Israel and Gaza militants exchange fire after deadly strikes

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By FARES AKRAM and TIA GOLDENBERG

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli jets pounded militant targets in Gaza on Saturday and rocket barrages into southern Israel persisted, raising fears of an escalation after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave killed at least 12 people, including a senior militant and a 5-year-old girl.

The fighting began with Israel’s killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in a strike Friday. Gaza’s Hamas rulers so far appeared to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat contained, for now. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years at a staggering cost to the territory’s 2 million Palestinian residents.

Shortly before noon Saturday, Israeli warplanes stepped up airstrikes. After warning residents in phone calls, fighter jets dropped two bombs on the house of an Islamic Jihad member in a residential area of Gaza City, flattening the two-story structure and badly damaging surrounding homes. Women and children rushed out of the area, and there were no casualties.

“Warned us? They warned us with rockets and we fled without taking anything,” said Huda Shamalakh, who lived next door. She said 15 people lived in the targeted home.



Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinian Tamim Hijazi, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. Israeli jets pounded militant targets in Gaza as rockets rained on southern Israel, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave killed at least 11 people, including a senior militant and a 5-year-old girl. The fighting began with Israel's dramatic targeted killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued into the morning Saturday, drawing the sides closer to an all-out war. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-gaza-strip-hamas-palestinian-islamic-jihad-59adaae95062bda6cbcfdcd2ad288d9d

[jimfields33]

1. A home with 15 people living in it. Holy cow.

I’m surprised there are only 2 million Palestinians. I thought the number would be much higher.

[Magoo48]

2. Segregation and oppression exacts a heavy toll on a population.

[jimfields33]

3. That's for sure.

[Mosby]

7. The 2 million is the Gaza population

The West Bank has a population of 3 million, and their are almost 6 million in the diaspora. The fertility rate in the territories is 3.56

[Beastly Boy]

4. Islamic Jihad deliberately targeted an international airport

Palestinian militants fired at least 160 rockets across the border, setting off air raids sirens and sending people running to bomb shelters as far as the central Israeli city of Modiin, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Islamic Jihad said it had targeted Israel's main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, but the rocket fell short near Modiin, around 20 kilometres (12 miles)

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-fighting-spills-into-second-day-with-air-strikes-rockets-2022-08-06/

No telling how many Israeli civilian lives were saved with Israel's preemptive strike on the Palestinian militant positions in Gaza.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

5. Rack up another war crime/mass murder on top of all the others...children, teens, women...

Preemptive killing to prevent killing of Israelis? By targeting one person without regard to the deaths of Innocents…definition of war crime! Pathetic!

[Beastly Boy]

6. Actually, militant belligerents mingling with civilian populations is a war crime.

So is targeting civilian airports and population centers.

Add that to the long list of war crimes committed by Islamic Jihad.

On edit: preemptive killing of belligerents intent on harming civilians, whether to prevent killing of Israelis or otherwise, is not a war crime. And there is every indication that IDF, in glaring contrast to pathetically indiscriminate shelling of Israel by Islamic Jihad, took due measures to prevent deaths to innocent civilians.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

8. How can you not mingle with others when confined to an open air Prison packed with people?

Then the others can be killed without regard to loss of life? Got it!
The UN court of criminal justice may disagree.

[Beastly Boy]

9. Ask the authors of the Fourth Geneva Convention. I am sure the UN court will not disagree with them

If you insist on the prison metaphor (I will not argue with the validity of such comparison since it is a purely emotional choice on your part), you either peacefully mingle with the rest of the prisoners, or you conduct terrorist acts. Not both.

And if you insist on doing both, you are a war criminal. Your choice.

Now, my question is, how can you even attempt to excuse war crimes?

And before you go onto civilians being killed by IDF, yes it is a war crime. But, as long as IDF can demonstrate they took reasonable precautions to avoid civilian casualties (like giving a 15 minute warning to the civilians in the vicinity of a military target, for example), it is a war crime on the part of the terrorists who made the choice to mingle with civilians in the commission of hostile actions against Israel.

BTW, there is strong evidence that Islamic Jihad alone is responsible for civilian deaths, including five children, in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza.

Link to tweet

That's a war crime on top of a war crime. Considering that belligerent combattants do not count as civilians, it may well turn out that Islamic Jihad is directly responsible for killing more Palestinian civilians than Israel did. If this turns out to be the case, I hope your outrage will reflect that appropriately.