GAZA : One Year On : Remember Us

As the one year anniversary of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip is marked, it is vital to re-examine Operation Cast Lead within the wider context of Israel's approach to both Gaza and the Palestinians.

As the holiday season has started and many of you would be exchanging gifts and wishes with your loved ones at the Christmas end and beginning of a New Year. I found no one here remembered the genocide launched on Gaza exactly a year ago with a plan called Cast Lead. I plan to remember the victims and the innocent of the oppression. This thread is dedicated to the 300+ innocent children's who met an untimely death.

One year ago today, Israel launched "Operation Cast Lead", a murderous full-scale military assault on the small, densely populated, and defenseless Gaza Strip, a open air prison. The operation resulted in the massacre of over 1,300 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, including hundreds of children.

This includes only those killed directly by military attacks. The actual casualty figure from Israel's policies towards Gaza, including the number of deaths attributable to its ongoing siege of the territory, is unknown.

The official pretext for the operation given by Israel and parroted unquestioningly in the Western media is that Israel had to respond with force as an act of self-defense against to an onslaught of rocket attacks against southern Israel from Hamas and other militant/ resistance groups in Gaza.

What they failed to report back then was it was actually Israel who broke the ceasefire as shown below





Israel Broke "Ceasefire" Hours After it Went Into Effect

Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen

At the end we may never know the real truth who actually broke the ceasefire but what followed was the massacre and genocide:



















































More never before seen images here (warning graphic) - na.mo.free.fr...

Truth and Lies: Operation Cast Lead and Civilian Deaths

Besides vast destruction and mass population displacement,313 children were killed among the 1414 who died over a 23-day period. Of the 5300 injured (many seriously), 1606 were children. In all cases, the vast majority were noncombatants.

Of the children killed:

-- most were at home or nearby;

-- around one-third were girls and the rest boys;

-- almost 15% were under age 5 and another one-fourth between 5 and 10;

-- the remainder were between 11 and 17;

-- the "overwhelming majority" were killed in densely populated residential areas;

-- 46% were killed in northern Gaza;

-- 38% in Gaza City;

-- 9% in Khan Yunis and Rafah and 7% in less densely populated areas.

Israel used conventional and illegal weapons. The former included missiles, artillery and tank shells, mortars, and automatic weapons.

Others included:

-- white phosphorous that burns flesh to the bone and can be fatal; it's use is prohibited in civilian areas;

-- flechettes that are 4cm long darts used as anti-personnel weapons; they penetrate to the bone and can cause multiple horrific injuries; up to 8000 of them can be packed into one artillery shell; on explosion, they travel at high speed in multiple directions up to around 300 meters; and

-- various other internationally prohibited weapons that PCHR investigations uncovered and condemned.

Its case studies show a consistent failure of Israeli forces to protect civilian lives, especially those of children. They document indiscriminate attacks against densely populated neighborhoods in grave violation of international laws.

To safeguard civilians and non-military areas and structures, IHL requires that precautions be taken in any attack, and civilian protection is paramount. Israel pays no heed and attacks indiscriminately in grave violation of the law.

Source: www.globalresearch.ca...





The Holocaust was so brutal that Israel's own troops criticized it
and exposed the horror

Israel's Gaza Tactics Condemned By Troops

Shooting at will

Israeli Soldiers Expose Atrocities in Gaza

More can be found here: Soldier Testimonies from Operation Cast Lead 2009

What followed was a report by Human Rights Council under United Nations called GoldStone Report which listed War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity charges on Israel and on Hamas:

Their key findings are including Both Israel and Palestinian related:

• Israel's incursion was "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself and to force upon it an ever-increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability".

• Israeli forces committed "grave breaches of the fourth Geneva convention" which gave rise to "individual criminal responsibility", meaning soldiers could face prosecution.

• Israeli troops used Palestinian civilians as human shields, a war crime.

• Israel's economic blockade of Gaza in the years before the war amounted to "collective punishment intentionally inflicted by the government of Israel on the people of the Gaza Strip".

• Israeli actions depriving Gazans of means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, and denying their freedom of movement, "could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, had been committed".

• Palestinian rocket attacks did not distinguish between civilian and military targets, caused terror among Israeli civilians and "would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity".

• Gaza's security forces, controlled by Hamas, carried out extrajudicial executions and the arbitrary arrest, detention and ill-treatment of people, especially political opponents.

• Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza for more than three years, is a prisoner of war and should be released on humanitarian grounds.

Source:www.guardian.co.uk...

