Brustet hjärta. En av Gazas mödrar säger farväl till sin son, en av de fem som dödades under attacken av Israel.

Palestinians transfer the body of a 10 year old boy after an Israeli strike on the east of Gaza city on 10 November 2012. Initial reports state that at least three people were killed and 15 injured in Israeli tank shelling in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said. The tank reportedly opened fire after militant Palestinians attacked a Israeli patrol along the Israel-Gaza border. The heavily guarded border area has in recent weeks been the scene of bombings in which militants have targeted Israeli troops, and retaliatory attacks. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Gaza is under attack again. From several areas explosions are reported, apparrently indiscriminate attacks on urban civilian populated areas. Local radio reported 4 killed. Over 30-40 are wounded. The ministery of health reported that about 10 of them are in a very critical condition. All wounded and martyred are civilians.

Awaiting further confirmations.

During attacks, the exact number is sometimes hard to determine and even might contradicting  for Israel does not allow ambulances or targets those as well to go retrieve body(parts) or wounded.

Israel reports 4 soldiers are wounded as a result of resistance defending Gaza and inciting to it’s citizens to remain in reach of 15 seconds distance to a shelter. I may remind you in Gaza there is no place to hide or flee.

In the context of the attack it is important to highlight some very important facts, statistics and data which are structurally distorted or silenced by Israel:

• You only get Half the story: What #israel’s @IDFSpokesperson leaves out  about #Gaza ~
• Israel and Gaza: Context Behind Projectile Fire ~ by @yousefmunayyer

Confirmed names of Martyrs

• Name of shaheed:  Ahmed al Derdsawi, 18 years old
• Name of shaheed:  Mohammed Abu Hrara, 16 years old
• Name of shaheed:  Osami Harrara (Brother of Mohammed)
• Name of shaheed:  Ahmed Khaled Abu Kas (reported but not confirmed by media)
• Name of shaheed:  Matar Abu Al-Atta
• Name of shaheed : Moustafa Hararah, relative of Mohammed and Osami also shuhada in this Israeli attack. The family now lost 3 members.
• Name of shaheed:  Mohammed Shkokani, resistance fighter of Islamic Jihad

This post will be continuously updated with live updates and footage as soon as available
Photos and video are posted below the live updates

Live Updates

Ismaeil Mohaisen @IsmaeilFadel

BREAKING: LOCAL RADIO: Initial reports of 4 martyrs and many other injuries!

Palestinians bring a wounded man to a hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Nov. 10,2012. An explosion targeted an Israeli military vehicle on the Jewish state’s border with Gaza on Saturday and Israeli troops fired into the Palestinian territory, killing several civilians and wounding at least 25, among them children, Gaza officials and witnesses said. Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health ministry spokesman, said four Palestinians killed were civilians between the ages of 16 and 18. (Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Gaza TV News

5 Palestinian teenagers have now been confirmed dead following an Israeli airstrike on a funeral earlier today. Over 30 people were also injured, several seriously.

Al Jazeera:  Palestinians killed as Israel shells Gaza. At least four Palestinians killed and 25 others wounded as Israeli army shells Gaza Strip, medics say.

BBC: Gaza: Palestinians killed and Israeli soldiers injured

BBC: Gaza: Palestinian boy 'killed by Israeli gunfire'

5 Gazans killed, 4 Israeli troops hurt after jeep attack

Israel Kills 5 in Gaza After Missile Attack on Soldiers

Israeli tank shells kill at least 2, wound 20 in Gaza | Maan News Agency

As projectiles continue to fly in both directions between Israel and Gaza, heightening tensions and inflicting casualties, it is important to understand the genesis of this situation and get some basic facts straight. Earlier this year in "Half the story: What @IDFSpokesperson leaves out about #Gaza," I posted about the dynamics of cross-border fire in 2011 and demonstrated two important facts:

1) Israeli continues to inflict exponentially greater casualities against Palestinians than the reverse
2) Palestinian projectiles are largely generated as a response to Israeli strikes

This most recent escalation began, unsurprisingly, when Israel launched an unprovoked strike on 7 October. 11 Palestinians were injured, nearly half of which were children. It was from this point forward that the situation escalated. As projectiles from Gaza were returned, in response renewed Israeli strikes caused increased Palestinian casualties.

In doing the analysis on the 2011 numbers, I took data on Palestinian projectile launches and Palestinian casualties from Israeli projectile launches and analyzed them to understand the relationship between the two. Here, let’s look at the same for the first nine months of 2012. In the chart the red line signifies Palestinian casualties, which are injuries or deaths, as a result of Israeli fire in the Gaza strip. The blue line represents the projectile launches from the Gaza strip. I’ve marked certain peaks on the chart which are discussed below to help you understand what you are looking at.

