Gaza July 18, 2014 – Ground War After Hamas Rejects Ceasefire

Gaza July 18, 2014 – Ground War After Hamas Rejects Ceasefire

Periodically throughout this summer, we are taking a look back at our coverage of the 2014 Gaza conflict.

It’s important to do this because a relentless propaganda campaign portrays the conflict as initiated and continued by Israel in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens by a Hamas-affiliated cell in the West Bank.

In fact, the conflict started as a result of relentless Hamas rocket fire into Israel, a topic we recently revisited in Gaza July 8, 2014 – Hamas Rockets Ignite War.

On July 10, 2014, CNN reported on the Hamas rocket fire:

In this post, we revisit how the ground war started only after Hamas rejected an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, which Israel had accepted. Had the conflict stopped at that point, only a small fraction of the deaths and destruction which eventually were visited on Gaza to try to stop the rocket fire would have happened. Hamas, and it supporters in the West including leading pro-BDS websites which justified and encouraged “the resistance,” bear responsibility for what befell Gaza.

On July 15, 2014, Hamas formally rejected the Egyptian ceasefire proposal and continued rocket fire into Israel.

By that date, the international media was in full swing blaming Israel for the conflict, and claiming that high casualties as a result of Israeli airstrikes proved that Israel was using “disproportionate” force.  Left-wing U.S. writers like Eli Clifton were particularly deceptive in this analysis, misleadingly and inaccurately claiming Israel was “carpet bombing” Gaza:

Ken Roth of the discredited Human Rights Watch, was in full swing blaming Israel, using false UN statistics on combatant-to-civilian deaths based on numbers provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health authorities (response in image is from Israeli diplomat):

In fact, even as of July 14, 2014, al Jazeera — hardly a pro-Israel outlet — was reporting that most casualties in Gaza were combat aged men. (More recent analyses confirm this.)

On July 17, 2014, Hamas attempted a major tunnel infiltration into Israel just before a “humanitarian truce” (to allow Gaza civilians to receive relief supplies) was to take effect:

Contrary to claims that Hamas used tunnel only to attack the IDF, the July 17, 2014 infiltration was located near Israeli civilian communities:

That same day, July 17, 2014, rockets were found in a UN-run school in Gaza. Mortars also were fired from or near schools:

By July 17, 2014, the international media also was uniting against Israel due to the deaths of four boys the day before on a beach in Gaza, for which Israel expressed regret. (Subsequent Israeli investigation findings here.)

The media bias was obvious in this interview:

On July 17, 2014, Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza, as we reported, Gaza ground war started:

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Even Egypt laid blame for renewed conflict on Hamas, something which infuriated anti-Israel U.S. activist and propagandist Rania Khalek:

On July 18, 2014, we reported on First Night of Gaza Ground Invasion: The Tunnel War:

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on July 18, 2014, but took no action.

On July 18, 2014, we provided continuous live coverage and updates:

Overnight there was another tunnel attack where Hamas terrorists emerged on the Israeli side of the border and were confronted. Two Israeli soldiers were killed.

Also, Hamas sent a donkey loaded with explosives towards Israeli soldiers — the animal exploded without causing Israeli casualties.

The initial focus was on finding tunnels:

The conflict would continue for another month, as a cost of over 1000 more deaths, many of whom were innocent civilians and children Hamas used as human shields. Hamas fired rockets from civilian areas, schools, hospitals and apartments.

Hamas ordered civilians to rooftops as human shields:

Hamas even used ambulances as cover to escape, causing Israel to call off many planned airstrikes on Hamas militants:

Hamas even refused to allow reporters to leave so as to deter Israeli attacks:

There would be more tunnel infiltrations, some but not all of which were stopped, and increasing IDF casualties on the ground as Hamas used civilian neighborhoods as large booby-traps:

The Israeli Golani Brigade was led by a Druze commander, who recently was promoted to Brigadier General:

Nonetheless, Israeli morale remained high (text of song at link)(if video not loading, try YouTube version):

The death toll and destruction would have been but a small fraction of what occurred had Hamas accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal.

That’s the fact. Hamas’ cheerleaders in the West share in that blame.

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