Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Two Years Ago Israel Attacked Gaza for 51 Days as Drone Warfare
Becomes the Norm
________________________________________
Two Years Ago Israel Attacked Gaza for 51 Days as Drone Warfare Becomes the
Norm
By Ann Wright [1] / AlterNet [2]
July 8, 2016
Two years ago this week, on July 7, 2014, the Israeli government launched a
51-day air, land and sea attack on the people of Gaza. Israeli Defense
Forces relentlessly fired missiles, rockets, artillery and tank shells on
1.8 million Palestinians squashed by Israeli land and sea blockades into a
narrow strip 25 miles long and five miles wide, one of the most densely
populated places in the world. Nearly 500 Palestinians were killed by
Israeli assassin drones.
Drone warfare has become the norm for both the United States and Israel.
Drones fly above Gaza 24 hours a day watching the movements of every
Palestinian and ready to fire rockets at those chosen to die by the IDF.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documents [3] that, from 2008 until October
2013, out of 2,269 Palestinians killed by Israel, 911 were killed by drones,
most during the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead. In the 2012 Operation Pillar
of Defense, 143 out of 171 Palestinians killed by Israel were by drone
attack.
In the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
documents [4] 497 Palestinians killed by drones, 32 percent of Palestinian
deaths.
At the end of the 51 days, 2310 Palestinians had been killed, 10,600
wounded, including 3,300 children. Eight-hundred-seventy-two homes were
totally destroyed or severely damaged, and the homes of 5,005 families were
damaged but still inhabitable. One hundred and thirty-eight schools were
damaged or destroyed, 26 hospitals and health facilities were damaged.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, over 273,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had been displaced, of
whom 236,375 (over 11 percent of the Gazan population) were taking shelter
in 88 United Nations schools.
Palestinian militias shot homemade rockets killing 66 Israeli soldiers, five
Israeli civilians, including one child, and one Thai citizen in Israel.
The 51-day Israeli attack on Gaza should not be characterized as a war
between opposing forces but as a massive, one-sided attack on Palestinians
made at the choosing of Israel with its overwhelming military air, sea and
land forces backed up with endless military supplies and equipment from the
United States, including the missile system "Iron Dome."
Now two years after the Israeli attack on Gaza, the tensions in the West
Bank are exploding. Beginning in October 2015, a few West Bank Palestinian
youth have forsaken non-violent confrontation with Israeli military and
taken up knives instead of rocks in the latest intifada against Israeli
occupation and oppression, against the continued building of illegal
settlements on Palestinian lands and against the imprisonment of hundreds of
Palestinian youth. The use of knives against IDF soldiers has expanded to
deaths of Israeli civilians as well, including a 13-year-old girl in her
home.
Thirty-four Israelis, two U.S. citizens, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have
been killed in the knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Two hundred and
fourteen Palestinians have been killed by IDF soldiers during this period.
The potential for Israeli response/revenge to these knife attacks is great
and would probably not be directed just to the West Bank but also toward
Gaza.
As with other conflicts, the stories of death and survival of civilians
trapped in merciless bombings and fighting should compel leaders to work to
end conflicts, but seldom do.
A new book just published in July chronicles the 2014 IDF attack on Gaza and
focuses on the psychological and physical destruction suffered by the people
of Gaza by one particular weapon system-the assassin drone that killed 497
during the 2014 attack. Palestinian writer Atef Abu Saif provides the
day-by-day life of a family and a community under fire from an enemy in the
sky, beginning July 7, 2014-two years ago this week.
Drone Eats With Me: A Gaza Diary [5] is a graphic description of life under
fire, with the assassin drone lurking in the sky waiting for its next
victim. "The drone keeps us company all night long. It's whirring, whirring,
whirring, whirring is incessant-as if it wants to remind us it's there, it's
not going anywhere. It hangs just a little way above our heads."
Abu Saif writes that the sound of the drones is close: "The noise of this
new explosion subsides, it's replaced by the inevitable whir of a drone,
sounding so close it could be right beside us. It's like it wants to join us
for the evening and has pulled up an invisible chair."
