Palestine: Israeli Airstrikes Spur Actions from Bloggers

Following the end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, violence and tensions have escalated between Israel and Gaza. Today, Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza in what the AFP calls “one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.” So far, the death toll in Gaza is at 210 and rising.

The Palestinian blogosphere, which is made of Palestinians and supporters around the world, is furious with what they perceive to be needless actions from Israel. No Justice No Peace…The Big Picture, an honorary member of the Palestinian blogosphere, spoke out:

200 dead, 750 wounded, and for what? For Qassam rockets which have killed < 10 people in 8 years. If ever there was an epitome of disproportionate use of force this attack by F-16's (paid for by US tax dollars my fellow Americans) is it.

All in the name of “self-defense”. Please. This is immoral offense, and indiscriminate killing, and, by god, if you hold elections and call it a democratic process then deal with the results in a civilized manner, but not quarantining Gaza, withholding funds, petrol, electricity, medical supplies, humanitarian ships, ad UN mandated observers from entering Gaza and then wonder why home-made rockets are being fired (with no sophisticated guidance chips or any chance of doing massive damage).

PalestineFreeVoice points out that Israel used internationally banned weaponry in the attacks and reports:

On Saturday noon in the first wave of air strikes,the Israelis targeted Gaza City government buildings. Casualties are confirmed and include the Commander of Gaza Police Force Tawfiq Jabir, the Commander of Security and Protection Services in Gaza police, Ismail Al-Ja'bari and the Governor of the Al-Wusta (central) Districts Ahmad Abu Aashur.Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said that the Israeli attacks have destroyed most of the Gaza Strip police headquarters and that a police graduation ceremony was being held during the Israeli assault.

Global Voices’ own Bahrain author, bint battuta, shares a text message from a friend in Rafah:

Text from teacher friend in Rafah: “They struck the whole Gaza Strip at the same second. Many of the casualties are school children. My colleague told me he has seen 8 cases of death in the street. He picked his son alive. I am in my school now and the horror is everywhere in Gaza.

Palestinian bloggers are already ensuring that this most recent airstrike will spur the blogosphere into action. Ali Abunimah, writing for The Electronic Intifada, notes that demonstrations are being planned around the world:

On top of the intense anger and sadness so many people feel at Israel's renewed mass killings in Gaza is a sense of frustration that there seem to be so few ways to channel it into a political response that can change the course of events, end the suffering, and bring justice.

But there are ways, and this is a moment to focus on them. Already I have received notices of demonstrations and solidarity actions being planned in cities all over the world. That is important. But what will happen after the demonstrations disperse and the anger dies down? Will we continue to let Palestinians in Gaza die in silence?

Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political action. The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group reaffirmed this today as it “called upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.”

Global Voices will continue to offer coverage from a variety of blogospheres. Check our Gaza bombings Special coverage page often or subscribe to the Palestine RSS feed for further reports.

31 comments

  • Pete Saig

    Mariama,

    Please get updated. the Hamas rockets killed many civilians, destroyed families and caused tremendous damage. Israel has a legitimate cause of action. Also, the rockets cause damaged to innocent Palestinians because of the impact on trade and supplies to Gaza. Teror does not yield prosperity, peaceful negotiations will.

  • Jalal Musameh

    Tal Yaron,

    “No country will accept such a thing. If Canada, or the USA were attcked with rockets on their civilans, would they not ritalte?”

    This is what Palestine has been doing since the occupation by Israel. What are you getting at? The Palestinian people are defending their land, homes, lives, they will never “accept such a thing”.

    Perhaps you have your history mixed up, Israel brought their problems to a country that had no problems.

  • Jalal Musameh

    Disproportionate.

    What this means is that, 1-Israeli killed. 229-Palestinians killed and 700-wounded. Do the math.

    HRMMMMMMMM?

  • Ashamed of my People

    Members of Hamas have shown their weaknesn. They talk of jihad and martyerdom and then cry like old women when the enemy attacks. It is no womder the world laughs at them. Thet are “brave warriors” who hide among innocent schoolchildren and civilians. And break into hysteria when somebody fights back. That is the biggest type of coward — not a Muslim warrior!

  • Israel left Gaza only to besiege it. They have suffocated the Gazans, imprisoned them in a tiny stretch of land that’s made up of overcrowded, inhumane refugee camps.

    The Palestinians in Gaza are starving, and they have no electricity, no supplies, and no medicine. People have been forced to eat grass. There is no freedom of movement, or escape. Occasionally, the Israelis will launch an attack and hit targets in Gaza.

