In the course of the action, the IDF succeeded in killing the two
senior-most leaders of the organisation – Taysir al-Jabari, commander of
the Islamic Jihad’s northern division, and Khaled Mansour, commander of
the southern division.
From Friday night through Sunday afternoon, the PIJ fired hundreds of
rockets, launching them from behind the human shield of their own
civilian population, and directing them deliberately at Israel’s
civilian population – a double war crime. Over 100 Israeli properties
have reportedly been damaged by the rockets.
Israel does everything possible to avoid causing civilian casualties
among the Arabs. In vivid contrast to Muslim values, the significance
the Jews place on human life is very high. Also, in these conflicts,
images of dead or wounded Arab children are used to galvanise global
opinion against Israel – something the Arab side knows, and cynically
exploits.
Thus were images of dead children in one of Gaza’s residences used on
Saturday to provoke international condemnation of Israel. These
innocent children were “the victims of brutal Israeli aggression”
according to not only the PIJ spokesman, but also to Israeli Arab
Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi (a virulent anti-Semite).
After carefully checking the reports and going over its coverage of the conflict, the IDF published
an unedited video Sunday showing clearly how a PIJ missile had
misfired, gone off course, and hit the building, killing the Arab
children who were inside.
“Israeli security forces did not strike in Jabaliya in the past few
hours. It has been unequivocally proven that this incident was the
result of the misfiring of a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad,” stated
the IDF.
At least two more Palestinian Arabs were killed in another, separate, rocket misfiring incident.
While the IDF had let it be known Sunday morning that it was prepared
to keep fighting the PIJ for at least a week, massive international
pressure is mounting for a ceasefire between the parties.
No comments:
Post a Comment