Kidnapping ringleader arrested
The alleged ringleader of the 2014 Israel kidnappings has been arrested in connection with the abduction of 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel and Gil-ad Shaar, both 16, from a West Bank hitching post and their subsequent murder. Hussam Kawasme, a 40-year-old resident of the West Bank city of Hebron, is detained while trying to cross the border with Jordan with false documents/ His arrest and investigation will remain secret for close to a month before being revealed to the public in court proceedings over whether punitive demolition of homes belonging to him and other suspects in the case can be carried out.
Netanyahu: Hamas baits Israel into killing civilians
Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Hamas baits Israel into killing civilians in order to create ‘telegenically dead’ victims that they can use to influence public opinion in the 2014 Gaza conflict:
What choice do we have? We have to protect ourselves. So we try to target the rocketeers. We do. And all civilian casualties are unintended by us, but intended by Hamas. They want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can, because somebody said they use – it’s gruesome. They use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause. They want the more dead the better.
Netanyahu: ‘We don’t obliterate them’
Netanyahu says that Israel doesn’t ‘obliterate’ Palestinian civilians and has no battle with anyone other than Hamas, but that the brutality results from Hamas’ tendency to place rocket launchers near civilian targets – a tactic which he says is intentional.
People would say in the United States, as they’re telling me, obliterate the people. We don’t obliterate them. We don’t want to – we don’t have any battle with the Palestinians in Gaza.
He adds that having the right to self-defense also means being able to use it:
I appreciate the support we have received from President Obama and many world leaders for Israel’s right to self-defense. But others are saying, yes, you have the right of self-defense, as long as you don’t exercise it. What can a country do? What would you do? What would the people of the United States do if – if your cities were rocketed now, 2,000 rockets falling in American cities?
Netanyahu: ‘Brutal, cynical, heartless enemy’
Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Israel seeks to protect its citizens using its weapons, while Hamas has no interest in protecting civilians and uses its weapons to draw fire onto the Gaza Strip:
We develop anti-missile systems to protect. We use an anti-missile system to protect our civilians. They use their civilians to protect their missiles. That’s the difference. So, against such a cynical, brutal, heartless enemy, we try to minimize civilian casualties.
Netanyahu: Hamas leaders divided into two
Netanyahu tells Blitzer that there are two different groups of Hamas leaders, neither of whom are particularly concerned about the fate of Palestinian civilians. The military wing:
I mean, the Hamas leaders are divided into two. Those who are under – in underground bunkers in Gaza, they don’t care. Let the people there, you know, with the rocketeers and with the attack tunnels, let them die as Israel tries to surgically take them out. But they’re safe underground, the military leaders.
He says Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the political wing, understands even less what the conflict is like for people with no option of leaving Gaza:
And then they have got the political leader, this guy Khaled Meshaal, who is roaming around five-star hotel suites in the Gulf states, having the time of his life, while his people, while he’s deliberately putting his people as fodder for this horrible terrorist war that they’re conducting against us. So this has to stop. And I think many people in Gaza understand that Hamas is destroying Gaza, destroying their lives.
700 tons of concrete in each tunnel
Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Hamas has used tens of thousands of tons of concrete, which could have gone towards building other facilities for the community such as schools, into tunnels to attack Israel instead.
You know what they did with that, Wolf? They put 700 tons of concrete into each one of these terror attack tunnels to penetrate Israel. Now, we have discovered dozens of them. So you’re talking about tens of thousands of tons of concrete, instead of going for the benefit of the school, the population, is going for terrorism against Israel.
Netanyahu: They call for destruction of Israel
Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Hamas and Islamic Jihad call for the destruction of Israel and for the killing of Jews, rather than for legitimate political aims:
I think it – I think the international community has to – once this is put in place, we really have to undertake a program to demilitarize Gaza and to change the situation, because it’s unacceptable. What makes it unacceptable is Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These people are the worst terrorists, genocidal terrorists. They call for the destruction of Israel, and they call for the killing of every Jew wherever they can find them.
$47 million aid
Kerry pledges $47 million humanitarian aid from the U.S. to Palestinians in the Gaza strip affected by the conflict. The State Department says $15 million will go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the remaining $32 million will come from USAID. In Cairo to meet Ban Ki-Moon:
We are deeply concerned about the consequences of Israel’s appropriate and legitimate effort to defend itself […] But always, in any conflict, there is concern about civilians — about children, women, communities that are caught in it.
16-year-old combatant captured
A 16-year-old Palestinian combatant is treated in Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital after being captured when emerging from a cross-border tunnel. Israel Radio describes him as being in moderate condition and says he was unconscious when hospitalized. A group of Hamas fighters dressed in Israel Defense Forces uniforms enters Israel near Kibbutz Nir Am and kills four IDF soldiers in a jeep before the Israeli squad returns fire, killing 10, while a second group crosses into Israel via a tunnel exiting near Erez, across the border from Beit Hanoun city, and clashes with IDF leaving several Gazans dead and no Israelis hurt. It is not stated which group the 16-year-old was part of. The report adds that IDF soldiers being treated in Israeli hospitals for combat wounds say they have encountered 13- and 14-year-old Palestinian children running at them wearing suicide-bomber explosive belts.
‘Accomplice to war crimes’
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency could be culpable as an accomplice to war crimes after it allegedly handed over rockets found in a UNRWA-run school to security forces run by Hamas. While the UN’s biggest agency subdivision, with 30,000 staff, apparently fulfilled its obligations by turning over the rockets to a Hamas-Fatah ‘unity’ police force, there is no public record of Fatah or non-Hamas ‘unity’ officials running a security force in the territory since the 2007 Hamas takeover, and the agency could have handed the rockets to a third party, placed them in an open field and notified the Israel Defense Forces of the location, or sought other options.
