the Baskerville Express

The fit hits the shan. {April 8, 2011 , 11:25 PM}

Today six Gazans were killed by an Israeli drone strike in Abasan village, in southern Gaza Strip. Nearby, in Khaz’a village, two men were obliterated by missiles fired by the IAF. Another man was killed as Israeli tanks bombarded the road connecting Rafah and Khan Younis.

Yesterday five Palestinians, three of them Hamas militants, were killed and 40 injured by shelling and airstrikes. That presents us with nine dead innocents.

This is all in response to Hamas's decision to send an anti-tank missile into an Israeli school bus in the Negev on Thursday, which its military wing claims was in response to recent Israeli bombardment of Gaza. As if publicly realizing their mistake, they proceeded to announce a cease-fire with Israel a few hours later.

Looks to be a certain amount of genius involved for both sides to act so stupidly in tandem. I've no idea why Hamas has recently reversed its policy on rocket fire, especially in such an egregious way, i.e. targeting school buses—is this some panic over the population's growing dissatisfaction with their performance? Are they hoping to remind Gazans who their real enemy is after cracking down on the March 15 youth? That might explain the 50 rockets from a few weeks back, but with talks with Fatah underway now in Gaza it's not clear to me what anxiety over reconciliation could have to do with the Negev missile.

I'm quite tired at the moment and will try to revisit all this, with some sharper thoughts, tomorrow.

Labels: Abasan, casualties, ceasefire, Hamas, Khan Younis, missile, Negev, Rafah

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Farid said on April 11, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Were you too tired to mention the fact that Hamas'"targeting" of the school bus resulted in no casualties, while there have been 19 dead Palestinians since Thursday? Hamas has issued a statement saying that it did not intend to hit a school bus, while Israel as usual does not issue any statement concerning the civilians that it kills.
-farid

Brendan James said on April 11, 2011 at 11:41 AM

To correct your first non-point, the anti-tank missile wounded two people, a teen and the driver. The former is wounded critically. We call those casualties.

As for the question of intentionality: if you read Sami Abu Zuhri's statement to Reuters you'll find it is not an apology but simply a claim that Hamas was "unaware" that the bus carried children. You can believe that if you like; I am inclined to view the remark (and the recently announced truce) as backpedaling after Israel’s brutal response, which you correctly point out as disproportionate and catastrophic.