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53093 |
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Date: March 05, 2024 at 09:08:09
From: chatillon, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Israel's attacks on Gaza: The weapons and scale of destruction |
URL: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/11/9/israel-attacks-on-gaza-weapons-and-scale-of-destruction |
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For over a month, Gaza’s night sky has been lit by the
red glow of missile flashes, delivering death and
destruction to its 2.3 million residents. It is the same
during the day, except the colours are different, as
Gaza’s blue skies are blackened with plumes of smoke
rising from newly levelled homes.
Since the start of Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza
Strip, following Hamas's surprise attack on October 7,
its military has killed more than 10,500 people, at
least 4,300 of whom are children. Thousands more are
missing or entombed under the rubble.
Israel says it has struck at least 12,000 targets across
the besieged Palestinian territory from October 7 to
November 1, marking one of the most intense bombing
campaigns in recent history.
33ZT27D-highres-1699311012
The Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as seen from
the Israeli side of the border with the besieged enclave
[Fadel Senna/AFP]
Destruction equivalent of two nuclear bombs
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel
has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the
Gaza Strip since October 7, equivalent to two nuclear
bombs.
In comparison, the Little Boy nuclear bomb dropped by
the United States on Hiroshima during World War II
yielded 15,000 tonnes of high explosives and destroyed
everything within a one-mile (1.6km) radius.
The graphic below compares the cumulative explosive
power of Israel’s bombs dropped on Gaza to other
powerful explosions.
INTERACTIVE - Cumulative explosive power of Israeli
bombs dropped on Gaza
Destruction as far as the eye can see
Play video
Satellite imagery and photographs show entire
neighbourhoods have been levelled with many hospitals,
schools, places of worship and homes damaged or
destroyed by Israeli land, sea and air attacks. Entire
communication systems and water treatment plants have
also been disabled.
According to the latest data from the UN’s Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World
Health Organization (WHO) and the Palestinian
government, and as of November 7, Israeli attacks have
damaged at least:
Half of Gaza’s homes - 222,000 residential units damaged
with more than 40,000 completely destroyed
278 educational facilities damaged
270 healthcare facilities attacked
69 places of worship damaged, including mosques and
churches
45 ambulances damaged
11 bakeries destroyed
“Israel's use of ‘smart bombs’ in Gaza is part of a
broader military strategy aimed at accurately targeting
militant infrastructure to achieve military objectives,
with no attempt to limit civilian casualties and
infrastructure damage,” Elijah Magnier, a military
analyst covering conflicts in the Middle East told Al
Jazeera.
“The effectiveness of these weapons in achieving
strategic objectives without causing disproportionate
harm is impossible”, Magnier added.
Gaza destruction drone shots
The remains of Gaza's Rimal neighbourhood [Abdelhakim
Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Gaza is home to some 1.7 million refugees who were
ethnically cleansed from areas that now form part of
Israel. Most refugees live in or near Gaza’s eight
densely populated refugee camps.
In the north of Gaza is one of the largest camps,
Jabalia. The Israeli military has repeatedly hit the
camp of some 116,000 registered refugees, on at least
eight occasions - October 9, 12, 19, 22 and 31; November
1, 2 and 4 - killing several hundred people. The camp
houses three United Nations-run schools, which have been
converted into shelters for hundreds of displaced
families.
The Israeli military said that the attacks on Jabalia on
November 1 had killed Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari whom
they believe played a pivotal role in the planning and
execution of the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said seven
civilian hostages were killed in the attack, including
three foreign passport holders.
Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli
strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the
northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli
strikes on houses in the Jabalia refugee camp in the
northern Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023 [Mohammed Al-
Masri/Reuters]
Following the strikes on the Jabalia camp, a young
Palestinian boy described how he pulled a headless body
from the rubble, while another man asked, “Since when
has it become okay to strike shelters? This is so
unfair.”
