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| Host Amy Goodman |
One of the greatest challenges in understanding the real situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories is getting reliable information. This latest assault on Gaza reaffirms the key role played by the U.S. media in maintaining the information blockade. [Our
U.S. F-14 fighter planes are used by Israel in its/our bombing of Palestinian civilians manned by Israeli pilots trained by the U.S. military-industrial complex]. It also highlights the increasing importance of pressure applied by social networks.
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| 25 x 6 mile prison, 1.8 million prisoners |
With a reporter in Gaza right now (Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who took this picture of a Palestinian baby harmed by Israel now in the hospital)... Despite [another phony] U.N. Security Council call for a ceasefire, Israel has intensified its attack on Gaza and warned the world of a "protracted campaign," more war crimes against civilians justified by saying it is only trying to kill Hamas members.
Palestinian officials say they have killed more than 110 people in the past 24 hours, with some saying Monday was the most intensive night of bombing the civilian city of Gaza so far. During this time, Israel attacked more than 150 sites including Gaza’s only power station and a media center that houses the broadcasting headquarters of Hamas and a number of other Arab satellite news channels. News of what is really going on under Israeli military oppression will not be allowed to get out unless Israel controls the broadcast, the access, the PR, the message, and the spin.
Earlier on Monday, ten people were killed, eight of which were children, and 40 others wounded by a bomb in a park near the beach in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. The child victims were said to be playing on a playground swing when they were hit by Israel.
Israel, to add confusion to the chaos, denies carrying out the attack -- even though eyewitnesses said the explosion was caused by an Israeli airstrike.
Another Israeli bombing reportedly hit an outpatient building of Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa. Meanwhile, ten Israeli soldiers were said to have been killed on Monday. Fifty-three Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians, and a Thai Buddhist migrant farmworker have died since Israel's assault began.
Democracy Now! goes to Gaza City to speak with correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. "[Israel has] shelled hospitals, U.N. schools; they’ve bombed people in their homes," Kouddous reports. "There’s literally nowhere for these people to run to." [All borders are blocked to Palestinians by Israel, who wants 1.8 million civilians hemmed in and killed by airstrikes, gunboats, ground invaders, and spies.]
"Nowhere to Go": Gaza suffers one of deadliest...
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| We (U.S.) support war crimes. Israeli media control makes sure of it. See A-J U.S. |
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer: Lifting Israel's blockade isn’t a Hamas demand — it’s a human right:
Today is Eid, the feast and culmination of Ramadan, the holiest month on the Islamic calendar. But there is no opportunity to observe or celebrate it. The number of Palestinians murdered by Israel has topped 1,100 after one of the deadliest 24-hour periods since Israel began an assault on a section of Palestine/Israel called "Gaza" 22 days ago.
Most of the murdered have been civilians. More than 1 out of 10 (180,000) Palestinians have been displaced over the past three weeks. This is roughly 10 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip, an open air prison that is one of the most crowded, densely populated pieces of land in the world.
Democracy Now! is joined from Gaza City by award-winning Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer. "I believe Israel wants to make people turn against the resistance," Omer reports. "There is no way for people to turn against the resistance -- in fact it is the other way around. People in the street say we do support resistance because that is the only way to end the occupation.
"...I’m afraid we are going to have more radical generations in the Gaza Strip, and I fear for the future of Gaza and the future of the West Bank [the two remaining parts of Israel where all indigenous Palestinians have been corralled into areas like concentration camps, refugee camps, and metropolitan prisons where Israel controls everything that goes in and comes out in addition to raining down death on civilians any time it wishes] -- and I fear the future of the region if the international community is not acting now to end the blockade and the operation in Gaza."
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer: lifting Israel's blockade...
