Israeli Defence Force launches an attack against Palestinian civilian areas right in the middle of Gaza Strip, claiming that it was retaliatory attack against Hamas military installations.
Israeli forces claim to have carried out air raids in the Gaza Strip supposedly in response to the rockets fired from Palestine that hit “somewhere” in southern Israel. According to Israeli media outlets, numerous warplanes and attack helicopters initiated the bombardment of “weapons manufacturing site, a weapon smuggling tunnel and a military post” controlled by Hamas on Friday midnight. Palestinians media however told a different tale, blaming Israelis for mortar shelling of numerous locations within central Gaza, none of them having anything to do with Hamas or any other faction. According to the Palestinians, most of the areas bombarded by Israelis were of agricultural value and that Israelis had deliberately targeted those areas so as to create yet another humanitarian disaster within the region.
Previously, nearly a month ago, Israeli Defence Forces carried out similar attacks under the pretence of targeting Hamas military installations. During those raids, Israel had accused Hamas of endangering the lives of Israeli civilians near the Strip, launching an operation against civilian areas near the city of Deir al-Balah located in the middle of the Strip. Fortunately, neither of the attacks had any casualties but the damage done to the infrastructure is considerable and takes a lot of repair to be put into the right shape. Despite Israelis repeated attacks however Palestinians still refuse to give up, banding together in a display of solidarity almost every time. This time such display of power was of course enhanced thanks to the arrival of Ramadan, one of the holy months in Islam.
This Friday, thousands of Palestinians rushed to al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem in order to take part in the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, leading to the biggest congregation of Palestinians since the pandemic. According to Anadolu Agency reports, more than 70,000 Palestinians converged on the mosque, in an unprecedented act of solidarity with their brethren and to object to the Israeli occupation of the land. The night before, a number of Palestinians did a job on Israeli police vehicles and police station walls, voicing their displeasure and objection to Israelis annexation of the land and also the air raids conducted against civilian areas. Aside from protests near the mosque, a great number of Palestinians protested in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, criticising Israeli settlers for pushing the Palestinians out of their homes.
Palestinians recent uproar is of course not unfounded. According to United Nations Human Rights experts have said that ever since the slow annexation of Jerusalem by the Israeli government, their settlers have displayed greater instances of violence against Palestinian locals, damaging their properties and even engaging in deadly street fights, which could lead to people being maimed or killed even. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 771 instances of settler violence against indigenous population. These attacks are of course ideologically motivated with Benjamin Netanyahu directing the whole show from behind the scenes. We all know for a fact that Netanyahu was clearly not the winner of these past elections, thereby the only thing that would benefit him more is political distraction. One time it’s Iranians, the other times Hezbollah, Hamas or even the so-called Arab-Israeli “fifth column”. What should be clear to the Israelis and Palestinians is that this man only intends to pour petrol on the flame to increase his own chances and given time, both the Palestinians and Israelis who don’t support his theatrics will pay the price of his ambitions.
