1) The Gaza Strip isn't occupied by Israel

Boston Globe: "Israeli-imposed buffer zones.. now absorb nearly 14 percent of Gaza's total land and at least 48 percent of total arable land. Similarly, the sea buffer zone covers 85 percent of the maritime area promised to Palestinians in the Oslo Accords, reducing 20 nautical miles to three." Human Rights Watch: "Israel also continues to control the population registry for residents of the Gaza Strip, years after it withdrew its ground forces and settlements there." B'Tselem, 2013: "Israel continues to maintain exclusive control of Gaza's airspace and the territorial waters, just as it has since it occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967."

2) Israel wants a ceasefire but Hamas doesn't

Al Jazeera: "Meshaal said Hamas wants the 'aggression to stop tomorrow, today, or even this minute. But [Israel must] lift the blockade with guarantees and not as a promise for future negotiations'. He added 'we will not shut the door in the face of any humanitarian ceasefire backed by a real aid programme'." Jerusalem Post: "One day after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire accepted by Israel, but rejected by Hamas, fell through, the terrorist organization proposed a 10-year end to hostilities in return for its conditions being met by Israel, Channel 2 reported Wednesday.. Hamas's conditions were the release of re-arrested Palestinian prisoners who were let go in the Schalit deal, the opening of Gaza-Israel border crossings in order to allow citizens and goods to pass through, and international supervision of the Gazan seaport in place of the current Israeli blockade." BBC: "Israel's security cabinet has rejected a week-long Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by US Secretary of State John Kerry 'as it stands'."

3) Israel, unlike Hamas, doesn't deliberately target civilians

The Guardian: "It was there that the second [Israeli] shell hit the beach, those firing apparently adjusting their fire to target the fleeing survivors. As it exploded, journalists standing by the terrace wall shouted: 'They are only children.'" UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay: "A number of incidents, along with the high number of civilian deaths, belies the [Israeli] claim that all necessary precautions are being taken to protect civilian lives." United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, 2009: "The tactics used by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza offensive are consistent with previous practices, most recently during the Lebanon war in 2006. A concept known as the Dahiya doctrine emerged then, involving the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations. The Mission concludes from a review of the facts on the ground that it.. appears to have been precisely what was put into practice."

4) Only Hamas is guilty of war crimes, not Israel

Human Rights Watch: "Israeli forces may also have knowingly or recklessly attacked people who were clearly civilians, such as young boys, and civilian structures, including a hospital - laws-of-war violations that are indicative of war crimes." Amnesty International: "Deliberately attacking a civilian home is a war crime, and the overwhelming scale of destruction of civilian homes, in some cases with entire families inside them, points to a distressing pattern of repeated violations of the laws of war."

5) Hamas use the civilians of Gaza as 'human shields'

Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor: "I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel's accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields." The Guardian: "In the past week, the Guardian has seen large numbers of people fleeing different neighbourhoods.. and no evidence that Hamas had compelled them to stay." The Independent: "Some Gazans have admitted that they were afraid of criticizing Hamas, but none have said they had been forced by the organisation to stay in places of danger and become unwilling human-shields." Reuters, 2013: "A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields."

6) This current Gaza conflict began with Hamas rocket fire on 30 June 2014

Times of Israel: "Hamas operatives were behind a large volley of rockets which slammed into Israel Monday morning, the first time in years the Islamist group has directly challenged the Jewish state, according to Israeli defense officials.. The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that Hamas had probably launched the barrage in revenge for an Israeli airstrike several hours earlier which killed one person and injured three more.. Hamas hasn't fired rockets into Israel since Operation Pillar of Defense ended in November 2012." The Nation: "During ten days of Operation Brother's Keeper in the West Bank [before the start of the Gaza conflict], Israel arrested approximately 800 Palestinians without charge or trial, killed nine civilians and raided nearly 1,300 residential, commercial and public buildings. Its military operation targeted Hamas members released during the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011."

7) Hamas has never stopped firing rockets into Israel

Jewish Daily Forward: "Hamas hadn't fired a single rocket since [2012 Gaza conflict], and had largely suppressed fire by smaller jihadi groups. Rocket firings, averaging 240 per month in 2007, dropped to five per month in 2013." International Crisis Group: "Fewer rockets were fired from Gaza in 2013 than in any year since 2001, and nearly all those that were fired between the November 2012 ceasefire and the current crisis were launched by groups other than Hamas; the Israeli security establishment testified to the aggressive anti-rocket efforts made by the new police force Hamas established specifically for that purpose.. As Israel (and Egypt) rolled back the 2012 understandings - some of which were implemented spottily at best - so too did Hamas roll back its anti rocket efforts."

8 ) Hamas provoked Israel by kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers

Jewish Daily Forward: "The [Israeli] government had known almost from the beginning that the boys were dead. It maintained the fiction that it hoped to find them alive as a pretext to dismantle Hamas' West Bank operations.. Nor was that the only fib. It was clear from the beginning that the kidnappers weren't acting on orders from Hamas leadership in Gaza or Damascus. Hamas' Hebron branch -- more a crime family than a clandestine organization -- had a history of acting without the leaders' knowledge, sometimes against their interests." BBC correspondent Jon Donnison: "Israeli police MickeyRosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens def lone cell, hamas affiliated but not operating under leadership.. Seems to contradict the line from Netanyahu government."

9) Hamas rule, not Israel's blockade, is to blame for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip

US State Department cable: "Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.. Israeli officials have confirmed.. on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge." The Guardian: "The Israeli military made precise calculations of Gaza's daily calorie needs to avoid malnutrition during a blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and mid-2010, according to files the defence ministry released on Wednesday under a court order.. The Israeli advocacy group Gisha.. waged a long court battle to release the document. Its members say Israel calculated the calorie needs for Gaza's population so as to restrict the quantity of food it allowed in."

10) The Israeli government, unlike Hamas, wants a two-state solution

Times of Israel: "[Netanyahu] made explicitly clear that he could never, ever, countenance a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank.. Amid the current conflict, he elaborated, 'I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.'"

11) All serious analysts agree it was Hamas, and not Israel, that started this current conflict

Nathan Thrall, senior Mid East analyst at the International Crisis Group, writing in the New York Times: "The current escalation in Gaza is a direct result of the choice by Israel and the West to obstruct the implementation of the April 2014 Palestinian reconciliation agreement." Henry Siegman, former national director, American Jewish Congress, writing for Politico: "Israel's assault on Gaza.. was not triggered by Hamas' rockets directed at Israel but by Israel's determination to bring down the Palestinian unity government that was formed in early June, even though that government was committed to honoring all of the conditions imposed by the international community for recognition of its legitimacy."


Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/gaza-israel_b_5624401.html

No doubt that you have poured out your hatred for Isreal, it will not stop them from defending themselves

okosodo: No doubt that you have poured out your hatred for Isreal, it will not stop them from defending themselves

Shebi the journalists of Guardian, BBC, Huffingtonpost dey lie na, das what they know how to do best, and the United nations high commissioner for human rights and amnesty international were bribed by Hamas. I SMH at your extreme mumuism and self inflicted blindness and bias against what is clearly apparent - Israel is guilty of war crimes

okosodo: No doubt that you have poured out your hatred for Isreal, it will not stop them from defending themselves

I really don't understand this defend themselves,only one hama shell has hit a target in isreal,must u bomb my house just because my neighbour fired a rocket at you? Is there no other means of defence or capturing the shooter?

Isreal kill them all

okosodo: No doubt that you have poured out your hatred for Isreal, it will not stop them from defending themselves

maybe israel should be relocated to your state see how u feel about it since u love them so much

Israel has been speaking publicly against Palestinian unity government formed in June, they do not want any unity or progress to a better life for the people of Palestine, they have been waiting for the slightest opportunity to destabilize the unification.

isreal will always be stronger than all her arab neighbours and have no need to show her might but typical arabs and militant islams will never ever stop or ameliorate their hatred for jews and christians,its the first thing they are being taught as kids anyway.
with all you listed here,you try hard to put all the blame on one side that goes to show you know nothing about the past and current crisis engulfing gaza.i blv you copied from an anti isreali site the hatred is very clear.i can never support any bloodshed even against my enemy but if HAMAS have good intention about palestinian civilians they should cease fire.we all know what the end result should be cos isreal will always carry the day and the palestinian civilans will be worst for it.
is HAMAS really fighting for liberation of palestine or just for pure hatred of any race or religion outside theirs,the answer lies in every islamic militant wing activities all over the world including our own country

Op may God bless u, those who continue to support Israel butchery of palestines, need to have their heads examined.

Its obvious and clear (name) that the writer of the article is a Muslim and Anti-Israel so I don't have much to say and I don't expect anything better than this

small prayer for supporter of isreal" may God relocated isreal into ur state"

eemalex: Its obvious and clear (name) that the writer of the article is a Muslim and Anti-Israel so I don't have much to say and I don't expect anything better than this

U have nothing to say coz the points made r clearly congent and lucid. Whether the writer is a muslim or not does not remove the points he us making.

eemalex: Its obvious and clear (name) that the writer of the article is a Muslim and Anti-Israel so I don't have much to say and I don't expect anything better than this

Are all the quotations in the write-up made by Muslims also? Its obvious ur hatred for Muslim and Islam has blinded your sense of reasoning.

eemalex: Its obvious and clear (name) that the writer of the article is a Muslim and Anti-Israel so I don't have much to say and I don't expect anything better than this

Arthur is a product of American liberal guilt trip. Liberals still believe appeasing the evil of Islam will make the threat go away. They should learn from Winston Churchill.

