Gaza Aggression is Only News When Israel Responds

[Teddy Bear]

It is hard to imagine for those of us in our society, what it must be like to live in a situation where at any time of the day or night a siren will go off to tell you to get your self and family into a shelter because of an imminent rocket or mortar attack.

This is the situation faced by over a million Israelis daily who live within a 30 mile radius of Gaza. Since Israel withdrew all Jews out of Gaza in 2005, including those who had been living there for hundreds of years, in the vain hope of achieving peace, there have been more than 8000 rocket attacks fired from Gaza.

I have often noted that the BBC almost never reports on these attacks, unless and until Israel retaliates in some shape or form, and only then the headline will make it appear as if Israel is the aggressor against the 'poor Palestinian'.

My reason for making this particular post on today's incident, which true to form the BBC headlines Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes 'kill six militants' is that inside the article it states:
There has been a spate of rocket attacks and air strikes in recent days
and
There has been an increase in cross-border rocket fire by Palestinian militants in recent days, though without causing casualties.

So why hasn't the BBC reported it before now? Syrian forces fire on their citizens on a daily basis, but the BBC never seems to tire of reporting each incident. It appears if it's an attack against Israeli citizens, for the BBC it doesn't really matter.

Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes 'kill six militants'

Large crowds took part in a funeral procession for those killed
At least six Palestinians have been killed in two Israeli strikes in Gaza against what Israel says were militants preparing rocket and bomb attacks.

Palestinians said three were killed by Israeli fire in the north of the strip on Thursday morning. Israel said they were planting a bomb near its fence.

Hours earlier, an air strike in central Gaza killed three militants who Israel said were set to fire rockets.

There has been a spate of rocket attacks and air strikes in recent days.

In the latest incident, Israel said it had fired at a "terrorist squad that was planting an explosive device" near the town of Beit Hanoun.

The men were reportedly part of a small militant group called Homat Al-Aqsa.

It came hours after another strike which Israel said "targeted a terrorist squad... involved in previous rocket launches at communities located in southern Israel".

Witnesses said the air strike hit a car in which four people were travelling near the Bureij refugee camp.

Palestinian medical officials and witnesses confirmed that three militants had been killed in that attack.

A fourth man was critically injured, a health ministry spokesman told the BBC.

Large numbers took part in a funeral procession for one of those killed in Gaza City.

There has been an increase in cross-border rocket fire by Palestinian militants in recent days, though without causing casualties. Israel has also responded with air strikes.

Israel says it holds the Hamas movement which runs Gaza responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza, even if it is other militant groups carrying them out.

[Teddy Bear]

I noted yesterday, following the absence of coverage by the BBC on the 7 Israelis injured by Hamas rockets from Gaza, that they would wait until Israel retaliated before they did mention it, and then bury it inside the article.

Sure enough, today the BBC runs this story on their MidEast webpage, despite in the past 'Palestinian medic sources' have proven to be completely unreliable. But then the BBC has never let this fact bother them running it as gospel. Note the headline, and the absence of quotation marks to indicate that this claim has not been verified. Compare this to where within the article the BBC state
Israel said its air force hit "an arms factory, a site of terrorist activity and a terrorist tunnel in the north of the Gaza Strip, and a smuggling tunnel in the south of the Strip".

Pure conscious insidious twisting of facts.

Gaza Strip: Children hurt as Israel strikes tunnels

The children were injured by shrapnel from an Israeli strike on tunnels, medics said
Two Palestinian children have been injured by Israeli air strikes on smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, Palestinian medics say.

Two other air strikes hit facilities used by Islamist militants, Gaza's governing Hamas group said.

The air strikes came after at least seven Israelis were injured during rocket attacks from Gaza on Sunday.

Cross-border violence between militants in Gaza and Israel has escalated in recent days.

Palestinian sources say the injured boys were brothers aged seven and 10.

Israel said its air force hit "an arms factory, a site of terrorist activity and a terrorist tunnel in the north of the Gaza Strip, and a smuggling tunnel in the south of the Strip".

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rockets attacks from Gaza, even if - as in recent days - those attacks are carried out by other Palestinian militant organisations.

Three grad missiles landed in southern Israel on Sunday morning, one of them destroying a house in the town of Netivot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that militants who attack Israel "have paid a price in the past for these crimes, and they'll pay a price again".

Last week, six Palestinians whom Israel said were preparing rocket and bomb attacks were killed in air strikes on Gaza.

[Teddy Bear]

Honest Reporting makes the correct observation that 'shoddy journalism' at the BBC has finally led to the resignation of the director-general, although this shoddiness has been recognised on their anti-Israel reporting for years without redress.

Where in the world can 80 rockets and mortars be fired over a 24 hour period at any nation without it being reported as news?
Presumably, considering the board and topic this is posted in, you will have easily guessed it.

Here's what the BBC tells us, 'naturally' after Israel responds, and still not updated since the morning to reflect the total number of rockets and mortars fired today.

