U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry proposed a “cease fire” that did nothing to address the fact Hamas uses tunnels to conduct terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.
The Israeli ministers voted unanimously to reject the proposal because Kerry did nothing to address Hamas’ as a terrorist organization killing civilians.
The proposal was reportedly a “watered down” version of the deal that was proposed by Egypt with significant benefits and concessions given to the terrorist group. One observer close to the vote said Kerry’s proposal was “pro-Hamas and essentially a win for the terrorists.”
The Israeli Defense Forces said the death toll among Israeli troops as of noon Friday had reached 35 soldiers.
The head of IDF says that Hamas in the Gaza Strip are “weakening and losing morale.”
“The spirit of Hamas terrorists is weakening,” Southern Region Commander Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman says. “I see terrorists in distress, abandoned by their commanders who deserted them at the front and stayed behind…and facing them, our reserve and standing army units led by commanders leading the force. Every day of combat there is a day of accomplishments for us, both on the issue of tunnels and on the issue of enemy units.”
Two Americans who went to Israel to defend the country have died in service.
Max Steinberg, 24, from Southern California and Nissim Sean Carmeli, 21, from South Padre Island, Texas, died during ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. They were two of 13 Israeli Defense Force soldiers who perished in battles with Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
Stuart Steinberg, father of Max, said that his son was a sharpshooter for the Golani Brigade.
Steinberg had moved to Beersheba, Israel after he took a trip to his ancestral homeland in high school. In December 2012, he moved to the country so he could join the Israeli Defense Forces and defend the land he felt was his home.
Steinberg’s brother told the Associated Press that Max had always had a passion for Israel and that he would not listen to anyone who told him not to go and join the IDF. He said that his brother always had a passion for what he was doing in the IDF and was a great example to his family and friends.
It’s almost like Hamas is choosing the coverage angles for the New York Times, say some critics.
The biggest newspaper in the country is being accused of anti-Israel bias in its coverage of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and the Israel defense.
Hamas demanded journalists only post photos of civilians in Gaza and never show pictures of the terrorists launching their attacks or using civilians as human shields. So far, the Times appears to be lining up with Hamas’ instructions by not showing any of the attacks on Israel or of the terrorists, their tunnels, weapons or using civilian locations to hide weapons and launch rockets.
A recent survey by the Weekly Standard showed that almost every photograph of Israelis involved tanks, soldiers or attack helicopters. There was an intense focus on the Israeli Defense Forces responding to the terrorist offensive.
The pictures from Gaza? The photo essay in today’s Times shows three Gaza civilians in various forms of distress, a smoke plume over Gaza and three of the IDF using tanks and helicopters.
There are no images of the rocket attacks on Israel nor the two terrorist incursions into Israeli territory through tunnels by Hamas terrorists. It’s almost as if the New York Times does not want to provide truthful coverage of the situation that Israel’s actions are in defense of being attacked by a terrorist organization.
Some critics are saying that the New York Times is showing terrorist sympathies by not reporting the truth about Hamas which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.
After the Hamas terrorist organization fired missiles into Israel during and immediately after a “humanitarian cease fire”, the Israeli Defense Forces have launched a ground offensive into the Gaza strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue the offensive until Gaza has been “demilitarized”. He said that only when Gaza has been demilitarized can peace truly begin to come into the region because the terrorist threat from Hamas will have been eliminated in south Israel.
The initial wave of the ground offensive is aimed to destroy the tunnels that Hamas would use to attempt to sneak into Israel and to move weapons unseen throughout the Gaza region.
Hamas reportedly fired more than 100 rockets within the hour after the cease-fire, leading military experts to believe Hamas used the five hour window of peace to plan a massive offensive against Israel.
The IDF warned civilians to leave Gaza hours before the start of the ground offensive.
Hamas attempted to sneak a 13-man terrorist cell into Israel during the five-hour “humanitarian” ceasefire on Thursday but Israel Defense Force personnel stopped the infiltration.
IDF soldiers manning a border area near Kibbutz Sufa when one of them noticed a man rising out of the desert. The troops quickly closed in and discovered a Hamas tunnel and the terrorists attempting to sneak into the country.
The official IDF statement says the troops “neutralized the threat.”
“Units arrived at the area, and terrorists were apparently surprised. They began returning to the tunnel. The air force began attacking them from the air,” IDF spokesman Brigadier General Moti Almoz said. “We understand there are casualties [among the terrorists]. The full picture is not yet known.”
“This is another successful thwarting of a Hamas attack planned for the southern area. We are ready for these scenarios in the coming days,” Almoz added.
No Israeli troops were hurt in the exchange with the terrorists.
Air strikes against Hamas rocket launching positions resumed after Hamas flatly rejected a peace proposal from Egypt that would end the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Israel had approved the peace deal and had de-escalated their forces as per the outline set up by Egypt; however Hamas completely rejected the deal and immediately fired up to 50 rockets into Israel. Israeli officials then announced they would resume their offensive against Hamas because of the terrorist’s ongoing rocket campaign.
Israeli officials say that no one was hurt during the six-hour window that the IDF had scaled back and Hamas fired rockets into Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would likely intensify their campaign against Hamas because of their rejection of the cease-fire.
“If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation,” he said in a statement.
While President Obama told a group of Muslim leaders that Israel had the right to defend itself from Hamas’ attacks, Secretary of State John Kerry announced he would skip visiting the region on his way home from talks with Iran in Geneva.
The terrorist campaign against Israel took a surprising turn on Sunday when the Israeli Defense Forces shot down a drone as it approached the city of Ashdod.
The IDF would not say what was on the drone, only that they had shot it down with a Patriot missile and it clearly originated from the Gaza Strip.
It marks the first time that a drone has been confirmed in the terror attacks against Israel.
The IDF reported that almost 1,000 rockets have been fired into Israel by the terrorists in the first six days of “Operation Protective Edge”, the Israeli response to the provocations of the terrorist group.
Israeli analysts say that the bombardment is likely to continue well into the future because of Iranian shipments of arms that have been brought into Gaza for years. The analysts estimate over 10,000 rockets, including some longer range weapons that could strike anywhere in Israel, are under the control of the terrorists.
Israeli ground forces continue to muster on the border with Gaza.
Two Iron Dome batteries were deployed in Safed and Haifa, as a result of tensions in the north.
Following an IDF evaluation of developments in the region, culminating in Israeli strikes on Syria – as confirmed by officials – Israel is bolstering protective measures in preparation for possible retaliatory rocket fire. Continue reading →
