TARGETING RESIDENTIAL TOWERS, ISRAEL'S RESPONSE TO HAMAS VICTORIES (REPORT)

Gaza, 26 Ramadan 1436/13 July 2015 (MINA) – After Israel’s gigantic fiasco in al-Asf al-Maakoul battle in summer 2014, it started to target the Palestinian civilians as a retaliatory measure in response to Hamas’ victories. The subsequent Israeli shelling of residential areas led to the displacement of hundreds of Palestinian families.

Israel’s last war on Gaza claimed the lives of 2,310 Palestinians, rendered 10,626 wounded most of them children, women, and unarmed civilians, and destroyed 13,217 homes, The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

However, Hamas, in particular and the Palestinian resistance in general, managed to hold its ground in face of the Israeli occupation army’s invasion that lasted for 51 days.

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Al-Dhafer, an 11-story apartment tower, the Italian complex, and other residential towers were reduced to rubble during the last Israeli aggression on Gaza.

The political analyst Prof. Abdul Sattar Qassem affirmed that Israel pursues this policy whenever it fails to score military achievements, and clarified that this policy was adopted in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Lebanon wars.

“When the aggressor fails to win a battle against its enemy, it targets the civilians so as the latter would pressure their political and military leaders to stop the war. During the last war on Gaza Israel vainly attempted to incite the public against Hamas,” Qassem said.

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The Palestinian security expert Mahmoud al-Ajrami said that Israel was trying to get out of its awkward position by targeting the residential towers, and added that Israel miserably failed in inciting the Gazan people against the resistance.

In an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit, the Israeli air-force commander Amir Eshel warned Hezbollah and Hamas that Israel would not hesitate to attack any residential towers in Gaza or Lebanon.

For his part, Ashkelon Regional Council Chairman Yair Farjon urged the Israeli army a few days ago to shell the major residential towers in Gaza to deter rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. (T/P011/NMT)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)