IDF SPOKESMAN: Demonstrators Use Violence Against Israeli Navy Soldiers Attempting to Board Ship, 31 May 2010

May 31, 2010

Early this morning, IDF Naval Forces boarded six ships attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip. This happened after numerous warnings from Israel and the Israeli Navy that were issued prior to the action. The Israel Navy requested the ships to redirect toward Ashdod where they would be able to unload their aid supplies which would then be transferred over land after undergoing security inspections.

 

 

During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.

 

As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, as well as live fire.

 

According to initial reports, these events resulted in the deaths of nine demonstrators and seven naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners have been evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.

Reports from IDF forces on the scene are that it seems as if part of the participants onboard the ships were planning to lynch the forces.

 

The interception of the flotilla followed numerous warnings given to the organizers of the flotilla before leaving their ports as well as while sailing towards the Gaza Strip. In these warnings, it was made clear to the organizers that they could dock in the Ashdod sea port and unload the equipment they are carrying in order to deliver it to the Gaza Strip in an orderly manner, following the appropriate security checks. Upon expressing their unwillingness to cooperate and arrive at the port, it was decided to board the ships and lead them to Ashdod.

 

IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.

Early this morning, IDF Naval Forces boarded six ships attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip. This happened after numerous warnings from Israel and the Israeli Navy that were issued prior to the action. The Israel Navy requested the ships to redirect toward Ashdod where they would be able to unload their aid supplies which would then be transferred over land after undergoing security inspections.

 

During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.

 

As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, as well as live fire.

 

According to initial reports, these events resulted in the deaths of nine demonstrators and seven naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners have been evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.

 

Reports from IDF forces on the scene are that it seems as if part of the participants onboard the ships were planning to lynch the forces.

The interception of the flotilla followed numerous warnings given to the organizers of the flotilla before leaving their ports as well as while sailing towards the Gaza Strip. In these warnings, it was made clear to the organizers that they could dock in the Ashdod sea port and unload the equipment they are carrying in order to deliver it to the Gaza Strip in an orderly manner, following the appropriate security checks. Upon expressing their unwillingness to cooperate and arrive at the port, it was decided to board the ships and lead them to Ashdod.

IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. 

 

The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.

 

May 31, 2010

Video Update: Israeli Navy Addresses a Ship in the Flotilla, 31 May 2010

 

http://idfspokesperson.com/

IDF foils plan to kidnap soldier

BY YAAKOV KATZ, JPOST

Five Hamas operatives arrested en route to commit attacks in Israel.

After a media blackout was lifted Thursday, the defense establishment revealed that the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) had foiled a Hamas attempt to kidnap an IDF soldier.

Five Hamas men were arrested on December 12, 2009, while trying to infiltrate Israel from Egypt, carrying explosives, a gun, a silencer and $15,000 in counterfeit bills, according to the announcement.

During the arrest, two of the operatives were wounded. The attack was planned by Rahad Said, a senior commander in the group’s military wing in Gaza, a defense source said.

In his interrogation, Salaman Abu Atik, a 43-year-old senior Hamas member specializing in weapons smuggling, confessed to having infiltrated Israel at the behest of Hamas to carry out a terror attack and kidnap an IDF soldier, according to the defense establishment.

Hamas had reportedly hoped that the kidnapped soldier would serve as a bargaining chip in prisoner exchange negotiations with Israel.

Atik also admitted to having been sent on several other occasions by Hamas into Israel with the intent of commit terrorist acts - plans that were never actualized.

Atik told his interrogators that another Hamas activist, Ibrahim Za’arah, was planning to enter Israel to commit a terrorist act. Based on the intelligence information provided to Shin Bet by Atik, Za’arah, 44, was arrested on December 31 with two bombs on his person weighing 6-7 kilograms, as well as detonation devices.

Za’arah confessed during his interrogation to planning to plant the bombs in heavily populated areas. Za’arah said he was ordered to carry out the attack within 10 days after entering Israel.

He also admitted that he entered the country in order to assist Atik in kidnapping and murdering an IDF soldier.

Rules of war 'suspended' by the IDF

An explosion from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, in January last year during Operation Cast Lead

By Martin Bright, February 4, 2010

The co-founder of the controversial Israeli human rights organisation Breaking the Silence (BTS) has told a London audience that the IDF suspended its rules of engagement during the Gaza conflict in order to protect the lives of Israeli soldiers.

