Gaza Under Brutal Attack 8 Days in a Row - Israeli War Crimes Intensify, Targeting International Media, Civilian Homes & Infrastructure

(source)

As I write this, Israeli missiles funded to the tune of $10.5 million per day by US taxpayer dollars are raining down on the besieged Gaza Strip for the 8th night in a row - in the most intense attack yet in the now week-long Israeli military offensive kicked off last Monday night in response to rockets fired at Jerusalem by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, provoked by 3 days of violent assaults on peaceful Palestinian worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Muslim Holy Month by Israeli Occupation Forces (injuring some 900 Palestinians). And all US officials are supporting this Israeli 'defense' while simultaneously condemning retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza and calling for 'peace'.

The calls for peace are clearly theatrical, as the US has now for the 3rd time blocked UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, presumably because it condemns the violence on both sides as opposed to just the Palestinian rockets that have killed a handful of Israelis, compared to the hundreds of Palestinians killed, thousands injured and tens of thousands displaced in Gaza by indiscriminate Israeli bombardments.

After the 5th day of the 'war', Hamas began seeking a ceasefire, but Israel declined, officials declaring instead that their supposedly 'defensive' military "offensive" was not yet complete. So the US continuing to blindly support only the Israeli 'right to self defense' while at the same time calling for peace while feigning sympathy for the civilian victims is both disingenuous and farcical, not to mention hypocritical. The US statements are understood as a green light by the Israeli side to continue their assault on the besieged Palestinians who have been trapped by military blockade for well over a decade now, with nowhere to run when the bombings which have become a part of regular life inevitably resume.

Attacks on Saturday and early Sunday morning had already brought the Gaza death toll up to 181. "This happened after the Israeli occupation forces suddenly bombed a number of houses in Al-Wehda Street in Al-Rimal neighbourhood in central Gaza City and fired F-16 missiles on their residents without prior warning," the Middle East Monitor reports, but Israel insists its ongoing leveling of Gaza city is somehow defense against 'terror' being waged by those living in the world's largest open air prison whose homes were stolen and whose land is being illegally occupied, when international law clearly recognizes occupied peoples’ right of armed resistance against an illegal occupier.

As numerous reports have confirmed, Israel is clearly targeting civilians, a war crime, and the Sunday massacre was especially horrific.

~~~ embed:1393854978159153153 twitter metadata:UXVkc05lbnx8aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9RdWRzTmVuL3N0YXR1cy8xMzkzODU0OTc4MTU5MTUzMTUzfA== ~~~

By Sunday evening, the Gaza death toll had risen to 192, including 58 children and 34 women, with over 1,200 injured, and another 34,000 Gaza residents displaced by the bombings according to the UN, their homes destroyed. A total of over 5,500 Palestinians across all of the occupied Palestinian Territories have been wounded by Israeli forces this past week. Just 10 Israelis have been reportedly killed during the same time, and some (at least 1) of those are soldiers.

~~~ embed:1393969475741945869 twitter metadata:VU5MYXp6YXJpbml8fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vVU5MYXp6YXJpbmkvc3RhdHVzLzEzOTM5Njk0NzU3NDE5NDU4Njl8 ~~~

This was then followed by extremely intensive bombing early Monday morning, with some 80 airstrikes in just 30 minutes reported by residents during the heaviest period of attack, appearing to indiscriminately target civilian infrastructure, roads and homes as took place over the weekend.

~~~ embed:1394076813752741888 twitter metadata:enVsdGlnaW58fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20venVsdGlnaW4vc3RhdHVzLzEzOTQwNzY4MTM3NTI3NDE4ODh8 ~~~

A few clips of the most recent bombardment terrorizing residents night after night:

~~~ embed:1394065417933672450 twitter metadata:RElPUmxhdHRhZXx8aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9ESU9SbGF0dGFlL3N0YXR1cy8xMzk0MDY1NDE3OTMzNjcyNDUwfA== ~~~

~~~ embed:1394060094686519296 twitter metadata:RmFyYWhfR2F6YW58fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vRmFyYWhfR2F6YW4vc3RhdHVzLzEzOTQwNjAwOTQ2ODY1MTkyOTZ8 ~~~

Local Israeli Newspaper reporting over 100 Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City were heard by nearby Israeli residents of Ashkelon early Monday morning.

With the death toll now up to at least 197...

~~~ embed:1394065658309226497 twitter metadata:ZmFsYXN0ZWVuNDd8fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vZmFsYXN0ZWVuNDcvc3RhdHVzLzEzOTQwNjU2NTgzMDkyMjY0OTd8 ~~~

Much of Gaza went into a blackout with widespread power outages following the strikes.

