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HAMAS UNLEASHED A fresh barrage of deadly rocket fire towards Israel today in retaliation for the levelling of a 14-story building in Gaza by Israel, which ruled out an imminent ceasefire.
Hamas said the volley of 130 rockets, which killed a six-year-old boy in southern Israel and set off air raid warnings up to Tel Aviv, was a response to the destruction of Gaza City’s Al-Farouk tower.
The tower, which spewed black smoke from bright embers following the strike, was described by Israel as housing the Hamas intelligence service.
Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz had earlier vowed more attacks on Hamas and other Islamist militant groups in Gaza to bring “total, long-term quiet” before considering a ceasefire.
“This is just the beginning,” warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’ll deliver them blows they haven’t dreamt of.”
Gaza militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, said Israel’s army, which has carried out more than 350 air strikes on the crowded coastal enclave, targeting what it calls military sites.
At least 65 people have been killed in Gaza, including 16 children, and seven in Israel, including a soldier and one Indian national, since Monday.
The six-year-old boy died after a rocket struck his home in Sderot, where four other people were being treated for injuries, the United Hatzalah volunteer rescue agency said.
Three Palestinians have been killed in West Bank clashes since Monday. And at least 230 Palestinians and 110 Israelis have been wounded.
The bloodshed was triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Fears of ‘full-scale war’
As world powers voiced growing alarm over the crisis, the UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that “we’re escalating towards a full-scale war”.
The UN Security Council held another emergency meeting without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israel’s ally.
Netanyahu spoke this evening to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who reiterated his call to “end the violence”.
Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod, where police said “wide-scale riots erupted among some of the Arab residents”, and authorities later imposed an overnight curfew there.
There were fears of widening civil unrest as protesters waving Palestinian flags burnt cars and properties, including a synagogue, clashed with Israeli police and attacked Jewish motorists in several Jewish-Arab towns.
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, in unusually strong language, denounced what he described as a “pogrom” in which “an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob” had injured people and attacked sacred Jewish spaces.
Hamas said several of its top commanders have been killed in Israeli strikes, including its military chief in Gaza City, Bassem Issa.
Its leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened to step up attacks, warning that “if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged both sides to “step back from the brink”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said “everything must be done” to avoid a new Middle East conflict.
‘We don’t have a safe room’
In Gaza City, people have sifted through debris after a previous Israeli air strike destroyed a 12-storey building that Hamas said had been a residential building. It was also known to house the offices of several Hamas officials.
Five members of a single family were killed by an Israeli strike in northern Gaza Tuesday, including young brothers Ibrahim and Marwan, who were filling sacks of straw at the time.
“We were laughing and having fun when suddenly they began to bomb us. Everything around us caught fire,” their cousin, also called Ibrahim, told AFP.
In Israel’s central city of Lod, a man and a girl were killed Wednesday by rocket fire from Gaza. Israel identified one of the dead as 16-year-old Nadin Awad, an Arab Israeli.
Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52.
“I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket,” said Ismail. “It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we don’t have a safe room.”
An Israeli woman was killed when rockets hit Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv. In Ashkelon, a town near Gaza which Hamas threatened to turn into “hell”, rockets fired by militants killed two women yesterday.
The crisis flared last Friday when weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque.
Nightly disturbances have since flared in east Jerusalem, leaving more than 900 Palestinians injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The unrest has been driven by anger over the looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
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Victory to Palestine
@Gary Power: there is no victory to be had for either side in this conflict, only slipping further into the abyss that is the endless cycle of tit for tat violence and death, with extremists on both sides figuratively and literally calling the shots.
@David Van-Standen: it’s not a conflict it is colonisation of Palestine by Israel, military occupation by Israel, land theft by Israel and ethnic cleansing by Israel. A conflict is when both sides are on an equal footing militarily, this is definitely not the case.
@Twitruser2021: ethnic cleansing? Oh you mean the settlements? While yes they are a bone of contention, it’s interesting that a Jew can only live in Judea-Samaria with armed protection. Otherwise they would be murdered in cold blood. Outside those settlements the entire area is Judenrein. They same is not true for Arabs living in Israel proper. So which group has been ethnically cleansed?
@Gary Power: did you read the bit about a 6yr old being killed….
@Squarepeg01: “Settlements”, you mean the Jewish only government subsidized colonies built on land that has been ethnically cleansed of the indigenous population at gunpoint. The remaining population are then terrorised daily by The Occuping Forces and the Price Tag terrorists housed in the colonies.
@Gavan Duffy: I get it – those ‘colonies’ are bad PR for Israel. Do the Paletinians get a fair shake in the Israeli courts when it comes to property rights? Probably not. But my point still stands: even Jews who unintentionally stray into Palestinian areas will be killed if caught. Palestinian political leaders actively encourage it. And the Palestinians have had countless opportunities to gain statehood – they’ve squandered them all. They’ve had over 70 years to negotiate. Just sign a deal already and be done with it and there will be no more trouble over the settlements.
