vtsnowedin wrote:another_exlurker wrote:
The statements DO NOT contradict each other, they show that Hamas has been as successful as it can be in policing Gaza to prevent rocket attacks.
They most certainly do.
"Hamas hadn't fired a single rocket since [2012 Gaza conflict],
Is absolute, and can only mean Zero rockets fired in the period. Thirteen rockets a month maybe lower than it was but it is not Zero so the first clause is demonstrable false.
The sentence could have easily been written to convey the whole truth without adding in the lie. If you accept the quibble that someone else fired them ,then you must contrive how these someones acquired ,moved and stored said rocket without Hamas' assistance and permission.
And what is that "whole truth", pray tell?
I see you continue to completely ignore any evidence that directly contracts your assumptions and propagandised worldview.
It means zero rockets fired by Hamas NOT zero rockets fired from Gaza. There is a difference that you seem unable, or unwilling, to accept.
You do realise that there is more than one militant group in Gaza with the expertise to manufacture rockets and fire them?
Yet more evidence the directly contradicts your assumptions:
Would the cessation of Hamas rockets be sufficient to halt the current Israeli attacks?
In November of 2012 a ceasefire agreement was brokered between Israel and Hamas that ended Israel’s 8 day military offensive “Operation Pillar of Defense.” After the cease-fire agreement, not one rocket was fired into Israeli territory from Gaza… until Israel broke the ceasefire.
As confirmed by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “On the morning of February 26, 2013, a rocket hit was identified south of the Israeli city of Ashqelon. It was the first rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory since November 21, 2012, the end of Operation Pillar of Defense.” What the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not point out however, is that it was Israel, and not militants from Gaza, who had already broken the ceasefire prior to this attack.
The Jerusalem Fund, a Washington D.C. non-profit, recorded all of the reported violations and subsequent Palestinian projectile attacks in the chart below, they conclude from their findings that,
“Israeli cease-fire violations [after the 2012 agreement] have been persistent throughout and have routinely resulted in Palestinian injuries and deaths. Palestinian launches have been rare and sporadic and occurred almost always after successive instances of Israeli cease-fire violations. You can see a steady escalation from around week 48 and onward. This corresponds with mid-December during which Israel committed several cease-fire violations resulting in multiple Palestinian casualties. There was no Palestinian projectile fire in the two weeks prior to these Israeli violations which inflicted high causalities. This means that this week was the escalation point and it was Israel doing the escalating.”
Original article.
And yet more:
Meanwhile, Ashraq al Awsat reports that Hamas is increasing its efforts to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israel. Members of Hamas' al Qassam Brigades have been "deployed in the border areas of the Gaza Strip replacing policemen with the aim of preventing the firing of rockets from Gaza," the report stated. In addition, al Qassam Brigades members have reportedly "set up fixed and mobile roadblocks" to search cars and find those firing the rockets.
Over the past couple of weeks, Salafi jihadists, primarily the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, have fired a number of rockets from the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula toward Israel. According to Ashraq al Awsat, Israel recently sent messages to Egyptian mediators, calling on Hamas to make greater efforts in stopping the rocket fire from Gaza.
Original article.
A Salafi militant group operating in Gaza said on Wednesday that Hamas authorities have detained 20 of its members in a crackdown on rocket fire on southern Israel.
The little-known group – the Mujahadeen Shura Council of Jerusalem – posted word of the sweep on its website on Wednesday. It said its members were rounded up this week "to prevent rocket fire from Gaza."
The crackdown is the first in more than a year on ultraconservative Salafi groups operating in Gaza. Hamas currently is believed to be interested in avoiding a conflict with Israel over rocket fire.
Original article.
I'll stop there for now as I should have, by now, shown that your assumptions are wrong.