Some people, communicating via satellite phones, have described the attack as the “heaviest bombardment yet,” according to independent journalist Sharif Kouddous.

“People can’t call ambulances or civil defense. We are being bombed in an unprecedented manner,” said an unidentified journalist at a Gaza hospital, according to a translation by The Nation’s Palestinian correspondent, Mohammed El-Kurd. “The sky around us just lights up [with explosions], and no one knows what’s going on.”

  • @rdri
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    11 year ago

    I don’t think your assumption that Israel can only “attack Palestinians in hopes to harm hamas” is correct. They wouldn’t warn anyone otherwise and we know they did that a lot of times. Also their counter strikes would’ve been much more effective if they wouldn’t do that.

    There are no authorities in Gaza except hamas. Gaza is fully controlled by terrorists. If there would be such an authority I’m sure they wouldn’t allow building military objects under hospitals.

    They are using terrorist attacks to justice genocide.

    Think you mistyped “justify”. Israel doesn’t need to justify defending from terrorists. Hamas, on the other hand, has a record of using Palestinians as a shield and not caring to protect them at all.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      Hamas using them as a shield does not make killing them right.

      Israel is not defending itself from terrorism. It is retaliation for a terrorist attack.

      They do have some intelligence as to where Hamas use as locations etc however rules of war require they take precautions to minimise civilian casualties. They give some warnings as this gives plausible deniability that they are taking precautions. The number of dead civilians versus confirmed Hamas killed tells a different story. Telling people to leave but closing the border tells a different story. Telly people to leave one area then bombing the path they were told to take tells a different story.

      Hamas is the de facto government, but Palestine is not recognized as a state so there is not really a government, as most in other countries would know it, especially western counyries. Guess who is preventing normalisation of their sovereignty? Last elections were 17 years ago. The youngest people to vote are now over 35. 50% of the population is under 18. So, the legitimacy of saying they voted for this is spurious at best. Remember Israel and netamyahu in particular stifled their competitors.

      Incessant bombing of civilians is creating more terrorists, not less. That doesn’t make it right, but to make out like Israel is defending itself while killing thousands of children is ridiculous. Israel as a state is a de facto terrorist state too at this point

      • @rdri
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        11 year ago

        Hamas using them as a shield does not make killing them right.

        It makes hamas responsible for their death. Otherwise, you are suggesting leaving alone terrorists who asked you to not bomb them, and who will still proceed to bomb you.

        Israel is not defending itself from terrorism. It is retaliation for a terrorist attack.

        Hamas launched rockets regularly. And you’re saying Israel only now started to retaliate? They must be very lazy, yes? Or maybe it’s because they have been shown they had to do it, as defending-only way no longer works.

        They give some warnings as this gives plausible deniability that they are taking precautions.

        Wow, people do what they have to do and you are saying they are doing it with malicious intention.

        The number of dead civilians versus confirmed Hamas killed tells a different story.

        What versus what exactly? One side is Israel who is monitored by the whole world, and the other is a territory controlled by terrorists. Numbers coming from the latter are useless without further confirmations.

        Telling people to leave but closing the border tells a different story.

        Did Israel close the border? I know Egypt did. Can’t blame Israel if they did so.

        Telly people to leave one area then bombing the path they were told to take tells a different story.

        Proceed to demand explanation if you like. I doubt they would waste resources to do something that useless.

        Hamas is the de facto government, but Palestine is not recognized as a state so there is not really a government, as most in other countries would know it, especially western counyries. Guess who is preventing normalisation of their sovereignty?

        If they really wanted to become a proper country with proper government they would at least try. Instead they are focused on trying to do the impossible - winning the war versus Israel, using stones and sticks.

        Last elections were 17 years ago. The youngest people to vote are now over 35. 50% of the population is under 18. So, the legitimacy of saying they voted for this is spurious at best.

        Those are useless details that can’t justify anything.

        Remember Israel and netamyahu in particular stifled their competitors.

        Irrelevant. You are proposing basically that hamas is the best Palestinians can get, and I strongly disagree.

        Incessant bombing of civilians is creating more terrorists, not less. That doesn’t make it right, but to make out like Israel is defending itself while killing thousands of children is ridiculous. Israel as a state is a de facto terrorist state too at this point

        • this is not what Israel wants or tries to do.
        • hamas created situations where civillians are located near places they launch rockets from.
        • hamas also created situation where Palestinians are not protected at all from any (counter)attacks. They say this is a responsibility of others which is ridiculous.
        • hamas can stop the whole thing by surrendering.
        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          Israel is responsible for the Palestinians dead, not Hamas. The question is whether they are justified in killing the Palestinians. It is a war crime to kill indiscriminately without care to avoid civilian casualties. That’s why I mention about the performative warnings. They are not genuine nor helpful.