@Squarepeg01: and then settlement land given back to the Palestinians?
@Squarepeg01: maybe listen to an impartial podcast called “martyrs made”. Would be interested to hear your views on propriety. If you take the time to do so.
Given our own history, can one disregard and digest human rights, systematic political, educational and sponsored military abuse of the indigenous people.
@Bill Spill: all stakeholders understand that land swaps would be part of any final deal. The Israelis would have to give up some areas, the Palestinians would have to do likewise. It’s not like the Israelis don’t have form in this area – they unilaterally dismantled their settlements in Gaza in 2005.
@Gary Power: time for Netanyahu to be taken out!
@Gary Power: You mean victory to Hamas, the terror group.
@Twitruser2021: a conflict is a protracted disagreement, in this case over the existence of the state of Israel, that is the core issue in this conflict.
There are extremists on both sides, that revel in maintaining the status quo of this conflict, because it keeps them relevant and in power, where as peace, and or moderates making peace, subjects them to mundane things like fiscal oversight and accountability.
I suggest you read about the initial land purchases that formed the foundation of the state of Israel, Palestinian land owners were more than happy to sell worthless shoreline and desert to Jewish organisations for decades, it doesn’t excuse any military action today that kills innocents, but it does give a slightly more balanced perspective on the “Colonisation of Palestine” .
@Squarepeg01: unfortunately you’re wasting your time trying to inject nuance and logic into this long standing conflict. It’s become a hashtag cottage industry now with “freepalestine” avatars lighting up social media as a fully virtue signaled cohort throw around labels like genocide with almost no understanding of the term or the region with its disingenuous actors on all sides.
@David Van-Standen: 100%…sadly this nugget of knowledge is lost to most.
Ireland has a temporary seat on the UN, but do we have the backbone to speak out further…that’s rhetorical. It’s a terrible loss of innocent life on both sides; however, the systematic and sponsored military bullying of Palestine is a disgrace.
@Seomra Ban: Covney did and Israel called in the Irish ambassador to explain his actions.
@Seomra Ban: you’re not keeping up with the news
@Paul Furey: look up the meaning of “further” then go back to sleep.
@Seomra Ban: you have 2 hopes of Ireland speaking against Israel boyhood and no hope And one of them are dead.
It’s amazing that all this has started during a time when Israel’s interim prime minister is trying to fend off both electoral defeat and criminal charges as well as being totally against Iran rejoining any future nuclear deal. Great timing!
@Murph11: well Mahmoud Abbas has postponed elections after 16 years in power, perhaps out of fear that Hamas will win. Might that be a factor too?
@Murph11: Shades of Wag the Dog!
@Murph11: The disturbances in Jerusalem were triggered when the Occupation forces cut the wires to the speakers used to call worshippers to prayer at the Al Asqua mosque, they also blocked access to the Damascus gate plaza, strange timing indeed, much like Sharon’s provocation years ago.
@Gavan Duffy: Sharon’s provocation? You mean his visit to the Al Aqsa mosque? And nothing of the subsequenr intifada was preplanned? Just like ‘worshippers’ at the mosque over the last few days didn’t come prepared for a pre-planned confrontation with police by stocking up on rocks etc. Here, I have a bridge to sell you.
I would like to see the Israeli Ambassador expelled from Ireland.
I don’t expect it would do a lot of good but at least we would be doing something to say that targeting apartment blocks with children in them is not acceptable on our watch.
I get that it’s complex but am I missing something here?
Israel learned a lot from 1941-45
@Thomas Ryan: Israel did not exist before 1948. What is your point?
@Peter McKevitt: I’m guessing here – but he might be referring to the reason Israel even exists – as reconciliation for an apartheid regime that discriminated against them, and tried to wipe them out during those years. You’d imagine a bit of empathy, really.
@Watcher-on-the-Wall: 1939 to 1945 was WW2. 1941 was when the genocide commenced.
@Peter McKevitt: Unsure what your last point is. Don’t think I said otherwise.
@Watcher-on-the-Wall: 1941 to 1945? When did the exterminations commence on an industrial scale?
@Peter McKevitt: WTF? Are you just arguing with yourself for fun? What is your point? I dunno – maybe we could boil it down to 5:47am on April 4th 1941, if you like? I really don’t know where you’re trying to go with this?
@Watcher-on-the-Wall: WW2 started in 1939.Agreed? Original post mentioned Israelis should remember 1941 to 1945. 1941 was when the industrial holocaust commenced. Get my point?
@Peter McKevitt: Nope. OP referenced the holocaust. You questioned that on the basis that Israel did not exist until 3 years after it ended. Therefore implying that Israel has no reason to remember the thing that happened to the Jewish people just a few years earlier. Having been the victims of an actual massive pogrom, you’d imagine that they’d be a bit more sympathetic to the minorities in their country, though, wouldn’t you.