But sadly there was no justice as the whole report was swept under the carpet by Israel with the help of United States which vetoed the report.

One year on the Holocaust/ Genocide of Palestinians still continue...



Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 12/28/2009 by semperfortis]

How can anyone not S+F this thread...

very nice work OP, thanks for putting this thread up

Israel launched "Operation Cast Lead", a murderous full-scale military assault on the small, densely populated, and defenseless Gaza Strip, a open air prison.

Just came across these recent videos which are the aftershocks of Gaza War









and how the world has failed Gaza one year on

Israeli policy and global inaction are directly responsible for poverty in the Gaza strip, according to a new report from sixteen humanitarian and human rights groups. The report urges the EU to suspend relations with israel unless they stop the blockade, that it claims has impaired reconstruction and sharply increased poverty. Inside story, with guests discusses the details.

reply to post by heineken


It seems people are not interested from their own busy lives and issues. Such crimes against children's and civilians are not important. Sadly, this is not only on ATS but is the blueprint of world's attitude towards this crisis.

This is ridiculous!!

There are two sides to every fight

"Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday fired at least fifteen rockets and fourt mortar shells at southern Israel, as Israel implemented a unilateral cease-fire that would bring an end to over two weeks of fighting in the Gaza Strip"

"GAZA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) fired several rockets into Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip Sunday"

"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militants fired a long-range rocket from Gaza into southwestern Israel on Tuesday morning. It was the first such attack into the city of Ashkelon since the two sides declared a cease-fire, the Israeli military said."

"The United States blamed Hamas for breaking a ceasefire and provoking Israeli air strikes on Saturday that killed more than 200 people in Gaza, which is controlled by the Palestinian group."


If Hamas keep breaking ceasfires and firing into cities of course Israel with fight back against them.

Originally posted by December_Rain
As the one year anniversary of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip is marked, it is vital to re-examine Operation Cast Lead within the wider context of Israel's approach to both Gaza and the Palestinians.

The Hamas terrorists should have thought of that before attacking Israel then!

I found no one here remembered the genocide launched on Gaza exactly a year ago with a plan called Cast Lead.

What genocide? Hamas started it, so they were responsible for it.

What they failed to report back then was it was actually Israel who broke the ceasefire as shown below

Wrong, it was the hamas terrorists that broke the ceasefire

At the end we may never know the real truth who actually broke the ceasefire

funny how you just claimed it was Israel.....

Its case studies show a consistent failure of Israeli forces to protect civilian lives,

Funny how you ignore the Hamas terrorists using people as human shields....

To safeguard civilians and non-military areas and structures, IHL requires that precautions be taken in any attack,

funny how you ignore Hamas terrorists targetting civilians. Why is that?


[edit on 28/12/09 by dereks]

Originally posted by December_Rain
reply to post by heineken

 

It seems people are not interested from their own busy lives and issues. Such crimes against children's and civilians are not important. Sadly, this is not only on ATS but is the blueprint of world's attitude towards this crisis.

no, they are interested, they think it is good to kill toddler 'terrorists' as you can see on these few replies above!

'they deserved it', is their argument!!!

no wonder so called 'anti-semitism' is on the rise around the globe, any normal person would be disgusted by this massacre, but, as we can see many are not (normal)...

s&f

Originally posted by Haydn_17
This is ridiculous!!

There are two sides to every fight

"Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday fired at least fifteen rockets and fourt mortar shells at southern Israel, as Israel implemented a unilateral cease-fire that would bring an end to over two weeks of fighting in the Gaza Strip"

"GAZA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) fired several rockets into Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip Sunday"

"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militants fired a long-range rocket from Gaza into southwestern Israel on Tuesday morning. It was the first such attack into the city of Ashkelon since the two sides declared a cease-fire, the Israeli military said."

"The United States blamed Hamas for breaking a ceasefire and provoking Israeli air strikes on Saturday that killed more than 200 people in Gaza, which is controlled by the Palestinian group."


If Hamas keep breaking ceasfires and firing into cities of course Israel with fight back against them.

As like me your from England. Do you remember when the IRA were bombing mainland Britain?

would you have been happy to see British Jets and Bombers, blowing up Ireland killing thousands of civilians, children and women? would you have backed a full scale invasion of Ireland, Firing white phosphorus on the locals? I hope your answer is no, but I'm sure you'll find some way of defending Israel's actions. You are a member of the EDL and carry Israelis flags to your protests. Yet you have very little knowledge of the crimes Israel has committed. Even against our own British troops

But you wont care about that. you will carry the Israel flag to your EDL protests to stick it in the face of Muslims, to get them a bit more pissed off. These are your tactics. Misguided to say the least

[edit on 28-12-2009 by woodwardjnr]

Originally posted by dereks

Funny how you ignore the Hamas terrorists using people as human shields....

