Terrorist take their Aim at a school bus
I hope EVERYONE here can condem such a terrorist act without an explinations or comparisions or saying " I condem all attacks on civillians"... Just condem this hideous act of terrorism and demand that it ends...
Two people were wounded Thursday after an anti-tank missile exploded into a bus traveling in one of the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.
Following the attack, 16 additional mortar shells were fired at Israeli towns in the western Negev, most of them hitting open areas.
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Bus damaged by missile strike from Gaza which wounded two people, April 7, 2011. |
| Photo by: Ilan Assayag |
Magen David Adom crew who arrived at the scene said that a 16-year-old boy was critically wounded as a result of the attack, and that the bus driver was moderately hurt by shrapnel wounds in his leg.
"The boy was lying on the ground bleeding. The bus driver was conscious and hysterical. The entire bus destroyed – it was a horrifying sight," said a member of the rescue service.
MDA said that the rescue services resuscitated the boy and later transferred him to the hospital. MDA also said the bus was nearly empty after dropping off school children and was carrying only the driver and the 16-year-old boy at the time of the attack.
Residents of communities near the site of attack were instructed by authorities to stay inside their homes in case the strikes at Israeli towns will continue.
Following the attack, the Israel Defense Forces quickly retaliated and launched both land and air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the IDF spokesperson said, killing a 50-year-old man and wounding five others.
Defense Minister, Ehud Barak ordered the army to respond quickly and said he held the Hamas militant group, which rules Gaza, responsible for the violence. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The strike came following several weeks of tension and mutual attacks along Israel's border with the Hamas-ruled Strip, with Israel Defense Forces aircraft striking smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza earlier Thursday.
On Tuesday, IDF tanks fired at and killed an armed Palestinian approaching the Gaza Strip's border with Israel on Tuesday, as three mortar bombs exploded in Israeli soil.
The incident took place after an IDF force spotted an armed Palestinian near the Erez crossing at the Strip's north, later directing tank fire to the spot. No injuries were reported from among the soldiers.
On Saturday, IDF planes struck a vehicle travelling at the south of the Gaza Strip, killing three Hamas operatives, one of them a top commander in Hamas' military wing.
An IDF Spokesperson stated that the three men were members of a terrorist cell that was "planning to kidnap Israelis over the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover" in Israel and in the Sinai Peninsula, a popular spring tourist destination for Israelis.
The Palestinian Ma'an news agency identified the three as Isma’il Labad and his brother Abdullah from Ash-Shati' refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and military commander Muhammad Ad-Dayah from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
Ad-Dayah, 33, is considered to be a top Hamas military official. As a child he participated in the first intifada, later serving as the bodyguard of former Hamas chief Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Ad-Dayah also lost one of his eyes during an attempted mortar attack on a nearby settlement.
Hamas vowed vengeance against Israel in a statement Saturday, describing the strike as a crime and "serious escalation" of the recent violence, and vowed that Israel would "bear all the consequences." The militant group also called on the U.S. to stop the flow of financial aid to Israel.
Prior to the attack, Palestinian militants have fired rocket salvos into Israel, reaching as far as the major southern city Be'er Sheva, and Israel has carried out a series of air strikes.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeff stern on -
Just to be clear - I was refering to "There is no crime in voluntarily offering yourself as a human shield." - I am talking about those who voluntarily give their homes as launching pads of rockets on civilian and use them and their family lives to protect them..
Once again, a simple question that I have yet to get an answer to - If a rocket is being fired into a civilian area from a home, mosque or school - or even in a street in teh middle of a city.. What do you expect the army to do... Destroy the missle and its operators or let them fire it. Knowing that its destruction might harm civilians (human sheilds).
My definision of a terrorist is someone who purposely targets civilians.... what is yours?
I am pretty sure that Gandhi and Martin Luther would not support missle attacks from civilian territory or targeted attacks against civilian.
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Permalink Reply by Sussan on -
Mahatma Gandhi rejected Zionism, famously saying that
"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home."
Gandhi rejected the idea of a Jewish State in Palestine, saying that Biblical concepts of Palestine didn't constitute geographical tracts, and that the "real Jerusalem is the spiritual Jerusalem",
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE, LONDON, OCTOBER 2, 1931HARIJAN, NOVEMBER 26, 1938
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Permalink Reply by Michael Weis on -
Mahatma Gandhi (1940) to the British People
"I want you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child to be slaughtered... I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty's government, should they consider them of any practical use in enhancing my appeal."
What a "great" man.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Weis on
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Oh, here's another Gandhi classic:
"Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions."
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Permalink Reply by Jeff stern on
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All that being said. I stand by my statement "I am pretty sure that Gandhi and Martin Luther would not support missle attacks from civilian territory or targeted attacks against civilian."
