Those Israelis are smart. Their new “knock on the roof” method of warning of strikes is cool:
The Israeli military let it be known that it was using this tactic – known as ‘knock on the roof’ – again during Operation Pillar of Defence. It involves firing low-explosive ‘teaser’ bombs or missiles onto houses designated for destruction, with the intention of making an impact serious enough to scare the inhabitants into fleeing their homes before they are destroyed completely.
Israel makes much of the fact that it always tries to warn civilian inhabitants of impending bombings. The new procedure is a twist on the established ‘knock on the door’ method, which involved telephoning a house – with a recorded message, or using an Arabic-speaking air-force operator – to inform the inhabitants that in a few minutes the building would be destroyed. Sometimes phones that had been disconnected for months because the bill hadn’t been paid were suddenly reactivated in order to relay these warnings. According to the Israeli military, during the last 24 hours of Pillar of Defence, thousands of such calls were made to residents of Gaza, warning them of incoming strikes. (Israel can penetrate Gaza’s communication networks so easily because its telephone networks and internet infrastructure are routed through Israeli servers, which has advantages both for the gathering of intelligence and the delivery of propaganda.)
Of course, many inhabitants of Gaza don’t have a landline or a mobile phone. In these cases, an IDF spokesperson recently explained, the military’s legal experts recommend the use of leaflets to encourage people to leave their houses before they are destroyed. Teaser bombs are just another means of sending a warning.
It’s nothing new that the wall around Gaza contains some naughty rocket hugging Fakestinians. And there’s no better way to tell off the rock chuckers than with some stern words from the babes of the IDF via a loudspeaker from a Guardium UGV, or Unmanned Ground Vehicle. These beasts really are a step up in technology in patrolling borders and boundaries of disputed territories.
“Back in the control room, soldiers — all of whom are women — operate the Guardium with joysticks, gear pedals, a steering wheel and monitors that broadcast a live feed from the field.
Soldiers who want to join the Guardium unit must have a drivers license for automatic and manual transmissions. “Applicants must be able to focus intensively since the job demands being glued to a screen without interruption for six hour shifts.”
Witnesses say masked gunmen have publicly killed six suspected collaborators with Israel at a busy Gaza City intersection.
The Hamas military wing claimed responsibility.
Witnesses said the six men were pulled out of a van Tuesday, forced to lie face down on the street and then shot dead.
Five bodies lay in a pile as a mob stomped and spit on them. A sixth body was tied to a motorcycle and dragged through the streets as people screamed, “Spy! Spy!”
Hamas posted a sign on an electricity pole, naming the six alleged informers.
Israel relies on a network of local informants to identify its targets.
The killings came during a nearly week-long Israeli military offensive that has killed more than 120 people, both militants and civilians, including three Israelis.
Hamas love hiding behind the skirts of women and children, now they are pretending to be media to avoid having their sinuses cleared with a Hellfire:
The “human shield” method, as it is commonly known, has forced the IDF to target seemingly non-military targets, resulting in some of the civilian casualties. It has also endangered all residents of the Gaza Strip who, without their consent, were unwittingly dragged into the conflict.
One such example came in today, when a senior Hamas operative was targeted while driving a press vehicle. Muhammed Shamalah, commander of Hamas forces in the southern Strip and head of the Hamas militant training programs, was targeted by an Israeli air strike while driving a car clearly labelled “TV”, indicating it to be a press vehicle, abusing the protection afforded to journalists.
The incident occurred on the same day that four senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives took over a floor of the foreign press building in Gaza and used it as a meeting place, risking the lives of all journalists inside. The IDF targeted the operatives and a direct hit was confirmed. Journalists have been warned to stay aware from terrorists or terror sites in the Strip, for their own safety.
I’ll just bet that this is what this Kiwi repeater is going on about:
Kiwi journalist Julie Webb-Pullman, in #Gaza, told TV3 News Israeli govt has contacted her to say she is a terrorist & they will kill her.
She is a long-standing political activist for the communist regime in Cuba, the revolutionary leftist Zapatistas, and the Kia Ora Gaza and NZ Palestine Human Rights Campaign. She disputes that Israel even has a right to exist as a legitimate state, and people can judge this statement for themselves:
Unlike Farrar, I won’t pull any punches. I agree with him that these terrorist enabling statements should be published but her form needs to be reported too. Enablers of the terrorist regime in Gaza really have no shame, prepared to lie and cheat and hide behind woman, children and now journalists.
Bottom line is this. If you want to associate with terrorists then don’t go complaining when a missile comes calling.
Barely one day into the fighting in Hamas-run Gaza, the locals are hard at work playing the victim for the world’s press.
