*photo of Khan Younis bombing, taken hours ago by Emad Badwan in Deir al Balah

*photo on left: Hussein Amody; photo on right “Samar”

UPDATE: please check RT Gaza under Israeli attack: LIVE UPDATES

I spoke with Joe Catron (@jncatron), who is in Gaza City and gave a summary of what has been happening in the last week and just how these Zionist attacks on Palestinian civilian and children began.

Joe:

Israel is talking about a protracted operation, primarily airial. I’ve heard anywhere from 6 to 9 casualties in the last hour alone.

Bombs are falling everywhere, at least 20 targets have been hit since around 4 pm (said at 6:40 pm). I heard the first airstrike today, which was an assassination of Ahmed Al Jabari, (the leader of Hamas’ military wing) somewhere up the coast… I heard it very distinctly from here.

Ranan Arafat, a 4 year old girl was killed, that’s confirmed, also heard possibly a 7 year old but don’t know if that is confirmed or the same girl.

It’s worth remembering that this exchange began over a week ago with the (Zionist army’s) murder of a 13 year old boy who was playing football, and continued with murder of 2 more children playing football and 2 men who came to their rescue

Now after every major resistance faction in Gaza has offered a ceasefire, the occupying power has decided instead to escalate things.

British activist, Adie Mormech, wrote this:

Dear All. I am calling on all your support for the besieged people of the Gaza Strip.

Here in Gaza, more than 10 people have been killed so far in the Israeli operation named “Pillar of Defence” within the last 7 hours, including countless children such as 7-year-old child Ranan Arafat and an 11 month old baby. We’ve seen charred bodies of dead and injured children pouring in to Al Shifa hospital of Gaza City and the other depleted hospitals around the Gaza Strip. 50 airstrikes all over the Gaza Strip so far. Deafening explosions shook us all as bombs landed close to us in the streets near the Universities. Huge explosions are landing all around us in Gaza City now as I write, some entire families have been injured. We can also hear the shelling of Israeli Gunships. Announcement of possible Israeli land invasion very soon.

More than 330 children were killed in the last bloody operation like this in operation Cast Lead, killing over 1400 in total the vast majority civilians. We are reporting from hospitals, streets and bombed areas. How many, terrified in there homes will have their lives shortened by tomorrow, or after the days of airstrikes, tank shellings and Gunship missiles Israel has announced. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. MOVE. ACT NOW TO STOP ANOTHER GAZA BLOODBATH. INACTION AROUND THE WORLD HAS LEAD US TO THIS POINT. ACT NOW.

Adie

I can be reached on +970592280943 also for media

But expecting electricity and phones to be out

Scanning Facebook updates from Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip, updates report bombings all over Gaza:

Hussien Amody

2 minutes ago

at least 10 injures after targeting a house in Tal Al-hawa ..

Hussien Amody

5 minutes ago

This is gaza now .. 11 months old kid killed

Fadi F. Hamada

12 minutes ago

SHIT SHIT SHIT
F16s warplane jet just lunched 2 heave missiles to the west of my neighborhood.O Aallah save my family and all Gazans

Via @Muhammad Omer “Israeli F16s are bombing the hell out of Gaza now. Seeing smoke and burned cars. Ambulances rushing, people panic, but I applause to the policemen for keeping strong abs helping people despite the falling missiles aiming to hit their flesh…”

10 minutes ago ·

Hussien Amody:

Another huge airstrike on Nusirat camp just now

Sami AbuSalem

bombing continues, explosions shake our house, my kids screaming, I am trying to lull them, but infact I am so scared !

Hussien Amody

28 minutes ago

at 6:45 – Gaza : 9 martyrs more than 25 injures 15 of them seirously injured ,the total numbers in the attacks on Gaza Strip ..

Hussien Amody

about an hour ago

another attack just now near Star factory in Salah al-deen street

Hussien Amody

2 hours ago

the last airstrikes :
A car in Shoekh Radwan
airstrike on Shajaaya.
Abo Jarad military site in central Gaza strip
Alqadisia site west khanuones
A car in Rafah

a house in Biet Lahyia
a car in /zaytoon area

Hussien Amody

8 minutes ago

Gaza Today ..!

Hussien Amody: this is from the TV

The Guardian’s Gaza Live blog notes:

We now are seeing multiple reports that Israeli warships are firing from the Mediterranean into Gaza, which has a densely packed population of about 1.5m people living inside 140 square miles.

The IDF confirms the Israeli Navy is striking Gaza.

As many commenters have noted, the latest assault on Gaza coincides with early campaigning for Israel’s parliamentary elections, planned for 22 January.

The IDF says the current assault was provoked by hundreds of missile strikes out of Gaza. Political observers note the attack reflects on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was to meet with his senior security cabinet “after sundown” tonight, as a strong leader.

John Glaser wrote a comprehensive account of the latest Zionist attacks on Gaza and Palestinian resistance’s response to them:

Israel’s Latest Assault on Gaza: The Lie of Who Started It

Israel has again attacked Gaza. In its aerial and ground assault that began on Saturday, November 10th, at least 7 Palestinians have been killed, 5 of them civilians, 3 of whom were children. Up to 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.

One of the wounded is carried into a hospital in Gaza City following Israel’s shelling (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

As in every vicious military offensive Israel carries out in Gaza, the dominant narrative is that it is a response to rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. This is how it’s being reported in the US, and this is how virtually every American understands it.

And it’s a lie.

It’s true that on Saturday, prior to the expanded Israeli bombardment, the military wing of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine shot an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces vehicle near the Gaza border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. But what prompted the firing of the anti-tank missile?

First, on Monday, November 5th, Israeli forces shot and killed 23 year old Ahmad Nabhani when he “approached the border fence with Israel.” According to at least one account, Nabhani was mentally challenged.

Then, on Thursday, November 8th, the Israeli Occupation Forces – eight tanks and four bulldozers, to be exact – invaded southern Gaza, shooting and killing a 13-year old boy. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (via):

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:30 on Thursday, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF military vehicles that had moved into the ‘Abassan village, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen. At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his family’s house, located nearly 1,200 meters away from the area where the IOF were present.

So, even if honest observers brush to the side the cruel and inhumane Israeli blockade on Gaza and refuse to let it influence the equation of exactly which side started this flare up of violence, it is clear Israel started this latest clash. And in response to the response, Israel has waged a harsh, disproportionate military assault.

This would be a simple thing to understand if, for example, Western media bothered to ask the other side what happened. Palestinian news media immediately reported that the anti-tank missile Israel was supposedly responding to was admitted to by the Popular Resistance Committees, who described it as “revenge” for preceding Israeli violence on Gaza. But that basic task of honest journalism is apparently out of the question.

Every single Israeli incursion or attack on Gaza is accompanied by the same narrative: Israel fairly responded to unprovoked Palestinian rocket fire. The last major war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in December ’08-January ’09, also carried this narrative. Israel committed war crimes in that one-sided conflict, targeting and killing hundreds of civilians, using indiscriminate weapons, and intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure. It has become an accepted fact – even among critics of Israel – that the offensive was a response to Hamas rocket fire. The rocket fire did indeed occur immediately before the assault, but it was in response to Israel’s breaking of the six-month cease-fire, which even Israeli officials in WikiLeaks cables admitted Hamas had kept to.