27th
155 dead in rocket attack
In response to dozens of rockets hitting southern Israel from Gaza, Israel launches a rocket attack which has killed, at most counts, 155 people. The strike targeted Hamas militants who had resumed launching massive amounts of rockets (after a six-month cease-fire):
NYTimes and Washington Post, as usual, summarize the attacks pretty well, although, let’s be honest- might come off to you as a little emotional, especially the NYTimes piece which describes wailing women looking for their husbands and dismembered bodies.
Haaretz English and Haaretz Hebrew actually put the death count higher, at 195. I find Haaretz’s reporting on Israeli subjects to be (obviously) better than English news sources. The English article gives a pretty analytical, more-objective viewpoint of the attacks. The Hebrew article says the strikes had 95% accuracy in their targeting, which probably serves a more public-relations purpose than a real assessment of the attack. As the English section writes: “Prior to the operation, Israel sought to catch Hamas off guard by luring it into a false sense of security through certain measures, including the opening of Gaza border crossings on Friday.”
AlJazeera’s English article is similarly well-constructed, albeit for the Palestinian viewppint; it correctly notes that home-made rockets were fired, rather than high-tech rockets with accuracy and that “However, officials of the deposed government in Gaza which maintains law and order, while being Hamas member in the main, are separate from the group’s military wing and other factions responsible for attacks into Israel.” An excellent point. AlJazeera Arabic, on the other hand, starts its article with the headline: Hundreds martyred and wounded in Israeli airstrike on Gaza. However, it does provide an interesting analysis on Israeli Defense Minister’s remarks in response to the attack (essentially saying that these types of oeprations will expand as needed) by quoting officials in Ramallah who worry that these kinds of airstrikes and operations will snowball into more Israeli incursion onto Palestinian territory.
Jerusalem Post provides damage assessment, although given the newspaper’s proclivity for all things pro-Israel, I would take the statements with a grain of salt. Really? All headquarters for Hamas destroyed? Seems quite a claim, yes? Check out a front-page article, though, that simply re-quotes Israeli officials for some insight on the “why” behind the attacks.. Another editorial in the Post actually makes a good point, questioning Israeli lessons from Lebanon 2006 and whether those lessons were well-taken—but loses me at the quote: Naturally, the effort launched Saturday to defang a rocket-firing, Iranian-backed terror army across a hostile border invites immediate comparison with the bid to destroy Hizbullah’s terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon two and a half years ago.
“Terror Army”? Oh, lovely. If we completely de-legitimize the other side and also dish out fear like it’s nobody’s business, then we can bomb the crap out of other places. More on that later….
