A video was released that shows multiple Israeli men celebrating after a sniper targets and shoots a man standing in a field on the other side of their border fence.
The post Leaked Video Shows Israelis Cheer as Sniper Kills Non-Threatening Man Standing in Field appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Israel is being accused of destroying Palestinian crops by spraying excessive toxic herbicides that damaged both their food and water supply.
The post Israel Caught Illegally Spraying Toxic Herbicides On Palestinian Farms, Destroying Their Food appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
On Wednesday at least three more rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip in a continuation of sporadic violence that has left the region on edge after President Trump"s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel a week ago. Today"s attack brings the number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel since Trump"s announcement to eight (a few more have been launched but landed in Palestinian territory), which marks the largest number fired since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
The Israeli military says it intercepted two of the missiles through its Iron Dome defense system, while a third fell without damage or casualties, though local media reported that a handful of Israelis were being treated for minor things like shock and a leg injury from fleeing a potential impact area.
Large explosions could be heard over southern Israel"s Negev region as the Iron Dome intercepts were successful, which were caught on cell phone video by stunned Israeli onlookers below the flight path.
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— ??? ??????? (@EliShlezinger) December 13, 2017
BREAKING: Multiple rockets have just been fired from Hamas controlled Gaza into Israel. "Iron Dome" has reportedly intercepted as many as 6 of them. pic.twitter.com/eP3SIAw4kE
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 11, 2017
This is the second time this week that the Iron Dome system has been put into action after a similar number of rockets were launched from Gaza on Monday. Israel has continued to retaliate - early on Wednesday the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported a strike on a Hamas military compound in the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF has repeatedly warned that it would hold Hamas directly responsible for all "hostile activity" and threats coming from Gaza - though Israeli airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip have been notorious for causing mass civilian casualties among the Palestinian population, who often have nowhere to flee outside the confines of the relatively small strip of land that comprises Gaza territory.
This is the second time this week that the Iron Dome system has been put into action after a similar number of rockets were launched from Gaza on Monday. Israel has continued to retaliate - early on Wednesday the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported a strike on a Hamas military compound in the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF has repeatedly warned that it would hold Hamas directly responsible for all "hostile activity" and threats coming from Gaza - though Israeli airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip have been notorious for causing mass civilian casualties among the Palestinian population, who often have nowhere to flee outside the confines of the relatively small strip of land that comprises Gaza territory.
Map source: BBC
During Operation Protective Edge, for example, the United Nations reported that at least 2,104 Palestinians died, which included 1,462 civilians, of whom 495 were children and 253 women. The 2014 Israeli Army incursion into Gaza lasted seven weeks, and 66 Israeli soldiers died during the operation, as well as seven civilians killed in Israel due to rocket fire from Gaza.
Though Hamas as well as outside regional groups like Hezbollah have called for a "third intifada" (or Palestinian uprising) in response to what Palestinian leadership has called Trump"s "declaration of war", various reports indicate that protests are losing momentum and now appear only sporadic after an aggressive Israeli crackdown.
At least two rioters have been killed during clashes with the Israeli army along the border of the Gaza strip on Friday. And of course, the media didn"t hesitate to blame their deaths on President Trump...
So, post #Trump"s announcement on #Jerusalem, we"ve had one anti-Semitic attack in the Netherlands, and a Palestinian has been shot dead near Gaza, with thousands injured. More of the same to come...
— Jack Mendel (@Mendelpol) December 8, 2017
Disturbances and demonstrations broke out in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on Friday after Hamas, the terrorist organization that until recently exercised unilateral conrol over the Gaza Strip, called for Palestinians to rise up in a third Intifada against the Israelis while also declaring Friday a "Day of Rage following Trump"s Wednesday decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and ordered the State Department to begin preparations to move the US embassy there. While most of Israel"s administrative services are based in West Jerusalem, most embassies and foreign diplomats are based in Tel Aviv.
