Gaza War “Protective Edge” Day 13
God clearly blesses Israel. In the Gaza Strip upwards of over 100,000 have been forced from their homes in an effort to find safe shelter. The United Nations humanitarian aid is running out and inadvertently civilians continue to suffer the effects of Israel’s efforts to seek out and destroy all elements of the Hamas military infrastructure including the hidden missile launchers and rocket storage depots. Information has been reported that the Hamas terrorist organization has been using UN schools to store its rockets. Civilians have suffered horrendous losses as Israel has been forced to strike the homes of Hamas military leaders and known missile storage and launching sites where way to often civilians including children have been placed to serve as a “human shields.” Although many times Israel has called off air strikes when they have information telling them of the presence of civilians, even after warning shots have been fired to disperse any noncombatants, on occasion civilians have and are being caught in the crossfire.
As the carnage continues in Gaza and society there grounds to a halt, in Israel the threat of rocket attacks has been reduced as Hamas has been forced to launch its rockets further and further away from Israel’s major population centers, and especially Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, making it possible for life in Israel to finally return to normal after 13 days of constant sirens and missile attacks. While life becomes increasingly impossible in Hamas dominated Gaza, normality is returning to Israel itself. Of course the military is forced to keep constant vigilance along the borders with the Strip and unfortunately just this Saturday two Israeli soldiers, Major (res.) Amotz Greenberg, 45, and Sgt. Adar Barsano, 20, were killed when terrorists used a tunnel in an attempt to infiltrate into Israeli communities and to wreak havoc. The terrorists were caught and killed from the air by drones. Two other soldiers, 2nd Lt. Bar Rahav of the Engineering Corps, and Infantry Staff Sgt. Bnaya Rubel were also reported killed on Saturday. A fifth was also reported killed.
When the present ground incursion by the Israeli military began late last Thursday night, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu made it clear that this was a necessary step to protect Israeli citizens that was only taken after Hamas rejected and violated two previous ceasefires, one under the auspices of Egypt and a second humanitarian 5 hour break in the fighting, called by the UN. This was followed by a list of totally unreasonable demands being set down by Hamas for a further ceasefire. After 13 terrorists were caught on Thursday trying to infiltrate Israel from a tunnel, near Kibbutz Sufa and two other Jewish communities, Netanyahu and the Israeli government had had enough and took the necessary step of entering the Strip with the expressed goal of destroying all of the tunnels and missile launching sites. Unfortunately this cannot be accomplished solely from the air and a ground invasion was necessary.
Now again at this writing, Israel has agreed to a two hour humanitarian ceasefire in the Saja’iyya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City – from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm – after Hamas asked Israel for the lull in hostilities at around noon Sunday to rescue the wounded and retrieve the dead. Hamas breached the ceasefire less than an hour later.
At the same time the IDF announced that it is setting up a field hospital at the Erez Crossing to treat Palestinians. As the IDF continues in its operations to wipe out the Hamas leadership, photos of civilian casualties are being used by Hamas to rile up international opinion against the Jewish state. If nothing else, Hamas hopes to make this into a propaganda victory while Israel is simply acting to survive.
Editors Note:Israeli Media is reporting that 13 Golani Brigade soldiers were killed in action and 50 were wounded in an ambush in Gaza.
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