Child wounded in IDF attack rushed to treatment (photo: Reuters)This is getting to be a habit. The IDF’s third assassination attempt in a row has ended with multiple dead civilians. Two dead and among them a woman seven months pregnant. This time like the most recent attempt ended with IDF failure to kill the intended targets. The bad guys get away. The innocent suffer. Isn’t that the way it goes in Palestine? Actually, in Israel as well as the residents of Sderot are also innocent victims of Palestinian rocket fire. The prime difference is that the IDF kills far more civilians than the Palestinians. Five Israelis have died in four years of Qassam shelling while 13 Palestinian civilians have died this month alone.
Maybe we’ll have to start calling those IDF pilots the ‘gang that can’t shoot straight.’ Actually, that’s a bad joke. Not funny. But after so many of these disastrous strikes what else can one resort to? Only bad taste comes to mind unfortunately.
Here’s how today’s mayhem went down:
Two Palestinian civilians were killed and 14 others – all members of the same family – were wounded in an Israel Air Force strike in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening. ..
Three children were among the wounded…Medical personnel in Gaza said…that some of the wounded were in critical condition.
The 37-year-old woman killed in the strike, Fatima El-Barbarwi, was seven months pregnant. The other casualty was her brother, a 45-year-old doctor named Zakariya Ahmed residing in Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed was visiting his sister in Gaza and the family had settled down for the evening meal when they were hit by the missile. A pool of blood marked the floor in their kitchen.
Doctors tried to save the woman’s seven-month-old fetus, but failed, they said.
Palestinian witnesses said the apparent target of the IAF strike had been a jeep carrying members of the Popular Resistance Committees but the missile struck the house instead. A witness said the vehicle carrying the Palestinian militants passed by the house as the explosion occurred. The men inside jumped out of the car and ran into a nearby field.
How’s this for a pathetic response from the IDF:
“What happened in this case, the missile simply missed,” said the IDF spokeswoman.
A senior IAF officer, speaking on condition of anonymity under military regulations, said the missile missed its target by several dozen meters.
Several dozen meters? That’s outrageous. The IDF boasts of pinpoint accuracy yet misses its targets by wide margins. Next time the Palestinians should erect visual aids to help improve the pilot’s aim. Again, another bad joke. Excuse me but my bile is getting the better of me.
Oh, you’ll be pleased and reassured to know the IDF is appointing yet another inquiry into the recent spate of civilian deaths through IDF action. If it’s anything like the one into the Gaza beach massacre you can be sure it will be thorough, credible and exhaustive and won’t stop till it gets at the truth. Ahem!
There is one very small positive development here. Amir Peretz has apparently decided, at least for the time being, to suspend the IDF artillery barrage against Palestinian rocket launchers after the embarrassment of the Gaza beach massacre. But he’s turned with a vengeance to targeted assassinations by air as his fallback tactic. The only other choice is a land invasion to reoccupy Gaza, which Israel wishes to avoid at all costs becauses it wants the spotlight to remain on the mess that Hamas and Fatah are making of ruling Gaza. But attacks from the air are–judging by the IDF’s recent abysmal failures–apparently just as flawed a tactic as artillery barrages. I wonder how long it’ll take for this to sink in?
Amos Harel writes an informative piece in Haaretz, Nothing ‘surgical’ about air force attacks in urban areas, which states in part:
…There is a flawed impression in Israel that it is possible to carry out an assassination without harming innocent civilians.
You conveniently don’t count the number of Israeli citizens killed in suicide bombings – which are planned and organized by the terrorists that the IDF targets in these operations. The IDF at least aims at the killers – and doesn’t just send rockets anywhere – which is what the Palestinians do in Gaza.
Not at all, I’m happy to discuss that issue because it too shoots down (pardon the pun) yr argument. Certainly, many hundreds, perhaps thousands of Israelis have been murdered in these bombings. I don’t in any way defend or explain them as they’re flat out criminal (in the same way that the IDF’s artillery barrages which kill & maim Palestinians are).
But the statistics prove that Palestinian deaths FAR OUTWEIGH Israeli in such incidents. I remember reading the ratio of 4:1.
There are many reasons why the Palestinians use different tactics than the IDF. I assure you that if the Palestinians had half the weaponry of the IDF (thank God they don’t) then their tactics would much more closely resemble the IDF’s. When you’re a guerilla insurgent you use the materials you have at hand & the tactics that are available to you. Is it brutal & heinous to kill civilians indiscriminately (on both sides)? Yes. But remember that conept of proportionality–the deaths on the Palestinian side far outweight those on the Israeli. A morally responsible government would take that into account when planning anti-terror policy to mitigate the number of needless deaths. As any reading of any Israeli daily newspaper will tell you, they haven’t done so. In fact they’ve loosened the rules of fire & engagement allowing IDF pilots to be even more trigger free than previously. We’ve seen the tragic results of this in the past month.
Getting to be a habit indeed. In the 13 odd years that the PA has been in existence would you venture to guess how many times it has aided Israel in brining militant /criminals to justice? Here’s a hint: ZERO. So Israel carries on, doing what it can.
People complain when Israel exerts too much of a presence in the so called “territories,” and whine even louder when Israel decides to buy into the whole “occupation” dynamic and stay put on its side of the de facto border. They cried about the opressice checkpoints, curfws, and demolitions but once Israel pulled out of Gaza, it took all of 45 minutes for terrorists to launch a strike, testing the waters so to speak [actually a cooridinated suicide operation was uncovered and defused DURING the pullout].
