You know what is missing from the story where it quotes Israeli sources?
“…and his claim could not be independently verified.”
I would suggest folks read Tareq Baconi’s informative piece, What the Gaza Protests Portend, in the NY Review of Books, especially where he writes:
Hamas, the party that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, has jumped on the bandwagon of this popular movement. Its leaders have made speeches encouraging Gazans to join the marches, while its administration has offered services, including bus rides and tents, to support the protests … Hamas hopes to reap the rewards of this nonviolent protest—though its efforts to do so threaten to hijack the protests and derail what has hitherto been a genuine grassroots mobilization.
This article is complete BS
At best what the Hamas leader said is poor translation from Arabic, at worst it is a deliberate lie. As I understand it, a more accurate translation is that he considers those who died as Hamas martyrs. That doesn’t mean that they were members of Hamas, let alone its fighters.
In any case, the killing would be justified if they were a member of Hamas?
Afraid you are wrong, my friend. The interview, which was in Arabic, was picked up in Israel and translated by Israelis who speak Arabic fluently. In case you didn’t know, Arabic is one of the two official languages of Israel. The transcript of the interview was published in Arabic in Haaretz, which is the newspaper of record in Israel and is center left in its editorial views. The Hamas representative was trying to deal with the interviewer’s assertion that Hamas had sent children out to be killed while Hamas leadership protected themselves nowhere near the border demonstrations. The Hamas representative was clearly stung by the allegation and tried to rebut it by saying they hadn’t sent children, but had sent sent Hamas fighters. He went on to say that 52 of the 60 deaths were of Hamas fighters. In a wholly separate statement, Islamic Jahad said three of the deaths were from their “military wing”, which brings the number to 55 of the 60. Finally, the Hamas blood libel that Israeli teargas killed an infant was totally debunked by the Palestinian doctor who treated her, who said she died from an illness and not the teargas; he said if he gave the reporters his name that Hamas would kill him. The Gazans live in a prision, but it is a prision of their own making, ruled by a criminal gang that took power by through violence, throwing Palestinian Authority employee’s off of buildings and gunning them down in the streets. Supporting Hamas is a pretty odious position to take.
“…protesters burned tires and hurled firebombs and stones toward Israeli troops, and tried to attack the border fence.” Hamas also admitted that they provided the buses that brought people to the border and that some people were armed.
Why is this protest always called “non-violent”? And 40,000 people massing at the border, with the aim of breaking through and attacking anybody they can reach, is hardly non-violent.
And the point is what?