Play Video
Video Duration 01 minutes 19 seconds
01:19
Israel bombs UN school in third major attack on Gaza’s
Jabalia refugee camp
Nowhere is safe
Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli
bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on
November 6, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel
and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Palestinian children flee Israeli bombardment in Rafah
in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023 [Mohammed
Abed/AFP]
While most of the destruction has been centred in
northern Gaza, even its south, which Israel had declared
a safe zone, has not been spared.
It is estimated that between 800,000 to a million people
have moved to the south of the Gaza Strip, while
350,000-400,000 remain in the north of the enclave.
The reality on the ground is that those in hospitals,
the disabled and the elderly are unable to move. Air
strikes have been indiscriminate, targeting UN-marked
schools, hospitals and declared "safe zones".
Israeli strikes have hit the main roads being used by
civilians heading south to escape, as well as areas in
southern Gaza including Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis and
Rafah.
Israel’s impetus has been to “completely eliminate”
Hamas, however, the reality on the ground has been the
elimination of entire neighbourhoods, generations of
Palestinians and their means of survival.
According to satellite image analysis based on Sentinel-
1 radar data by researchers Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate
Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State
University, up to 18 percent of buildings in the Gaza
Strip have been damaged between October 7 to November 5,
including:
30-40 percent in North Gaza
24-32 percent in Gaza City
6-9 percent in Deir el-Balah
5-8 percent in Khan Younis
3-5 percent in Rafah
INTERACTIVE - Gaza Map ground damage November 5-
1699521592
Forty-feet craters: Funding 'precision warfare'
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of
Israeli strikes on houses in the Jabalia refugee camp in
the northern Gaza Strip, October 31, 2023 [Anas al-
Shareef/Reuters]
Israel’s deployment of precision-guided missiles (PGMs)
casts doubt on the claim that these "smart" bombs reduce
collateral damage.
“Militaries around the world often justify the use of
smart bombs on the grounds that they are more accurate
and, therefore, more humane and legal under
international humanitarian law. The principle of
distinction, a cornerstone of this law, requires the
invading Israeli army to always distinguish between
combatants and military targets on the one hand and
civilians and civilian objects on the other and to
target only the former,” Magnier tells Al Jazeera.
“Above all, it requires Israel to respect international
law to ensure that no crimes against humanity are
committed and that no military target is hit next to a
civilian target known to contain large numbers of
internally displaced persons. All of these principles,
including the Geneva Convention, were not respected in
many places in Gaza.”
This is why Israel uses smart bombs to further its
plans, which are not limited to military objectives but
to cause maximum civilian casualties and to terrorise
the Palestinians in Gaza in order to trigger a general
exodus.
BY ELIJAH MAGNIER
According to visual analysis by The New York Times, The
Guardian and experts, Israeli forces used 2,000-pound
(900kg) bombs on the Jabalia refugee camp on October 31.
Two impact craters estimated to be 40 feet (12 metres)
wide were identified.
A man gestures as Palestinians search for casualties a
day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee
camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
A man gestures as Palestinians search for casualties a
day after Israeli strikes on houses in the Jabalia
refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, November 1,
2023 [Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters]
How much damage can a 500-pound bomb do?
According to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA),
which conducts defence policy research and analysis, a
500-pound blast will severely damage, injure or kill
everything or anyone within 20 metres (65 feet). A
2,000-pound blast will increase the destruction radius
to 35 metres (115 feet).
Averaged across different types of surfaces, a 500-pound
bomb can create a crater of 25 feet (7.6 metres) across
and 8.5 feet (2.6 metres) deep while a 2000-pound bomb
will carve out a crater 50 feet (15 metres) across and
16 feet (5 metres), according to the PDA.
INTERACTIVE - what damage can a 500 pound bomb do-
1699543170
(Al Jazeera)
Even with perfect intelligence and accuracy, many of the
PGMs used by Israel cause disproportionate collateral
damage.
