At around 2:00 AM, Tuesday Morning, unprovoked Israeli airstrikes rained down on residential buildings throughout the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel had decided to launch an assassination campaign against leaders in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement, murdering three of them along with their families whilst they slept in their beds at night. Despite the majority of those killed being civilians, Western corporate media rushed to distort what actually happened in order to make Tel Aviv seem justified.
France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America have all condemned rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, that came in response to Israel’s unprovoked massacre of Gazan civilians and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) officials this Tuesday morning. As usual, Western corporate media have gone to work as stenographers for the Israeli foreign affairs ministry and focused on the rockets from Gaza, which killed no Israelis and did minimal damage over the first day that they were fired.
So What Really Just Happened In Gaza?
Israel’s decision to assassinate leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement came amidst widespread pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a bloody campaign against Gaza. During the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan, Israeli forces raided al-Aqsa Mosque compound, beating and/or arresting over 400 worshippers. The videos of this brutal assault on worshippers at a Holy Site triggered widespread popular outrage, with demonstrations taking place from Gaza to the West Bank, Palestinian citizens of Israel, Jerusalemites, as well as Palestinians in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, all took to the streets.
Then came the armed responses, shooting attacks were carried out in the West Bank against illegal Israeli settlers and soldiers, rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, then, the following day rockets were also fired from southern Lebanon. As soon as the salvo of rockets were fired from Lebanese territory, Tel Aviv backed down and even ordered calm in al-Aqsa mosque for the rest of Ramadan. No groups officially claimed the rocket fire, nor did any group claim the firing of 6 rockets into the occupied Golan Heights from Syria the following day, however, the message was clear; if you continue to attack al-Aqsa mosque there will be regional war.
Last week, after the death of Palestinian icon and spokesperson for PIJ in the West Bank, Khader Adnan, the Palestinian Joint Room for the armed resistance factions in Gaza fired a salvo of rockets towards Israel. Khader Adnan went on a 86 day hunger strike and was left to slowly die in his cell, Israel refused to transfer him to a medical facility and so the Palestinian Prisoners Society organization declared his death an assassination.
Interestingly, Israel decided to respond to the rocket fire with very light strikes, hitting open areas and military training sites belonging to Hamas in Gaza. This sparked outrage amongst Israelis, especially those living in the south of occupied Palestine, who called for blood, they wanted assassinations and the destruction of buildings in Gaza. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu was thrown into their first inter-coalition feud over what security minister Itamar Ben Gvir called a “feeble” response to the Gaza rocket fire. It must be kept in mind here that, both during Ramadan and last week after the death of Khader Adnan, the rocket fire killed no Israelis and was explicitly carried out as a response to Israeli aggression.
At a time when the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to deal with mass opposition to his far-right coalition’s proposed legal system overhaul, a major fight breaking out between members of the Religious Zionism alliance parties and Likud party MK’s could have proven detrimental to the stability of the government. It became clear after the Ramadan exchange, that Israel was carrying out strikes on dud-targets in order to appease the Israeli public’s thirst for revenge and that there would be a real attack later down the line. At the time, I wrote that this would likely come in the form of assassinations against PIJ leaders, yet this may have well been acted on much quicker due to the pressure on Netanyahu to act.
Far-right extremist settlers plan to march provocatively through the streets of Jerusalem, chanting “death to Arabs”, on May 18th, and this usually results in attacks on Palestinians and their businesses, as well as attempts to breach al-Aqsa mosque compound. If Israel is going to allow its settlers to carry out the provocative march on its planned route, this would likely draw rocket fire in response. Israel is currently only launching its campaign against the PIJ movement and not targeting Hamas, signaling that they are afraid of what a full-scale Hamas offensive could cause if they take the initiative.
