Death from the air

As people are probably aware from the news, Israel and Hamas in Gaza are engaged in another round of hostilities. Israel has been keeping Gaza under a blockade for many years, while Hamas has been launching rockets and missiles and mortars into Israel. Israel has been bombing Gaza with airplanes and artillery.

The blockade of Gaza has prevented Palestinian farmers living close to the border with Israel from farming, in a specially set up "buffer zone". Palestinians who have entered this area to farm or collect concrete- to build houses from- have been shot at. Some have been wounded, others killed. Palestinian fishermen have also been shot at by the Israeli Navy, for straying too far from the region that the government of Israel allows them to fish in. People have also been wounded and killed.

When Hamas shoots rockets into Israel that target Israelis, the media is usually all over it. The media also usually does cover, to some extent at least, Palestinian casualties of Israeli air attacks. In most cases, the ratio of dead Palestinians to dead Israelis during Hamas-Israel fire, is usually 50-100 dead Palestinians, for every dead Israeli.

What the media usually does not report are the shootings and attacks on Palestinians who come into the IDF "buffer zone"- having the audacity to try farming on their own land or collecting material for their homes, or, in the waters, daring to fish outside of the area Israel allows them to.

I do not support violence of any kind, especially when civilians are targeted. But it does seem that one form of violence is condemned as "terrorism", and another is termed "self-defence".

Seems kind of hypocritical.

Recently, Hamas shot some over 150 rockets into Israel. These missiles are intended to maim and kill and are launched randomly- this is a war crime, and recognized as such by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. They have been aimed at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (where my wife and I are right now). Aside from setting off sirens in some parts, they have hit next to nothing. People go about their lives- working, living, shopping, playing, loving- as usual. Closer to Gaza, these rockets do cause damage to property, and they occasionally do harm people. Since 2000, Hamas' rockets have caused 24 deaths. Others have been injured and crippled for life.

Israel's recent bombing of Gaza has already caused 47 deaths, many of them civilians. Several years ago when Israel bombed Gaza (again, as Hamas was launching rockets), more than one thousand Palestinians living there died. The dead included men, women, and children. The number of injured and maimed and disabled and disfigured will probably never be fully known. It also goes without saying that these actions also are condemned as war crimes by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, other organizations that protect human rights.

Attacks against innocent people- whether death is dealt from the air by a fighter jet or a Qassam rocket crew, are against God's laws.



Street scene from close to where we are in Jerusalem. In spite of the rocket attacks, most people where we are living carry on as usual.

An update on the situation in Gaza. As of now, the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes has surpassed two hundred people. Many of them have been women and children, including 4 children who were killed just today. Over one thousand five hundred have been injured. 

On the Israeli side, there have been a few injuries. An Israeli man also was killed in a mortar strike, as he was volunteering by handing out food to the Israeli Army.