Yehuda Shaul, a 27-year-old former infantryman in the Israeli army, was in London this week to promote the work of BTS.

Speaking at a public meeting organised by Christian Aid, he said that the accounts which BTS had collected from soldiers who took part in Operation Cast Lead demonstrated they were under orders not to take the usual precautions to avoid unnecessary loss of civilian life.

He also claimed that systematic bulldozing of buildings and Palestinian homes had taken place. This so-called “day after” policy was designed to reduce the need for further military action after the withdrawal of Israeli troops, he said.

Mr Shaul’s claims come at the same time as reports surfaced that an interview had been given — though as yet not published — to Israeli daily Yediot Achronot in which a senior commander had confirmed that civilians were put at risk to minimise Israeli military losses.

According to these reports, published in the Independent, the usual IDF rule that suspects needed to have a weapon and show the intention of using it before being fired on was not applied in Operation Cast Lead.

Mr Shaul said an independent inquiry into events in Gaza was needed, not to satisfy the international community, but to restore Israel’s faith in its own democratic principles.

Mr Shaul told the JC that it was increasingly difficult to criticise the government from within Israel. “It’s not just foreign governments any more, it’s not just gentiles, it’s even Jews. It’s anyone who’s not in line.

“What is democracy? That is what I ask. What is a democratic Jewish state? And I think in essence, we have the responsibility towards our society, to struggle so that different voices are allowed to be heard.”

Mr Shaul and his fellow IDF veterans who set up BTS have been making themselves unpopular with the Israeli government since 2004, when they first published photographs and testimonies from soldiers’ experiences of serving in the West Bank. But last summer it published testimonies from soldiers serving in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza and the Israeli government embarked on a campaign to discredit the organisation.

“When we talk about hostility, it’s July 15 2009, that’s the turning point,” Mr Shaul said. “We didn’t anticipate this reaction from the government… we were viciously attacked on two main issues — one was the anonymity of the testimonies, and two was that we received foreign funding.”

He is sanguine about the controversy now. “I don’t want to think that our government wants to block foreign funding for human rights groups. I think this was a good PR attempt to discredit us inside Israel. ‘You thought Breaking the Silence were the good guys, those ex-soldiers who have earned the right to speak out. Let’s tell you something, they serve European interests’. That was what they were saying.”

The latest testimonies include accounts of women soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinian detainees. In one account, a first sergeant reported barrack-room conversations: “The tough female combatant has no problem beating up Arabs… Take a look at that one, a real ‘ball-breaker’, see her humiliating them, slapping them, what a slap she gave that guy! You hear this kind of talk all the time.”

Mr Shaul said he was merely trying to get the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into the public arena. “There must be a way to open this issue to say the truth as we know it, coming out from soldiers who have served there and represent our country.”

However, he was still not ready to accept the conclusions of Judge Richard Goldstone’s United Nations report on Gaza. He said: “I think what happened in Gaza is somewhere between what the Israeli government is saying, the official line, and Goldstone.”

Anshel Pfeffer writes: For the past five years, Breaking the Silence has been publishing eyewitness stories of IDF soldiers who served in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the second intifada and in Operation Cast Lead.

Official IDF and government spokespeople have attacked its reports, compiled by a team of researchers, for being based on anonymous sources. BTS says that most of its interviewees are serving soldiers who will be disciplined if their identities become known. Nor are soldiers who have finished their military service eager for their names to be used.

Journalists who have tried independently to corroborate the reports have found them to be well researched, but have criticised its sweeping judgments and publicity stunts.

BTS has also been criticised for receiving funding from various European foundations and governments, but in this, BTS is no different than almost any other Israeli human-rights organisation which also receive significant foreign, mainly European, funding.

Israeli Team’s Efforts Stand Out In Haiti

Rescue workers on Jan. 15 carry an injured survivor of the earthquake
in Haiti to the Israeli field hospital, where some 40 doctors
have won praise for life-saving work.

TheJewishWeek.com

Thursday, January 21, 2010 / 6 Shevat 5770

by Adam Dickter
Assistant Managing Editor

Israel’s rapid response to the disaster in Haiti and the success of its experienced emergency team in saving many lives has drawn extensive media coverage, and has become a major source of pride in the Jewish community.

The Israel Defense Forces sent 220 personnel to the Caribbean island on Jan. 15, three days after a 7.0-scale earthquake devastated the capital city of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. The team included 40 doctors, 20 nurses and paramedics, search-and-rescue teams with trained dogs and other specialists.