Israel Democracy Institute Vice President Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer says the UNRWA’s actions are a ‘war crime,’ although he says that there could be no criminal prosecution since it could never be criminally proven that the particular rockets were used to target Israelis, while Hebrew University Professor and former Foreign Ministry Legal Advisor Robbie Sabel says the UNRWA had no legal obligation to hand the rockets over to Israel and says he ‘would not make a capital case,’ but says that while UNRWA chief Christopher Gunness may have been unaware of Hamas’ involvement in the security forces, UNRWA workers on the ground in Gaza must have known.
Rosh Hashanah ‘tunnel attack’ plan
The Hebrew-language Maariv newspaper reports that Hamas had planned to send at least 200 fighters through each of dozens of tunnels into Israel for a major attack to coincide with Sept. 24 Rosh Hashanah Jewish new year celebrations. Unnamed security officials say the plan was to kill and kidnap as many Israelis as possible and bring the abductees back into Gaza via the tunnel network.
‘No children left in Gaza’ chant
A mob is captured on video in Tel Aviv apparently mocking deaths of children in the 2014 Gaza conflict:
Tomorrow there’s no teaching in Gaza, they don’t have any children left […] Gaza is a graveyard
The video, published by Israeli journalist Haim Har-Zahav, also takes aim at two Palestinian members of Israel’s Knesset, Ahmed Tibi and Haneen Zoabi.
‘When genocide is permissible’ apology
The Times of Israel and 5 Towns Jewish Times remove a blog post by Yochanan Gordon, sales manager at 5TJT and the son of the news site’s founder, titled ‘When Genocide Is Permissible.’ He apologizes:
I never intended to call to harm any people although my words may have conveyed that message. With that said I pray and hope for a quick peaceful end to the hostilities and that all people learn to coexist with each other in creating a better world for us all.
Cached excerpt:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly stated at the outset of this incursion that his objective is to restore a sustainable quiet for the citizens of Israel. We have already established that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?
Missiles ‘strike Hamas leader’s home’
Two missiles fired by the Israel Defense Forces are said to strike the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which is empty at the time. No casualties are reported. His son, Abdel Salam:
The Israeli enemy struck our house twice.
95% of Israelis support Protective Edge
The Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University find in a poll that 95% of Israelis support Operation Protective Edge as “just” and only 4% or less say that the Israel Defense Forces has used excessive force in the 2014 Gaza conflict:
Over the course of the surveys, Israeli Jewish public opinion has been consistently almost unanimous in its definition of Operation Protective Edge as justified – an average of 95% (96%, 92%, and 97% over the course of the three surveys).
The Home Front Command is given an average grade of 9.1, 8.6, and 9.1 on a scale of 1-10, with one being very poor and 10 being very good, while the performance of the government was rated as 8.0, 6.3, and 8.0.
Access to U.S. arsenal
The Pentagon confirms that Israel has been allowed to draw tank shells and illumination rounds from a cache of U.S. arms and equipment stored on Israeli soil. Known as the War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel program or WRSA-1, the billion-dollar reserve was established as part of expanded mutual cooperation during the 1980s and can be accessed with U.S. approval, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service the last time Israel was allowed to tap the stockpile was during the 2006 Lebanon war against Hezbollah.
Calls for immediate ceasefire
Abbott calls on both sides to cease hostilities:
It should be a ceasefire immediately by both sides. That’s what there should be, because plainly, too many people are dying. It’s just wrong what’s happening, so there should be a ceasefire
Canberra’s support for Israel isn’t unconditional
[…] they’re capable of making mistakes just like everyone else is, but no one intends, or should intend, any attack which results in the death of innocent people
that’s got to go hand-in-hand with the recognition of Israel’s right to exist behind secure borders. The problem in the Middle East is that in the end so many people are not prepared to accept Israel’s right to exist.
‘Two hours of electricity’
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says Gaza residents are receiving extremely limited supplies of electricity after Israeli shells are said to knock out the territory’s only power plant. UNOCHA:
Gaza city is receiving electricity for about two hours a day, while localities in the Middle Area have no supply at all […] According to the Palestinian Energy Authority, repairs could take months to complete, exacerbating the Gazan electricity crisis. This will affect private households, companies, and public services provision, including water, sanitation and health facilities. Hospitals will depend more heavily on their own diesel-powered generators, which are not adequate to power services for extended periods. Previously, hospital generators have burned out with extensive use, and power fluctuations damage finely calibrated medical equipment
‘Child sacrifice’ ad campaign
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of the This World: The Values Network promotes an essay by Wiesel accusing Hamas of using children as human shields and comparing this to the Jewish myth of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac:
[…] we have produced this advertising campaign with Elie Wiesel, to stop the terrorist cowards of Hamas from hiding behind innocent children and pregnant women
The campaign includes full-page ads in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald and use of social media.
Powerful ad produced by Rabbi Shmuley's org, This World: The Values Network, featuring Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel. pic.twitter.com/TYp26m0uXt
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) July 31, 2014
Reporter: rockets fired from Al Shifa hospital
Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat reports rockets fired from ‘right in the back of the parking lot’ of Al-Shifa hospital around 2 a.m. local time. Unnamed correspondent:
Really, it happened right in the area, the sound of it was really loud […] It’s true that rockets are launched here from the Gazan side into Israel
