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Netanyahu Vows Lengthy Campaign Against Gaza Wants All Tunnels Destroyed
This
is the seventh “Gaza war” Israel has launched since Hamas took
over the strip in 2007, the longest lasted only three weeks. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still talking up a “protracted
campaign” this
time, and suggesting this war will soon be both the longest and
deadliest of the bunch.
Israeli
Army Chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz talked
up more escalation of
the war today, saying the war will continue to be “intensified”
in the days going forward, while other officials spurned the notion
of a ceasefire before their “military goals” are realized.
The
current death tolls stand
at over 1,231 killed in Gaza,
overwhelmingly civilians, and 55
from Israel, 52
of them Israeli troops involved in the fighting. Today saw Israel
attack yet another Gaza hospital, killing a number of civilians.
Over
the weekend, Israeli officials were condemning the Kerry-brokered
ceasefire offer, though the US insists it was identical to one Israel
accepted 10 days prior. Netanyahu says Israel won’t accept any
ceasefire at all now until it has destroyed every single tunnel in
the Gaza Strip, which since they don’t know how many there are is a
recipe for endless fighting.
That
seems to be the idea, as the current war remains popular domestically
in Israel, and a number of far-right cabinet members are condemning
the notion of negotiating any settlement of the war.
Yet
their use of a conscript army leaves Israelis particularly sensitive
to military death tolls, and if the war drags on too long, a rising
number of troops killed in a war without end could quickly shift
polls the other way.
Israel Attacks Gaza’s Only
Power Plant, Knocking Out
Power for a Year
Adding
to the humanitarian calamity in the ongoing Israeli invasion of the
Gaza Strip,the
nation’s military attacked Gaza’s only power plant, a
diesel-fueled plant which provides roughly two-thirds of electricity
for the strip’s 1.8 million people.
Lack
of reliable fuel supplies have kept the plant running only
intermittently, and locals were reporting only about three hours of
electricity a day. Now, they’re down to basically none.
The
director of the Gaza City electricity authority confirmed “the
power plant is finished,” and that it will likely take a full year
or more before it is repaired enough to resume generation.
The
problem is even deeper than just electricity for civilian homes, as
the water pumps in the strip also ground to a halt today for lack of
power. Gaza City officials are urging civilians to carefully ration
water consumption, and prepare for shortages.
Israel-Gaza conflict: At least
100 Palestinians killed and
power station shut down in
heaviest day of
bombardment yet
Much
of what little is left of the shattered infrastructure of Gaza was
pulverised by the Israeli military in a night of ferocious and
relentless attacks by air, sea and land.
29
July, 2014
There
was also symbolic punitive destruction of the homes of Hamas
officials, including that of the movement’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
The attacks piled up more misery for the battered population. What
little electricity there was has disappeared after tank shells set
the only power station alight.
Senior
officials stayed away from Shifa, the main hospital, after an
adjoining clinic was hit by a missile strike, causing serious
problems.
But
the explosions taking place carried echoes of the past – fateful,
violent repetition of the conflicts Israel had engaged in in Gaza
every few years. A futile cycle of rockets and retribution, tearing
down and rebuilding, doomed to repeat itself.
Tonight,
there were renewed rumours of a ceasefire, but the rumours proved
false. The attack on the power station came as part of the Israeli
ground offensive, Operation Protective Edge, which followed the
kidnap and murder of three Jewish teenagers by militants linked to
Hamas. The key objective, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, has declared, is destroying tunnel networks which have
been used to launch rockets and carry out cross-border infiltration.
The
same power station was also blown up in Operation Summer Rains eight
years ago. That followed the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit by
Hamas. The Israelis entered the Gaza Strip to obtain his release and
also to suppress the firing of Qassam rockets and carry out the
dismantling of the smuggling tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor.
Last
week, a UN school used as a refugee shelter was hit by Israeli tank
fire, killing 15 people and leading to international condemnation,
and trading of accusations between the UN and the Israeli military
over evacuation plans. In 2009, during Israel’s Operation Cast
Lead, again launched over Hamas rocket firing, there were similar
recriminations over the bombing of another UN school. The finance
ministry was among the buildings hit by air strikes tonight; the same
ministry was bombed in 2008.
