Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Three soldiers hurt as south buffeted by Gazan fusillades


TOI staff, The Times of Israel

Netanyahu meets with security brass amid soaring tensions; IDF says Hamas has lost control in Strip; Palestinians claim over 110 rockets and shells fired at Israel

Image from article, with caption: An Israeli soldier takes cover as rocket sirens blare in southern Israel on May 29, 2018.

Excerpt:
Three Israeli soldiers were wounded by shrapnel Tuesday during afternoon barrages of mortar shells and rockets launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, in the worst flareup of cross-border violence since the 2014 Gaza war.

Earlier in the day a civilian was lightly wounded by shrapnel from projectile fire, bringing the total number of injured to four. ...

Officials said they expected the round of fighting to continue into the night at least, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting with top defense brass. ...

Meanwhile Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio the cross-border violence could potentially intensify towards the evening. He said Israel was closer to war than it had been since 2014, when the country fought a punishing 50 day war with Gaza-led fighters that the enclave has yet to recover from.

“We don’t want war and neither do they, but we have our red lines,” Katz said. ...

Israeli media reported some 60 projectiles had been fired at Israel and a Palestinian website put the number at over 110. There was no official number from military officials. ...

In response to the initial barrages, Israeli planes pounded the Strip Tuesday afternoon. ...

Perhaps learning a lesson from a flat-footed effort to defend itself in the media during deadly protests along the Gaza border earlier in the month, the Foreign Ministry launched a quick public diplomacy [JB emphasis] push, instructing ambassadors around the world to stress to local leaders and media that Israel was acting legitimately to defend itself from Gaza-based terrorism.

Ambassadors were also to relay Israeli expectations that attacks from Gaza would receive unequivocal condemnations. ...

1 comment:

Moshe said...

Has the Trump Administration up rooted Obama's Middle East Foreign Policy?

The hostility of the State Department toward Israel has not changed. The issue: does America First require a Pax American Imperialist dictatorship. Mr. Obama sought to force Israel to surrender its own national self interests in favor of American imperial domination of the Middle East. Iraq, Libya and Syria serve as 3 examples of great power countries seeking to divide the Middle East into "spheres of influence". But what if Israel does not agree to become a 19th century China?! PM Begin warned Carter that Israel would not be a US banana republic.

This divide and conquer - Containment Policy - 2 State Solution - imperialism Israel totally rejects. The Arabs rejected any 2 State solution in 1948 and then lost their war to throw the Jews into the Sea. Palestine ceased to exist the moment that the British returned their mandate back the to UN and David Ben Gurion declared Jewish Independence. The Arabs lost the war in 1948 and lost any claim to a country within the borders of Israel.

Only Britain and Pakistan recognized the illegal annexation of E. Jerusalem and Samaria in 1948. Yet virtually all Western imperialist powers refer to the re-captured territories as the "occupied West Bank"! President Trump has instructed the State Department to cease with this imperialist propaganda of referring to Samaria as west bank - as if Jordan had a claim to Samaria! Britain separated Trans-Jordan from Israel in 1923 making the Jordan river the border between the 2 States.