Israeli Troops Withdraw from Gaza for Cease-Fire - Jethro Mullen
The Israel Defense Forces withdrew its ground troops from Gaza. Israel is implementing the Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect Tuesday morning, from "defensive positions" outside Gaza, the IDF said.
(CNN)
An Unavoidable War, Unfinished - David Horovitz
We can begin to draw some interim conclusions from the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamas fired more rockets, further into Israel, than in the two previous rounds of conflict. It has further battered the traumatized south, where a generation has grown up knowing that it might have to dash for shelter any second. And it has brought Tel Aviv and places even further north into the line of fire.
Its leadership has survived intact, hidden safely away in underground bunkers deep in the heart of Gaza. Most of its thousands of death-cult fighters have survived too. Much of their weaponry is intact.
However, Israel can claim significant achievements of its own. The Hamas attack tunnels, a central part of the Hamas strategy, have been largely defanged, for the time being. The Iron Dome rocket defense system has performed miracles. Hundreds of rockets, whose impact could have caused immense loss of life and widespread devastation, were blown out of the sky.
Israeli troops killed hundreds of Hamas gunmen, proving capable of overcoming the enemy on its home territory, despite its years of planning and preparation, bomb-planting, tunneling and booby-trapping. And Israel's population showed impressive resilience under rocket fire, and unity behind the IDF and the political leadership.
[Times of Israel]
Netanyahu: Link Rehabilitation of Gaza to Its Demilitarization
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We are demanding that the rehabilitation of Gaza be linked to its demilitarization."
(Prime Minister's Office)
IDF Soldier Chased Kidnappers into Tunnel - Melanie Lidman
After Lt. Hadar Goldin was kidnapped in Gaza, Lt. Eitan dashed into the tunnel moments after the kidnapping to try to retrieve him.
Against army regulations, and despite the great danger of the tunnel being booby-trapped, Lt. Eitan went in with his command team and chased them for hundreds of meters.
During the chase, he and his men found remains that allowed the rabbinate to rule, according to Jewish law, on the death of Lt. Goldin.
(Times of Israel)
Syrians Fend for Themselves as World Focuses on Gaza
- Zvi Bar'el
July saw over 1,500 Syrians killed in a single week - higher than the Palestinian death toll. But Syria has been pushed to the bottom of the world's list of priorities. No new diplomatic endeavors were launched to solve the crisis there.
American aid for the rebels is waiting for Congress' approval. There are over 3 million refugees. The fact that the Islamic State has taken over parts of Syria and Iraq is quickly becoming accepted as the new reality.
(Ha'aretz)
Reporting the Gaza Death Toll - Paul Farhi
How many people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began in early July? And who are the dead? Supporters of Israel say the raw casualty numbers coming from Gaza are suspect, both in size and in composition. They assert that the Hamas-controlled health ministry and pro-Palestinian NGOs inflate and distort the figures to poison world opinion about Israel. Unlike conflicts in Libya, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, Israel's military campaign is taking place amid intense Western media coverage.
As of Monday, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that 1,888 Palestinians had died in Gaza since July 8. But how many of those killed are Hamas fighters? And how many people have died from errant rocket fire from within Gaza by Hamas itself.
An Israeli government official said about half of those killed have been Hamas combatants, and the number could rise once Israeli intelligence sources vet all the names of those killed. This is consistent with what Israeli officials found in investigations after Israel's operations in Gaza in 2008-2009 and 2012.
(Washington Post)
900 Terrorists Killed in Gaza Campaign - Adiv Sterman
Some 900 operatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror groups were killed in Gaza since July 8, a senior Israeli military source said. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the army had completed its mission of destroying 32 Hamas attack tunnels that crossed into Israeli territory.
The war in Gaza has claimed the lives of 64 soldiers, 11 of whom were killed by Hamas gunmen emerging from the tunnels. Over 3,000 rockets were launched at Israeli cities.
(Times of Israel)
Gaza 2014 - Lilach Shoval
More than 60% of Hamas' rocket manufacturing system has been taken out by Israeli strikes during Operation Protective Edge, a senior IDF officer said on Sunday. "Gaza begins its reconstruction process in a much worse place than Lebanon was in 2006 [after the Second Lebanon War]."
The IDF estimates that Hamas now has only one-third of the 9,000 rockets it possessed before the operation began.
(Israel Hayom)
Iran Says It Gave Missile Technology to Hamas - Ali Akbar Dareini
Hamas is able to fire missiles into Israel because Tehran provided the weapons technology, senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaei said. "Palestinian resistance missiles are the blessings of Iran's transfer of technology," he said.
(AP-ABC News)
Is Iran Behind Gaza War? - Raghida Dergham
Who was behind the abduction and murder of three young Israelis? Who is pushing Hamas to launch rockets and reject the Egyptian initiative for a cease-fire? I believe it is Iran whose name is linked in more than one forum to the incitement to ignite a confrontation with Israel.
Iran wants to tell the Obama administration that it possesses the keys not only to the Middle East, but also to Israel's backyard. It can either stop the flow of rockets or double the number of rockets sent to Hamas. Tehran believes it can drag the U.S. to give Iran what it wants - the nuclear deal and pledging not to attempt to overthrow its regime.
(Al-Hayat-Al-Arabiya)
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UPDATE: Rare video footage of Hamas preparing and firing a rocket
2 comments:
Another major and important post, and NDTV capturing that video is something! DO we know why they block out the faces once they saw they were definitely hostiles firing a rocket?
Thankx for your comment LHwrites. I'd assume they covered the faces as they were worried about culling too much of Hamas' anger.
B :}
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