The
killing of four boys, sons of fishermen, in an air strike while they
played football on a beach was one of the most emotive of many bloody
fatalities involving young people in the current conflict. In 2012,
there was an outcry after four teenagers were killed by a missile
while playing football during the last Israeli mission, Operation
Pillar of Defence, launched on Gaza.
Um
Hania and Um Mohammed Abu-Rigala have been witnesses to the
little-changing pattern from a special vantage point, the house next
door to Ismail Haniyeh’s in Gaza City’s Beach Camp.
“He
was born here, we saw him grow up, saw people come to his house
planning the resistance against Israel. He would talk to us; it has
been very interesting”, said Um Hania, aged 60.
“We
expected the Israelis to bomb his house in the past, but he would
disappear and sometimes his family as well when the wars took place,
and, of course, that is what happened this time. Didn’t the
Israelis know there was no one there?
“They
sent two rockets that did not explode, then they waited 10 minutes
before blowing up the house. Perhaps the warning was meant for us
neighbours to go, but we just went to the back of our house. We are
not going to leave our home.”
A
large photograph of Mr Haniyeh had been put up on a pole amid the
debris, with a Palestinian flag draped nearby. Um Mohammed, 57,
added: “It is a pity because it was his home for such a long time.
Why should he move from the area? We always rebuild what they
destroy. Don’t forget, they have not been able to kill him, they
have been killing civilians, children.”
Ten
young boys were killed, while playing 500 metres away, on Sunday, the
day of Eid, the end of Ramadan. Around the same time a clinic
adjoining the Shifa Hospital was hit by another missile, causing some
injuries. The Israeli military and Hamas have blamed each other for
the attacks.
What
happened at Shifa has had a significant effect. A few Hamas officials
who could be met there have disappeared, but so, too, have some
senior hospital officials. “Obviously what happened has been very
worrying for some hospital staff. If they start targeting hospitals,
everyone’s in danger”, said Dr Nasser al-Tatar, the director.
Dr
Nasser’s own home was destroyed in an air strike and, he wanted to
point out, this was a dangerous new development. “The Israelis have
hit hospitals before in their other attacks in Gaza, but we have not
had this kind of deliberate targeting of doctors before. My house was
targeted, they knew who I was. The staff here have been working
around the clock, but obviously, when they are away, this causes
problems.”
Dr
Nasser had not been told, for example, by late morning the casualty
figures for the previous 24 hours or details of where they had taken
place and how many patients he could expect at the hospital.
Five
children, aged between five and 14, were killed at Bureij in central
Gaza during the Israeli mission in 2009. Today there were reports
that 10 people had died there overnight. On reaching there, The
Independent found that 17 members of one family, the Abu Jabr family,
had been killed when an air strike flattened two buildings, and six
others may have died in another part of town.
The
youngest of the Abu Jabrs to die was two-year-old Lena, the oldest,
70-year-old Hamdan; Dina, 25 years old, was eight months’ pregnant.
Yusuf Abu Jabbar, her cousin, pulled two other women to safety.
“There is no reason why my family should have been killed. They are
very religious, but they do not belong to Hamas or any other
religious group. So many killed were kids. Dina was pregnant – was
she a Hamas fighter as well ?”
Fadil
Hussein Sharqi recalls the deaths in 2009. “They happened in
January, all from the Batran family. There were two very young boys,
I think three and five years old, and older ones. I think the
Israelis said their father was in Hamas. There were a lot of people
killed at the time. The one that came next [2012] was not so bad, but
this one is the worst – they are just determined to kill people
now. We are just praying that we stay alive at the end of this.”
The
Israeli military have instructed the residents of Bureij, by leaflet,
mobile calls and text messages, to leave the town. “They did this
the first time [2009]. We went to Deir al-Balah, and while we were
away the soldiers came in and ruined our house,” said Ibrahim Ahmed
Moqdad, 56. “They did dirty things, stole things, and put insults
on walls. I am not going to leave this time.”
As
he spoke there were distant echoes of tank shelling. “It’s going
to get much worse at night,” warned his 48-year-old brother,
Musaib. “We need to go, you need to go, we need to be safe. A house
is just a house. If it is destroyed, we will rebuild it. Our family
have done this before, we will do it again.”
Who Bears Responsibility for
Civilian Deaths in Gaza?
Israeli
scholar and historian Ilan Pappe argues the media's demonization of
Hamas provides Israel cover for continuing its siege and occupation
of Palestinian territories
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