March 29 - Abbas swears in Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his government.
June 9 - Hamas calls off 16-month truce after seven members of a family are killed on a Gaza beach during a day of Israeli shelling.
June 13 - Israel kills 11 Palestinians, including 9 civilians, in a missile strike in a van carrying miltants and rockets in Gaza.
June 25 - Gaza militants launch deadly raid into Israel, killing two soldiers and capturing Cpl Gilad Shalit. Three days later Israel pushes into Gaza.
How very odd! From this timeline, it appears that Israel, for no apparent reason, was shelling Gaza, and that was the cause of the violence against Israel. This is very strange, since a simple review of a variety of sources produces a radically different timeline.
Actual Timeline
March 29 - Abbas swears in Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his government.
June 1 - Israel identifies rockets that struck two Sderot homes as Hamas-built. Hamas government denies officially supporting attacks on Israel, but admits to providing cover for militants. Israel responds by shelling suspected militant rocket-launching locations.
June 9 - Hamas calls off 16-month truce after seven members of a family are killed on a Gaza beach during a day of Israeli shelling. Israel denies responsibility, and, after initially disagreeing with Israel's findings, Human Rights explosives expert agrees that the explosion was likely an unexploded shell.
Hamas militants continue to launch hundreds of rockets into Israel.
June 13 - Israel kills 11 Palestinians, including 9 civilians, in a missile strike on a van carrying a missile crew and rockets in Gaza.
June 25 - Gaza militants launch deadly raid into Israel, killing two soldiers and capturing Cpl Gilad Shalit.
June 27 - Palestinian militants kidnap and kill Eliyahu Asheri, an 18-year-old student, while demanding release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israel.
June 28 - Israel pushes into Gaza. Militants claim to have processed over 20 chemical warheads and are launching them into Israel. Israel finds no evidence to support the claim.
June 29 - Israel freezes military operations in Gaza to give diplomacy time. During the two days of the Israeli offensive into Gaza, no Palestinian fatalities have been reported.
July 2 - Israel begins offensive to stop Qassam (Hamas-built) rocket launches from Gaza strip. Since October, 2001, more than 1200 rockets have been launched into Israel, killing 12 Israeli civilians and a comparable number of Palestinians.
July 12 - Hezbollah militants kidnap two Israeli soldiers patrolling inside the northern Israel border. Three soldiers are killed in the incident, and five soldiers are killed in subsequent confrontations inside Lebanon. Hezbollah demands the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and one Lebanese prisoner, the killer of two small girls and their father. Simultaneously, Hezbollah militants launch Katyusha rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns along the border, wounding six Israeli civilians and five soldiers. Israeli forces attack installations and Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.
(Katyusha rockets shown here are Russian-made rockets supplied by Syria and Iran to Hezbollah militants.)July 13 - The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution condemning Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.
July 14 - Israeli missile boat is hit by Iranian-built C-802 land-to-ship missile. Since Wednesday morning, Hezbollah has fired more than 300 rockets and mortar shells into civilian populations in Israel.
July 15 - Hezbollah fires more than 800 rockets into Israel. Israel continues to perform military strikes in Lebanon. Thus far, they have targeted the international airport in Beirut, the main roads between Lebanon and Syria, all radar sites, and suspected Hezbollah locations. Israel's Navy has blockaded Lebanese sea ports. More than 100 Lebanese civilians have died along with an undisclosed number of Hezbollah militants.
Here are some of the sources I found:
From the AP - June 13 - Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday that Israel was not responsible for a blast that killed eight Gaza beachgoers, rebuffing Palestinian accusations that blamed an Israeli artillery round.
An Israeli inquiry concluded the blast was caused by an explosive buried in the sand, not from Israeli shelling on the afternoon of the Palestinian family's beach picnic.
...
Israel has been pounding northern Gaza with hundreds of artillery shells for weeks, trying unsuccessfully to stop Palestinian militants from setting up and launching homemade rockets at Israel.
From Wikipedia - Mark Garlasco, the senior military analyst and battle damage assessment expert at Human Rights Watch, initially claimed that his findings showed that the nature of the injuries was "not consistent" with the Israeli explanation of an explosion originating from a buried object. ... Following a meeting with Major General Klifi on 19 June 2006 however, Garlasco praised the IDF's efforts to avoid civilian casualties and their professional investigation of the blast, saying he had "[come] to an agreement with General Klifi that the most likely cause [of the blast] was unexploded Israeli ordinance".
Hamas officially withdrew from its 16 month old truce with Israel, which it regularly violated by firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets and other attacks, and began taking responsibility for Qassam Rockets launched into Israel.
From YNET - June 1 - IDF officials said the Qassam rockets that struck two Sderot homes located not far from Defense Minister Amir Peretz’s residence were assembled by Hamas.
The incident marked the first time Hamas was involved in rocket attacks on Israel since the agreed-upon lull in violence was announced over a year ago.
...
Despite its commitment to the calm, Hamas has never denied its cooperation with other organizations, and Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal went as far as saying that “when we say we have abandoned the armed resistance – is cooperation with other organizations not resistance? Is providing a cover for the aid given to other groups not resistance?”
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In a country where the freedom of the press and freedom of speech is so well protected, why do you suppose that some big name media outlets feel the need to torture the truth on this?
2 comments:
Stan...you buy propaganda a bit to willingly. Your willingness to believe Israeli propaganda at the beach shelling is hilarious. Just as Israel happens to be shelling Gaza near the shore. A buried palestinian device happens to explode and kill a Palestinian family. Wow!!! What an amazing coincidence!
Well, the beauty of the freedom of the press is that it can present all sides, rather than the restricted view we seem to get too often. Why we generally receive such a limited perspective is beyond me.
So ... which "propaganda" should I reject out of hand? The AP's account, Wikipedia's account, or YNET? Which one has the most to gain from producing false information for Israel?
My point is not that Israel is right or wrong. My point is that the whole story needs to be presented rather than the one-sided one we get so often. Is that "propaganda"?
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