As you can see there are three noticeable moments where projectile launches from Gaza to Israel dramatically spiked. These are represented at points 2, 3 and 7. Further, there are also four moments where Palestinian casualties from Israeli fire spike that are not followed by an immediate increase in Palestinian projectile fire. These are represented at points 1, 4, 5, and 6. Below I will briefly recap what occurred at each of the peaks.

1. An Israeli airstrike on 16 February ultimately left 11 injured. The Israeli military “said in a statement that it targeted two sites in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire.” Note that there was no noticeable retaliation with projectile fire from Gaza in the immediate aftermath of this Israeli strike.

2. After Israeli strikes which caused casualties on 19 February and another on 24 February, Palestinians in Gaza responded with projectile fire in the first significant uptick during this period.

3. Between peaks 2 and 3 there is almost no activity until Israel launched an unprovoked air strike on Gaza killing two and injuring others. This triggered a response from Gaza.  This peak was the highest of the year at the point and in the ensuing days tens of rockets were launched and Israeli strikes inflicted many more Palestinian casualties.

4, 5, and 6. On 30 March one man was killed and some 30 others were injured as Israel suppressed protests in Gaza near the Erez crossing. There was no remarkable projectile response. On 15 May and then again within 48 hours on 17 May, Israeli projectiles created numerous Palestinians casualties. The first was with tear gas canisters and the second with tank fire. Again, there was no remarkable projectile response. Then, a series of Israeli strikes from 1 to 3 June resulted in further Palestinian casualties in Gaza. This too was not followed by a remarkable response of Palestinian projectiles.

7. On 17 and 18 June Israeli projectile fire into Gaza once again led to several casualties this time setting off a significant response of rocket fire and further Israelis strikes.

The picture that emerges from all of this can be summed up as follows:

1) the bulk of projectile fire from Gaza occurs as part of peaks or periodic spikes.
2) These spikes are invariably preceded by significant Palestinian causalities caused by Israeli fire.
3) Not all dramatic spikes in Palestinian casualties result in increased projectile fire from Gaza.

This tells us that, largely, the various factions in Gaza are restraining themselves and are not responding to every Israeli escalation. However, when members of militant factions outside of Hamas like the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) and Islamic Jihad are targeted and killed, the factions then respond as was the case in moments 3 and 7.

Projectile fire from Gaza could have been easily cut in half, if not more so, in the first nine months of 2012 had it not been for the Israeli strikes that provoked them. Israeli policies of extrajudicial assassination which ultimately create high Palestinian casualties and provoke projectiles from Gaza are self-defeating if the goal is to minimize projectile fire.

As the exchange of projectile between factions in Gaza and the Israeli military it is important to remember this context and understand the dynamics of violence, the sequence of events, and the overall impact of Israeli policies which serve the interests of no one except for officials in the Israeli government who might want voters to have security on their minds when they come to the polls.

***Update: In our earlier post we enumerated 2011 numbers for Palestinian casualties and the types of Israeli weaponry used to inflict those casualties:

In 2011, the projectiles fired by the Israeli military into Gaza have been responsible for the death of 108 Palestinians, of which 15 where women or children and the injury of 468 Palestinians of which 143 where women or children. The methods by which these causalities were inflicted by Israeli projectiles breaks down as follows: 57 percent or 310, were caused by Israeli Aircraft Missile fire, 28 percent or 150 where from Israeli live ammunition, 11 percent or 59 were from Israeli tank shells while another 3 percent or 18 were from Israeli mortar fire.

Through September 2012, Israeli weaponry has resulted in  55 Palestinian deaths and 257 injuries. Among these 312 casualties 61, or roughly 20 percent were children and 28 were female. 209 of these casualties came as a result of Israeli Air Force Missiles, 69 from live ammunition fire and 18 from tank shells. It is important to note that these figures do not represent a totality of Israeli projectiles fired into Gaza but rather only Israeli projectiles fired into Gaza which cause casualties. The total number of Israeli projectiles fired into Gaza is bound to be significant larger. All numbers for casualties here come from UN OCHA. 

September 30th marks the twelth anniversary of the 12 year old matyr Muhammed al-Durra.Muhammed's father tried in vain to shield him from gunfire as they crouched against a concrete wall near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.The boy's father, Jamal al-Durrah, waved desperately to Israeli troops, shouting: