Israel Considers Premeditated Mass Slaughter and Destruction in Gaza Self-Defense
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Israeli state terror against Palestinians is longstanding, official policy throughout its history.
Terrorizing Hamas began after its triumph in Palestinian January 2006 legislative elections — winning majority Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) control, a largely non-functioning body post-election.
Israel effectively shut it down, arresting dozens of Hamas MPs post-election for belonging to a party it doesn’t control, falsely calling them “members of a terrorist organization (sic) although they may not be involved in terrorist acts themselves.”
At the behest of Israel, the State Department wrongfully designated Hamas a terrorist organization — for not pledging fealty to the Jewish state, how installed puppet Abbas and his cronies operate.
The Oslo-created Palestinian Authority serves as Israel’s enforcer in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Hamas confined to Gaza, its two million residents suffocating under politicized/illegal Israeli blockade, an undeclared act of war ongoing daily.
Israel’s latest escalation of violence began Friday. It continued intensively throughout the weekend until pre-dawn Monday.
Longstanding Israeli policy considers noncombatants, including young children and infants, legitimate targets, flagrantly violating core international law.
The world community consistently does nothing to hold its officials accountable for mass murder, vast destruction, and other for atrocities, continuing at the Jewish state’s discretion.
On Friday, IDF snipers killed two Palestinians, lethally shot with live fire during the 57th Great March of Return and Breaking the (illegal) Siege protests.
On the same day, IDF terror-bombing killed two more Gazans.
Intensive terror-bombing and cross-border shelling began Saturday morning, following rocket fire from Gaza in response to the terror-bombing deaths.
Palestinians are consistently and repeatedly blamed for Israeli crimes committed against them, how the apartheid state operates, supported and encouraged by Republicans and undemocratic Dems.
Unlike his predecessors, Trump dropped all pretense of even-handedness, one-sidedly supporting Israel, showing utter contempt for Palestinian rights — why his no-peace/deal of the century is dead before arrival.
Since March 30, 2018, nearly 300 Gazans were killed, more than 26,000 others injured, many seriously, including clearly identified paramedics and journalists — targeted for doing their jobs.
Israel holds the entire Strip’s population captive to its viciousness, including women and children, because its leadership won’t surrender its authority to brutalizing Israeli control — how the PA operates in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) fieldworkers, the IDF “fired 50 artillery shells and 78 missiles at 76 targets (through Saturday alone), including two residential buildings, 11 agricultural plots, and the Palestinian armed groups’ military sites and checkpoints (used for defense, not offense) that were previously targeted more than once.”
Late afternoon on Saturday, Israeli terror-bombing killed a 14-month-old infant, a pregnant woman, and her fetus, wounding others in attacks on residential areas.
Gaza City residential buildings and offices were destroyed. Multiple explosions terrorized Gazans, especially women and children, living in a war zone, attacked by a ruthless regime dismissive of Palestinian rights.
According to the PCHR, IDF terror-bombing and shelling “continued to target residential buildings in densely-populated neighborhoods, inflicting more casualties and destruction. All of this has been followed up by PCHR’s staff spread all over the Gaza Strip to document and investigate the circumstances of those crimes.”
On Sunday, Maan News reported that Israeli terror-bombing and shelling killed nine Palestinians, scores more injured, adding:
“Sources (in Gaza) confirmed that seven residential buildings, which were made up of apartments and offices, were completely destroyed in Gaza City.”
A “mosque, several schools, four family homes, and three ambulances were completely destroyed.” Israeli terror-bombing “left a number of Palestinian families, mostly women and young children, homeless.”
An IDF statement said about 260 sites were bombed. Gazans responded with hundreds of rockets. According to Haaretz, four Israelis were killed, others injured, along with 11 Palestinians — Hamas and Islamic Jihad wrongfully blamed for the Netanyahu regime’s initiated aggression.
UN special envoy for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov shamefully joined the US/Israeli-led anti-Hamas chorus, tweeting:
“I condemn the continuing launching of rockets from #Gaza” — ignoring Israel’s suffocating blockade and aggression, Gazans responding in self-defense, their international law affirmed right.
Hate-monger/unindicted war criminal Netanyahu ordered the IDF to continue terror-bombing the Strip ahead of a Sunday security cabinet meeting,” saying:
“I ordered the IDF this morning to continue its massive strikes against terror forces (sic) in the Gaza Strip, and instructed (the army) to bolster its presence around the Gaza Strip with armor, artillery and infantry forces,” adding:
“Hamas bears responsibility not only for its own attacks and actions, but also for Islamic Jihad’s actions (sic), and it is paying very dearly for them.”
Israeli ground troops were deployed to Gaza’s border. Does Netanyahu intend full-scale naked aggression on the Strip for the fourth time since December 2008, three times on his watch?
An IDF spokesperson said its 7th Armored Brigade headed toward the Israeli/Strip border “so that there would be a force available in the Gaza Division in case there is a need for it.”
A second IDF statement suggested that attacks on the Strip will likely continue for days.
A bloodbath and vast destruction would ensue until calm is restored, further high crimes of war and against humanity added to Netanyahu’s resume.
According to Press TV Sunday evening local time, “the total Palestinian death toll since Friday (stands at) 16,” at least 90 others wounded — citing Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, figures coming from Gaza’s health ministry.
A later update indicated 25 Palestinian deaths, over 150 others wounded, the death toll perhaps to rise.
Pre-dawn Monday, an uneasy truce was declared by both sides — effective 4:30AM local time. It’s just a matter of time before Israeli terror-bombing resumes. That’s been the Jewish state’s pattern since instituting illegal blockade on the Strip over a decade ago.
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