Israel Bombs Gaza - Hundreds Dead

[ejaz007]

Israeli troops admit shooting Gaza civilians
Updated at: 0810 PST, Friday, March 20, 2009


JERUSALEM: Striking testimony has emerged from Israeli soldiers involved in the recent Gaza war, in which they describe shooting unarmed civilians, sometimes under orders from their officers.

One soldier described how an Israeli sniper shot dead a Palestinian mother and her children, adding that troops believed Palestinian lives were "very, very, less important than the lives of our soldiers".

The accounts, published in two Israeli newspapers on Thursday, gave rare insight into how the soldiers acted. It reinforces Palestinian accounts of disproportionate Israeli force and contradicts the Israeli military's official version of events.

The accounts come from unnamed soldiers who were graduates of a pre-military course at Oranim Academic college, in Tivon, near Haifa. Their testimony was given in mid-February, and the transcript of the session was published this week.

A newspaper printed one infantry squad leader's description of the shooting of unarmed civilians: "There was a house with a family inside ... We put them in a room ... a few days after there was an order to release them. There was a sniper position on the roof. The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right.

One mother and her two children didn't understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was OK, and he should hold his fire and he ... he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders.

"The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them ... In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them."

He believed the sniper did not feel regret. "I don't think he felt too bad about it, because, after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it ... the lives of Palestinians, let's say, is something very, very, less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way."

According to a Palestinian human rights group, more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the three-week war, which began in late December. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the conflict.

A second squad leader, from the same brigade, related how a commander told troops to shoot a Palestinian woman walking near a house the soldiers had taken over. He added that "to write 'death to the Arabs' on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them" happened "just because you can".

The Israel Defence Forces had "fallen in the realm of ethics", he said. Another soldier, recalling ransacking Palestinian homes, said: "The entire contents of the house flew out the windows: refrigerator, plates, furniture."

Israeli troops admit shooting Gaza civilians

[happy.muslimah]

i dont know us claism that they are doing war against terror in pak and afghanistan..but my question is this is not terrorism wat israel is doing this is love peace or terrorism..they are killing thousands of inncocent muslims thats fair but when talibans kills us army they are called terrorist...wat a double standard..

in my eyes biggest terrorist in the world is us and israelll...not pakistani or afghanis

where are u muslims they are killing our brothers and sister and we are fighting against our own brothers sisters........................

jaag jao apny apko or deen e haq ko yun tamasha bnana chor do...wake up and be united...!!!

may Allah Almighty show us right path...Ameen

[sergente rehan]

After 9/11 there is a serious discrimination and racism against Muslms of the entire world! west and anti-Muslim forces are using there fake propaganda to do what they want to the Muslim world....the hole world talk only about genocide of jews during II world war but why they don't talk about Genocide of Muslims in Bosnia by serbs?! why they don't talk about thousands of innocent Muslims killed by F****** jews every year?! i simply don't understand why the people still cry the jews victims of II world war...it's has happend more then 60 years ago, in these past 30 years world had seen more brutal wars and crimes against humanity so why we have to spend a day for shoa? it's meanless bcz jews are now the agressors they are the evil ones...shoa is a total BS so why the west & US spend it's time on meanless things rather to fix now days problems (racism & discrimination against the Muslims)? because they all are of the same side....they will never accuse US, Israel or any other country if they are killing Innocent Muslims.
The only solution is that the entire Muslim world must become united and stand against the evil jews and all anti-Muslim forces, to start we must wipe out Israel they are our real enemy becasue they are controling US and using also india against Pakistan!

WIPE OUT ISRAEL & you will solve 50% of the worlds problems!
now i realise why Hitler done all that mess....(bcz jews were taking over German economy)

[Solomon2]

April 29, 2009: Israeli researchers continue to pick apart Palestinian claims that the 22 Day War last January "indiscriminately killed civilians." Hamas claims that 1,434 Palestinians were killed. Hamas further claims that only 235 were Hamas fighters, while another 239 were police officers, and 960 of the dead were civilians. Hamas admits that most of the "civilians" were men, mostly of military age. They also claim that 121 of the dead civilians were women and 288 were children (defined as anyone under 18).