Gaza: Palestinians killed and Israeli soldiers injured

Six Palestinians have been killed and more than 20 injured in a series of clashes close to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Hamas officials said Israeli fire had killed five at a funeral in Shijaia, near Gaza City. An Islamic Jihad member died in a separate Israeli air strike.

Israel said it was responding to a missile attack on an army patrol that injured four Israeli soldiers.

On Sunday, Israel's PM warned it was "prepared to escalate" its response.

"The world must realise that Israel won't sit by idly in the face of attempts to attack us. We are prepared to escalate our actions," Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting.

However, the BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says it is not clear whether Israel is contemplating another large-scale operation against militants in Gaza, as it carried out four years ago.

Brief calm
According to Israeli sources, more than 50 rockets have been fired from Gaza towards Israeli border towns since Saturday night.

Schools have been closed throughout the region and people who go outside are being advised to remain close to bomb shelters.

The Israel Defence Forces said they had targeted several sites in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack on the patrol along the security fence.

"The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians, and will operate against anyone who uses terror against the state of Israel," it said.

"The Hamas terror organisation is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip," the statement added.

A spokesman for Hamas militants threatened to respond further to Saturday's shelling.

"Targeting civilians is a dangerous escalation that cannot be tolerated. The resistance has the full right to respond to the Israeli crimes," Fawzi Barhoum said in a text message sent to reporters, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Saturday's exchanges followed a week of violence.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed as militants clashed with Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Thursday.

Later, an Israeli soldier was hurt when a tunnel blew up near the Gaza border fence, the Israeli military said.

The tunnel was one of the biggest seen in recent years and could have been part of a plan to kidnap or kill soldiers, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, said it caused the blast, in response to the killing of the boy.

At the top of the article the BBC shows this picture:

with the caption A Palestinian woman surveys damage from an Israeli air strike in Rafah

If only they had a dead or wounded child to put in the picture.

Lower down they have this picture 'for balance' BBC style

Israeli police collect remains of a rocket fired into the southern town of Sderot

I'm sure you get the idea, and considering that an Israeli factory, home, and car sustained direct hits, as well as quite a few injuries, you can be sure there are other images available - if that's what the BBC wanted to show.

Note too that 'Six Palestinians have been killed and more than 20 injured in a series of clashes close to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.' is recorded as fact, when it has to be what the Palestinians claim.

Yet whenever the BBC writes about what happened in Israel it is always accompanied by
Israel said it was responding to a missile attack on an army patrol that injured four Israeli soldiers.
According to Israeli sources, more than 50 rockets have been fired from Gaza towards Israeli border towns since Saturday night.

Saturday's exchanges followed a week of violence.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed as militants clashed with Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Thursday.

Later, an Israeli soldier was hurt when a tunnel blew up near the Gaza border fence, the Israeli military said.

Not to mention no comment about just how a 13 year old boy was present while militants were combating Israeli troops, or that since when did Hamas need an excuse to fire rockets before?

Can anybody genuinely claim that this is balance and impartial?

[Teddy Bear]

From BBC Watch (links on website):

What the BBC is not reporting from Gaza’s border with Israel

Painting a very pastoral and idyllic picture of poor Gazan farmers dedicatedly tending their fields, the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool reported from the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel on November 26th.



However, Aleem Maqbool’s report tells only part of the story of events along that border since the cease fire ending Operation ‘Pillar of Cloud’ came into effect on November 22nd.

On Friday, November 23rd, a mob tried – and in one case succeeded – to breach the fence and one man was killed after ignoring warning shots fired in the air. As we noted at the time, the BBC’s Jon Donnison suggested that the rioters may have been farmers or scrap metal collectors.

On Saturday, November 24th, the mob was back at the fence. This time, however, Hamas policemen prevented them from reaching the fence itself. There was no report of this incident on the BBC website.

Around 4 a.m. on Monday morning (November 26th) a man from Gaza infiltrated the southern village of Sde Avraham, after having breached the border fence, and broke into a home. The mother of the family, whose members were all asleep at the time, was at home alone with her four young children. She fought off the attacker and trapped him in the bathroom until help arrived, but was stabbed by him in the face and shoulder in the process. No report of this incident appeared on the BBC website.

On Monday night, a Palestinian man tried to climb the border fence and, after ignoring verbal warnings and warning shots fired in the air by IDF soldiers, was shot in the legs. No report of this incident appears on the BBC website.

The border between the Gaza Strip and Israel is nowhere near as pastoral as the BBC would have its audiences believe, but of course the creation that sort of idyllic impression sets the stage for oft repeated narratives of ‘stolen land’ whilst hindering viewers’ understanding of why Israel created a buffer zone in the first place.

Update:

The rioters from the Gaza Strip were back on Wednesday, November 28th too.

[Teddy Bear]

The BBC report today Israel hits back after Gaza rockets
At least the headline makes it clear that it was in retaliation for rockets being fired first from Gaza.

Curiously though, the article tells us:

The rocket fire followed a rise in tensions in Gaza after a militant died in a shoot-out with Palestinian police.

