Following the premature end of the last cease-fire on Tuesday (19/8/14)
the conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza has settled into
something of a rhythm of gradually increasing violence with rockets and
mortars being fired into Israel and Israel carrying out air-strikes in
response.
Friday (22/8/14) began looking as though it was going to be a relatively
calm day but events quickly escalated with some 70 to 80 rockets and
mortars being fired into Israel. The vast majority of these were mortars
and short range rockets but there were also a substantial number of
longer range rockets targeting northern and central Israel including Tel
Aviv. At one point Hamas even fired a missile into Bethlehem on the
West Bank although Israel intercepted it protecting Palestinians living
there.
The rocket fire and in particular the mortar fire seems to have become
more dangerous. For example three people were lightly injured when a
mortar scored a direct hit on a Synagogue in Ashdod. One person was
seriously injured when a mortar struck close to his car in Eshkol and
another person was seriously injured when a rocket struck close to their
car in Ashdod. The most serious incident of the day though came when a 4
year old boy was killed in Negev when his Kindergarten came under
mortar fire. The source of that mortar fire was tracked back to the
Jafar Ali Ibn Taleb school in the Zeitoun district of Gaza.
Although many people will be quick to point to the Palestinian children
who have been killed in this conflict the death of this Israeli child
highlights the brutality of Hamas' tactics. While Israel has very
sophisticated ways of protecting its civilians including bomb shelters,
early warning systems and the Iron Dome system every single one of the
3700+ rockets and mortars fired into Israel has been fired with the
intention of killing Israeli civilians of all ages and each constitutes
an individual war crime. In order to carry out its attacks on Israel
Hamas hides amongst the civilian population in the hope they will act as
shields protecting the militants from attack or perhaps even better
will be killed and become martyrs to Israel's 'aggression.' For example
the Jafar school was being used as a shelter for several thousand
civilians at the time. No doubt if any of them had even been injured in
an Israeli strike there would have been international uproar yet there
seems to be no criticism of Hamas' use of a civilian shelter as a
launching site.
Further evidence of Hamas' brutality was exposed earlier on Friday when
they publicly executed 18 people outside a Mosque before and after
Friday prayers. On Saturday (23/8/14) Hamas executed a further 4 people
in a similar fashion. All 22 civilians were said to have been sentenced
to death after being found guilty by a military court of collaborating
with Israel.
While I think it was always going to happen Friday's death seems to have
triggered an escalation in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) operations.
Up until now they have been focused on assassinating senior militants
and destroying rocket launch sites in open areas. On Saturday Israel
moved to start targeting launch sites that are located in more built up
areas. Israel signalled this escalation by dropping leaflets, sending
sms messages and making hundreds of telephone calls to inform the people
of Gaza that this is what they were going to start doing and
instructing people to evacuate from areas close to launch sites.
The most dramatic incident in this expansion of operations came when a
12 story building was destroyed in the al-Zafer district of Gaza City.
Although it was home to some 48 families this building was being used by
Hamas as a command centre to allow senior members to meet up and plan
future attacks. As such it was a legitimate military target. However
rather then simply destroying the building the IDF forewent the
opportunity of killing a significant number of senior Hamas figures in
favour of warning the civilian residents to evacuate. So 20 minutes
before the air-strike all apartments in the building were telephoned to
warn that it was going to be bombed. 10 minutes before the air-strike a
dummy bomb was dropped onto the roof of the building to provide a "roof
knock" to again warn the residents to evacuate because the building was
definitely going to be bombed. This appears to have paid off because
there have been no reported fatalities from the strike and only a dozen
reported injures.
Obviously this type of compromise is hardly ideal for either the
civilians in the building who have been left homeless or the IDF who
have lost the opportunity to land a heavy blow against Hamas' ability to
fight them. However the IDF have succeeded in destroying a command
centre and the hope is that Hamas will now locate its new command centre
away from a civilian area in accordance with the laws of war.
In terms of the assassination element of the operation which is
perfectly legal under international law the IDF have had a number of
successes. On Friday they succeeded in killing 5 militants as they were
preparing to launch rockets. On Saturday the IDF struck a car in the
north of the Gaza strip killing one man and injuring 10 others. The dead
man is suspected of being the head of the military wing of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) although that has not been
confirmed. Today the IDF confirmed that they had succeeded in killing
Mohamed Al-Oul who is essentially Hamas' central banker organising
funding for their operations. There are also reports of a mysterious
strike against two motorbikes today.
While the IDF escalated their operations in Gaza with 60 air-strikes on
Saturday versus 20 on Friday Hamas have also escalated their operations.
On Friday around 80 rockets and mortars were fired. On Saturday 106
were fired and it seems that today that total has already been exceeded.
This obviously includes all types of rockets but there seems to have
been a slight shift in focus towards mortars. Although both rockets and
mortars are unguided, dumb weapons they can be aimed and because they
are fired over shorter distances mortars are slightly more accurate. As
such this shift in focus could reflect an increased desire on the part
of Hamas to kill Israelis in retaliation for the senior leaders they
have lost over recent days. For example this morning they fired a
barrage of mortars at the Erez border crossing into Israel where a large
number of people were gathered in the open air. Fortunately though only
three people were lightly wounded and the IDF were quickly able to
destroy the mortar position.
Overnight there was also the worrying development of a mid-range,
military grade Katyusha rocket being fired from Lebanon into Galilee in
northern Israel lightly injuring two people. This was almost immediately
proceeded by the firing of six short-range, military grade Grad rockets
from Syria into the Golan Heights which is considered Israeli occupied
territory. Although both incidents appear to be the work of rogue
individuals they did provide a glimpse of Israel's increasingly
precarious security situation that could once again see them under
attack from three directions at the same time.
Finally Hamas has indicated that it intends to support the Palestinian
Authority's plan to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). As with
the plan for UN recognition of a Palestinian State I don't think that
the Palestinians have really thought this one through because as with
statehood membership of the ICC would place obligations on the
Palestinians that I don't think they're yet ready to meet.
For example an ICC investigation into this current conflict is likely to
conclude that through their rocket fire the Palestinians have committed
in excess of 3700 war crimes. Given Hamas' charter it is even possible
to argue that these constitute the crime against humanity of
extermination (genocide). As a result of this behaviour it is extremely
unlikely that the ICC will be able to find fault with Israel's behaviour
but the Palestinians will be forced to prosecute every single one of
those 3700 crimes or face being expelled from the ICC.
(Originally Posted) 17:50 on 24/8/14 (UK date).
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