The weapons carry hundreds of pounds of explosives
encased within metal. Within the first week of the
Israel-Hamas war, the Biden administration sent 1,800
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) kits, small
diameter bombs (SDBs) and other munitions to Israel.
Maintaining Israel’s regional military hegemony is a
core element of the United States’ Middle East policy.
This has been achieved by US funding an increasing
Israeli military arsenal.
On November 2, the United States passed a bill providing
$14.5bn in military aid to Israel.
Between 1976 and 2022, the US supplied Israel with
almost 30,000 smart munitions including JDAMs, Paveways
and SDBs.
What ‘smart bombs’ is Israel using?
Precision-guided missiles (PGMs), also known as smart
bombs, employ advanced guidance systems to hit high-
value targets.
They can be fired or dropped from aircraft and unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs). The guidance systems in these
weapons can be used to convert "dumb bombs", which are
free-fall, unguided munitions into precision weapons.
“Smart bombs are equipped with different warheads
designed for different targets. Some are designed to
penetrate hardened bunkers, while others have
fragmentation warheads to maximise damage to exposed
equipment and personnel,” Magnier tells Al Jazeera.
Guidance systems employed in PGMs include GPS
technology, inertial navigation systems (INS) and laser
guidance, where a target is marked, either by ground
forces or by the aircraft itself, for the bomb to
follow.
Most of the bombs Israel has dropped belong to the
United States-designed Mk 80 family. Some of these bombs
include JDAMs, Paveway laser-guided bombs and small
diameter bombs. These are shown in the infographic
below.
INTERACTIVE -Israels precision guided missiles
Israel’s US-made aircraft
Israel's F-35 Lightning II fighter jet takes part in an
aerial display
Israel's F-35 Lightning II fighter jet takes part in an
aerial display during a graduation ceremony of Israeli
Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim Airbase in the Negev
desert, on June 23, 2022 [Menahem Kahana/AFP]
According to the International Institute for Strategic
Studies’ (IISS) Military Balance 2023, Israel’s air
force has 339 combat capable aircraft, including 309
fighter ground attack jets.
Of these:
196 are F-16 jets
83 F-15 jets
30 F-35 jets
The US has sent further fighter jets to Israel in the
most recent escalation.
These American-made fighter jets are capable of carrying
a variety of munitions including air-to-air and air-to-
ground missiles.
F-15 Eagles can carry a variety of different bombs
including JDAMs.
INTERACTIVE - F-15
F-16 Fighting Falcons are multirole fighter aircraft
capable of carrying 250-pound (Mk-81), 500-pound (Mk-82
bombs, 1,000-pound (Mk-83) bombs and 2,000-pound (Mk-84)
general purpose bombs as well as precision-guided
variants of these.
INTERACTIVE - F-16
F-35 Lightning II is also capable of carrying 500-pound
(Mk-82) bombs, 1,000-pound (Mk-83) bombs and 2,000-pound
(Mk-84) bombs.
INTERACTIVE - F-35
Are smart bombs effective?
Play video
The effectiveness of precision-guided missiles is
dependent on multiple factors including the quality of
intelligence received.
“If the intelligence is faulty, even the most accurate
weapon will hit the wrong target,” Magnier told Al
Jazeera.
Weapon functionality is also crucial, whereby technical
malfunctions can cause smart bombs to miss their target
and human error during the targeting process can lead to
misidentification of marks.
“In various conflicts, there have been reports of
secondary strikes occurring shortly after an initial
strike, hitting rescue workers and civilians rushing to
help the wounded, significantly increasing civilian
casualties,” Magnier says.
Play Video
Video Duration 00 minutes 45 seconds
00:45
Video of Israel’s Iron Dome missile malfunctioning
‘War crimes’ and accountability
People flee following Israeli air strikes on a
neighbourhood in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the
central Gaza Strip on November 6,
International humanitarian law prohibits the destruction
of facilities essential to the survival of civilian
populations, such as water supplies, electricity and
medical facilities.