[edit on 28/12/09 by dereks]

IDF is using palestinians as human shield massively:

reply to post by woodwardjnr


There are huge differences.

The IRA used IED's, car bombs.
Yes they do damage..
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Qassam rocket (Arabic: صاروخ القسام‎ Ṣārūkh al-Qassām; also Kassam) is a simple steel artillery rocket filled with explosives, developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Three models have been produced and used between 2001 and 2009.

The Qassam gained notoriety as the most well-known type of rocket deployed by Palestinian militants against Israeli civilian targets during the Second Intifada of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[1][2] From 2001 through to July 2008, Qassam rockets have claimed the lives of 11 Israelis.

With a maximum range of 3 kilometers (2 mi) to 4.5 kilometers (3 mi).
-----------------------------

February 10, 2002 was the first time Palestinians launched rockets into Israel, rather than at Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. One of the rockets landed in Kibbutz Saad.[6] A Qassam first hit an Israeli city on March 5, 2002 when two rockets struck the southern city of Sderot. Some rockets have hit as far as the edge of Ashkelon. The total number of Qassam rockets launched exceeded 1,000 by June 9, 2006. During the year 2006 alone, more than 1,000 rockets were launched. In 2008, 1750 rockets were launched.









[edit on 28-12-2009 by Haydn_17]

[edit on 28-12-2009 by Haydn_17]

Real Face of Hamas, the Murderer Of Palestinians

reply to post by Haydn_17


So if the IRA had been firing rockets, you would have been behind a full scale invaision, with the the targeting of civillians, women and children. Using our fullest conventional military might to crush the Irish? Then blockade them and not allow aid to get to those injured by our bombing?
Why is it Ok for Israel to behave this way?

lets be honest Haydn, your hardly a fan of muslims are you? maybe you'd prefer it if all muslims were treted like this

Originally posted by Haydn_17

From 2001 through to July 2008, Qassam rockets have claimed the lives of 11 Israelis.

[edit on 28-12-2009 by Haydn_17]

you must be joking...

11 israelis killed in 7 years versus 1500 palestinians in two weeks...

who is the real terrorist here I wonder?

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Why would Britain invade it's own country? The bombs were in Northern Island which is part of Britain.

IRA 3,000 fought as fighters between January 1919 – March 1922

Looking at the dismal numbers then, there was hardly any left during the 21st century.

Only a handfull remain now, armed with simple hand guns and grenades.

On the other hand!!

Hamas has up to 20,000 men divided between its armed wing, known as the Izzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, and paramilitary police, commonly known as Executive Force.

They each carry a Kalashnikov assault rifle and have access to a modest stock of weapons including 4,000 rocket propelled grenades, hundreds of heavy machine guns and stock of about 120 tons of high explosive. They have a range of mortars and about 15 BRDM-2 armoured personnel carriers.
-----------------

You don't understand 1.5 million people live in Gaza, and it's not a big place at all.

Hamas setup there operations around big civilian targets such as schools and hospitals, Israel fire on these targets and of course civillians will die.

Oh and you keep trying to call me racist is not working at all

Care to look at my facebook? I have about 8 muslim friends who i know in person.

I can give you a link if you want.

Originally posted by donhuangenaro
11 israelis killed in 7 years versus 1500 palestinians in two weeks...

Well, Israel has bomb shelters for their civilians, Hamas use schools as bases and to fire their rockets from.

If you do not want to provoke Israel then stop attacking it, something Hamas terrorists dont seem to want to learn

reply to post by donhuangenaro


At least 2,985 people died in the September 11, 2001, attacks, including:

* 19 terrorists
* 2,966 victims [2,998 as of Spring 2009]

How many civillians died in Iraq?

Documented civilian deaths from violence

94,888 – 103,535


Using your logic, 9/11 was not a terrorist act at all.

Care to look at my facebook? I have about 8 muslim friends who i know in person.

I can give you a link if you want.

Well maybe you should ask just one of your Muslim fiends how they feel about the death of 1,500 Palestinians. They can probably give you a better perspective. In fact why not invite them here, to join in the debate. I would be interested to hear their views on this subject and on your membership of the EDL.

The fact you cannot find any sympathy for the Palestinians speaks volumes.

[edit on 28-12-2009 by woodwardjnr]