Footage from the BBC captured by watchdog group Honest Reporting shows a heavy man lying on the ground and being carried away by residents, apparently after being injured by an Israeli attack.
Moments later, that same man again fills the frame, except he is walking about and obviously unhurt.
The widespread staging of such victim situations is a favored tactic of Arabs fighting Israel and has come to be known as “Pallywood.” Because Israel is stronger militarily, the Arabs cling to the underdog image of poor refugees under occupation and siege by evil Israelis, thus eliciting sympathy.
…more than 700 have struck Israel since the beginning of the year, and more than 120 since Saturday – the IDF has launched a widespread campaign against terror targets in Gaza. The operation, called Pillar of Defense, has two main goals: to protect Israeli civilians and to cripple the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.
Hamas has taken to televising and advertising their rocket attacks on Israel..little wonder then that the IDF took out Ahmad Jabari, the operational commander of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
I was on the Nation today and due to time constraints I didn’t get to slam into the liars of Kia Ora Gaza. Sean Plunket however did a fair job of trying to expose their lies.
Here is the transcript:
SEAN In the past week you’ve been asked to give again to a group called Kia Ora Gaza. They tell us they’re a group of Kiwis joining an international aid convoy to deliver humanitarian supplies to the needy of Gaza. They’ve had some media coverage in the papers and on the tele. They’ve adapted a Hank Williams song and have a cute little Kiwi cartoon on their website where they’re asking for $100,000 to fund this mercy mission. But is this really a homegrown handout for the needy of Gaza, or is there something else going on? To find out we have in the studio Roger Fowler, Team Captain of Kia Ora Gaza, good morning to you, and from the Jewish Council of New Zealand, David Zwartz, he’s in our Wellington studio
SEAN Roger Fowler I want to come to you first, is this about delivering aid, or making a political statement?
ROGER It’s definitely about delivering aid, we’re talking about millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid which is desperately needed by the people of Gaza. We’re talking about medical equipment, educational equipment, and building equipment to try and rebuild some normality of life for the people of that desperate nation.
SEAN Alright and to do that the six of you are going to London and then driving to Gaza?
ROGER There’ll be a massive convoy Sean of about 500 vehicles, coming in three legs. One’s coming down from London and that’s the one that we’ll be joining with the people of Palestine, and there’ll be another leg coming from Dohar, and another one from Morocco, all coming towards Gaza on the same day.
Ok here we have the first lies. That 500 vehicles is a massive convoy to save the embattled Palestinians. They are trying to make out that Israel is starving the people out of their homes through a blockade. It is a lie that “aid” is even needed.
SEAN Can you not buy the supplies, the medicines and the building supplies you want on Cairo and simply send them over the border to Gaza, why the need for this massive road trip?
ROGER Well this is a big international effort once and for all to bring much needed aid to the people of Gaza.
SEAN But as I’ve just explained to you there’s a far logistically simpler and one would presume more economically sustainable way to do that?
ROGER There is but the need to bring this humanitarian aid is because there is a siege on Gaza, which is inflicted by their neighbours, and we have seen a need to break that siege. So yes there is a physical component to breaking that siege and bringing that aid.
SEAN So are you actually going to physically drive through the lines and sort of confront the Israeli Security Forces?
ROGER Well the Israelis have indicated that they’ve eased the blockade and indicated that it’s easy to get stuff through. So that will be put to the test.
So this big international aid effort is only going to deliver a sixth of the usual monthly amounts, not even half of the trucks for the first week of August….sounds like they are just trying to make a show for cameras. There is not a siege on Gaza, a siege would not allow anything through. The Israelis have made it quite clear that they will allow anything through so long as it can’t be used for war-making.
SEAN Okay, I’m going to put it to you that actually this is about politics. You and Grant Morgan who’s the person you send the money to if you want to back Kia Ora Gaza, members of the Social Workers Party people have been involved in what one would call the far reach of left politics in New Zealand for quite some time.
ROGER Sean you probably know that left leading people are often the very first to come to the aid of the underdog in New Zealand, and in fact it’s a good Kiwi tradition. We come to the side of the underdog whether it’s in sports or its social events.
SEAN So you would agree there’s a political motivation to this?
ROGER No, there are people politically involved, but there’s people from a wide selection of backgrounds come to ….
SEAN Not on the trip there isn’t?
ROGER Yes there is a wide selection of people.
SEAN Well could you just name some people who aren’t politically active on the trip? Your son perhaps?
ROGER My son has put his hand up and he’s been selected too.
SEAN Okay, politically active?