On Friday, an Israeli air strike on an ambulance convoy
near the al-Shifa Hospital killed at least 15 people and
wounded 60 others, according to health officials and aid
workers.
The largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, al-Shifa
is one of at least 270 healthcare facilities that Israel
has attacked over the past month.
INTERACTIVE_HEALTHCARE_DAMAGE_GAZA_NOV7_2023-1699363192
Since November 3, the main power generators at al-Shifa
Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital have stopped
working. Israeli warplanes have continued to attack
hospitals and the areas around them, where patients,
health workers and hundreds fleeing the conflict have
found shelter.
“Because such actions are taken deliberately to starve
the population or deny them access to essential health
services, they are considered war crimes,” Magnier says.
Magnier explains that cutting off such services in a
form of collective punishment prohibited under the
Fourth Geneva Convention, raising the question of how to
hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza where
the use of PGMs indicates anything but precision
warfare.
“The continued use of PGMs in Gaza, even when targeting
military installations, can have a profound effect on
the infrastructure and the psychology of the
population,” Maglier tells Al Jazeera.
“Repeated strikes can contribute to a sense of fear and
helplessness among the civilian population, leading them
to leave a safer area at the first opportunity.”
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Responses:
[53098] [53104] [53108] [53117] [53137] [53103] |
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53098 |
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Date: March 05, 2024 at 11:23:53
From: Mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: And Hamas won't sign ceasefire or surrender |
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Doesn't Hamas care about their people at all?
Oh, yeah. Their loftiest goal is death for the cause.
I'm sure that works for their wives, children and
elderly, too.
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Responses:
[53104] [53108] [53117] [53137] [53103] |
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53104 |
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Date: March 05, 2024 at 14:54:10
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: false |
URL: http://earthboppin.net/talkshop/international/messages/53097.html |
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Responses:
[53108] [53117] [53137] |
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53108 |
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Date: March 05, 2024 at 17:45:16
From: Mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Does Hamas even have any hostages |
URL: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/middleeast/gaza-hamas-ceasefire-israel-intl/index.html |
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Does Hamas even have any hostages who have not been
murdered? Are they not turning them over because they
don't exist? Bluffing to raise the pot.
Hamas would rather draw this out, kill their neighbors
and starve their children.
"Hamas said Tuesday there could be no “exchange of
prisoners” before a permanent ceasefire and a full
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as it responded to
proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
“The security and safety of our people will not be
achieved except through a permanent ceasefire, the end
of the aggression, [Israel’s] withdrawal from every
inch in Gaza…and the entry of aid to our people in Gaza
is our utmost priority,” Hamas senior leader Osama
Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.
“Any prisoner exchange will not be completed except
after the completion of all this.”
There is no security with Hamas in power, certainly not
for Palestinians.
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Responses:
[53117] [53137] |
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53117 |
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Date: March 06, 2024 at 05:44:01
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: stick w/facts: Israel killed 10 Israeli hostages, then lied about it |
URL: https://www.zeteonews.com/p/top-seven-lies-about-gaza |
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Top Seven Lies About Gaza
First video in Zeteo's Debunked! series
Mehdi Hasan
TEAM ZETEO
MAR 5, 2024
Transcript
Israeli officials have told so many lies since October the 7th with so little
pushback from the media that it's hard to keep up.
So here from Zeteo is the first in a new segment we're calling Debunked.
The Top Seven Lies About Gaza Debunked.
Lie number one.
There was already a ceasefire on October the 6th and Hamas broke it.
You see it said everywhere by Benjamin Netanyahu, by Hillary Clinton.
They all say it, and yet it's completely false.
Just two weeks before October the 7th, Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza for the third
day in a row.
And on October the 4th, Gaza Strip protesters received bullet wounds to
ankles, medics report.
Does that sound like a ceasefire to you?
