Israel Kills Eight Gazans

We must never forget that, although the issue is largely being ignored by our national press, the Israeli army continue their incursions into Gaza.

Yesterday they killed eight citizens of Gaza, two of them children. Nor should we fail to condemn the methodology employed by the Israelis who continue to fire missiles into crowds with the inevitable loss of civilian life.

Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at a crowd of Palestinians in the early hours yesterday, killing six people including a boy. The missiles were fired during an Israeli incursion of troops and tanks, backed by bulldozers, drones and military helicopters, into the Al-Farheen area of the Gaza Strip. Among the dead were three members of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

Five of those killed belonged to the same family — bystanders 13-year-old Suheib Iqdah and his 40-year-old father Adel, and the three Al-Qassam Brigades fighters.

After nightfall, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a building in the crowded Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, killing a girl and a fighter. The airstrike targeted a house of a Hamas commander. Doctors said the dead girl was 10 years old. Seven people were wounded, including children, doctors said.

The Israeli military confirmed the earlier airstrike and the launch of a ground operation targeting “tunnels and other terror infrastructure” in the Khan Younis area, saying its troops were periodically coming under fire.

Since June 28, Israel has waged a prolonged offensive in Gaza with the stated goals of retrieving a soldier captured by Palestinians and stopping rocket attacks on its territory. A UN special envoy for human rights, John Dugard, has accused Israel of unleashing “collective punishment” in the territory, declaring last month that some 260 Palestinians had been killed and 800 injured in the operation.

The war in Lebanon may be over, but the pounding of the Palestinians - and their collective punishment for a crime of kidnapping that they did not commit - continues to this day.

It's hard looking at any of our newspapers today to realise that this is actually taking place.

Is it any wonder why so many people are so hideously ill informed on this subject when our national newspapers ignore such atrocities almost daily? Most people believe that the fighting ended when the war in Lebanon came to an end. And who can blame them from the dialogue encouraged by our national press?

Click title for full article.

tag: 8 killed, Gaza Strip, Palestinians, , Israel, Palestine