ROGER He’s involved in community work just as I am. I’m the manager of a community centre in South Auckland, have been heavily involved in community work all my life.
SEAN Part of the Resident Action Movement that stood for Council?
ROGER Yes I’ve been active in politics.
SEAN Okay, other people on the truck been involved in that movement as well?
ROGER One other one yes.
This is about politics pure and simple. They are communists and antisemitic and want nothing more than a conflict with Israeli border troops entering Gaza. they will drive up and expect to drive straight through, that isn’t going to happen, those trucks will be thourghly searched and then allowed to proceed, but this won’t be good enough for these guys, hoping to make a huge deal with some pushing and shoving with Israeli troops.
Plunket is right, why not just buy the goods in Cairo and drive from there. After all one of Gaza’s borer crossings is into Egypt and managed by Egypt. Are they too blockading and laying siege to Gaza. Of course they aren’t, they don’t want bombs flying over their borders just as much as the Israeli don’t want them over theirs.
SEAN Okay, Grant Morgan as I said the man who’s taking the money the last General Secretary of the Communist Party in New Zealand. Where does that money go and who administers it, are you a charity?
ROGER We’re in the process of setting up a charitable trust. This has all come together quite quickly and the support has been enormous and is growing.
SEAN Okay, and you would agree that the person Viva Palestinia the group you are linked up with in London, is spearheaded by George Galloway, former Labour MP, virulent anti American, a man who’s said ‘I never met a dictator I didn’t like’ and Viva Palestinia itself was investigated by the British Charities Commission last year. Two of its directors resigned and questions were asked about direct payment of money to Hamas which is of course listed as a terrorist organisation in Great Britain.
ROGER Yes, I think all those allegations were proved to be false, and yes George Galloway has been a long time campaigner against war.
ROGER Sean, we all know that there is definitely a siege and a blockage on Gaza, even the Prime Minister of the UK has come out and denounced this inhumane blockade, and demanded that it be stopped. World leaders …
SEAN No what he’s actually said and I’ve got the direct quote here. He said that Gaza couldn’t remain a prison camp, and he says progress is being made, and he made that speech in Turkey, he said progress is being made, which is unlike George Galloway, who says that at the end of the day this is all about the fall of the capitalist system, and Grant Morgan says that in some of his political writings as well.
ROGER Well actually anybody making those references to this issue, this is an issue of taking humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, they’re in desperate straits despite what our friend says, and they have been for some time. Yes there has been an easing, and all that means is there’s a few bits and pieces are getting through. 250 trucks a day is completely inadequate, they’re people in a desperate situation.
Still they lie. Calling Gaza a prison camp and saying the people are in a desperate situation.
Kia Ora Gaza are lying when they call Gaza a prison camp, they too presumably haven’t seen these appalling pictures starving locals trying to find scarce food, or basic necessities at impoverished shopslacking stock because of evil Israeli blockades, or even trying to find a cool pool of water to take the edge off of the desert heat in the “prison camp”. This is the only “prison camp” in the world with a flash mall too. Lord only knows how they constructed all that with a blockade/siege in place.
Kia Ora Gaza are tricking through lies and obfuscations, Kiwis into believing the mass media lie that Gaza is somehow a place of squalor. If there is squalor the solution for citizens of Gaza is simple. Stop throwing missiles, bombs and bullets over the border, start to live peacefully with your neighbours like Egypt does and they will find that life gets a whole lot simpler and easier. Nothing brings prosperity like peace does. The solution is in the hands of the the citizens of Gaza, that they keep using those hands to make bombs, and voting in Hamas is no ones fault but their own.
David Zwartz, former Honorary Israeli Consul to New Zealand, gives some very sensible advice for people wanting to donate to the needy.
I would say that $100.000 given to the Pakistan Aid Relief will help one million children instead of going to the diesel fuel and trucks to drive 4,000 kilometres from London to deliver aid which can be delivered much more efficiently through the International Red Cross.
Helen Kelly and the CTU are supporting terrorists. Sure they dress it up under the guise of supporting the removal of an alleged blockade, but they deny the simple cold hard facts that is the real Gaza.
I am very pleased to support the solidarity action ‘Kia Ora Gaza’. The people of Gaza have suffered severely from the blockade of Gaza by Israel. This has included not only their inability to get the materials they need to rebuild after the last bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli army but also even the ability to get school supplies. The attack on the most recent flotilla was an act of piracy and the violence displayed was beyond belief. A supply of aid from the people of New Zealand is a way for us to send a real expression both of our disapproval of the blockade but also our solidarity with the people of Gaza. I wish it every success.
Helen Kelly
President
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Te Kauae Kaimahi
