A really interesting article by Khaled Abu Toameh notes that protests in the West Bank against the current Gaza-Israel conflict have been only sparsely attended.
The feeling here on Tuesday was that many Palestinians related to the war in Gaza as if it were happening in another country.
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been separated for nearly two decades now. Most Palestinians living in the West Bank have never been to the Gaza Strip. Similarly, only a few Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have ever set foot in the West Bank.
Even when there were no Israeli-imposed travel restrictions, there was almost no interaction between the two communities. Although they may be united politically, the Palestinians in each area have always had different traditions and attitudes.
So while small protests were held, people sat around in cafes sipping cappacinos in Ramallah or went about their shopping ignoring them. There are a number of reasons for this, he suggests. It is an interesting and insightful article and worth reading.
Read the whole story here from last May: “By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli air strike that killed the 33-year-old last week also laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state.”
Later excerpt:
militant leaders allied to the enclave’s ruling Hamas group hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad’s “engineering unit” — its bomb makers. They fired a salvo of improvised rockets into Israel in response to his death.
Qiq’s body was wrapped in an Islamic Jihad flag at his funeral, pictorial posters in his honour still bedeck his family home this week, and a handwritten notice posted on the metal gate at the entrance to the school declared that Qiq, “the chief leader of the engineering unit”, would now find “paradise”.
That poster was removed soon after Reuters visited the Rafah Prep Boys School, run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. Staff there said on Monday that UNRWA officials had told them not to discuss Qiq’s activities.militant leaders allied to the enclave’s ruling Hamas group hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad’s “engineering unit” — its bomb makers. They fired a salvo of improvised rockets into Israel in response to his death.
Increasing reports are coming out of Gaza about Hamas taking over the aid shipments that are sent in by Israel and by other international agencies. As I reported earlier, journalists and now hospital doctors have said that Hamas has taken critical supplies from the hospitals in order to use them for injured fighters, leaving the civilian casualties without proper medical supplies.
Reports from inside Gaza say Hamas takes a cut out of all aid that arrives, including flour and medicine. Supplies intended to be distributed without gain among the population is seized by the group and sold to the residents, at a profit to the Hamas government.
One such incident was recorded Monday, when a convoy of trucks carrying supplies through the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened fire upon and seized by Hamas gunmen. Similar incidents occurred with trucks carrying fuel.
Again, this is not the first time Hamas has done this. They made Jordan hopping mad last February when they seized tons of supplies Jordan sent into Gaza for the civilians and Hamas took it for the militants and sold it to the civilians. They’ve hijacked fuel supplies sent in numerous times. They also seized two convoys (14 trucks worth) of medical supplies meant for the Red Crescent last February.
Reports out of Gaza say residents who attempted to flee their homes in the northern area of the Strip were forced to go back at gunpoint, by Hamas men.
The organization is presumably interested in increasing civilian casualties in order to give rise to international pressure against Israel. Arab media reported that in an IDF strike on a UN school 30 civilians were killed, but there is no legitimate way to prove gunmen were among those killed as Hamas tends to bury these bodies quickly, thus eliminating evidence in Israel’s favor.
Other civilian complaints state that Hamas gunmen pull children along with them “by the ears” from place to place, fearing that if they don’t have a child with them they will be fair game to the IDF. Others hide in civilian homes and stairwells, UNRWA ambulances, and mosques.
The natives are definitely not friendly in the urban jungle of the Gaza Strip –at least not those armed to the teeth and shooting from civilian buildings, who buried I.E.D.’s within the grounds of apartments and in parks, who set up boobytraps that cause massive explosions when set off in houses and rigged across streets, and who launch missiles from between houses. This video, taken from footage yesterday, shows exactly what the IDF is up against with terrorists engaging in attacks surrounded by civilian men, women and children. Pretty sobering stuff. These guys are simply evil –they have utterly
A missile launcher and a number of anti tank missiles were discovered hidden in a Palestinian school yard in Sajalya, northern Gaza Strip, during an IDF operation against terror threats. The IDF force returned fire at an armed Palestinian gunman who opened fire at the soldiers and identified hitting him.
**Update*** IDF report on UN-school today:
Direct link: herehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBf-Vh4pNghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBf-Vh4pNg
(Video referenced at end of broadcast is below)
********
The IDF struck back at rocket launchers today also at the UN-run school in Jabalya. An initial inquiry by forces on operating in the area of the incident indicates that a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jabalya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source.
This is not the first time that Hamas has fired mortars and rockets from schools, in such a way deliberately using civilians as human shields in their acts of terror against Israel. This was already proven several months ago by footage from an unmanned plane depicting rockets and mortars being fired from the yard of an UNRWA school:
Direct link here.
[Footage of Humanitarian aid being delivered yesterday, January 6th consisting of 80 trucks filled with food and medical supplies and this morning (January 7th) of 50 trucks containing medical supplies coming later this evening or tomorrow depending on how tired I am when I get off from work tonight]
Aid delivered January 2 (74 trucks filled with food, cooking oil, medical supplies plus 10 ambulances to be delivered to Gaza):
Operation Cast Lead continued throughout the night (Jan. 6) in the Gaza Strip and throughout the day (Jan. 7); large numbers of infantry, tank, engineering, artillery and intelligence forces operated throughout the Gaza Strip, with the assistance of the Israel Air Force and the Israel Navy.