@Peter McKevitt: GO IDF..wtf..stay in Switzerland ..we don’t want u
@Peter McKevitt: I think his point is that the Jewish people will never again accept terrorists killing Jews indiscriminately, simply because they are Jews. And why should they? They have every right to defend their people from a barrage of unguided missiles designed to kill innocent civilians. Would you prefer to live under a democratic government where you have an opinion and may express it, or under Hamas, who slaughter their own people if they disagree with their political opinions?
Hamas is funded by Iran.
@John fitzpatrick: Not sure, could be funded by Israel judging by the latest attempt. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
So heartbreaking to imagine the terror, pain, and death inflicted on children over there. Hamas and IDF are evil.
@Bill Spill: well, you’re half right.
@Bill Spill: Nothing more evil than the IDF
@Squarepeg01: Which do you condone the actions of?
@Hugh: I don’t know why Israel leveled a number of tower blocks, other the official justification its military leaders gave. It will all come out in the wash, I’m sure. But remember – Israel did not strike first. It never does. Hamas fired on a civilian population, unprovoked. And it cynically places its operational hubs in hospitals and other civilian areas to maximise media coverage of the casualties when Israel inevitably retaliates. This isn’t exactly new information. So yes, Hamas is the egregious party here.
@Squarepeg01: Israel ALWAYS fires first.
@Squarepeg01: I’m sorry for you that you don’t think that the IDF killing children is wrong.
@Watcher-on-the-Wall: your information is wrong. Hamas is constantly firing rockets into Israeli territory.
@Bill Spill: so how would you respond to naked aggression from an enemy that has vowed to destroy you? Gaza is in effect a foreign country ruled by a foreign government which has attacked Israel – by any reckoning, a declaration of war.
@Squarepeg01: I’m simply saying killing children is evil. Surprised we can’t agree on that.
@Bill Spill: totally agree but if hamas didn’t position their 0ffices and control points in or near schools and hospitals, perhaps stop using their civilian population as shields children wouldn’t be getting killed
@Peter donnelly: And if Israel didn’t bomb them, they wouldn’t be killed. But I do agree with you. That’s why I said both Hamas and the IDF are evil. Hamas for using children as shields, and Israel for killing them.
Maybe Allah or YHWH should come down and tell them that murdering each other isn’t being very religious.
@Gordon Larney: Historically, it’s the most religious pass time I can think of!
@Gordon Larney: Give the old testament or Koran another read hahaha
Interesting how Israel calls the actions of a minority enclave a ‘pogrom’ – invoking language designed to evoke an emotive response based on history. You’d imagine they’d be a bit more sensitive to this, given their history. They’re on the verge of burning that chestnut.
I haven’t a clue what’s going on over there.. Is it religion or land? What’s the UN’s take on this?
@Ann Neylan: Palestinians living in Jerusalem evicted in favour of Jews is the reason for the latest escalation but it’s a combination of factors over a number of years
@Ann Neylan: it definitely is a land issue and Palestinians have deeds to these lands before the formation of Israel but groups like hamas and hezbollah are only happy to suggest wiping out all Jews worldwide which kind of winds up the Israelis. Its not a complicated conflict in relation to solving the land issue. There’s plenty of space for everyone there but as Christopher Hitchens said religion is a force multiplier on both sides. Extreme Jews stealing land Extreme Muslims looking to bring on jihad. Take out the religion and this issue could be solved in a decade.
@Mjhint: It was a former British Colony. Like Ireland, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, Cyprus, South Africa – this is the mess the Brits have left behind everywhere they’ve been. It was policy in the 40′s/50′s.
@Watcher-on-the-Wall: actually it wasn’t. It was an Ottoman backwater. The British only became involved in an administerial capacity after WW1, and they gradually backpedalled on their initial support for creating a haven for Jews when they saw the hostility of the local Arabs. The Jews had been coming on aliyah to Palestine since the 19th century, long before the British got involved.
After watching the Tower blocks come down completely demolished .
Maybe it’s not a good idea to p1$$ the √€ws
@John fitzpatrick: seen video of that. If was hamas rocket making facility. The cameraman was waiting perfectly placed as they knew it was coming. The IDF tend to drop a dummy device giving about 20 minutes warning before they fire in it. Hamas tend not to return that favour
@Tom Ripley: RUBBISH it was a media centre.
And they have also bombed 2 police stations
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GazaThroughMyEyes/permalink/2978011785811383/
Have a look at this Tom…
@Donal O’Carroll: funny those hamas lads must not be firing any tickets from anywhere. Great CGI by Israel. Let’s go and hug hamas
The rockets Hamas are using are laughable, it’s as if they are working for the Israeli government. Self defeating. If they are depending on Hamas it’s over already.
@Divad Nayr: are you suggesting israel shouldn’t retaliate ? it’s like someone throwing a rock through your window so you just sit back and say a sure it’s only a small one….
Isreal Stelling the Palestine
Oh all that black thick smoke can’t be good for the environment can it
The age of enlightenment in Europe was not the answers but the ????.
Israelies just need to look at what is happening to Christians in Muslim countries to know their future
Judge people by how they judge you if you you leave the fold. Ie enemy within
have your say