Israel’s New Air War in the West Bank: Nearly Half of the Dead are Children
Around 9:30 p.m. in late February, a white Mazda pulled up near a game cafe in the Jenin refugee camp on the northern edge of the West Bank, where a crowd of boys and young men often gathered to socialize.
As the car stopped, a few people walked by on the narrow street. Two motorbikes weaved past in different directions. “Everything was fine at the time,” according to an eyewitness sitting nearby in the camp’s main square.
Then the car erupted in a ball of flame. Two missiles fired from an Israeli drone had hit the Mazda in quick succession, as shown in a video the Israeli Air Force posted that night.
According to the IAF, the strike killed Yasser Hanoun, described as “a wanted terrorist.”
But Hanoun was not the only fatality: 16-year old Said Raed Said Jaradat, who was near the vehicle when it was hit, sustained shrapnel wounds all over his body, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International-Palestine. He died from his injuries at 1 a.m. the next morning.
Jaradat is one of 24 children killed in Israel’s airstrikes on the West Bank since last summer, when the Israeli forces began deploying drones, planes, and helicopters to carry out attacks in the occupied territory for the first time in decades.
"Fighting back" by heavily bombarding a Palestine area that has no offensive means due to decades of slowly administered austerity measures. From a land their diaspora didnt own for the last 2000 years...
To be fair they literally asked for it and continue to do so by taking and not releasing the hostages.
Edit: It doesn't help that when killed the other civilians refer to them as martyrs. The whole thing is incredibly ugly and done for imo stupid reasons on both sides.
Israel is was holding hostages before October 7. You are implying that Israel asked for October 7.
No need to lie. Israel isn't innocent, but Hamas has a demonstrated reliable record of using civilian deaths for their ends. They are counting on your naivete to gain sympathy and support and you're falling for it when in actuality this is their ducks coming home to roost.
Surrender. Release the Hostages. Crisis averted. Do they? Nerp. Instead its "you're killing civilians like we've intentionally aimed for for decades! Unfair plane!"
No factually Israel had kidnapped Palestinians from the West Bank and held them hostage before October 7.
You understand 'imprisoning terrorists' /= 'holding hostages' right?
Yes these are different things. How is this relevant to Israel taking Palestinians hostage?
Because imprisoning terrorists is what it is correctly called
The difference is due to the military control Israel has over the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinians are tried in a military court with no civil rights or representation, tortured into false confessions, and incarcerated with routine torture, sexual abuse, and denial of basic medical care. That includes hundreds if not thousands of children.
Palestinians denied civil rights (HRW) including Military Court (B'TSelem)
Palestinian Prisoners in Israel including Child abuse - Save The Children
Torture and Abuse in Interrogations - B'TSelem
Thousands of Palestinians are held without charge under Israeli detention policy - NPR
Urgently investigate inhumane treatment and enforced disappearance of Palestinians detainees from Gaza - Amnesty
Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests
Hamas Acts of Terrorism that gave zero due process to their victims
Do you think all Palestinians are terrorists or something?
Do you understand the systemic violence of living under an Apartheid State?
"no offensive means" except the rockets and a military of tens of thousands of people with guns
As for living there a long time... are you fucking stupid? Jerusalem is in Israel, and the Kingdom of Israel (which is in that vicinity) is mentioned in the original Hebrew fucking bible, which was completed around 2000 years ago. Jews have been living in that region since Judaism became a thing.
No. Israel has 13bil in millitary means just from this year from USA, while Gaza is starving. Fuck off.
Just open other books as well. Plenty of books talk about lands controlled by long forgotten kingdoms. And many of these are actually history books, instead of religious gospel from influential figures.
Yes, Israel is stronger than Palestine. Is that a crime? Palestine still regularly attacks Israel, they had to build a fucking missile defence system because of it.
Are you actually claiming jews didn't live in that region for the last two thousand years? There are thousands of historical records beyond just the bible proving that they did.
Israel is a weak little bitch that relies on daddy America while pretending to be the toughest kid in the neighborhood. An old book does not justify genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Hamas is an even weaker little bitch that relies on money and arms being smuggled in from Muslim countries to fight against Israel.
Gaza has a GDP per capita of $800 PER YEAR. Israel is around $60,000.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. You'd think Israel, as an internationally-recognized country, would be better than a terrorist organization, but apparently not. In fact, Israel has been more brutal and less reasonable than even Hamas in many cases.
Then you jump to comparing the GDP of Gaza, which has the entire weight of Israel and the west sitting on it, with the GDP of Israel which has the full backing of the west. Kind of hard to produce things when you've got a neighboring country hell-bent on ethnically cleansing all of your land and the most powerful countries in the world funding them to carry it out.
I wouldn't think Israel would be better, because the whole fighting strategy of guerilla terrorist organizations like Hamas is to make it impossible to fight cleanly. That's why they meet up in residential locations surrounded by women and children, and set up resources in schools, hospitals, etc.
This strategy isn't unique to Hamas, it's used by pretty much every group around the world who are fighting civil wars from a weaker position.
I'm not saying that the reason they're poor isn't because of Israel, I'm simply saying that they are poor as fuck and therefore the funding for their terrorism is coming from elsewhere.
The Israeli imposed closure on Gaza began in 1991, temporarily, becoming permanent in 1993. The barrier began around Gaza around 1972. After the 'disengagement' in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of 'dual-use' Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted. This has been a deliberate tactic of De-development.
Gaza Policy Forum summary: Experts agree that Israel’s dual-use policy causes acute distress
The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy