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| Friday, Jul 18 '14, Tammuz 20, 5774 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Netanyahu Defends IDF, 'Inevitable' Ground Offensive
by Hezki Ezra, Tova Dvorin  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at length about the ground offensive in Gaza on Friday, as Operation Protective Edge against Hamas enters its eleventh day. "This is the tenth day that Israel has had to endure terrorism on its cities and its citizens," he said. "The IDF is operating against Hamas in Gaza by sea, by air, and now by land." "Our forces began a ground operation to harm terror tunnels that extend from Gaza to penetrate Israeli territory," he continued. "Hamas terrorists penetrated a terror tunnel like this yesterday morning in order to carry out a mass attack against Israeli civilians. The IDF worked hard to foil this terrorist operation successfully." Netanyahu reiterated that instances like these render an air operation ineffective in fully fighting Hamas. "Because they cannot destroy the tunnels by air, our soldiers will work from the ground," he said. "This does not guarantee a 100% success rate, but we are doing everything to eradicate the most tunnels possible." Netanyahu also expressed sorrow and condolences over the first fatality in the ground offensive, 20 year-old IDF soldier Sgt. Eitan Barak. 'No other options' Netanyahu also emphasized that Operation Protective Edge may yet extend even further into Gaza, something the Security Cabinet is prepared to execute for the sake of eradicating Hamas - whom has left Israel with few options to defend itself. "The decision yesterday followed Israel's agreement to Egypt's proposal to a ceasefire, as well as the UN initiative for a humanitarian truce," he noted. "In both cases Hamas continued to fire rockets." "We chose a ground offensive after we have exhausted other options, with the understanding that without the operation, the price to pay would be much higher." So far, 1,497 rockets were fired on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Of those, 1,093 hit Israel; 301 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Roughly 100 have been estimated to have struck Gaza itself, killing an untold number of Palestinian Arab civilians. The IDF has eliminated 2,037 terror targets in Gaza. Debunking criticism over civilian casualties The Prime Minister also addressed Israel's talks with the international community, after several countries called out Israel for 'proportionality' in the Gaza offensive. Even before launching Operation Protective Edge last week, Netanyahu had spoken with world leaders about the escalation from Gaza, he said. "Since then, we have worked tirelessly on the political and media fronts, so that the international community understands that we operate systematically and intensely against a murderous terrorist organization and its affiliates," he said. "The IDF is a moral army that does not wish to harm even one innocent person; we only operate against terror targets and we regret any unintentional harm to civilians." Netanyahu noted, once again, what Hamas itself stated on multiple occasions: that it encourages civilians to become human shields. "Anyone responsible for harming innocent bystanders are terrorist organizations that attack our citizens and use civilians as their shields," he fired. "I know that global opinion always has a distorted picture of the campaign; it is inevitable - but unlike other times, there are many in the international community who understand that the persons responsible for these deaths is Hamas and only Hamas." Hamas's PR war Hamas has openly boasted about the "success" of its strategy of using civilians as human shields during Operation Protective Edge, which is now ending its tenth day, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice. Hamas has in the past urged Gazans to ignore warnings from the IDF about upcoming strikes, in remarks caught both on Hamas-sponsored television and on the radar of international media outlets. Hamas's "Public Security Ministry" in Gaza even made official statements Thursday encouraging more civilians to refuse to heed IDF warnings ahead of a possible ground offensive. In addition, several of the rockets fired from Gaza have never made it on to Israeli soil, and may be partially responsible for Palestinian Arab deaths from within Gaza itself. By contrast, the IDF has dropped leaflets, sent phone messages, and issued general warnings to all civilians within range of upcoming airstrikes to prevent further harm. While many in the international media have embraced the Gazan civilian casualty count as proof of Israeli "war crimes," CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, claimed Monday that many of those reported dead are likely Hamas terrorists. In a study analyzing Al-Jazeera's list of Gazan casualties, it said, a close look at the data "shows that, as in past hostilities, the fatalities are disproportionately [compared to the overall population] among young males, which corresponds with the characteristics of combatants. Males over 40 years old are also disproportionately represented. Some of the fatalities in those over 40 years of age likely represent senior members of terrorist organizations."