Abu Saif describes his future during the 51-day attack:
"Our fates are all in the hands of a drone operator in a military base
somewhere just over the Israeli border. The operator looks at Gaza the way
an unruly boy looks at the screen of a video game. He presses a button and
might destroy an entire street. He might decide to terminate the life of
someone walking along the pavement, or he might uproot a tree in an orchard
that hasn't yet borne fruit. The operator practices his aim at his own
discretion, energized by the trust and power that has been put in his hands
by his superiors."
Abu Saif says many entities known and unknown join his family at mealtime:
"The food is ready. I wake the children and bring them in. We all sit around
five dishes: white cheese, hummus, orange jam, yellow cheese, and olives.
Darkness eats with us.
Fear and anxiety eat with us.
The unknown eats with us.
The F16 eats with us.
The drone, and its operator somewhere out in Israel, eats with us.
Our hands shiver, our eyes stare at the plates on the floor."
While the Israeli drone eats with the families in Gaza, U.S. drones eat with
the families in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and
Libya.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army and retired as a colonel. She
also served as a diplomat for 16 years and resigned in March 2003 in
opposition to President Bush's war on Iraq. She is a coordinator for the
U.S. campaign for the Women's Boat to Gaza and the co-author of "Dissent:
Voices of Conscience."
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [6]
[7]
________________________________________
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/world/drone-warfare-norm-israel
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/ann-wright-1
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/israel-drones-gaza-palesti
ne.html#ixzz4DhLzWv1I
[4] http://www.mezan.org/en/uploads/files/14598458701382.pdf
[5]
https://www.amazon.com/Drone-Eats-Me-Gaza-Diary-ebook/dp/B016GRL3Z6/ref=sr_1
_1_twi_kin_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467745159&sr=1-1&keywords=
the+drone+eats+with+me#nav-subnav
[6] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Two Years Ago Israel
Attacked Gaza for 51 Days as Drone Warfare Becomes the Norm
[7] http://www.alternet.org/
[8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Two Years Ago Israel Attacked Gaza for 51 Days as Drone Warfare
Becomes the Norm
Two Years Ago Israel Attacked Gaza for 51 Days as Drone Warfare Becomes the
Norm
By Ann Wright [1] / AlterNet [2]
July 8, 2016
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+More
AddThis Share optionsShare to Email
Two years ago this week, on July 7, 2014, the Israeli government launched a
51-day air, land and sea attack on the people of Gaza. Israeli Defense
Forces relentlessly fired missiles, rockets, artillery and tank shells on
1.8 million Palestinians squashed by Israeli land and sea blockades into a
narrow strip 25 miles long and five miles wide, one of the most densely
populated places in the world. Nearly 500 Palestinians were killed by
Israeli assassin drones.
Drone warfare has become the norm for both the United States and Israel.
Drones fly above Gaza 24 hours a day watching the movements of every
Palestinian and ready to fire rockets at those chosen to die by the IDF.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documents [3] that, from 2008 until October
2013, out of 2,269 Palestinians killed by Israel, 911 were killed by drones,
most during the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead. In the 2012 Operation Pillar
of Defense, 143 out of 171 Palestinians killed by Israel were by drone
attack.
In the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
documents [4] 497 Palestinians killed by drones, 32 percent of Palestinian
deaths.
At the end of the 51 days, 2310 Palestinians had been killed, 10,600
wounded, including 3,300 children. Eight-hundred-seventy-two homes were
totally destroyed or severely damaged, and the homes of 5,005 families were
damaged but still inhabitable. One hundred and thirty-eight schools were
damaged or destroyed, 26 hospitals and health facilities were damaged.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, over 273,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had been displaced, of
whom 236,375 (over 11 percent of the Gazan population) were taking shelter
in 88 United Nations schools.
Palestinian militias shot homemade rockets killing 66 Israeli soldiers, five
Israeli civilians, including one child, and one Thai citizen in Israel.
