Palestinian protesters in Gaza, led by Hamas, created a massive toxic cloud of burning tires on April 6, 2018, as cover for another attempt to breach the border fence with Israel.
We covered both the preparations for the tire burn and the result in these posts:
Here are some of the images of those preparations and conflagration, including the use of children:
The Jerusalem Post reports that Palestinian officials claim Israel has cut off the delivery of more tires to Gaza for the time being:
“We have been informed by the Israeli side that imports of tires have been halted until further notice,” Muhammad Hamdan, a spokesman for the PA Transportation Ministry told The Jerusalem Post.Hamdan criticized Israel’s decision to stop tire imports to Gaza, asserting that there is a shortage of tires in the coastal enclave.“There is no doubt stopping tire imports will have a negative effect on Palestinians in Gaza especially considering there is shortage of them there,” he said. “We are going to exert all efforts so that Israel reverses its decision.”The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the branch of the Defense Ministry that liaises with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Jewish Press reports, somewhat sarcastically:
Four truckloads of car tires that were scheduled to enter Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing Sunday morning, were prevented by the Israeli authorities from entering after the tire burning riots last Friday, Gazan reporter Tamer El Sultan tweeted.Gaza Arabs nicknamed Friday’s events “Jum’at al-Kawshook” – “Tires Friday,” as protesters set fire to thousands of tires along the border with Israel, creating huge clouds of black smoke intended to confuse Israeli snipers and prevent them from targeting individuals who attempted to scale the fence.Incidentally, Black Friday Tires was an event that was held by Goodyear Tires last November with no relation to the Middle East conflicts.
There is no confirmation that Israel actually is preventing more tires from entering Gaza, but if Israel was, could you blame it?
Israel was lucky that the toxic cloud mostly stayed over Gaza. Mostly that was because prevailing winds kept the toxic plumes on the Gaza side of the border. But also Israel had some fans to help out.
How long before Palestinians claim the tire ban is a form of cultural genocide. The Palestinian Information Center insists that burning tires is an important part of Palestinian culture:
Burning tires is an old form of Palestinian popular resistance that first emerged during the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987.
Dave at IsraellyCool calls the Palestinian complaints “chutzpah“:
The classic definition of chutzpah is a person who kills his parents and pleads for the court’s mercy on the ground of being an orphan. This is pretty much the same thing.
This meme from Honest Reporting pretty much sums it up:
[Featured Image: IDF Facebook Video]
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