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2. IDF Identifies Two Terror Tunnels as Rockets Continue
by Tova Dvorin  The IDF is actively working to destroy two terror tunnels Friday morning, Palestinian Arab sources told Walla! News, as the ground offensive in Operation Protective Edge progresses. But the ground offensive is allegedly relatively benign, they added, saying that IDF tanks have not been spotted past "a few hundred meters over the border." "It's completely different than what we saw in 2008," the source stated, referring to Operation Cast Lead. "There are virtually no forces inside the border." Multiple sources in Gaza have confirmed those statements, according to the daily. Meanwhile, between six and ten rockets have struck Israel as of 11:30 am Friday morning, mostly in Israel's south; approximately thirty rockets were fired since the ground offensive was launched roughly 12 hours ago. 158 were fired at Israel on Thursday alone. The Home Front Command (HFC) has reminded all Israelis to immediately find shelter in the event of a siren. The IDF also released updated statistics on Operation Protective Edge Friday, which is in its eleventh day total and the first 12 hours of a ground offensive. So far, 1,497 rockets were fired on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Of those, 1,093 hit Israel; 301 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Roughly 100 have been estimated to have struck Gaza itself, killing an untold number of Palestinian Arab civilians. The IDF has eliminated 2,037 terror targets in Gaza. 
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3. One IDF Soldier Killed, 15 Terrorists Eliminated in Gaza
by Kobi Finkler, Tova Dvorin and Dalit Halevi  The IDF has released a summary of the last eight hours of Operation Protective Edge's ground offensive in Gaza on Friday morning, after tens of thousands of soldiers were called up to enter Gaza and destroy Hamas's arsenals and terror tunnels. The IDF eliminated 15 terrorists overnight; 103 terror targets were eliminated, including 20 buried launchers. One IDF soldier, who has been named as 20 year-old Sgt. Eitan Barak from Herzliya, was also killed in the fighting after being critically wounded during clashes near Beit Hanoun; an investigation has been launched into whether he may have been killed from friendly fire. He was announced dead at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. His funeral is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 5:00 in the Herzliya cemetery. Four additional soldiers were also injured during the ground offensive overnight; one suffered moderate injuries and three others light injuries. Many of the injuries were to the face and neck; all of the wounded soldiers are being treated at Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. According to a notice from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, part of Hamas's "terror wing," terrorists ambushed the IDF's special forces late Thursday night in the northern and southern border regions of Gaza; another Al-Qassam Brigades suicide bombing targeted IDF vehicles north of Beit Lahiya. The reports, which remain unconfirmed, claim five bombs were detonated in the attack and sparked gunfire between Hamas and IDF forces. Hamas also claimed that IDF forces were "forced to withdraw" from fighting near an agricultural school in Beit Hanoun (northern Gaza) and Al-Hasinat, east of Rafah (southern Gaza). "There were a number of events during the night," military spokesman General Moti Almoz told IDF Radio. "The incident in which a soldier was killed, we are checking the circumstances now and when we know them all we shall release the findings." 'Most extensive operation ever' in Gaza Since the beginning of the operation, more than 2200 terror targets in Gaza have been eliminated, the IDF announced Friday. A senior official involved in the operation spoke to Arutz Sheva on the condition of anonymity early Friday, and noted that the operation - which is "the most extensive operation" ever carried out by IDF forces in Gaza - is ultimately designed decimate Hamas, far beyond what was achieved in Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. The official added that the real conflict is yet to follow. "The operation will include three stages: an integrated air and sea assault, a ground operation from the Army, and the third part - if and when it is needed - would be expanding the operation, including recruiting more reservists," he said. As of Friday, 48,000 reserve soldiers have been called up; an additional 18,000 were approved for reserve duty Thursday night.
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4. Home Front Command Releases Updated Guidelines for Rocket Fire
by Tova Dvorin  The Home Front Command has updated its guidelines for Israelis within rocket range on Friday, in light of increasing rocket fire from Hamas in Gaza and anticipated escalation due to the IDF ground offensive. Within 40 kilometers of Gaza, including the Gaza belt, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Be'er Sheva, and the surrounding communities, all meetings or gatherings of 300 people or more have been banned - whether indoors or outdoors. This includes shopping centers and other entertainment venues. All schools and camps have been suspended until further notice. Workplaces, however, have remained open without restrictions - except for agricultural or other outdoor projects, which have been closed in all areas within 3 kilometers of the Sha'ar HaNegev Region, as per the Regional Council. Between 40-80 kilometers from Gaza, including the Shefela (Coastal region), Gush Dan (Tel Aviv and Central Israel), the Jerusalem area, Judea, Samaria, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, the Sharon region, the Jordan Valley, Emek Haefer, and all areas of the Negev more than 40 km from Gaza, the ban on large gatherings applies only to 1,000 people or more, and only then outdoors. There are no restrictions on gatherings in closed spaces; work, school, and other venues remain open. Beyond 80 kilometers from Gaza - including Eilat, the Galilee, the Golan Heights, and the northern Shomron, businesses and other activities may proceed as usual. Every Israeli is advised to enter bomb shelters or safe rooms immediately upon hearing sirens in every region, within the timeframe allotted to their geographic area. An updated database of instructions and timeframes by region may be found here.
