Israel's greatest Gaza campaign losses are self-inflicted

[TahitiNut]

Israeli soldiers killed by 'friendly fire' in Gaza

Israel has suffered its heaviest loss of life in the campaign so far when three soldiers from its elite Golani Brigade were killed and 24 wounded in northern Gaza when a tank shell hit a building where the infantrymen were resting.

By Damien McElroy in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 2:42AM GMT 06 Jan 2009

"Three IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers were killed and one critically wounded and an additional three were severely wounded as the result of a tank shell explosion that was fired in error from an IDF tank during an operation" in northern Gaza, the spokesman said.

"The tank shell hit a structure where the soldiers were located. Twenty additional soldiers were lightly to moderately wounded in the same incident."

Among those lightly wounded during what was said to be heavy fighting was brigade commander Colonel Avi Peled, who directed evacuation efforts before being pulled out of the area.

The incident took place as heavy fighting broke out in the centre of Gaza City on Monday night as a new phase of Israel's war on Hamas began.

Troops poured into the area and gun battles broke out at close quarters.

Israel continued to defy international calls for a ceasefire with ground forces moving to seize fresh positions within the city limits.

<...more...>

There's a certain macabre irony in this. :puke: I wonder if there were "secondary explosions." :puke:

[thunder rising]

1. Palestinians drawing Israelis in close enough to kill themselve would be quite a victory. Even

studied by West Point.

[Duckhunter935]

2. Irony, yes on both sides

Palestinian rocket kills 2 Gaza girls

Palestinians misfire rocket, two Gaza girls killed after Qassam hits home in northern Strip; earlier Friday, Palestinian man wounded by misfired rocket taken for treatment in Israeli hospital

Reuters Latest Update: 12.26.08, 16:23 / Israel News

A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday struck a house in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian sisters aged five and 13, Palestinian medics said. Hamas police said they were investigating the cause of the blast in Beit Lahiya village in northern Gaza, which medics said seemed to be due to a rocket aimed at Israel that had misfired. Earlier in the day, a seriously wounded 35-year-old Palestinian man, hurt by a misfired rocket on Tuesday, was taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. Two children were also reportedly wounded in the Tuesday attack, but it is unclear whether they were the man's children.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3644809,00.ht...

Explosion levels Gaza house in apparent accident with bomb

By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Staff and Agencies

An explosion destroyed the house of a militant leader late Thursday in Gaza City, apparently an accident with explosives, Palestinian security officials said.Two people were rescued alive from the rubble. The security officials said the blast was caused by explosives inside the house. The house belonged to Talal Abu Safiyah, commander of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine forces in the area. The PFLP is a small, radical Palestinian group. The PFLP said the house was hit by a missile fired from an Israeli F-16 warplane, but other Palestinians said they did not hear a warplane overhead, and the Israeli military said there was no airstrike.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785975.html


Palestinian militants accidentally set off a large blast Thursday at a Hamas training base in the central Gaza Strip, killing two members of the violent Islamic group and wounding another, a Palestinian medical official said. Hamas initially blamed Israel for the blast, then acknowledged it was caused by a mishandling of explosives, saying its men died while performing a "holy mission."


http://sfgate.info/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/2...

8 Are Killed in Gaza Explosion Seen as Hamas Bomb Accident


Published: April 3, 1995

At least eight people were killed today when a bomb blew up in a Gaza City neighborhood that is reputed to be a stronghold of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, the Palestinian police said. Officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which administers Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip, said they believed that one of the dead was Kamal Kheil, a leading figure in Hamas.
The Palestinian police chief, Ghazi al-Jabali, accused members of the military arm of Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam brigade, of responsibility for the explosion."A group from Izzedine al-Qassam brigades were in the building preparing explosives, which exploded," he said.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7D9...

[TahitiNut]

4. "April 3, 1995"???

You do earn your fee, don't you? :eyes:

[leftstreet]

5. LOL

;)

[Duckhunter935]

6. Lets see that would be around 13-14 years

Funny that Israel has been putting up with this shit for that long and much longer

"You do earn your fee, don't you?" As do you

The point that went way over your head was the irony of self-inflicted casualties

[JackRiddler]

10. Baruch Goldstein massacred the worshippers in 1993 or so?

So that would be even longer.

The illegal Israeli settlements on seized Palestinian lands have been expanded for 40 years straight.

