Pretty much as I was writing my previous post on the subject the Israeli
Defence Force (IDF) - whom I am now going to have to Twitter-stalk -
confirmed that on Sunday (20/7/14) 7 of it's troops were killed in an
explosive attack on their Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). They went on
to confirm that only 6 of the bodies had been recovered. The 7th - Oron
Shaul - bears a striking similarity to Shaul Aaronson - the solider
that Hamas claimed to have kidnapped on Sunday evening. The IDF went on
to describe Shaul as missing presumed dead. The presumption of death
comes from the fact that the other 6 people in the vehicle were killed.
Later on Monday evening an Israeli Jewish male in his mid 20's was shot
and killed in the West Bank. This could have been a simple murder
although it is more likely to be local idiots picking up their rifles to
avenge their Palestinian brothers in Gaza. Either way the Israel police
backed by the military moved in to seal off the area provoking a night
of rioting.
Meanwhile the conflict in Gaza has continued unabated meaning that Hamas
have fired dozens of rockets into Israel whilst also attempting to
mount tunnel raids. Meanwhile the IDF have continued their ground
operation to prevent Hamas for mounting this type of offensive action.
The only difference is that today the IDF decided to attack a Hamas
tunnel/bunker network from the air rather then risking their combat
engineers. This obviously caused a series of massive secondary
explosions which endangered civilians. This was a response to the
protests against the IDF's attempts to clear the tunnel networks centred
in the Shejayia neighbourhood of Gaza City using excessive artillery
fire. At this point I probably need to sober up so I can look at the
issue of artillery fire in civilian neighbourhoods in more detail
tomorrow. In the meantime the IDF should consider working in smaller
teams backed by attack helicopter support even if it is always going to
be nasty.
Obviously some of the dozens of missiles Hamas have been firing on Tel
Aviv's civilian Ben Gurion airport daily creates a clear risk of an MH17
type event on a more then hourly basis. This afternoon several US
airlines - I believe Delta took the lead - finally woke up to this risk
and suspended flights in and out of Ben Gurion. This prompted the US
Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to follow suit banning all US airlines
from using the airport for 24 hours. At around the same time Air France
and the Dutch carrier KLM also stopped flights into Ben Gurion. This
prompted the European (Union) Air Safety Authority (EASA) to follow the
FAA's lead creating an image of Israel under international sanctions.
I believe that the important thing to remember is that US Secretary of
State John Kerry is currently in Egypt/Israel/Palestine trying to
negotiate a cease-fire. After all Kerry's boss Barack Obama - much like
his predecessor Tony Blair - has decided that he is the hero that is
going to bring peace to the middle-east. Sadly my experience of the
region leads me to believe that the blood-letting is going to go on for a
good few weeks still. Hopefully Kerry won't drag his feet as he makes
his way home.
(Originally Posted) 21:00 on 22/7/14 (UK date).
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