Do you agree?
I have the uptmost respect for Gandhi philosphy but that does not mean I have to agree with his politics..
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Permalink Reply by Basil Keilani on -
Jeff, Israel has recently harassed people in Awarta and destroyed their property. We have 10,000 Palestinians in jail, settlers living everywhere where Palestinians owned land, your country is an occupier, and has much more in common with whites who fought Native Americans in the 1800s than Europeans of the 21st century with its continued settler programs. You can say this and that about Hamas and Gaza, but it doesn't change that a relatively quiet West Bank still has more settlements going up, and Jewish settlers who control much of the water as if they are a race worthy of dominating another. It is like the old colonial mentality of controlling others.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff stern on
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Settlements do not equal rocket attacks on civilians - no way around i. At best they are an excuse for the murder of civilians.
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Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on -
Building empathy: Walking in another's shoes/ Reverse the power dynamics
Jeff, let's reverse the power dynamics for a moment.
Let's give all the military and political power to the Palestinians. Let Palestinians from Nablus be allowed to displace Jewish-Israelis from Tel Aviv. Let Palestinian settlers be allowed to carry weapons to harrass local Jewish-Israelis. Let Palestinian Defence Forces rather than intervene support the disempowerment humiliation of a people and arrest nonviolent leaders. Let Palestinian Defence Forces fire rubber bullets and live ammunition at Jewish-Israel protestors. When deaths occur, let's not conduct an investigation until human rights groups put pressure for one and when it is conducted let there be no consequence. Let Palestinian Defence Forces be allowed to assassinate Jewish-Israeli resistance leaders and kill their families by dropping bombs on their homes.
The end result of such power relations is the death of innocents.
Understanding another - having empathy for another is not excusing an action
Whenever human beings dominate another human beings respond. Firing rockets on civilians is a war crime. There is a big difference between understanding an action and excusing a crime.
I understand why so many in the Jewish community see Jewish survival as dependent on a Jewish State. I understand why there are those who want to maintain the occupation to (in their mind) ensure Jewish-Israeli security.
I understand why certain Palestinian groups support firing rockets on the people of Sderot or Ashkelon. I understand why Palestinian children may throw stones at soldiers.
That does not mean I support the violence from Israel or from certain Palestinian groups.
What I do support is a fair go for Palestinians and security for both Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis.
As a European Australian I know what my ancestors did to Aboriginal Australians
I know that this statement will mean nothing to you Jeff.
We have a different world view.
Please go to the West Bank. Spend time with Palestinians in Bil'in. Meet with Joseph Dana. Walk with Rabbi Arik Asherman.
Our conversation on mepeace is almost pointless unless you develop real human relationships with fellow human beings who by accident at birth were born Palestinian and not Jewish.
What can we learn from the Buddhist metaphor of reincarnation?
Using the Buddhist metaphor. How will you live this life differently if you knew that your next life was to be born as a Palestinian from Budrus?
Settlements are not the answer to peace. Shooting rockets is not the answer to peace.
Peace requires the meeting of people, the sharing of our common needs and fears and the awareness that what we were taught as children may be wrong.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff stern on
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Just out of curiosity can you also understand why settlers would burn olive trees? or mosques?
I understand your point about human relationships but how many settlements have you visted? Have you gone to Sderot to visit the children who have 15 seconds to get into bomb shelters from when the alarms go off?
Once again I have an issue with making a comparision with shooting rockets at civilians and building land in disputed terriory - feels painfully wrong.
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Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on
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Jeff I can understand why the settlers burn trees or mosques. I can understand the fear and dread of living in Sderot. I would visit Sderot if I could. Visiting Sderot would affirm my belief in the trauma that any human being would feel as you would hear sirens alerting them of an impending rocket(s).
I can understand why you refuse to feel empathy for Palestinians; or show minimal empathy for their situation.
Again having understanding does not mean you agree.
I wish you peace Jeff. I wish your family peace. I hope you can one day visit with Israelis who are working for peace with PAlestinians. - people who I mentioned above.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff stern on
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I most certaintly can have empathy for Palestinians but in no way have an understanding or empothy for terrorists who a=target civilians, not Jews or Arabs.
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Permalink Reply by Basil Keilani on
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Guler, people are condemned when they are Arabs, not generally when Jewish. When the IDF ransacked and destroyed property in Awarta who said anything? When settlers shot an 8 year old child in Nablus because they were angry at other Palestinians who said or did anything? No one. Attacking a bus is wrong. No doubt about it. All acts of violence be they from Jewish or Arab attackers are wrong whether it's settler price tags or Hamas rockets.
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