In addition to the army team, Israeli volunteers from the Hadassah Medical Organization and the rescue group Zaka, formed in response to terror attacks, and a team from IsraAid, an umbrella group of Israeli relief organizations are also in Port-au-Prince. IsraAid volunteers treated a 6-year-old girl who was pulled from the rubble of her apartment building and later transferred her to the IDF field hospital, where she was expected to survive. The Hadassah team set up a field hospital in a soccer stadium and operated on more than 70 people over 36 hours, the organization reported.

Other nations participating in the relief effort with personnel or goods, in varying degrees, include Canada, Egypt, France, China, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Iran and Georgia. Many others have pledged funds to help.

Israel’s consul general in New York, Assaf Shariv said there had been four births at the IDF hospital, with two of those infants still in incubators. The army doctors were also caring for a 7-month-old girl who had been pulled from rubble after several days. “The question is what to do with her,” said Shariv. “She has no family, no one knows anything about her.”

Attempts to reach several Israeli commanders and officials working in Haiti were unsuccessful on Tuesday.

Shachar Zahavi, founder and coordinator of IsraAid, said he expected another 15 doctors to leave for Haiti on Saturday.

Shariv said that while the initial deployment of the team was two weeks, the Israeli medics were likely to stay as long as needed, with personnel being rotated home. He said supplies were being shuttled by truck from the airport in Santo Domingo, in the neighboring Dominican Republic, to the team in Port-au-Prince, where there is no power in most of the city.

“It’s a very big operation, but we don’t have a chopper to send everyone where we want,” he said. “It’s very dangerous.” Shariv said the Israeli government was minimally coordinating with the U.S. team there, with a focus on water delivery.

As details emerged, pro-Israel organizations and individuals this week busily tweeted and e-mailed news of the latest rescues, including two students pulled from the rubble of a university in Port-au-Prince Monday night. The Israel Project, an advocacy group, sent reporters contact information for Israelis on the ground in Haiti.
CNN on Monday reported that the Israeli field hospital in Haiti is the most effective in operation there, and was already performing surgery while other international units were still waiting for equipment. An ABC report detailed how the network’s correspondent, Richard Besser, who is a doctor, helped a pregnant woman save her baby with the help of the Israeli hospital. The grateful mother, who had to undergo an emergency C-section, reportedly said she would be naming the baby Israel.

“Media-wise it’s been a very successful week for Israel,” said Shariv. “Around the world we have gotten some very good press. But we don’t look at it that way. That’s not why we are doing this.”

Shariv said Haitian newspapers had noted the extent of Israel’s aid as considerable given that virtually none of the Jewish state’s citizens were harmed in the earthquake.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said it was the first time he had heard talk of a disproportionate response by Israel in a positive way.

“The U.S. and Israel have been at the forefront of these efforts,” said Hoenlein. “It’s something we should all be proud of.”

While Hoenlein said the relief effort showed “the true Israel and not the lies of the Goldstone Report” — a reference to the United Nations report, authored by Richard Goldstone, that found that Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes in the Gaza war — he said he didn’t believe Israel’s government factored politics and good publicity into the calculus.

“They have done this before, whenever there is a landslide or explosion or natural disaster. I doubt they figured the political benefits, because they usually don’t get any.”

As of Tuesday there were nine short videos of the Israeli teams helping Haitians posted on YouTube, eight of them by the IDF spokesman’s office. In one, Capt. Barak Raz detailed Israel’s effort and said “the IDF believes in being part of the international community’s relief efforts to aid those in need.”

A Twitter feed on the IDF in Haiti on Tuesday had 755 followers.

Closer to home, American Jewish organizations had raised about $5 million for Haiti relief in the first week after the disaster.
Will Recant, assistant executive vice president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, said his organization had recorded 15,282 donations on Monday, averaging $112, for a total of over $1.7 million in the first week.

“The donations keep coming in at a very rapid clip,” he said. The JDC is a key member of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, a consortium of 30 Jewish organizations and federations that have taken part in responding to one or more catastrophes in recent years. It was first convened following the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

But Recant said the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed more than a quarter-million people, set a new standard for disaster relief, with lessons that are in use today.

“The tsunami was instrumental in setting the stage for how organizations deal with a disaster of this magnitude,” he said.

For example, he said that on the Friday after the earthquake, the coalition held a conference call to discuss local partner organizations in Haiti who could best distribute the funds raised and goods purchased.

