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Day 17: Rivlin Sworn In; UN School Hit; Terrorists Arrested

by TheTower.org Staff |

The 17th day of Operation Protective Edge is over. This is the end of the sixth day of ground operations.

Reuven Rivlin was sworn in today for a seven-year term as the tenth president of the state of Israel. The swearing-in ceremony also honored outgoing president Shimon Peres. Peres defended Israel’s right to defend itself, and excoriated the United Nations Human Rights Council, which has been critical of Israel’s actions: “It is hard to fathom how a council that bears the words ‘human rights’ in its name decided to establish a committee to investigate who is right. Is it the murderers or those who refuse to be murdered?”

A shell hit a United Nations school sheltering Gazans, killing at least a dozen people and wounding 200. It is uncertain who fired the shell that hit the school.

We can confirm that [Palestinian] terror rockets that were fired from that area landed in the neighborhood of the UN facility,” said Cap. Eytan Buchman of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, asserting that the death and destruction may have been caused by errant rockets fired by Hamas or another militant organization.

In what may turn into a significant point in the war, Israeli troops arrested 150 terrorists last night. According to Globes:

As day 17 of Operation Protective Edge begins the IDF announced that it had captured and detained 150 Hamas terrorists during the night in and around Khan Younis and Rafiah. The terrorists found themselves surrounded by IDF forces and surrendered. They are now undergoing questioning by Israeli intelligence officers and are expected to reveal extensive and vital information about Hamas operations.

Ynet adds that the Israelis found “guide books in the terrorists’ homes on how to plant explosives, how to booby-trap a house, how to operate weaponry and information on IDF units.”

Today The Tower had a post on the high rate of women serving in the IDF reserves during Operation Protective Edge. One of the reservists profiled in the article said, ““It’s not enough to sit at home at a time like this.”

Jonathan Schanzer and David Weinberg of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote an article today in The National Interest on Qatar and Turkey, two countries that support Hamas. The two scholars stated that “America must set the bar higher for the behavior of its allies and not reward them for bad behavior.” Schanzer and Weinberg argued against accepting the ceasefire terms those two countries are advocating.

The FAA reversed its decision barring commercial American flights from landing at Ben-Gurion airport. The decision was followed by a similar decision by European regulators.

Even as his regime tries to prove its moderation in the midst of nuclear negotiations, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that “Israel’s annihilation is the only real cure” for the problems afflicting the Middle East. It’s an odd charge coming from the leader of the country that is supporting both Hamas and the Syrian government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the UNHRC’s decision to order an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes a “travesty.” UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer was at the session in Geneva, and used the words of the Palestinian ambassador to defend Israel.

U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Anthony Blinken told NPR that any ceasefire “should include ‘some form of demilitarization so that [the conflict] doesn’t continue, doesn’t repeat itself.'” Blinken’s statement is described as “one of a growing list of statements by U.S. policymakers and observers assessing that any truce between Jerusalem and the terror group should include provisions that disarmed Hamas.”

Israel21c reported that “30,000 people from across Israel came to the funeral of IDF soldier Sgt. Max Steinberg, even though most of them never met him.” Steinberg, who was born in Los Angeles, immigrated to Israel after first visiting the country on a Birthright trip. 20,000 people attended the funeral of another American-born soldier, Nissim Sean Carmeli.

In an editorial this morning, The Washington Post argued that no peace is possible without disarming Hamas. The editorial also was critical of the “depravity” of Hamas’ use of human shields, and the acquiescence of “much of the outside world” to the tactic.

[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / Flickr ]

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