WHO IS PROVOKING WHO ON THE GAZA FRONT?

Over the last few weeks the Israelis have been sending their strike aircraft at low levels over the Gaza Strip launching missiles at various targets. As a result several Palestinians have been killed.

The Israelis have said that these raids are in retaliation to Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel, but is this really the case?

B’Tselam, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reports that on 28 February 2014, Amneh Qdeih, a 57-year-old mentally ill Palestinian woman, wandered off from a wedding party in the village of Khuza’ah and walked toward the border fence with Israel. As she wandered closer to the border fence Israeli border guards opened fire on her and she was shot in the abdomen and died. She was the fifth no-combatant Palestinian to be killed by Israeli border guards while more than 50 other non-combatant Palestinians have been injured within the previous three months.

As a result of this upsurge in attacks against Palestinians, Palestinian fighters have retaliated by launching rocket attacks against Israel. Israel, in turn, have then launched air strikes against targets in the Gaza which killed at least eight Palestinians on 27 February 2014 and a further three Palestinians were killed in another Israeli air strike on the Gaza on 11 March 2014.

It is clear that Israel by killing Palestinian non-combatants in the Gaza Strip are deliberately trying to provoke Palestinian fighters into retaliating by firing rockets into Israel so that Israel can then attack targets in the Gaza in the hope that they further provoke the Palestinians to fire more rockets into Israel. The intent is clear; Israel is preparing to launch yet another major incursion into the Gaza Strip. However, they can only justify this after the Palestinians have increased the number of rocket attacks against Israel.

If and when the Israelis do unleash a full onslaught against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip it is likely this time to be a full-on invasion and occupation if they can get the Palestinians to escalate to that point.

Naturally, the full force of the Israeli propaganda machine around the world will be there to push the Israeli Hasbara that covers up the Israeli aggression that triggers Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel.

So far the Israelis have been thwarted in their attempts to provoke the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip into all-out war but one can rest assured that it won’t stop the Israelis from continuing with their efforts.

Keep an eye out for more Israeli shootings of innocent Palestinians.