Multiple reports of the roads around the main Gaza medical complex, al Shifa hospital being targeted, with ambulances struggling to get in or out with all the main roads either damaged or blocked by rubble from the relentless bombing. If confirmed to be as damaging as reported, this will be the second time airstrikes targeting infrastructure around the hospital have impeded medical transportation in and out of the hospital in the past 2 days.

~~~ embed:1394077144121282560 twitter metadata:YXJ3YWlifHxodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2Fyd2FpYi9zdGF0dXMvMTM5NDA3NzE0NDEyMTI4MjU2MHw= ~~~

Video footage from the scene right outside the hospital records the sound of bombs dropping alarmingly close...

One on-duty doctor reports the airstrikes are so close to the hospital that the walls are shaking as he attempts to perform a brain surgery on a patient.

And just yesterday this was in fact confirmed to have been the case, roads around the hospital targeted:

UPDATE 5/17: Wafa News Agency has now reported that the air raids targeted “residential buildings...in addition to the al-Shifa Medical Complex,” and also “caused severe damage to the electricity transmission lines from the power station towards Gaza City” which was responsible for the blackout, also indicating that “emergency and medical teams are facing difficulty in access and movement to transport the wounded, as the Israeli occupation air force have destroyed the main roads leading to hospitals.” (SANA) It appears these strikes wounded many, but killed few, with the death toll having only risen to 201, according to Palestinian media sources. International media outlets have also reported that a number of the airstrikes targeted open fields and empty buildings used by Hamas, which could be why the death toll from these airstrikes was so much smaller than Sunday’s massacre despite being more intense.

It does look like the Zionists are intentionally targeting the media and medics, as per usual, witnessed week after week during the March of Return demonstrations and now yet again.

So as the death toll and injuries climb tonight, medical personnel have difficulty rushing the injured to the hospital and dispatching ambulances to help rescue the victims of these attacks, already dealing with an overwhelmed medical facility.

This is not a war against 'terror', this is collective punishment of the Palestinian People for resisting brutal occupation and inhumane military blockade of Gaza, this is genocidal insanity, slaughter and Zionist terrorism, with countless apparent war crimes being committed over the past few days, including the targeting (or indiscriminate bombing) of the homes of two medical doctors who were murdered, one of whom his wife and children were also killed in the attacks, the other his children all killed as well.

(At Shifa hospital in Gaza, medical staff pray for their murdered colleague, Dr Ayman Abu Elouf, head of internal medicine, who was killed at dawn by an Israeli air strike.)

At the same time the WHO has recorded no less than 74 Israeli attacks on Palestinian health care in the occupied Palestinian Territories over the past month during Ramadan.

Israel Targets International Media

The most blatant Israeli war crime may be the intentional targeting of a high rise that housed prominent international media outlets including the US AP, Qatari al Jazeera, and British-based Middle East Eye among others, sparking outrage and condemnation even from the establishment US press. On Saturday afternoon, May 15, Israeli warplanes bombed the 12-story al-Jalaa Tower, which housed a number of media offices as well as residential homes, leveling it to the ground, at least the 4th high rise and 2nd media building to be flattened in this war on Gaza.

The whole world can see this is not defense, but a war crime, or at least it would be if this was a war, but it's more of a genocide.

~~~ embed:1393552563060940803 twitter metadata:QWJ1emFyU3BlYWtzMnx8aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9BYnV6YXJTcGVha3MyL3N0YXR1cy8xMzkzNTUyNTYzMDYwOTQwODAzfA== ~~~

Israel claims without providing any evidence that the building housed offices of Hamas operatives, however AP insists this is not the case and there is no evidence of any Hamas presence in the building, while the US military also refused to provide evidence to corroborate Israeli claims.

“We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building,” AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. “This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk.”

Press agencies were given one hour to evacuate, and "despite repeated urgent calls" to Israel, it was promptly flattened.

Ahead of the demolition, the AP placed urgent calls to the Israeli military, foreign minister and prime minister’s office but were either ignored or told that there was nothing to be done.

For 15 years, the AP’s top-floor office and roof terrace were a prime location for covering Israel’s conflicts with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, including wars in 2009, 2012 and 2014. The news agency’s camera offered 24-hour live shots as militants’ rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surrounding area this week.

"Press-freedom groups condemned the attack," AP reporter Josef Federman writes. "They accused the military, which claimed the building housed Hamas military intelligence, of trying to censor coverage of Israel’s relentless offensive against Hamas militants."

