rockets

An Israeli looks at damage to his home in a kibbutz near border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, July 9, 2014. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Be’er Sheva, a city with no refuge from rockets

In Be’er Sheva, there are two kinds of people: those who sit protected in their shelters, calling for the occupation of Gaza, and the thousands of people who, living in buildings that crumble around them and with nowhere to run, just wait for the end. I live in such a building. Conversations with residents who…

By +972 Magazine July 13, 2014

Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Live blog: Escalation in Gaza – July 2014

Following almost a month of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket launches in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army declared that it had launched ‘Operation Protective Edge.’ The Israeli cabinet on Tuesday authorized the call-up of 40,000 reservist soldiers after a night in which the Israeli Air Force launched dozens of air strikes inside the Gaza…

By +972 Magazine July 8, 2014

A Palestinian man and boy react to the sound of a Israeli warplane, flying at very low altitude above the ruins of the government building, which was completely destroyed that morning. Gaza city, November 17, 2012 (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

It’s time to talk about Gaza

For the sake of both the residents of Israel’s south and the Palestinians, we must speak about Gaza as a place with real people, rather than as a science experiment. Over the past few years, the Israeli public discussion has reduced conditions in Gaza to one of two situations: either it’s the place where rockets…

By Haggai Matar July 3, 2014

Latest

Israeli soldiers inspect their tanks on the Gaza border during Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. (Photo by Activestills.org)

Head of IDF’s Gaza command: Hamas is the new policeman in Gaza

An Israeli army general says Hamas is stopping attacks against Israel and even ‘keeps the peace’ when the IDF operates along the border. Israel’s Channel 10 revealed the contents of a closed meeting between the head of the IDF’s “Gaza Command,” the top general responsible for the strip, and Israeli citizens living in the region. In…

By Noam Sheizaf December 3, 2013

Palestinian women collpase from grief after theya found out that one of their close relative, Fares Sbaita, died from his injuries following an Israeil military airstirke, Al Shifa hospital, November 21, 2012. (Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

A week in photos: Gaza escalation, ahead of ceasefire

Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the ceasefire yesterday evening, but the destruction and grief left in the wake of Israeli airstrikes are enormous. Activestills documented the Israeli operation from beginning to end, capturing its effects in Israel, the West Bank and, most acutely, the Gaza Strip. …

By Activestills November 22, 2012

A girl holds a candle next to a photo of 3-year-old Ranan Yousef Arafat, who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, as Palestinians gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square to mourn the victims of Israeli military strikes and to call for an end to the escalation of violence, November 17, 2012 (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

PHOTO ESSAY: Death, fear and protest as attacks on Gaza, Israel intensify

By +972 and Activestills At least 23 people, among them 14 women and children, were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Sunday, November 18th, bringing the total number of Palestinian casualties since the assassination of Ahmad Jabari to 69. Three Israelis were killed last week when a rocket hit a house in the southern town of…

By +972 Magazine November 18, 2012

Omar Jihad Mashrawi holding his one-year-old son, who died from his injuries following an Israeli air strike, Shifa Hospital, Gaza City. (photo: Anne Paq / Activestills)

Gaza operation will be declared a success, until the next war

No. Not again. This can’t be happening again. But there it is. Once again, just like it was four years ago, it is winter. Reports on tension, violence, the regular exchange of rockets on southern Israeli towns, and assassinations and airstrikes on Gaza dominate the media once more. Calls for revenge and a more resilient…

By Haggai Matar November 14, 2012

Will Israel’s rocket defense system help or hurt the conflict?

By David Lehrer Those of us who grew up in the United States in the 1960s may remember that period as one of naïve optimism overshadowed by apocalyptic terror. We were terrified of the possibility that nuclear missiles from the USSR would be launched at us but naïvely believed that if we just crouched down…

By +972 Magazine March 19, 2012

Zombie threat: Rebuttal of the arguments against 67 borders

A lot of people appear to be concerned about the “indefensibility” of 1967 borders. A lot of people also seem to be worried about the prospect of Zombie apocalypse. Far be it from me to imply that there is any overlap between the two groups. Nonetheless, these two notions have one thing in common: much…

By Roi Maor May 24, 2011

Israeli minister, media perpetuate lie about Goldstone’s Gaza report

Eli Yishai, Israel’s lethally incompetent Interior Minister, is outraged that Judge Richard Goldstone, who headed the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza war, has not condemned attacks on Israeli civilians. According to Ynet, Yishai sent a letter to Goldstone in which he “demanded of Goldstone to condemn the firing from Gaza as he did with…

By Roi Maor March 24, 2011

Israel leaves its own civilians defenseless as war looms

There is a direct connection between the Israeli government’s disdain towards casualties among the “enemy’s” civilian population, and its indifference to the fate of its own civilians. The next war, unfortunately, will probably see both groups badly suffer. As I have written here in the past, there are strong indications that Israel may be inching…

By Roi Maor January 28, 2011