GogetterMD:

Shebi the journalists of Guardian, BBC, Huffingtonpost dey lie na, das what they know how to do best, and the United nations high commissioner for human rights and amnesty international were bribed by Hamas. I SMH at your extreme mumuism and self inflicted blindness and bias against what is clearly apparent - Israel is guilty of war crimes

yeah, take them to IIC. Now that Israel doesn't listen to the West any more they are finding ways to paint them black. They should go take care of what they started in Iraq and leave a country trying to defend it citizens and territory alone.
This war will not end until Hamas is totally disarmed, give a small group of muslims(extremist) a breathing space and they'll choke you overnight.

Oklander: Israel has been speaking publicly against Palestinian unity government formed in June, they do not want any unity or progress to a better life for the people of Palestine, they have been waiting for the slightest opportunity to destabilize the unification.

yes, that's because in the not too far future they'll become a plague.

masseratti: I really don't understand this defend themselves,only one hama shell has hit a target in isreal,must u bomb my house just because my neighbour fired a rocket at you? Is there no other means of defence or capturing the shooter?

just read what you posted again, it's obvious you are all terrorist. So just because only a rocket was able to hit its target they should forget about every other threats? What happens if this people have no means of defending themselves? Do you know that this hamas are not living in some caves but among the so called palestinian people?. Israel will find them by all MEANS...you must think this Nigeria.

cirmuell: yes, that's because in the not too far future they'll become a plague.

Or its because they won't be able to continue stealing more land from a united Palestinian.

Oklander: Or its because they won't be able to continue stealing more land from a united Palestinian.

it seems you lot don't know history you just come here to spew trash. who told you palestinians owns those lands?

boss1310: isreal will always be stronger than all her arab neighbours and have no need to show her might but typical arabs and militant islams will never ever stop or ameliorate their hatred for jews and christians,its the first thing they are being taught as kids anyway.
with all you listed here,you try hard to put all the blame on one side that goes to show you know nothing about the past and current crisis engulfing gaza.i blv you copied from an anti isreali site the hatred is very clear.i can never support any bloodshed even against my enemy but if HAMAS have good intention about palestinian civilians they should cease fire.we all know what the end result should be cos isreal will always carry the day and the palestinian civilans will be worst for it.
is HAMAS really fighting for liberation of palestine or just for pure hatred of any race or religion outside theirs,the answer lies in every islamic militant wing activities all over the world including our own country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRpPGYWa0_E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaSqvutvI1k

cirmuell: it seems you lot don't know history you just come here to spew trash. who told you palestinians owns those lands?

And Isreal does own the land abi? Go take some history lessons biko

Oklander: Lol...Mr. history that knows nothing about history.

not here for petite argument, I asked you a question.

cirmuell: it seems you lot don't know history you just come here to spew trash. who told you palestinians owns those lands?

Lol...Mr. history that knows nothing about history.

cirmuell: not here for petite argument, I asked you a question.

I have no time to waste on ur ignorance...

Oklander: I have NP time to waste on ur ignorance...

mtcheew!

Kill all the hamaz!

Oklander: Israel has been speaking publicly against Palestinian unity government formed in June, they do not want any unity or progress to a better life for the people of Palestine, they have been waiting for the slightest opportunity to destabilize the unification.

May God bless you my brother!! Too many ignorant folks here.

It marvels me that people will support hamas.
Before you blame isreal, have u ask what the pakistan govt do to control this mess.
Why will this terrorist hide in the means of civilian.
If u are a soldier, what will you do when a armed terroist is being protected nd covered by civilian.
Hamas are cowards.

If Isreal is so right, how come some states in South America are withdrawing their envoys to Isreal, e.g. Peru, Venezuela, and the American government is yet to make a statement concerning her pet that broke its leash?

I just wonder how some people can be this stupid and blind? So Hamas have started recruiting preteens and women for militancy? And Hamas takes refuge in UN schools and hospital facilities?
Civilian buildings, hospitals, schools, and even bombed their power station that is the only source of power to the hospital. Yeah, I guess Isreal is really defending herself.

GogetterMD:

Shebi the journalists of Guardian, BBC, Huffingtonpost dey lie na, das what they know how to do best, and the United nations high commissioner for human rights and amnesty international were bribed by Hamas. I SMH at your extreme mumuism and self inflicted blindness and bias against what is clearly apparent - Israel is guilty of war crimes

Shei!! Shei!!! Those words u r sharing, darisgoduoo!!!