8 Days, 8 Striking Photos that Tell the Story of Operation Pillar ofDefense

On November 14, 2012, the IDF launched Pillar of Defense – an eight-day operation aimed at crippling terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and defending Israel’s civilians. On this day a year ago, a ceasefire was announced, marking the end of the operation.

Here are eight photos, one for each day of the operation, that show Israel’s harsh reality through the eyes of its civilians. A year after the operation, we are reminded both of Israel’s strengths and the threats that our civilians face on a daily basis.

(1) The IDF’s reserves were quickly called up to duty. Thousands of reservists left their homes and families to prepare for a potential ground operation.

(2) IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz met with troops during an operational briefing near the Gaza border.

(3) November 16th: Children ran for shelter in Kiryat Malachi after a siren warned of an impending rocket strike. Two days earlier, three civilians were killed by a rocket that fell in the same city.  Israelis living near Gaza have only 15 seconds to find shelter during a rocket attack.

(4) November 18th: Children slept in a bomb shelter in Ashkelon after 14 rockets hit the city that night. Unfortunately, Israel’s civilians are accustomed to living under fire.

(5) Hundreds of Israeli civilians now suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of rocket fire from Gaza.

(6) November 20th: A Fajr-5 rocket fired from Gaza hit a house in Rishon LeZion. Southern Israel faced costly damages to residents’ vehicles and buildings.

(7) Despite the IDF’s best efforts to protect everyone in Israel, six Israeli civilians were killed due to rocket fire, while an additional 240 were injured.

(8) 421 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome, which saved countless Israeli lives.

 http://www.idfblog.com/2013/11/21/8-days-8-striking-photos-that-tell-the-story-of-operation-pillar-of-defense/

How an Israeli Soldier Kept the Aid Flowing to Gaza during OperationPillar of Defense

A guest post by Sergeant (Res.) Evan Pelz

As an IDF soldier, Sergeant (Res.) Evan Pelz helped transfer aid to Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defense. One year later, he tells his story on the IDF Blog.

In 2011, a few months after immigrating to Israel, I furthered my dedication to my new home when I enlisted as an IDF a soldier in the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza (CLA), a unit that acts as a liaison between the IDF and the civilian population in the Gaza Strip to ensure routine daily life for local Palestinians. During Operation Pillar of Defense, exactly one year ago, the mission of my unit proved more important and meaningful than ever.

Sergeant (Res.) Evan Pelz

Last November, the IDF was forced to launch Operation Pillar of Defense after Gaza militants attacked southern Israel with rockets. At the time, I was based at the Gaza CLA, just a few kilometers from the Gaza border and not far from Israeli communities absorbing constant rocket fire, including Kibbutz Sa’ad, where I was adopted as a lone soldier. In the face of these dangers, my unit worked tirelessly to monitor the entrance of humanitarian aid, as well as to identify sensitive locations such as hospitals, schools and mosques in order to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. We invested the military’s resources and risked our lives by serving in an area showered with rockets, all in order to preserve what we could of routine life for Palestinian civilians.

During Operation Pillar of Defense, the IDF continued to facilitate the transfer of goods into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

As I worked from a bomb shelter, talking on the phone with the Red Cross and United Nations agencies on one phone and with the relevant IDF bodies on another, I represented the cooperation that is not seen or reported. While the world watched the operation as a continuation of Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes, it did not see our endless conversations with Palestinian and international workers of the Red Cross as we tried to take lists of necessary medical supplies and protect the movement of ambulances. The world did not see UN officials sleeping in our base, working personally with soldiers during each minute of the operation. The world did not see our base’s officers who were ready to enter Gaza in the case of a ground operation with ground forces to monitor the military’s actions and ensure the IDF worked in accordance with civilian needs.

Throughout my IDF service – whether rockets were falling on Israel or not – we worked on a daily basis with our Palestinian counterparts in the Gaza Strip, with common goals of entering as many supplies and people as possible through Israeli crossings. This is because the unit’s mission is always focused on humanity, on ensuring that even while maintaining necessary security precautions, it can look out for the interests of the civilian Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.

An IDF soldier coordinating the entrance of ambulances into the Gaza Strip.

The IDF uses many resources to train soldiers like me, soldiers who embody the IDF’s ethical code to value all human life and to address the many humanitarian needs of civilian populations trapped in a location of violence. The unit works solely for civilian needs in Gaza: it sends Israeli electrical teams to make sure power lines entering Gaza function; it coordinates the transfer of Palestinians requiring medical care from Gaza to Israeli hospitals for treatment and it transports exports from Gaza throughout the world through Israeli borders and ports to boost the Palestinian economy. On a daily basis, the unit connects the military to various bodies within Gaza, including international organizations such as the Red Cross and UN Agencies, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health and Palestinian media, as well as various Palestinian officials.

Palestinian patient enters Israel for emergency treatment.

At all times, the unit’s main mission is to keep the peace – to connect the IDF forces to our Palestinian representatives in order to maintain calm on a hostile border. But even during the harsh conflict of last November – when militants attacked Israel from positions located within civilian areas– we kept the aid flowing to Palestinians. In my view, this is the IDF’s greatest strength – its ability to root out terror while ensuring the health and well-being of Palestinian civilians in hostile surroundings.

Sgt. (Res.) Evan Pelz immigrated from the United States to Israel and served as a lone soldier from 2011 to 2013. He now lives in Jerusalem and studies law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Israel files UN complaint over PA praise of terrorist

Israel's ambassador to the UN lodged a complaint with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday over a condolence letter sent by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the family of a terrorist killed by Israeli forces.

The IDF said Mohamed Aazi was among the planners of the bombing on the No. 142 bus in central Tel Aviv during Operation Pillar of Defense as the bus drove near the Kirya, the Israeli military's headquarters.
"When we talk about the troubling rise of incitement and its effects on the hearts and minds of young Palestinians," wrote Ambassador Ron Prosor, "there cannot be a more outrageous example than an incident that occurred last week. At the heart of this incident is Mohamed Assi, a terrorist responsible for the November 2012 bus bomb explosion that injured 29 civilians in the center of Tel Aviv."

Aazi was killed in an early morning clash with Israeli special forces, not far from the village of Bil'in, west of Ramallah in the West Bank, last Tuesday. The last of those alleged to have planned the bombing still on the loose, Aazi, 28, had been in hiding and was planning another attack against Israeli civilians or army forces, Israeli sources said.

After the incident, Abbas called Aazi a "dear son," according to a copy of the letter cited by Prosor. Prosor called the move "amazing, astonishing, and outrageous."

Times of Israel

Palestinian funeral photo chosen as picture of year might be fake

More media-bias...rather Lies against Israel.. Amazing what you can do with photoshop.

Website claims lab investigation revealed World Press Photo's picture of year of Palestinian funeral procession for children killed in Gaza comprised of number of different photos, seriously enhanced

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen's photo titled "Gaza Burial" portraying a Gaza funeral procession for children killed during Operation Pillar of Defense, is inspiring controversy worldwide in recent days, but this time for artistic – and not political – reasons.

The reason - tech blog Extremtech claims the picture underwent massive manipulation and was put together from a number of different photographs with the help of photoshop.

Despite the fact that Operation Pillar of Defense ended with a considerably low number of civilian fatalities in comparison to Operation Cast Lead four year earlier, upon publication, Hansen's picture hit Israeli hasbara missions hard.

Dr. Neal Krawetz from Extremtech, claims that a lab analysis – in which he specializes – revealed Hansen's photo underwent serious "enhancement" and is a fake or at least "digitally modified."

According to Extremtech's report, "The photo itself is almost certainly a composite of three different photos, with various regions spliced together from each of the images, and then further manipulation to illuminate the mourners’ faces."

Krawetz further claims the picture was reedited not long before the World Press Photo's submission deadline in January.

"I cannot tell you about the original picture, but I can tell you that the controversial picture is definitely not original." Krawetz is quoted as saying, adding "it appears to have been modified specifically for this contest."

It is important to stress that the claim is not that Hansen did not shoot the funeral procession of children killed during the operation, but rather that the amount of editing that went into it afterwards exceeded professional standards and those of the common sense conception of photo journalism to such an extent that it can no longer be considered objective.

In wake of the blogger's claims, there are those calling for the World Press Photo, the organization behind the prize – considered to be the most prestigious in the world of photojournalism – to strip Hansen of his prize.

Hansen himself has rejected the claims and said that he only used digital tools to put the final touches on the photo, to brush it up and improve the colors and contrast because of the uneven distribution of light in the alley in which the photo was taken.

Hansen said the "photograph is certainly not a composite or a fake," adding that "I have never had a photograph more thoroughly examined, by four experts and different photo-juries all over the world."

The World Press Photo supported Hansen's claims, saying it had reviewed the picture. "It is clear that the published photo was retouched with respect to both global and local color and tone," it said.

"Beyond this, however, we find no evidence of significant photo manipulation or compositing. Furthermore, the analysis purporting photo manipulation is deeply flawed," the organization concluded.

Nonetheless, it decided to send to picture for an additional analysis which also rejected the claims, "therefore ruling out any question of a composite image,” a statement from the organization said.

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