The strikes that Israel carried out in the early hours of Tuesday morning were precision airstrikes, targeting the entire families of three leaders in the PIJ movement, choosing to murder them along with their children and wives whilst they slept in their beds at night. The Israeli aggression was unprovoked, it broke the standing ceasefire between both sides, in addition to this the three killed — Khalil Bahtini, Jihad Ghanem and Tariq Ezz Ad-Din — were supposed to head to Cairo in the morning to discuss de-escalation with the Israelis. The PIJ movement had reportedly received assurances from the Egyptian mediators that there would be no aggression, which is why the leaders were in their homes. The first strikes instantly killed 13 people, 8 of which were women and children. The PIJ movement lifted their state of emergency just one day before Israel’s assassinations, which is likely due to the Egyptian assurances, and so currently the leader of PIJ, Ziyad Al-Nakhala, refuses to go to Cairo to discuss ceasefire options. Whether the Egyptian side directly participated in the Israeli assassination campaign, by providing false information, or it simply relayed what Tel Aviv told it, is unclear, yet Egypt has not taken any major issue with the Israelis publicly, suggesting that they may have known something.
Instead of responding instantly, the armed groups in Gaza, as part of the Joint Room, waited a day and a half to fire any rockets. During this time the Israelis hid in bomb shelters and much of the surrounding areas closed roads and businesses, the fact that they were so petrified while waiting for the response was enough to stir outrage at the fact that the armed groups could have such an impact without firing a single shot. This flipped the tables, making the Netanyahu government’s strikes seem futile, which is when the armed groups decided to launch rockets at Tel Aviv and a number of other areas. No Israelis were killed in these rocket attacks, yet they still managed to embarrass the Israeli establishment. Israel bombarded Gaza during the quiet period of over a day, in a desperate attempt to try and draw a response. When the response came, Israel did not expect Hamas to also declare that it was part of the fight and has attempted to deny that the groups armed wing have participated.
Around 500 rockets were fired throughout Wednesday, resulting in some direct hits on Israeli infrastructure and two serious injuries amongst Israeli settlers. In the wake of this, Israel began implementing a strategy of blowing up civilian homes as a means of pressuring the Palestinian groups to stop firing, with a wildly unbalanced tit-for-tat occurring. After around 3 hours of calm, Israel launched another assassination strike in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing Ali Hassan Ghali, who is a leader in the PIJ military council and is responsible for the movement’s missile file. The strike against the Hamad tower that killed the PIJ leader, in Khan Younis, was carried out with a suicide drone and also killed 3 civilians in the process, injuring around 15 others. This was also carried out in order to escalate tensions over a longer period of time, again targeting only PIJ and avoiding Hamas altogether.
Although the Western corporate media, following in line with their governments, focus almost solely on the rocket fire, attempting to frame events to fit a narrative in which Israel is always the victim and is fighting in “self defense”, this round was all the doing of Israel. The armed groups are simply responding to the assassinations carried out on their leaders, in addition to the massacres carried out against civilians.
It could be argued that Israel employs its own human shielding tactics, as its military hides in fortified areas and fears confronting Palestinian armed groups head on, instead firing their munitions from miles in the distance and from unreachable heights in the sky. The Israelis know that the Palestinian groups do not possess guided munitions and that the primitive rockets will hit their populated city centres, meaning that they put their own people in the firing line while their soldiers hide far away in safety. While the Israeli military has the ability to target Palestinians with their munitions, the Palestinians cannot do the same. Furthermore, when the Palestinian groups remain silent, Israel continues to relentlessly bombard Gaza and force a response. The Palestinian resistance forces have no option but to fire their rockets in self defense, for this is the only thing that can lead to the ending of an escalation — and let’s not forget, regardless of who fires first, according to the Geneva Conventions an occupied territory has the legal right to armed rebellion. Yet, as usual, the facts play second fiddle to the narrative spun by the West.
The latest Israeli military operation against Gaza is completely offensive in nature, there is no defensive component, they cannot stop the potential for rocket fire without going in on the ground. The reason Benjamin Netanyahu is reluctant to attempt a ground invasion, is because he fears the inevitable losses of Israeli soldiers and the public backlash on his government as a result. This latest attack is an attempt to quench the Israeli societies blood lust and to keep the far-right coalition in power.
That damn freemasonic “state” of Israel is at it again huh… There doesn’t even need to be “rocket attacks” anymore for them to implement curfews like they did with their tanks in the late 90’s- early 2000’s, or bombing out schools or killing civilians. Zionist can do no wrong according to the Zionist.