Funny that the Palestinians in the territories put up with this shit for 20 years before rising up in the first Intifada. They threw rocks, the Israelis killed hundreds of them before the first Israeli casualty (a girl shot by a settler who took her along on a trip to intimidate Palestinians).

More land seized for settlers every year, settlers brought in who never even saw Israel before and given citizenship, always 10 or 20 or 30 Palestinians killed for every Israeli... but miraculously it's always pulled off in the American media as "self-defense."

[Duckhunter935]

12. Ah yes, the back and forth that will never end

That seems to be the main problem. There is a very good possibility if the Arabs had acccepted the 1947 UN brokered two state solution as Israel did things may have been different.

But as you also know this conflict goes back many thousands of years, not just 13 or 20 or 60.

[TahitiNut]

13. No, the irony that went over YOUR head was that the GREATEST killing of Israelis ...

... has been by Israelis in this Gaza campaign. When the death inflicted by one's OWN forces in a single incident is greater than any incident of death inflicted by 'enemy' forces, one must seriously question the SANITY of this disproportionate 'response.'

Did I use words you could comprehend? Is it clear yet????

[Duckhunter935]

16. oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Yes of course you are right

:sarcasm:

[rvablue]

20. Yes, it is clear TahitiNut....but I guess just not to some?

:shrug:

[question everything]

8. What about you? You can say the same thing about anyone taking a position

I have seen people post stories from 20 years ago to prove a point.

But, hey, when you cannot comment on a point you can always call someone a troll, or a shill. And if you and your buds use enough Fuck You, that person will be banned.

Pathetic.

If you've ever served in the military, or familiarized yourself with military operations, you would know that "friendly fire" sadly, happens.

[TahitiNut]

9. You betray a total ignorance of me and my background.

You fling an insult and don't even bother to look at my DU Journal - or apparently read my posts. It's clear that you haven't a clue ... and seem to take pride in your ignorance.

Spend a year under fire in a war zone and then get back to me, keyboard warrior. :grr:

And yes ... you are being pathetic. :puke:

[Duckhunter935]

11. I worked on that system

On the night of March 22, 2003, two British Royal Air Force Tornados were returning to the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait after a mission in Iraq. The lead aircraft, whose radio call sign was Yahoo 75, made it back safely. The tail aircraft, Yahoo 76, was shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile defense battery guarding the airbase. Both crew on-board the Tornado were killed instantly.

U.S. Patriot missile defense battery guarding the airbase.

This is a defensive weapon only and it is mainly used to protect civilians from short range tactical ballistic missiles.


I do not agree with the Iraq invasion but they were trying to protect Kuwait

[TahitiNut]

14. Isn't it ironic that the US shot down more 'friendlies' than the Iraqis?

Get it yet??? :eyes:

[Duckhunter935]

17. Sorry you are wrong about that

Patriots were not deployed to shoot down Iraqi aircraft but missiles which they did.

Patriot batteries had at least eight independently confirmed TBM kills during the campaign, and Patriot batteries themselves reported successfully shooting down all eleven Iraqi TBMs that threatened coalition assets

And yes there were two friendly fire incidents.

And onsce again I did not think we should of gone into Iraq.

[TahitiNut]

19. Try reading my point this way ...

"Isn't it ironic that the US shot down more 'friendlies' than the Iraqis (shot down)?"

:eyes:

[Duckhunter935]

21. I agree

The Iraqis were awlful bad shots

[rvablue]

18. Nice catch! n/t

[Duckhunter935]

22. Was I trying to hide something

Self inflicted casualties happen on both sides and it is ironic

Sorry I was not informed that there was a time limit on self inflicted casualties

If you want me to remove just let me know why?

[Amonester]

3. sh*t, they're killing each other...

neocons everywhere create disasters

that's the only thing they're good at

[G_j]

7. well...

there is always revenge..

extreme> :sarcasm: :puke:

the whole killing/dying, eye for an eye attitude of war, doesn't make sense anymore when
you kill your own. But in the big picture it's all the same, more dead and maimed people.
what century is this?

[PerfectSage]

15. The only irony is that Kadima and Labour are up in the polls.

http://myplay.com/video-player/rage-against-the-machine/no-shelter

Yeah the secondary explosions were in Bush's pants, while he was worshiping his male deity.