While Trump"s decision sparked outrage among leaders of the Muslim world and even drew a rebuke from the UN Security Council, the president pointed out in a late-night tweet that every former US president since at least Bill Clinton has promised to recognize Jerusalem as the capital.
I fulfilled my campaign promise - others didn’t! pic.twitter.com/bYdaOHmPVJ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2017
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported that two people were killed and dozens injured in the clashes. One of those killed was Mohammad al-Masri, 30, who was fatally shot by the Israeli army east of Khan Younis in the enclave. The Washington Post reported that at least 35 people were injured in Gaza. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 245 people were injured in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The Israeli army said in a statement about the Gaza clashes that during “riots” by Palestinian protesters, “soldiers fired selectively towards two main instigators and hits were confirmed.”
Earlier, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said units stationed around the Old City of Jerusalem were "beefed up" with additional soldiers. However, he said there were no restrictions on Muslim worshipers entering to pray at the holy Haram al-Sharif compound, home of the renowned al-Aqsa Mosque.
Some scuffles broke out between demonstrators and border police near the Austrian hospice in Jerusalem’s Old City. In Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrated after the end of Friday prayers, and clashes broke out between hundreds of youths and Israeli forces along the border between the enclave and Israel.
Meanwhile, at the al-Alqsa Mosque compound, thousands of worshipers filed in for the midday Friday prayers without incident.
“We usually come on Fridays, but today has special meaning,” said Noor Shaheen, 24, as she left prayers. She said the fact that Israeli authorities had not put restrictions on who could come to prayers on Friday had eased tensions, adding that Palestinians in Jerusalem were weary of protests.
“We are tired,” she said. “It’s hard to make action without thinking of the reaction.”
Of course, not all Palestinians see Trump"s decision as a declaration of war against the Muslim world..
According to WaPo, Ahmed Aduelhawa, 60, said Palestinians in Jerusalem did not want to give Israel “an excuse to humiliate us” and that Trump’s declaration “doesn’t matter.” He said: “The future of Jerusalem isn’t in Trump’s hands, not in Abbas’s hands, not in Netanyahu’s hands, it’s in God’s hands."
Clashes were later reported in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah.
On Friday, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, staged military parades in which masked men wearing military uniforms carried rifles and shells.
The participants chanted slogans against the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, calling for a revolt against Israel to “liberate Jerusalem from occupation."
The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet Friday after eight countries on the 15-member body requested a briefing on the U.S. decision, which the Palestinians claim breaches U.N. resolutions and international law.
Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the US Embassy in neighboring Jordan holding placards reading “Decision Rejected” and “No to US arrogance.” Criticism continued to flow in from governments in the Middle East, Europe and beyond, as U.S. friends and adversaries alike voiced disapproval and alarm.
A confrontation between protesters and security forces erupts near #USEmbassy in #Amman #?????_?????_?????? #????? #????? pic.twitter.com/N0mCWGSq2p
— Alisa Zaira Reznick (@AlisaReznick) December 8, 2017
Demonstrators also gathered outside the US embassy in Malaysia...
Protest happening in Malaysia right now! #jerusalem pic.twitter.com/TplrLtrpLL
— zakimits ???????????????? (@zakimits) December 8, 2017
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan predicted that the region would ignite in a “ring of fire,” while European leaders reiterated their opposition to the policy, and 86-year-old Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu declared, “God is weeping."
The leaders of Saudi Arabia also warned of the fallout from Trump"s decision.
US institutions in the region were also preparing for possible violent fallout. The State Department restricted travel for U.S. government employees in Jerusalem and the West Bank, warning U.S. citizens to avoid crowded areas. Of course, it"s still early evening in Israel...
...Meaning there"s still plenty of time for more casualty reports before the day is over.
(AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) (The Associated Press)(The Real Agenda News) Even in four-star hotels in Gaza, generators are blocked during prolonged power outages.