    What is happening now is not new, it is simply an escalation of those attacks. For those who claim Israel is responding to Hamas’ provocations are demonstrating either an obvious ignorance or a willing blindness. Hamas has not conducted suicide operations since 2005, and has only launched rockets in the face of Israel’s cruel blockade and Israeli attacks on Gaza.

    And Renata Avila is correct, human suffering must take precedence in warfare. Have we learnt nothing from the horrors of the 20th century?

    Unfortunately, Israel is a racist state that views its Arab surrounding as inferior and expendable, much like the South African Apartheid.

    Of course, the other dimension to this is the complicity of Arab states in this carnage, such as Egypt.

    Egypt shares Israel’s dislike and anxiety for Hamas. However, this time Egypt’s complicity has been exposed and exploited by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, who have ran public criticisms and large protests targeting Egypt. This exploitation is directly aimed at fueling public Egyptian anger and stirring internal strife in Egypt.

    It is important to note that Arab public opinion, including the Egyptians, deeply resents Mubarak and views the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis as the champions of the Arab cause. Hamas will receive a great popularity boost in the Arab world, similar to Hezbollah’s boost after the 2006 war, and increase resentment towards the pro-American dictatorships of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

    Should Israel fail in either toppling or severely weakening Hamas (closely affiliated with Egypt’s popular Muslim Brotherhood), I will bet that a reprisal will come towards Mubarak. He has overplayed his hands in Israel’s wars.

  • civax

    As I commented in a different post, Renata, the Palestinians currently report that out of the 230 people dead, only 15 were civilians. So there was indeed use of ‘sophisticated’ weapons in attempt to minimize civilian casualties.

    May I remind you that Israel had attacked rocket launchers and I’m sorry to tell you Hammas locates many of these inside civilian population within the city or near schools.

    http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42965000/jpg/_42965595_rocket_ap.jpg is just an example.

  • Robby

    Jillian,

    You state that “Israel’s response is always disproportionate”. Anyone that has watched or experienced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could have easily predicted Israels’ reaction to the missiles being fired, including HAMAS.

    So the question is why would HAMAS allow so many missiles to be fired from Gaza when the result is so obvious?

  • Zacharia

    Although it is sad to see a loss of lives, it is becoming a bit numbing to us to see palestinians losing their lives for nothing, and life goes on as if nothing happened. Anyone remember the 2006 South Lebanon war its innocents lives lost from both sides? It is so easy to play the blame game. The arabs are good at it.

    The Palestinian cause is no longer the “cause celebre”. And poeple have to realize this. Nobody care about the people not even the Arabs nations. The international community has given up on the twisted demands of the palestinians. People in arab nations are too pre-occupied with their daily livesAll they do is call bloody murder when things happen, it is all hot air. The Palestinian cause has long been hyjacked by political opportunist birds of prey..(i.e., Fatah, Islamist, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas). Even the mightty PLO organization with all its support from the international community have not succeeded through war, guerrilla tactics and resistance movements. What makes Gaza’s Hamas feel a bit different and unvulnarable? or is it hubris?

    Even now, after the debacle, Hamas leaders want an all wide intafada against Isreal. They will find it morally justifiable to send children to their deaths… instead of concentrating on building a society (albeit islamist) for people to be proud of… Instead they took it upon themselves to liberate all of Palestine. They should take the way Syria has opted for which is to feel untouched by letting their whole Golan Heights occupied instead of trying to liberate it. Why bother when there are cronies who can fight for your 1,000 miles aways for a scarp of land that could do wonders. No wonder who is making the decisions for the Palestinians. It is trully a sad state of affairs.

  • Christine Grove

    I see the evidence of Israels’ aggression towards the Palestinians on my T.V. screen. I hear that their agrression is in response to rockets fired into Israel from Gaza; but have seen little evidence of this. In the meantime l cannot help but conclude that the Israelis’ disproportionate action, backed by the west, is in breach of internationl law. Where is the justice?

  • Zacharia

    Whose justice are we talking about? Humanity’s justice? International justice? Why are poeple turning to self-righteousness credulous justice? It does not change the situation on the ground. War is war. There is no rules in war. If you have the power you will try use it to inflict the worse pain on your enemy. The palestinian resistance movements know this very well. If they had capabilities, they will see use them to kill as many people as a way of war. Why should this be different for Israel or the Palestinian. Why should there be a different criteria to waging war? Let them have at it, since they do not want to come to their senses.

    I am neutral on this conflict, I wanted it to end once and for all. However, it seems to me that the parties do not want to … Why are we so creduleous to think that one party is more to blame than the other. THERE IS NO BAD PARTY in this conflict… there is only some few STUPID people making life miserable for more mass of people.

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