“At the time of the tsunami, it was a bit of a chaotic situation and we weren’t able to locate volunteers in a very quick and orderly manner,” said Recant. “This time it will be much quicker.”

Ruth Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service, a member of the disaster coalition, said her organization has been working in Haiti since long before the earthquake.

“We have four or five projects where additional funding is needed,” she said. “I would love to see the coalition [spend the money there] to be sure that our giving is strategic and that it goes to reliable organizations.”

As of Tuesday AJWS had sent $250,000 of an estimated $2.4 million raised to its partners in Haiti. .

New IDF Delegation to Depart to Haiti Monday

Arutz Shevia by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Published: 01/18/10, 6:40 PM / Last Update: 01/18/10, 6:36 PM

(IsraelNN.com) An additional IDF rescue and medical aid team is scheduled to depart to Haiti Monday night and will include Home Front Command Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, Director General of the Ministry of Health Dr. Eytan Chai-Am, and Surgeon General, Brig. Gen. Nachman Ash.

The delegation will deliver relief reinforcements that include medicine and additional equipment and will examine the needs of the IDF medical staff on the scene.

Photo: Dr. Ashton and Col. Kryce Dr. Jennifer Lee Ashton, an American doctor working at a United Nations medical facility, is coordinating efforts with the Home Front Command and met on Sunday with IDF Field Hospital Commander, Col. Itzik Kryce. The field hospital established by the IDF is one of the most advanced and includes a medical lab, pharmacy and an x-ray center. Twenty-five life-saving surgeries and three births, one of which was the delivery of a 1.8kilogram (4-pound) premature baby, have been carried out.

Nine American volunteers from Los Angeles joined the Israeli delegation in the field hospital on Monday in addition to the ongoing cooperation with United Nations forces and other search and rescue units in the disaster zone.

Two rescue crews led by the commanders of the Home Front Command Search and Rescue Unit are also operating in the disaster-stricken area in cooperation with local residents

3 Palestinians killed in Gaza blast

Palestinians mourn after three Gaza militants were killed in an Israeli missile strike, in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, Jan. 10, 2010. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)

www.chinaview.cn 2010-01-11 01:37:38

The Israeli army told Xinhua it was checking if the explosion was a result of an Israeli attack on the fighters.

Hospital officials said a fourth gunman was seriously injured.

Meanwhile, security sources said an Israeli missile has hit the group shortly after they have fired the first rocket into an Israeli target beyond an electric fence that marks the borderline.

Israeli army confirms attack on Gaza militants

GAZA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army confirmed the striking of a group of Gaza militants in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday.

An Israeli army spokesman told Xinhua that the Israeli soldiers hit a group of gunmen after they were discovered trying to fire rockets from the area. Full story

Editor: yan

Israel to deploy Gaza rocket interceptor by June: defense official

(Photo added by BeeSting)

www.chinaview.cn 2010-01-07 05:39:25

JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli interceptor system developed to shoot down the short-range rockets and mortar bombs used by Palestinian militants will be deployed outside the Gaza Strip by June, local daily Ha'aretz cited an Israeli defense official as reporting Wednesday.

"Our plan is to be operational by the mid-point of 2010," the defense official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces announced that the defense establishment this week successfully intercepted multiple salvoes in field trials using the newly developed Iron Dome system, adding that military air-defense units were already training on it.

During tests conducted over the course of the last few days, the system managed to intercept a number of rockets, by simultaneously launching its own target missiles, said Ha'aretz.

It added that over the summer, the Iron Dome passed its first live trial in intercepting the short-range rockets favored by Palestinian and Lebanese militants.

According to the newspaper, Iron Dome's success could improve the prospects of Israel eventually ceding West Bank land to the Palestinians, as Israeli officials have said that any withdrawal should be conditional on the deployment of a reliable defense against rocket attacks.

Designed by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Iron Dome uses small guided missiles to blow up Katyusha-style rockets. According to the defense official, the system would be capable of intercepting rockets with ranges of between 5 km and 70km.

The project was spurred by Israel's 2006 war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, during which 4,000 rockets rained down on its northern border communities, said Ha'aretz.

Editor: Mu Xuequan http://theasiandefence.blogspot.com/2009/04/israel-tests-arrow-ballistic-missile.html Our friend, RonyIsrael, had given us information about Israel's missile defense system last April, 2009. The website listed above has photos and Israel's announcement, dated April 8, 2009.