Even the AP describes this war on Gaza as a "relentless offensive," and yet our US leaders continue to insist Israel is 'defending itself', but the whole world can see the utter absurdity of such a laughable claim. Israeli intelligence refused to even give reporters just 10 additional minutes to rescue their equipment, really showing their true colors.

A video broadcast by Al-Jazeera showed the building’s owner, Jawwad Mahdi, pleading over the phone with an Israeli intelligence officer to wait 10 minutes to allow journalists to go inside the building to retrieve valuable equipment before it is bombed.

“All I’m asking is to let four people ... to go inside and get their cameras,” he said. “We respect your wishes, we will not do it if you don’t allow it, but give us 10 minutes.” When the officer rejected the request, Mahdi said, “You have destroyed our life’s work, memories, life. I will hang up, do what you want. There is a God.”

"Bombing the offices of journalists providing eye-witness accounts of what is happening on the ground is not an act of self-defence,” the British media company Middle East Eye said in its official statement, issued on Saturday in response to the air strikes:

"This bombing is yet another attempt by Israel to dominate the narrative by excluding factual reporting of their air strikes on Gaza. There is now mounting evidence that civilian towers with no military usage or record of involvement are being targeted by the Israeli air force.

Bombing the offices of journalists providing eye-witness accounts of what is happening on the ground is not an act of self-defence. Targeting journalists by attempting to prevent them from reporting what is going on is not the act of a self-declared democracy which claims to be the unique champion of freedom of information in the Middle East.

We call upon the international press and media community to condemn Israel’s disproportionate response and stand in solidarity with colleagues in Gaza who risk their lives to report from the field.

Press freedom is a human right."

The press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) even urged International Criminal Court chief prosecutor to probe Israel's bombing of the building.

"Deliberately targeting media outlets constitutes a war crime," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement on Sunday.

"By intentionally destroying media outlets, the Israel Defence Forces are not only inflicting unacceptable material damage on news operations. They are also, more broadly, obstructing media coverage of a conflict that directly affects the civilian population. We call on the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to determine whether these airstrikes constitute war crimes."

Indian press associations were among those condemning the senseless attack.

"There can be no justification for bombing media houses and targeting their personnel and resources," said a joint statement by the Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association, and Press Club of India.

"It appears as an attempt to prevent media houses from reporting excesses that have become a routine affair in Gaza and the occupied parts of Palestine. We condemn such attacks."

"We demand that targeting of media persons, who are working in violence-hit conflict zones, be completely stopped immediately," the statement said.

Quite clearly, this constitutes a war crime, as does the targeting of a civilian home in a refugee camp that killed an entire family of 10 on the same day...

And by Sunday 40 main roads and intersections had been destroyed by the ongoing Israeli assault.

Israel's ongoing airstrikes on Gaza destroyed a total of 40 streets and junctions, the Gaza Municipality said on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency.

The municipality said in a statement that Israel "deliberately targeted the vital streets and intersections in the city."

According to the statement, Israel is attacking the roads that provide access to hospitals and universities. Clean water, sewage, and lighting infrastructure have also been damaged in the strikes.

This is by far the most destructive assault on the besieged Gaza Strip since the 2014 war on Gaza, and there doesn't look to be an end in sight, with an Israeli human rights watch group on Saturday now also accusing Israel of committing "war crimes" in Gaza and calling on the international community to intervene before the humanitarian crisis there spirals further out of control.

"The international community must step in immediately and use its leverage to force Israel to change its policy before it claims even more victims," B'Tselem said in a statement. It also said that Israel "has not wreaked this level of destruction on the blockaded Gaza Strip" since 2014.

Even among Hamas targets, Israel is not only targeting militant but also political leaders who are also being killed in the airstrikes allegedly 'targeting terror'. Not surprising coming from the ones who openly espouse a belief that there are no innocent people in the Gaza Strip because all Palestinians are considered terrorists.

This isn't really war, after all, this is genocide, and Gaza infrastructure is being decimated while the Palestinians are being ethnically cleansed from the land. Are they finally uniting in resistance against the occupier? Yes. Are they fighting back against the systematic oppression and injustice they have perpetually endured for over half a century? Yes. But that doesn't make the Zionist war crimes any less criminal, the Israeli occupation any more legitimate, or their slaughter any more humane. And no amount of resistance to this genocidal madness will turn the Israeli aggression into self defense, no matter how many western imperialist puppets call it such.