Since Israel has pulled out of Gaza there have been no less than 6 Qassams each and every day [and quite often alot more]. Israel could cross over and rish the wrath of every professional whiner the world over, it could sit on its hands as the PA yet again fails to assist in the apprehension of the wanted parties, or it could take a proactive approach…which gratefully it has done.
In taking this more agressive approach Israel risks [and often does] coming off as the offensive party. In fact, International Law fully supports the rights of sovereign nations to denfend themselves when faced with total annihilation and make no mistake, this is what Israel is up against. It is an unfortunate fact of life that when it comes to armed conflicts, innocent non-combatants WILL BE adversely effected….even injured and very sadly, death. The American general said it best in WWII, “War is hell.”
A typically misleading comment from this poster. Israeli journalist Robert Rosenberg of Ariga.com writes that before the Hamas attack on the IDF outpost the number of Qassams fired had diminished:
Since Peretz ordered an end to artillery shelling of Gaza and IAF targeted assassinations by air the Qassams had decreased exponentially. Also, Qassams have not killed any Israeli since the Gaza disengagement a year ago.
It certainly does. It supports a nation’s right to DEFEND itself which certainly does not include killing scores of civilians through its so called acts of defense. International law does not view incursions by a country into territory not its own as “defensive.” International law certainly never recognized Israel’s occupation of Gaza and would not recognize the current invasion as a “defensive” operation.
“Adversely effected [sic]” indeed. Oh the euphemisms you hardline apologists use!
One final note: I do NOT appreciate the commenter calling people with my views “whiners.” Say what you want anywhere else you on the web wish, but you won’t use such disparaging remarks here unless you wish to be banned or yr comment deleted.
First of all, you need to research your information a tad bit better. Noone has been killed by a Qassam since Disengagement? 2 Israelis were killed near Nahal Oz this past March. A father and son, Israeli Bedua by the way. Second of all, I stand by my comment of at least 6 having been fiored per day and asI said, often a bit more. this does not include Grads which have also been fired at regular intervals.
You find the word “whiner” offensive? Typical but of course THIS is YOUR world and who am I to go against the grain? I must take issue though wirth your use of the word “typical” since until today I have only postted here once. How does one post typify anything?
Now….Your comments on a nation entering land not its own has nothing to do with this issue. As you most definitely know, Gaza was a military administrative territory of Egypt up until 1967. In the 67 War Egypt relinquished any and all claims to the land rendering it in effect, a no man’s land. International LAw has no clear application for this situation, hence the lack of action with regard to either claimant on this issue.
If, as you say it was clearly a violation of International Law, where are the indictments? The only thing the Tribunal has EVER done with regard top Israel was issue a brief on the “Barrier.”
The usual complaint of “occupation” is of course not realistic, again hence the lack of indictment or relevant action. The only INDEPENDANT nation to exist in either Gaza OR the so called “West Bank” was a Jewish nation so if Israel is occupying anything it is its ancestral homeland! Furthermore, there has never been a nation known as “Palestine.”
As for “defensive action,” one can certainly interpret proactive deployment as a defensive action. Was Israel’s pre-emptive air strikes in 67 offensive actions? Of course by the letter of the law it was but as any rational person known, it was in defensive mode.
Israel is a sovereign, legal nation. The militants launching all sorts of ordnance at Israel or neither. the entity responsible for keeping those militants in check [i.e the PA] refuses to uphold its mandate [of course because the PA is controlled by the chief instigator HAMAS]. Should Israel just allow its citizens and property to be assaulted at will? Who will stop it? The PA? EU? UN? Only Israel is left to do what it must.
Sadly, innocent Arabs living in Gaza are caught in the middle. Of course this is part and parcel of the HAMAS strategy in what they deem a win/win m.o. Anytime an innocent Arab dies from an Israeli defensive measure their photo is shopped around the world, as evidenced by your unfortunate usage in this very thread.
Israel takes whatever steps it can to try and minimise such collateral damage but as you should know, Gaza is one of, if not THE world’s most densely populated areas. Hopefully HAMAS and others will soon lay down their arms and allow their innocent neighbours, both Israeli and “Palestinian”, to live in peaceful coexistence.
Rachamim:
You are a sneaky one, aren’t you? Here’s a quote from another comment you left at this site:
If this story is correct (and you provide no link to an objective media source so I can’t verify your claim & I certainly will not accept any claim from you w/o such substantiation), it only proves that two Israeli Beouins found a Qassam and accidentally detonated it. Qassam rocket fire has not killed an Israeli since disengagement. That is a true statement. If we blame Palestinian militants for these deaths then we also must blame the IDF when it’s unexploded munitions kill innocent Palestinians.
You have written several comments (too many) here and I have read only too much of your propaganda at other sites where you plant your [Israeli] flag & know your MO quite well.
As for the rest of your droning exercise in propaganda, I simply have other things to do than to get into a big mahloket with you. ‘Mostly like you’ll go your way & I’ll go mine’ to quote my ‘rabbi.’
Could someone tell me if there is an international campaign ongoing to ban aerial assasinations specifically in built up areas. Several years ago the landmine campaign got a boost when Britains Princess Diane took up the cause.
I believe its a cause which could get high profile celebrities involved.
You call a difference in opinion “propaganda?” Again, how typical. then I am kindly shown the door….Right, so stay in your pretend world and be happy. however, you are not representative of anything other than your left wing fantasies. If this is posted, Ill be suprised, never the less I will honour your wishes and leave you in peace, which is about the only peace you leftists are capable of creating.