The Islamic Jihad faction says Raed Qassim Jundeyeih, a commander of its military wing, was killed on Saturday by police from Gaza's governing Hamas movement, while Hamas says Jundeyeih was killed by a bullet fired from his own weapon.

Islamic Jihad are believed to have been behind Sunday night's rocket attack on Israel, which came after a period of relative calm.

Did anybody else find it strange that Gaza militants should fire rockets at Israel since it was Palestinian police that had killed one of their own leaders?
Well whoever wrote the article clearly doesn't, and even goes on to tell us that the rockets fired follows 'a period of relative calm'.

'Calm', as far as the BBC is concerned, is not affected by 3 other rockets fired last Wednesday from Gaza towards Ashkelon in Israel, before any militant was killed by Palestinian police on Saturday. Since the BBC is so used to ignoring incidents of Palestinian aggression until Israel responds, it is understandable that they didn't calculate this into their story today.

I knew last Wednesday that this was coming since BBC Watch reported this incident and noted the absence of any mention of it by the BBC. It was clear from previous incidents of this kind that it would only be when Israel responds that we would hear about it from the BBC.

Sure enough...
Shows how their own IGNOREance gets them to find even more stupid reasons to explain events there.

Israel hits back after Gaza rockets
Palestinian youths at site of Israeli air strike in central Gaza Strip

Israel says it hit weapons facilities and a rocket launching site

Israeli warplanes have attacked targets in Gaza after missiles were fired into southern Israel on Sunday night.

At least six rockets had been fired from northern Gaza. Two were intercepted, the military said.

Hours later, Israeli aircraft hit at least three sites used by militants in the Gaza Strip, Israel said. No injuries were reported by either side.

The rocket fire followed a rise in tensions in Gaza after a militant died in a shoot-out with Palestinian police.

The Islamic Jihad faction says Raed Qassim Jundeyeih, a commander of its military wing, was killed on Saturday by police from Gaza's governing Hamas movement, while Hamas says Jundeyeih was killed by a bullet fired from his own weapon.

Islamic Jihad are believed to have been behind Sunday night's rocket attack on Israel, which came after a period of relative calm.

Sirens blared in a number of areas of southern Israel and Israeli media said two of the missiles, thought to be Grad rockets, were intercepted by the Iron Dome system in the Ashkelon area.

Israeli planes launched attacks in the early hours of Monday.

An Israeli army statement said "sites of terrorist infrastructure including two weapon storage facilities in the central Gaza Strip and a rocket launch site in the southern Gaza Strip" were targeted with "accurate strikes".

BBC reporter Rushdi Abualouf said the sites hit belonged to both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel has said it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from the territory.

[thehighlandrebel]

More obfuscation

BBC correspondent compares anti-terrorist fence to Berlin wall, fails to mention terrorism

[Teddy Bear]

Excellent report by BBC Watch today showing how many rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel in February, and how many of these were reported by the BBC. Needless to say it was only when Israel responded that any of them are mentioned, and then, only sparingly.

90% of missile attacks from Gaza Strip in February ignored by the BBC

On February 11th we reported on incidents of missile fire from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of that month which had been completely ignored by the BBC. In addition to those incidents, the following also took place during the month of February:

On February 14th two separate incidents of missile fire from the Gaza Strip took place a couple of hours apart.

On February 18th an improvised explosive device (IED) was discovered on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip and on the same afternoon two errant mortars fired from Syria landed in the Golan Heights.

None of those incidents was reported by the BBC either.

On February 28th the IAF carried out a strike on a missile launching site near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip to eliminate an imminent attack. That strike was mentioned briefly in a BBC report relating to another subject, but it was not made clear that an attempt to fire a missile was ongoing at the time.

The table below sums up February’s cross-border attacks and the BBC’s reporting of them.

Missile attacks February


Of the attacks originating in the Gaza Strip, the thwarted IED attack was ignored and only one of the ten different incidents of missile fire or attempted missile fire was partly reported, but without it having been made clear that an attack was in progress. In other words, 90% of missile fire at Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip during the month of February was ignored by the BBC.

That of course means that BBC audiences continue to be denied information concerning the vast majority of attacks by terrorist groups on Israeli civilians in southern Israel and hence lack the background and context to enable them to be able to reach informed opinions on the subject of Israel’s responses to the activities of terror organisations on its southern borders.

[thehighlandrebel]

I see Gaza even managed to get a mention on tonights Archers omnibus.
What next?...here is the weather forecast. A deep depression will sweep in from the Atlantic caused by Israeli aggression in the illegally occupied territories!

[thehighlandrebel]

Interesting clip here.
It makes you wonder why Al Beeb go out of their way day after day to spout their lies and hatred and mock the licence fee payer who keep them in their luxurious lifestyle.

[Teddy Bear]

I don't wonder any more.
The BBC will sacrifice any and all values if they think their hegemony will be increased.
Because they represent NO real value or quality and actually bring our society down, any gain they make is to our detriment.