Naval forces operated in the central Gaza Strip overnight, near Dir al-Balah. Several gunmen were killed during the operation.
The Paratroopers Brigade were operating in northern Gaza and identified a suicide bomber approaching them in order to detonate himself in an attack targeting the soldiers. The troops fired at the man, causing his suicide belt to detonate. One soldier was lightly wounded in the incident.
A structure in Jabaliya was attacked in a joint IDF and ISA operation. Iman Siam, the head of the Hamas rocket launching program was inside the building at the time. Siam is one of the senior Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and he founded the organization’s rocket launching program, in addition to being the head of Hamas’s artillery program throughout the Gaza Strip.
The IAF struck approximately 50 targets in Gaza. Among the targets were:
Approximately 10 Hamas weapons-storage facilities, some of which were located in the homes of senior members of the organization: Mahmad Shatiwi, a Hamas battalion commander; Osama Tabesh, a Hamas company commander; Bassel Abu Wadi, a Hamas company commander; Ashraff Jouda, a senior Hamas commander.
Three Hamas weapons storage facilities that also served as meeting places for senior members of the Hamas.
Two weapons production facilities, one of which was located in the home of Iman Jallalah, a Hamas company commander.
Five Hamas headquarters and two Hamas police buildings.
Two weapons smuggling tunnels and a booby-trapped house concealing tunnel entrances.
The Navy, Air Force and Artillery Corps continued to support ground forces in the northern Gaza Strip, striking Hamas targets, Hamas gunmen, and terrorists identified in rocket launching areas.
Summary of events in Israel forthcoming under separate post.
Hamas terrorists increased their rocket range on Tuesday morning, striking the city of Gedera for the first time. Gedera, located five miles south of Rehovot (which is in the center of the country for those unaware of Israel’s geography). The grad rocket slammed into a house and injured a 3-month old baby.
I was on the phone with a colleague in Beer Sheva when the siren went off and he had to drop the phone (it was a land line phone and not a cell) and run for cover as a grad rocket hit the city. A second rocket fell in Beer Sheva shortly after.
Kibbutz Ashdot Negev was hit by two rockets, as was Sha’ar HaNegev. Four rockets hit this morning in the Eskhol. 1 hit in Netivot.
Yesterday a total of 40 rockets hit Israeli communities. Wonder what the count will be by the end of the day today?
Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip said on Monday that the general feeling was that Hamas does not exist any longer as a governing body. “All their government institutions have been destroyed,” said a Gaza City reporter. “The Hamas leaders are now behaving like al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman Zawahiri. Their only public appearances are through recorded messages aired on Arab TV stations.”
It appears, from these reports, that Hamas leaders in Gaza are no longer able to maintain contact with the Hamas leaders in Syria. They threw away their mobile phones and went into deep hiding. Thus it came as a surprise to those in Hamas in Gaza that two representatives were being sent to Egypt to discuss a means of obtaining a ceasefire –the representatives are being sent from Damascus.
The leaders in Gaza are also not able to coordinate activity with their armed thugs and thus “The gunmen on the streets are now in charge,” the Palestinian reporter noted. “This is a dangerous situation, because they don’t report to anyone at the top. This has created a state of anarchy and confusion.”
A Hamas source in Gaza acknowledged that the Gaza leaders had completely disappeared from sight and were completely out of contact. He, however, said that Mashaal, the Damascus-based leader of Hamas, was in direct contact with commanders of Izzadin Kassam in different parts of the Gaza Strip and was issuing “military” orders from Syria. “There’s a vacuum in the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip,” they said. “The Hamas leaders in Damascus are now in charge. There’s no one to talk to in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas has opened their own medical treatment center for wounded fighters and are wholesale pilfering medical supplies from the Gaza hospitals and has stolen a significant portion of the medical supplies from aid shipments that were sent in for the treating of Gaza civilians.
This is not the first time that Hamas has stolen aid sent for the population in Gaza. During the Hamas-Fatah civil war, Hamas commandeered the majority of the food and medical supplies that were being sent in to Gaza and portioned it out only to their fighters and supporters, leaving the average Gaza residents and Fatah supporters in particular, without food and necessities.
In light of this intelligence, Israel sent in today an additional 50 truckloads of supplies (yesterday 80 trucksload of aid went in, and on Friday 74 truckloads went in) in the hopes some of it will reach the hospitals without being confiscated by Hamas.
And help Yael Care for the abandoned animals of Tel Aviv
About Yael
(Photo by Dani Machlis)
Name:Yael K
Location:Tel Aviv, Israel
I am not typical. I am not your typical Aliyah candidate: I'm very secular, did not grow up with zionist parents, and have almost no family living in Israel. I'm not what people typically think of when they hear "Jewish": I have blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. I was not your typical American but I'm becoming your typical Israeli: I speak 2 1/2 languages, used to vote democratic but am now a socialist-zionist-republican, and the last thing I want is a house in the suburbs. So what am I? In many ways, I'm a little bundle of contradictions. Stubborn yet not overly-opinionated (at least on most issues). Shy and reserved when I first meet someone but outgoing and bubbly once you get to know me. Practical but also fun-loving and spontaneous (in a practical kind of way, lol). I believe that I am a kind and caring person (hey, don't we all?). I am passionate about life and fiercely protective of those I love. And I'm crazy about my 356 7 cats.
Not to mention the 60 cats on the street around my apartment that I feed and vet!
(Photo by Dani Machlis)