Even over in the occupied West Bank, before Hamas's attack on October the
7th, Israeli forces had already killed a record 234 Palestinians.
If there was a ceasefire in place before October the 7th, nobody told the
Israeli military.
Lie number two, the priority is freeing the hostages.
There's no higher priority, Joe Biden has said.
and yet last month Israel's finance minister said bringing home the hostages
is not the top priority.
Hamas must be defeated, he said.
Wittingly or unwittingly, the Israeli military has actually killed more Israeli
hostages than its soldiers have rescued.
In fact, as one Israeli journalist recently tweeted, citing new reporting from an
Israeli news website, 10 hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza,
some even as the Israeli military had intel they were residing in the buildings
that were targeted.
The IDF reportedly killed their own citizens and then lied and said they died
in quote Hamas captivity.
But sure, it's all about the hostages.
Lie number three, 40 beheaded babies.
How can we forget the most emotive and most offensive lie of this entire
conflict?
A lie that went viral and was repeated by the President of the United States
who falsely said he saw pictures of beheaded babies even though there
weren't any.
Nor Were Their Babies Burned in Ovens, as Israeli newspaper Haaretz proved
in their investigation.
They were all lies.
In fact, according to data released by Israel's Social Security Agency,
tragically, there was one baby killed on October the 7th, 10-month-old Mila
Cohen, may her memory be a blessing.
But in the interests of facts, she was not beheaded.
Now, one baby killed is one baby too many, a tragedy, a crime.
But 40 beheaded babies is just a cynical, reckless, repulsive lie that was then
used to justify the killing of hundreds of Palestinian babies.
Lie number four, there was a Hamas base underneath the al-Shifa hospital.
Remember this video from the Israeli military claiming Hamas' main
headquarters were under the hospital?
Wow, an underground lair straight out of a Bond movie.
To this day, we have yet to see any evidence of such a headquarters under
al-Shifa.
Sure, as the AP has reported, the Israelis found a pair of metal cots in a room
fashioned from rusty white tile.
They appeared to be out of use.
Meanwhile the Washington Post said the underground rooms found by Israel
showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas and Israel has
provided no hard evidence that Hamas was using the hospital as a command
and control center.
The Israeli military lied so that they could attack more hospitals under the
same false pretext.
Lie number five, you can't trust the Hamas health ministry.
Remember what Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said to me on Peacock back
in November?
The Gaza health ministry says Israel has killed more than 11,000 people in
Gaza, including a record number of children.
The Hamas controlled.
Let me finish my question.
The Hamas controlled.
Let me finish my question.
No, but you can't say that.
No, but you have to say the Hamas controlled the ministry of health in Gaza.
You can say that.
I don't have to say what you asked me to say.
Why mention Hamas controlled every time?
Because you can't trust the health ministry's numbers, right?
except the Israeli military does.
The Israeli military has secretly found the Gaza Health Ministry's casualty
figures to be reliable and even uses those numbers for its own intelligence
briefings.
Oh, and the world's most famous medical journal, The Lancet, found no
evidence of inflated mortality reporting from the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Lie number six, there is no hunger in Gaza.
That is an exact quote from an Israeli defense official.
And it's a lie, obviously.
Ask the parents of poor Mahmoud Fatu, the two-month-old baby who
starved to death recently in Gaza.
According to the World Food Program, four out of five of the hungriest
people in the world right now are in Gaza.
And lie number seven, the Gazans getting killed today elected Hamas.
They voted for them.
Put aside for one moment the Bin Ladenist logic that says if you vote a way I
don't like, I get to kill you.
It's just not true that Gazans elected Hamas.
It's a lie.
Half of the population of Gaza are kids under the age of 18.
Most of them weren't even born when the last elections in Gaza took place
nearly two decades ago.
And even in those 2006 legislative elections, Hamas didn't win a majority of
the votes cast in Gaza.