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5. PA Joins International Effort for Israel-Hamas Ceasefire
by AFP and Arutz Sheva Staff  Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was to head to Turkey to push a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday, after Hamas rejected Egyptian-mediated negotiations and Israel launched a ground operation. Egypt, under recently-elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has moved to isolate Hamas, accusing it of backing the Muslim Brotherhood on its own territory. It has worked instead to bolster the role of Abbas - its ally based in Ramallah and "frenemy" to Hamas - in reaching a deal to end Israel's self-defense campaign, which the international community has seized upon after Hamas officials encouraged, and dramatized, civilian deaths. A senior official with Abbas said the talks, which extended into Thursday night, had stalled over Hamas's insistence on an unprecedented number of conditions which would likely give it time to restock its weapons arsenal - including an international airport and the lifting of a naval blockade. Amid the diplomatic flurry in Cairo, Abbas was due to meet French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius before heading to Turkey, which has ties with both Hamas and Israel, said the official, Azzam al-Ahmed. Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who recently visited Israel on an official mission, was also expected in Cairo. Abbas held talks with Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq in Cairo on Thursday along with Egyptian mediators, Ahmed said. "Egypt proposed that Israel open the crossings after the ceasefire," Ahmed said. "Hamas wants it now, they don't think the Israelis will respect this later." Hamas's multiple rejection of ceasefire attempts, both from Egypt and the UN, has turned the tide somewhat in the international community, even after Israel launched a ground offensive to defend itself from the constant barrage of rockets on its civilians. Egypt's foreign ministry has condemned the ground incursion but it also lashed out at Hamas, saying the Islamist movement could have saved dozens of lives had it accepted Cairo's proposal. According to Kol Yisrael radio, the Egyptian government said it was placing the responsibility on Hamas for “the possible deaths of Palestinian civilians”, citing Hamas’s refusal to accept Egypt’s proposal for a ceasefire. The report quoted Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, as having said that had Hamas accepted the ceasefire proposal, it would have saved the lives of at least 40 Gazans who were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Shoukry further said that Hamas was cooperating with Qatar and Turkey to harm Egypt’s status in the region. Shoukry’s comments on Hamas echo those made earlier by Egypt’s former Foreign Minister, Mohammed Al-Arabi, who said that Hamas was not serious about a ceasefire – and that the terror group was deliberately trying to embarrass Egypt. Speaking in an interview in an Egyptian newspaper, Al-Arabi blamed Hamas for not only failing to come to a ceasefire, but for “shedding the blood of innocent Palestinians” by continuing to attack Israel.
Tags: Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas, ceasefire, cease fire, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Sisi, Operation Protective Edge
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6. Zoabi Encourages Uprising Against Israel - on Hamas Website
by Uzi Baruch and Tova Dvorin  MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) took her campaign against Israel to a whole new level this week, Israel Hayom reports Friday - after she published an article on Hamas's official website encouraging an Islamist uprising against the Jewish state. Zoabi encouraged all Arab countries to help stoke a "popular uprising" against Israel, halt security coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA) police in Judea and Samaria, and lay siege to the region. Zoabi - who is a member of the Israeli Knesset - also put the word "Israel" in quotation marks for the entire article. The inflammatory piece also attacks Operation Protective Edge against Hamas, which seeks to protect her home country against the thousands of rockets already fired by the terror group on Israeli citizens. "There is no purpose to the military operation in Gaza," Zoabi writes. "Israel will in no way eliminate Hamas - neither the motivations behind the resistance nor the motivation to end the Occupation." "Israel will in no way accomplish anything by brute military force, killing, and devastation," she added. "[Israel's] brutal aggression has no political policy other than fixing the current situation by continuing a series of crimes and violations against our people - stop that, and we will stop the rocket fire." "In order for 'Israel' to declare an end to the possibility of guarding its Occupation and deepening it, we must end the enemy's Trinity - the siege, the security cooperation, and the border [. . .] we must besiege 'Israel' instead of negotiating with it," she concluded. Last straw? Hanin Zoabi has been linked to Hamas before, and is infamous for provocative speeches, including one in which she said that Israel has “no right to a normal life” and a later address claiming that “the Israeli occupation” was behind the murder of Israelis in Bulgaria. Recently, she declared that Israel should "thank her" for allowing Jews to live in the Jewish State. The anti-Israel MK was thrust back into the spotlight last month, after making a series of remarksdefending Hamas's horrific abduction and murder of Israeli yeshiva high school students Gilad Sha'ar (16), Naftali Frenkel (16), and Eyal Yifrah (19), hy"d. In the remarks, Zoabi refused to call their murderers "terrorists" and insisted that the abduction was a "legitimate" way to "fight the occupation." The latest salvo of verbal fire on Israelis resulted in both a personal and political backlash; Zoabi's family disowned her, passersby confronted her on the street and in restaurants, and the Knesset began several forms of legal proceedings for her ouster, in a bill dubbed "Zoabi's Law." Before the last elections, the Central Elections Committee banned Zoabi, under a clause requiring candidates and parties not to work against Israel's character as a Jewish, democratic state. However, the Supreme Court later overturned the decision and allowed Zoabi to run - a decision Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon lamented in June. "I was able to reject [Zoabi's] candidacy for the Knesset in the [Central] Elections Committee, but the Supreme Court overturned the decision," Danon said. ''This is a fiasco which the Knesset has to stop."