Since last April, the only power plant in the Gaza Strip has been shut down for lack of fuel, so the two million inhabitants of the Palestinian Mediterranean enclave have been provide only four hours of energy per day.
If the decision taken by the Israeli Government on Sunday at the behest of the Palestinian Authority is confirmed, the Gazans will remain in the dark.
When it comes to ten years of the seizure of power in Gaza by the Islamist Hamas movement – in which three wars have been waged against Israel – the Palestinian territory has been plunged into darkness.
The escalation of tension threatens to blow up the fuses of a new armed conflict.
The Palestinian Authority presiding over Mahmoud Abbas seems to have grown tired of waiting for the promised formation of a unity government with Hamas and has begun to exert intense economic pressure on the Gaza Strip.
After refusing to pay gas taxes for the Gaza power plant, which was affected by the Israeli bombing in the summer war of 2014, the Ramallah Government has cut the salaries of its officials by 30%.
In May it announced that it would only pay Israel 75% of the energy supplied to the territory controlled by the Islamists.
Israeli Minister of Construction and Housing, Yohav Galant, was 10 years ago the commanding general of the Army’s Southern Command, deployed to Gaza.
“For Israel, Hamas is the equivalent of ISIS in Western countries,” he said in Jerusalem before a group of foreign journalists, hours after the Cabinet had agreed to cut power supply to Gaza.
The Islamists won the 2006 legislative elections, the year after Israel withdrew completely from the Strip.
“In 2007 they surrounded the positions of Fatah (the nationalist party of President Abbas), evicted their political rivals and seized power,” Galant recounts. “Between 30,000 and 40,000 Hamas militiamen continue to hold Gaza’s two million inhabitants hostage.”
Like the rest of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Galant argues that the growing climate of tension has been due to the Palestinian fracture between Fatah, in power in the West Bank and Hamas, which rules over Gaza.
The minister declines to reveal when the works of the so-called underground wall, a barrier excavated in the subsoil around the border of the Strip to prevent the tunnels built by Hamas from penetrating the nearby kibbutz, are about to begin.
“The tunnels are their great strategic asset to attack Israel by surprise. If Hamas believes that it is going to lose it, it can trigger a new conflict “, says the former general.
The United Nations has warned Wednesday that the Strip faces an “absolute collapse” of its vital services to the population if the electricity supply is cut by 40%, as announced by the Government of Israel after the reduction of payments from the Palestinian Authority.
The UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, Robert Piper, told France Presse that “increasing the duration of power outages can have a devastating effect on health facilities, water supply and sanitation”.
With the civilian population in Gaza trapped by fighting between Palestinian factions, political analyst Talal Okal, one of the few who still maintains independence of opinion in the Strip, believes that “the situation is so bad that it can hardly get worse.”
It is not foreseeable to have a popular outburst, in spite of the protests of the past winter, when the blackouts began to become a common thing, he explained.
“People are not going to stand up to the Hamas militias with their bare chest. Everyone knows that Gaza is subject to a military regime, but they are aware that, directly (in the West Bank) or indirectly (in the Strip), the central problem is the Israeli occupation. Or there is an agreement between the Palestinian parties,” he warns “or the risk of a new conflict with Israel can skyrocket.”
The population also suffers the refusal of Egypt to increase its electrical connections with the Strip.
The embargo imposed on Qatar – one of the main donors of energy to Gaza – by the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia’s break with Hamas, which until just a few weeks ago claimed its loyalty to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood enemies of Riyadh, have further aggravated the humanitarian situation.
The Israeli NGO Doctors for Human Rights has found that hospitals in the Gaza Strip lack one-third of the medicines considered basic.
No energy, with the water from the wells and beaches contaminated; in a territory subjected to a strict blockade by Israel, with the Egyptian border half-frozen, and frozen Gulf financial support, Hamas spokesmen predict a “catastrophe” and an “explosion” in the Strip.
The UN warned long ago that Gaza will cease to be habitable by 2020.