So again and again the Israeli government and its supporters in the West tell
brazen, shameless lies about the war and so again and again we must call
out those dangerous and deadly lies even if others in our media won't.
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Responses:
[53137] |
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53137 |
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Date: March 07, 2024 at 20:12:34
From: Mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Answered |
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Hostages killed by airstrikes? Blame Hamas.
The Hamas Covenant calls for the destruction of Israel.
Hamas and their supporters have nothing in this war
except the victims they create and parade, their hate
and mistakes and defensiveness of Israelis.
1.Protestors were hit on ankles Oct 4. Any provocation?
The Guardian thinks so:
"Medics in the Gaza Strip have reported treating an
influx of protesters who appear to have been
deliberately targeted in the ankle by Israeli forces in
recent unrest at the volatile boundary of the blockaded
Palestinian enclave.
At least one person has been killed and dozens more
wounded since demonstrations by groups of young men,
some of them throwing stones and molotov cocktails,
began in mid-September. "
Are soldiers supposed to assume that what is being
thrown at them is not dangerous? Shooting ankles is
preferable to killing, which has been done in the past.
Airstrikes. In September Hamas was blatantly doing
militia exercises for purpose of invasion. Provocation
deluxe, while I found no further reason for airstrikes
it does not mean it didn't exist.
2. Biden's priority is not the priority of every
Israeli and why should it be? There are different
responses to tragedy. Although I agree with the
minister, if there is no Hamas, then no fear of further
hostages, the Hamas charter is mayhem and destruction.
Israelis killed their own in airstrikes? Not
intentionally. One in five Israeli soldier deaths are
due to friendly fire. Urban warfare is dangerous. But
those hostages and soldiers and civilians would have
been home were it not for Hamas. Hamas killed them, no
matter the intentional, accidental bullet or bomb.
3. Beheaded babies? A meme quickly discovered and
discounted. Only your writer remembers that.
4. Bunker under the hospital? Israelis knew about the
bunkers because they built them years before. Beyond
that, justification for striking hospitals in a war
zone? Where might Hamas hide? Israelis knew about the
bunkers, beyond that they were wrong, it's a tragedy to
lose a hospital, a continuation of the war even more
so. The generals chose.
That's my view of what happened, not my approval.
There should have been evacuation and choice for people
to leave. The neighbors Egypt, etc., thought it too
dangerous to them, they know who Hamas is.
Had HAMAS not attacked no child, no person would have
died unnecessarily.
5. Trust Hamas anything... ?? The Health Ministry may
do something accurate about death numbers, after all it
is the fulfillment of their loftiest goal.
6. An "Israeli defense minister" says there is no
hunger? Why does anything an obviously prejudiced
functionary proclaims deserve attention?
Is there enough food to feed these people? Are the
people, the families, getting the food available or is
Hamas keeping it from them as is their historical model
to squirrel stores for themselves. What Hamas member
has starved to death? Why feed the murdering soldiers
and leave babies to starve? Blame Hamas.
7. Who says these Gazans voted for Hamas? Every
reference I have seen states the opposite. There hasn't
been an election since 2006. The authoritarian Hamas
preyed upon their people. The writer must be getting
tired.
Blame Hamas that we aren't talking about a two state
solution, getting Israel out of Gaza, education,
healthcare for Gazans, ending the apartheid and an open
future for Palestinian citizens.
Blame Hamas for the invasion and this war. Blame us if
we can't help end Hamas and give the Palestinians a
better future the sooner the better.
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Responses:
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53103 |
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Date: March 05, 2024 at 14:53:22
From: chatillon, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: And Hamas won't sign ceasefire or surrender - Who's.... |
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...bombs, bullets, white phosphorus, bulldozers, etc are
killing and maiming Palestinians?
Is this another instance of 'We'll never forgive you for
making us kill your children.'?
Hamas has been agreeable to signing ceasefire, but not
under the occupier's terms. Isreal helped create its own
monster.
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