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7. Watch: Pro, Anti-IDF Protests Erupt in Tel Aviv
by Yoni Kempinski, Tova Dvorin  Heated protests between leftists and nationalists erupted in Tel Aviv late Thursday night, ahead of the IDF's expansion of Operation Protective Edge into a ground offensive. Arutz Sheva spoke to representatives of both camps at the demonstration, as the atmosphere in the Tel Aviv streets grew electric with political tension.  Avner, an activist for infamous anti-IDF and anti-Israel group Breaking the Silence, claimed during the interview that Israel was "lying" in the contextual reasons behind the ground offensive, which was launched Thursday night after some 1,350 rockets were lobbed by Hamas terrorists at Israeli civiliansand after Hamas rejected several cease-fire deals. Arutz Sheva also spoke to nationalist activist Baruch Marzel, who declared that the protest - much like the leftist "spontaneous protests" against alleged human rights violations in Israel's fight against illegal immigration - is being covertly funded by the international community, including the European Union. 
Sign: "To Israel and Hamas: Civilians are not targets!" Leftist protest, July 2014. ????90
Sign: "The occupation is a crime, and both sides are criminals." ????90
"Protest of Hope"; "No difference between blood and blood." ????90
Cheeky protestor, in keffiyeh: "They [Hamas] kill leftists, too!" ????90
Proud Jew: nationalist protestor holds symbolic 'Jude' star to show solidarity with Israel????90
Supporting the IDF. ????90
Tags: European union, Baruch Marzel, demonstrators, Breaking the Silence, Operation Protective Edge, leftists groups
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8. IDF Launches Ground Operation against Gaza
by Gil Ronen  The Prime Minister's Office has issued a statement that says the IDF has embarked on a ground assault into Gaza against Hamas's tunnels.  The operation is deemed as "limited" and will probably not go further than two or three kilometers into Gaza's territory. This is deemed to be deep enough in enemy land to find the openings into Hamas's attack tunnels, like the one that was used in Thursday morning's infiltration into Israel by 13 terrorists. Large forces from the IDF's infantry, armor, artillery, engineering and intelligence corps are operating in several zones within Gaza after breaching the security fence that separates it from Israel, in coordination with the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) and with support from the air and naval forces. The zones are in Gaza's northern, central and southern sections. The Diplomacy and Security Cabinet has authorized the IDF to widen the operation further at its discretion. Egypt, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying that Hamas is to blame for the possible deaths of hundreds of Gazan civilians. The statement appears to have purposely been issued simultaneously with the statement from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. Channel 2's reporters said earlier that the IDF has unleashed a blistering artillery barrage against northern Gaza. They hinted that this type of barrage often precedes a ground invasion. Also taking part in the shelling were tanks and naval gunboats. More than 60 Hamas missiles rained down on Israel throughout Thursday, in one of the more intense days of missile fire since Operation Protective Edge was launched. Hamas appeared more defiant than ever despite attempts to coax it into a ceasefire. As Israel declared a unilateral "humanitarian ceasefire," 13 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel by tunnel but were discovered and may have escaped back to Gaza through the tunnel. A man was critically wounded in Ashkelon when got out of his car to run for shelter during a Hamas missile attack and was hit by another car, a television news report said. According to Channel 2, he was taken to hospital in critical condition Thursday night. Dror Hanin, 38, a married father of three from Beit Aryeh in the Shomron, was killed Tuesday by a Hamas mortar shell as he gave out gift bags to soldiers at the Erez Crossing near Gaza. He was the first Israeli fatality in the course of Operation Protective Edge, which has been going on for ten days.
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Friday, 18 July 2014
