnation around the world, particularly from the online community. The US, however, has advocated Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorists, while the UN reached an impasse in negotiations.

RT,

15 November, 2012

Egypt, which withdrew its ambassador from Israel following the latter’s announcement that it would intensify its military campaign, ordered an emergency UN meeting to discuss the escalating conflict. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr warned that further aggression from Israel could have “negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region.”

The Palestinian envoy to the UN slammed Israeli aggression during the meeting, decrying it as "vulgarly and publicly boasting about its willful killing of Palestinians.” Following Wednesday’s offensive that killed Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari.

US Ambassador Susan Rice got behind Israel during the UN session, saying that there is no justification “for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel."

The meeting was adjourned without any palpable conclusion, although the general message from the body was to de-escalate the conflict in order to avert any more civilian casualties.

At least 13 Palestinians have been reported dead so far, among them two children, according to Palestinian authorities.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern at the situation and voiced expectation that "Israeli reactions are measured so as not to provoke a new cycle of bloodshed."

The White House released a transcript of President Obama’s communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night. Obama stressed Israel’s right to defend itself and has decried rocket fire from Gaza into the country.

"The president urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. The two agreed that Hamas needs to stop its attacks on Israel to allow the situation to de-escalate," the White House statement said. Netanyahu’s office said that he “deeply appreciated” the president’s support.

The US justifies its unwavering support of Israel in its terrorist classification of Hamas. RT correspondent Gayane Chichikyan highlighted the US’s double standard policy in its classification of terrorism, stressing they were not so quick to brand opposition attacks in Syria as “terrorism”, in spite of the fact the UN condemns them as such.

“There seem to be different interpretations of the term ‘terrorism’ in Washington,” said Chichikyan.

Protester ire against Israeli offensive (including Israel)

Protesters gather outside Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s Tel Aviv apartment.(Image from screenshot of youtube video user@SocialTV)

A protest movement is already gathering momentum in response to the Israeli’s warmongering rhetoric. Hacktavist group Anonymous reportedly attacked the Israeli Defense Ministry website.

They claimed to have blocked it, posting the trademark hashtag “tango down” on Twitter.

In Tel Aviv overnight, more than 100 activists turned out outside Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s Tel Aviv apartment complex to protest the IDF’s offensive.

They brandished anti-war banners and chanted slogans against the minister, such as “Defense minister, defense minister, how many kids did you kill today?”, “Israel, Palestine, two states for two peoples”, “Money for welfare, not war”and “No war for tycoons.”

Israel’s Meretz Hadash and the newly-formed Pirates Party had a strong presence at the protest.

“This will only bring death to Palestinians and Israelis, and we call on everybody who is able to come stand by our side and fight against this step before civilians and soldiers on both sides are killed,” said Amit Ashkenazi, a spokesman for Hadash to the Jerusalem Post.

Palestinian men take part in a candle vigil in support of the people of the Gaza Strip and against Israeli air strikes, on November 14, 2012 in front of the Church of the Nativity at the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (AFP Photo / Musa Al Shaer)

 

Palestenian protesters shout slogans as they march in the West Bank city of Ramallah on November 14, 2012 during a demonstration in support of the people of the Gaza Strip and against Israeli air strikes. (AFP Photo / Abbas Momani)

Meanwhile in Ramallah, hundreds flooded the streets of the West Bank, enraged by Israel’s offensive. They called for revenge for those slain in the rocket strikes and urged Palestinian forces to return fire into Israel.

In the Egyptian capital, crowds gathered outside the Israeli embassy demanding its immediate closure, while demonstrations in solidarity of Gaza have also reportedly taken place in Istanbul and Turkey.

Protests are expected in the Israeli cities of Haifa and Jerusalem on Thursday.

 

Egyptians protest for the closure of the Israeli embassy in Cairo. (Image from twitter user@EslamX)

Egyptians protest for the closure of the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Egypt (Image from twitter user@Mad_Darsh)