The 51-day Israeli attack on Gaza should not be characterized as a war
between opposing forces but as a massive, one-sided attack on Palestinians
made at the choosing of Israel with its overwhelming military air, sea and
land forces backed up with endless military supplies and equipment from the
United States, including the missile system "Iron Dome."
Now two years after the Israeli attack on Gaza, the tensions in the West
Bank are exploding. Beginning in October 2015, a few West Bank Palestinian
youth have forsaken non-violent confrontation with Israeli military and
taken up knives instead of rocks in the latest intifada against Israeli
occupation and oppression, against the continued building of illegal
settlements on Palestinian lands and against the imprisonment of hundreds of
Palestinian youth. The use of knives against IDF soldiers has expanded to
deaths of Israeli civilians as well, including a 13-year-old girl in her
home.
Thirty-four Israelis, two U.S. citizens, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have
been killed in the knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Two hundred and
fourteen Palestinians have been killed by IDF soldiers during this period.
The potential for Israeli response/revenge to these knife attacks is great
and would probably not be directed just to the West Bank but also toward
Gaza.
As with other conflicts, the stories of death and survival of civilians
trapped in merciless bombings and fighting should compel leaders to work to
end conflicts, but seldom do.
A new book just published in July chronicles the 2014 IDF attack on Gaza and
focuses on the psychological and physical destruction suffered by the people
of Gaza by one particular weapon system-the assassin drone that killed 497
during the 2014 attack. Palestinian writer Atef Abu Saif provides the
day-by-day life of a family and a community under fire from an enemy in the
sky, beginning July 7, 2014-two years ago this week.
Drone Eats With Me: A Gaza Diary [5] is a graphic description of life under
fire, with the assassin drone lurking in the sky waiting for its next
victim. "The drone keeps us company all night long. It's whirring, whirring,
whirring, whirring is incessant-as if it wants to remind us it's there, it's
not going anywhere. It hangs just a little way above our heads."
Abu Saif writes that the sound of the drones is close: "The noise of this
new explosion subsides, it's replaced by the inevitable whir of a drone,
sounding so close it could be right beside us. It's like it wants to join us
for the evening and has pulled up an invisible chair."
Abu Saif describes his future during the 51-day attack:
"Our fates are all in the hands of a drone operator in a military base
somewhere just over the Israeli border. The operator looks at Gaza the way
an unruly boy looks at the screen of a video game. He presses a button and
might destroy an entire street. He might decide to terminate the life of
someone walking along the pavement, or he might uproot a tree in an orchard
that hasn't yet borne fruit. The operator practices his aim at his own
discretion, energized by the trust and power that has been put in his hands
by his superiors."
Abu Saif says many entities known and unknown join his family at mealtime:
"The food is ready. I wake the children and bring them in. We all sit around
five dishes: white cheese, hummus, orange jam, yellow cheese, and olives.
Darkness eats with us.
Fear and anxiety eat with us.
The unknown eats with us.
The F16 eats with us.
The drone, and its operator somewhere out in Israel, eats with us.
Our hands shiver, our eyes stare at the plates on the floor."
While the Israeli drone eats with the families in Gaza, U.S. drones eat with
the families in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and
Libya.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army and retired as a colonel. She
also served as a diplomat for 16 years and resigned in March 2003 in
opposition to President Bush's war on Iraq. She is a coordinator for the
U.S. campaign for the Women's Boat to Gaza and the co-author of "Dissent:
Voices of Conscience."
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [6]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[7]
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/world/drone-warfare-norm-israel ;
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/ann-wright-1
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/israel-drones-gaza-palesti
ne.html#ixzz4DhLzWv1I
[4] http://www.mezan.org/en/uploads/files/14598458701382.pdf
[5]
https://www.amazon.com/Drone-Eats-Me-Gaza-Diary-ebook/dp/B016GRL3Z6/ref=sr_1
_1_twi_kin_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467745159&sr=1-1&keywords=
the+drone+eats+with+me#nav-subnav
[6] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Two Years Ago Israel
Attacked Gaza for 51 Days as Drone Warfare Becomes the Norm
[7] http://www.alternet.org/
[8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