Israel has been compiling and scrutinizing all reports of Palestinian deaths during the 22 day war. Israel has a lot of data on who Gazans are, both from when they ran the place (until they withdrew in 2005) and from intel collected since then. This includes data that appears on websites, where Hamas, and other Palestinian terrorist groups, tend to memorialize their dead. This is important for morale, and helps with recruiting, but it has also proved to be an embarrassing, if inadvertent, admission that Hamas has lied about who died.

Israel found that over two-thirds of the Palestinian dead were men of military age (18-35). They also found that most of the "children" were teenage males, and some have been found memorialized in Palestinian web sites as "martyred fighters." That means they were armed and on the payroll. Moreover, Hamas openly uses younger kids as lookouts and messengers. Lots of these "fighters" got killed simply because they deliberately placed themselves in the combat zone, or were sent there by their adult commanders. Thus over 70 percent of the Palestinian dead were working for Hamas, and most of them were armed...

link

[SoulOnIce]

Originally Posted by TruthSeeker

The largest financial supporters of the Palestinians are the US, EU and the UN. The OIC nations are the ones giving the most "lip service" to them.

Any aid that Palestinians get is miniscule in contrast to Israel directed aid. That is a fact.

Also, Palestinians have nowhere the financial autonomy necessary to reap benefits such as sustainable development from the aid. Unlike American financial aid that buoyed the Israeli economy repeatedly through difficult periods.

Nor do Palestinians have the stability necessary to actually make the aid give returns, most of the money is embezzled by the corrupt Palestinian Authority.

Palestinians also get nowhere the military aid that Israel does.

Just because the largest donors to the Palestinian Authority (which ultimately has little to no influence over the lives of Palestinians, and in fact lost ground to Hamas in a fratricidal takeover in the West Bank) are the US, EU, and the UN does not mean that there are actually tangible results or changes on the ground.

Most of the aid in fact trickles down into low value commodities, staple meals, medicine, and infrastructure maintenance. That is enough for survival, not prosperity.

Palestinians are without internationally normative rights, including those pertaining to rights to property. They are a people besieged in their own land, why do you not understand that? Why do you believe that the Palestinians should pay the price for a German orchestrated genocide? Why do you refuse to admit that Israel is infact guilty of ethnic cleansing, and that they keep refugee populations under horrible, racist, cruel, and unjust constraints?

Its time you grew up and realized that blankly throwing money at the problem is only another type of lip service

[SoulOnIce]

Originally Posted by kormanjones

It's barbaric because some terrorist went into a school of innocent defenseless kids and shot them to death. First of all, when they say 'civilians died in Gaza,' it doesn't mean innocent bystanders. Their 'civilians' shoot rockets too. So it's all propoganda to elicit sympathy from naive people. Second, because Israel is retaliating, not attacking. Thirdly, they are only retaliating there to begin with because that is where Hamas shoots rockets from. Tell Hamas to stop attacking from civilian locations. There's your answer, I hope you have enough sense to see the truth (samsonblinded.org/news).

You should realize that there has been too much bloodshed on both sides of civilians (btw hardline Israeli settlers whose settlements are illegal under international law also shoot) for a tit for tat preemptive/retaliatory measures to work effectively. Theres too much history involved now. They will not deter anyone who has nothing to lose.

Hamas attacks from civilian locations, so what? The Palestinians have no army, they're all "civilians", besides in the tiny, oppressed enclave of the West Bank, it should be obvious that they have very limited options as to where to attack from . Second civilian locations have never deterred any other army.

But has it ever occurred to you that Hamas fights from "civilian" locations because the Israeli army attacks civilian locations? Israeli war crimes on Palestinian civilians are well documented, and by fr overshadow Palestinians war crimes thanks to the disproportionate response/initiative of the Israeli. A few homemade Hamas Katyushka rockets versus Illegal Israeli cluster bombing.

[Solomon2]

Originally Posted by SoulOnIce

Israeli war crimes on Palestinian civilians are well documented, and by fr overshadow Palestinians war crimes thanks to the disproportionate response/initiative of the Israeli

Please provide proofs or references for all these assertions.

[Solomon2]

"...the report the UN has produced does little to bring understanding or justice to the conflict in Gaza. The UN secretary general appears to have realised this and has tried to distance himself from it.

The report's underlying premise is that UN property enjoys absolute immunity. Of course, that is right, but the report should surely have explored why a military force needed to take action against an enemy in a built-up area at all. The undisputed fact – that Hamas was deliberately operating from such areas to launch attacks on Israeli civilian targets – is simply ignored." link