          Hamas launched rockets for years. Israel kicked Palestinians out of settlements and killed them for years. Again, one side being terrible doesn’t make the other good. Look at the statistics of how many Israel is died versus how many Palestinians. Your logic that Israel has a right to defend itself goes both ways.

          Yes Israel closed the border. And cut off supplies of food water and medical supplies. Thousands of children are being treated in hospitals for burns covering over 40% of their bodies with no available general anesthesia. That is cruelty and inhumane.

          I agree, Palestinians can do better than Hamas. Guess who stifled funding for their competition? Israel, or more specifically, Netamyahu. There has been calls for a Palestine state for decades, including negotiations with USA helping intervene. They were abandoned due to both sides not budging. Again, no good side, just bad on both, with innocent people dying in the meantime.

          You say that Hamas is the government then ignore the problems with legitimacy of Hamas. You ignore that the Palestinians want to be a state but most other countries refuse to recognize it. They already consider themselves a state. Youre not following logic or using similar metrics for each side, so I’m going to leave it here. I hope you continue to learn more as you seem to be arguing from a place of propaganda rather than facts. We are all susceptible to propaganda, so that’s not a dig at you but I thought worth pointing out.

          • @rdri
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            11 year ago

            Israel is responsible for the Palestinians dead, not Hamas.

            And there is a chance Israel will be held responsible for this, as it should work. It won’t work like that with hamas, and this is wrong.

            The question is whether they are justified in killing the Palestinians.

            I don’t think it works like that. They are justified in defending against and trying to prevent terrorists attacks. History shows it is somewhat effective. What hamas does though, is shown as not effective, from what I understand. Therefore it can’t be justified.

            It is a war crime to kill indiscriminately without care to avoid civilian casualties.

            It’s not Israel’s actions but hamas’ actions and attitude that makes you think what’s happening can be called “killing indiscriminately”. Usually when you are at war you try to protect your citizens and keep them away from any war actions. It goes without saying that it doesn’t how hamas sees the world. They think they can spend zero resources on protection and use collateral damage as a weapon by saying “hey look how many of us they killed, it’s unfair because we killed less”. This logic is flawed. If they could they’d kill many more. If they could they’d kill every single jew - that’s what they publicly declared in their manifest basically. Israel is much different from that and we can’t assume they’d kill every Palestinian if they could.

            Again, one side being terrible doesn’t make the other good. Look at the statistics of how many Israel is died versus how many Palestinians. Your logic that Israel has a right to defend itself goes both ways.

            See above where I explained the difference in deaths and why it’s only natural. Hamas does not defend itself, it only uses hostages as live shields. Also tunnels. Tunnels under hospitals too, probably.

            Yes Israel closed the border. And cut off supplies of food water and medical supplies. Thousands of children are being treated in hospitals for burns covering over 40% of their bodies with no available general anesthesia.

            It should not be the responsibility of Israel to provide resources to Gaza if Gaza did nothing to try to become independent. Yes, this can be judged and I’ll let all responsible people and representatives to do the judgement. But hamas produced rockets, not anesthesia. This is cruelty and inhumane.

            Guess who stifled funding for their competition? Israel, or more specifically, Netamyahu. There has been calls for a Palestine state for decades, including negotiations with USA helping intervene. They were abandoned due to both sides not budging.

            You can’t blame one person for a failure of the whole state to become a proper country. If it takes that little to do so much then Palestine is in no shape to do anything and they must improve their situation first.

            You say that Hamas is the government then ignore the problems with legitimacy of Hamas. You ignore that the Palestinians want to be a state but most other countries refuse to recognize it.

            Figure out why then try to fix it?

            They already consider themselves a state.

            With how reliant they are on the rest of the world, I doubt this consideration can be viewed seriously by anyone.

            Youre not following logic or using similar metrics for each side

            I mean, one side is a country with relatively serious army and the other one is controlled by terrorists who declare they will rid the world of a whole nation, build nothing but missiles and tunnels, use hostages and demand the whole world to fund and protect them. Metrics are different, yes. Maybe if hamas starts doing something logical we’ll talk.