Around 1.7 million Palestinians feel they are under siege with nowhere to go in the packed Gaza Strip. The humanitarian crisis there is worsenening as the current Gaza war enters its 22nd day.
A report from the Associated Press today says:
Israel on Tuesday unleashed its heaviest bombardment in a 3-week-old war against Hamas, striking symbols of the militant group’s control in Gaza and firing tank shells that Palestinian officials said shut down the strip’s only power plant. Thick black smoke from the plant’s burning fuel tank rose for hours. The station’s shutdown further disrupted the supply of electricity and water to the 1.7 million people packed into the narrow Palestinian coastal territory.
Since Hamas, a violent fundamental Islamist terror organization, began its barrage of short and long range rockets on the State of Israel three weeks ago, the tiny Jewish state has been forced into action to protect its citizens, Some 80 percent of them have come under regular fire, rushing for air raid shelters and suffering casualties.
The Palestinians have seen a much higher death and injury toll than Israel as residents of the narrow Gaza Strip find themselves between a rock and a hard place, They are forced to choose between Israeli airstrikes and Hamas threats of death if they leave their homes in response to Israeli advance warnings for them to move to a safer area.
Never before has the world seen such a cynical war waged where a radical terror group exploits its own population , actively trying to score as many casualties on its own side as it can in order to garner world sympathy to further their cause.
As a result of the latest Israeli strike, hundreds of thousands of Gazans will find themselves without electricity for an extended period, while their “leaders” sit in the lap of luxury controlling the war from their five star hotel suites in Doha, Qatar.
Whilst it is tragic to see the levels of suffering endured by thousands of Palestinians, in the current conflict there is no doubt who is to blame for the destruction and death, and it isn’t Israel.
Hamas, along with its cohorts. Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and other extreme militant groups, have established a complex network in Gaza using Mosques, schools, UN facilities and kindergartens to store their deadly rockets, while hiding rocket launchers in the living rooms and kitchens of Palestinian civilians. They also dug entrance to their multitude of tunnels inside private homes.
The name of the game for Hamas is casualties, Palestinian ones, and preferably woman and children, who they use as pawns to advance their agenda. The world media are actively aiding this tactic by focusing on the most heartrending images they can find. Weeping, wailing women, and tearful children – the more angelic and innocent looking, the better.
For its part, Israel has no choice but to fight such a deadly sworn enemy with might and determination as it struggles for its very existence in an ever-increasingly fanatically Islamist Middle East.
Fortunately, most world leaders, as well as members of the public, support Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of ongoing rocket barrages, no matter how hard Hamas tries to use the western media to further its murderous goals.