Israel Blames Hamas For Civilian Deaths In Gaza
By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News) –- Despite a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, Israel continued its operation in the Gaza Strip Friday, January 9, saying it was trying to halt rocket attacks from Hamas militants, “hiding” between civilians.
At least 30 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip deep into Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said. It also cited what it described as fresh new evidence that the Hamas group is operating among civilians to maximize the number of victims, who militants describe as “martyrs.”
“On Thursday, January 8, the Intelligence Corps Officer-in-Chief, Brigadier General Yuval Halmish, found a sketch by Hamas that details the deployment of explosives and Hamas forces in the Al-Attara neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement obtained by Worthy News.
The document allegedly describes the usage of explosives and firing positions in the middle of a civilian population in one of the world’s most densely populated regions. “That’s what Hamas has been doing throughout the entirety of the operation – perversely using civilians as human shields,” Halmish said.
SNIPERS POSITIONS
The map allegedly also shows snipers positioned at the entrance of mosques and describes directions the snipers are aiming. “It indicates that explosives are planted in the entrances of civilian homes,” the IDF said.
Among other details, the map also reveals “an explosive device planted next to a gas station – the detonation of the device would significantly damage the surrounding area,” the Israeli military added.
There was no immediate reaction from Hamas and it was difficult to verify Israel’s claims independently, as it has prevented foreign journalists of entering the Gaza Strip.
However with hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children dying in the assault, and thousands injured, there has been mounting pressure on Israel to halts its operations. Christian advocacy groups, including Open Doors, have also expressed concerns about the impact of the attacks on the estimated 3,000 Christians in the area after a teenage Christian girl was reportedly killed of a heart attack, while seeing the impact of an Israeli strike.
Israel said it will briefly only interrupt fighting for at least three hours a day to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, but made clear it continues to strike “terrorist targets” including 50 overnight.
The targets included: five rocket launching sites, one of which was located next to a mosque, an office for Islamic Jihad, and caches of weapons and explosives, the IDF said.
NEW FRONT
As the offensive continued in the Gaza Strip, there remained concern Friday, January 9, of a second front opening in Lebanon. The IDF said it “shelled” southern Lebanon Friday, January 9, after four Katyusha rockets were fired the day earlier by suspected militants of the Hezbollah group.
At least two people were reported injured in the attacks. Hezbollah has been opposed to the attack of Israel in the Gaza Strip and has made clear it is prepared to support militants in that area.
Grad Rockets were also fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip near the city of Be’er Sheva, local residents confirmed to Worthy News. No injuries were reported, but it added fears of attacks in other parts of Israel.
Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said he had therefore placed a curfew on Judea and Samaria, except for cases involving humanitarian aid and medical emergencies until Sunday, January 11.
“CONCENTRATION CAMP”
Israel condemned a Vatican’s official remark that the Gaza Strip was a “big concentration camp.”
Worthy News obtained a translated copy of an interview in which Italian speaking Cardinal Renato Martino was asked by Italian Newspaper IISussidiario, “What is missing in the Middle East scene to take the road of dialogue?” He answered that, “A more acute sense of human dignity,” was needed. “Look at the conditions of Gaza [they] increasingly resembles a big concentration camp,” the official added.
Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was “astounded to hear from a spiritual dignitary words that are so far removed from truth and dignity.” It said that the “vocabulary of Hamas propaganda, coming from a member of the College of Cardinals, is shocking and disappointing phenomenon.”
“The cardinal should know that however difficult conditions may be in Gaza, the one thing it surely is not is a concentration camp where Jews were brought to die either by slave labor, starvation, or in most cases burned in the crematorium”, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a major human rigths group investigating Nazi crimes.
There has also been concern about growing anti-Israel rallies in the United States. In a statement, the group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said, “While we have come to expect to see such and hear this type of inflammatory rhetoric in Arab and Muslim capitals overseas, it is deeply disturbing that it is appearing in anti-Israel demonstrations at home.”