Terror-Bombing Gaza, Ignoring Israeli High Crimes
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
In response to several rockets fired from Gaza, landing harmlessly, Israeli warplanes terror-bombed 100 targets in the Strip pre-dawn Friday, according to an IDF spokesperson.
The world community and UN ignored Israeli naked aggression like many times before, illegally blockaded Gazans in harm’s way, safe havens unavailable to them. They’re easy targets for Israeli terror tactics.
Netanyahu regime hardliners wrongfully blame Hamas for whatever goes on in Gaza. It virtually never launches rockets at Israel except in self-defense when attacked, its legitimate right.
It had nothing to do with rockets fired at Israel on Friday. It’s Palestine’s legitimate government, not the US/Israeli-created PA, established to serve their interests as enforcers, denying West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians their fundamental rights.
Israel’s military intelligence-connected DEBKAfile (DF) turned truth on its head about the IDF terror-bombings as follow, saying:
“Since there were no Palestinian casualties (sic), it means that none of Hamas terrorists (sic) responsible for the Tel Aviv rocket attack paid a price. Their military compounds were evacuated in good time in expectation of the Israeli reprisal.”
“Photos show lightly damaged buildings and deep craters from exploding IDF ordnance. The Palestinian terrorist group (sic) will therefore hardly be deterred from taking another crack at Israel’s heartland cities (sic). Their leaders will even be encouraged to continue (sic) after getting away with it this time (sic).”
Fact: Four Palestinian civilians were injured during the terror-bombing attacks, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Fact: Hamas and other Palestinian factions denied responsibility for several rockets fired on Israel.
Fact: Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and Security said rockets fired from the Strip disobeyed policies observed by all Gazan factions, adding measures will be taken to hold responsible individuals accountable.
Fact: DF calling Hamas officials “terrorists” is a bald-faced Big Lie.
Fact: Saying they won’t be “deterred from taking another crack at Israel’s heartland cities” turned reality on its head. They shun belligerent confrontation with Israel.
Fact: Saying they’ll be “encouraged” to launch further attacks compounded DF’s Big Lie.
For the first time since Great March of Return protests began last March 30, the National Committee for Breaking the Siege suspended Friday demonstrations near Israel’s border because of its pre-dawn terror-bombing attacks, wanting to avoid a possible bloodbath.
Note: Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome defense system failed to intercept incoming rockets, an IDF statement saying the following:
“Two rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory. The alert and warning systems operated as required.”
“No interceptions were made by aerial defense systems. No damage or injuries were reported. There are no special instructions for the civilian home front.”
It was a nonevent for Israel. Where’s the world outrage to the IDF terror-bombing 100 Gazan sites by its own admission, injuring four civilians and doing considerable damage – naked aggression by any standard!
Separately, Palestinian officials denounced the latest State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices for referring to the West Bank, Gaza, and Syria’s Golan as “Israeli-controlled,” no longer calling these territories “occupied” or under “occupation” as of last year’s report.
Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the following:
“(T)he Palestinian territor(ies) (have been) occupied since 1967 and the occupied Arab Golan are territories under Israeli occupation in accordance with UN resolutions and international law.”
PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi made strong comments as follows, saying:
The Trump regime is going all-out “to whitewash the Israeli occupation and its pervasive violations of human rights,” adding:
Its “so-called human rights report (reinvented) reality by omitting the inescapable fact of Israeli occupation of Palestine, reflecting this (regime’s) infatuation with an alternative yet fallacious version of reality and legality.”
Referring to Palestinians as mere “residents” of their homeland for thousands of years, negating the identity and dignity, “is both morally and politically reprehensible.”
The intent of the State Department report is clear – “to exonerate Israel from its indisputable human rights violations, while deliberately attempting to depict the racist policies and attitudes of the Israeli regime as benign despite the fact that they deny the Palestinian people’s humanity, nationality, and narrative.”
The Trump regime “made a mockery of the human rights report and reaffirmed its complicity in the promotion and support of human rights violations against Palestinian people. The legal and political standing of Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights as territory under Israeli occupation is indisputable under international law. Under the Trump administration, these facts have been discarded and denied in these reports.”
“However, denial of facts cannot alter reality nor change the legal and standing moral obligations of states under international law to respect and ensure respect of human rights.”
“It is futile to engage with such disruptive actors, especially given their aversion to facts and their demonstrable hostility to the Palestinian people’s national and human rights.”
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
