What you just witnessed
are airstrikes in
the Gaza Strip.
And unfortunately the death toll
among Palestinian
civilians continues to mount as
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
enter their second week.
Now, the situation on the ground
has not improved at all over
the weekend.
In fact,
the conflict has only escalated.
The current conflict has escalated
rapidly into one of the worst
rounds of violence between
the Israelis and Palestinians
in the Gaza Strip since 2014, that
was when 2200 Gazans were killed in
the middle of the fighting.
Approximately half of them were
civilians at the time.
But over the weekend we learned
that two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
killed at least 43 Palestinians,
including 8 children and injure 50
others, most of whom were women and
children early Sunday according to
the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
That information has been confirmed
with independent organizations as
well Humanitarian organizations,
shelters, buildings and homes.
Housing civilians were bombed.
And we're about to show you
an example of one of the buildings
that was bombed just this past
weekend, take a look.
>> Early Saturday morning,
Israeli warplanes struck a home in
the crowded camp, killing at least
10 people, 8 children.
Among them four Muhammad Hadidi's 5
sons and his wife.
The only son to survive found under
the rubble was 5 months old Omar.
They destroyed the house without
warning at 1:30 in the morning says
Muhammad, people were sleeping.
The children were sleeping.
>> Entire families are being
wiped out in these airstrikes.
Hadidi's family is one of them.
The only person in his family who
survived was a 5 month old baby his
son Omar.
Early Saturday, a 5 month old baby
named Omar was the lone survivor
in a house that was hit and
destroyed in an Israeli airstrike
that hit the al-Shati refugee camp,
killing 10 members of his family
including 8 children,
according to the infant's father,
Mohammed Hadidi.
He also was quoted as saying they
were so happy to get away from
the grief, but they didn't know it
was their turn, he said.
Hadidi lost his wife,
three children and his brother and
sister in law and
their four children in the strike.
He was also quoted as saying they
didn't do anything bad to anyone,
they were looking for
a happy place to celebrate Eid,
Hadidi said crying.
Why were they punished?
>> What were they punished for?
>> Yeah >> So,
Eid is the most sacred religious
holiday in Islam.
And Netanyahu's government
attacked Al Aqsa Mosque during Eid,
which last 30 days or Ramadan last
30 days and at the end you have Eid
and, so that is why they had gone
over their uncle's house.
That gentleman's brother's house,
and they thought they would be more
safe there.
And it turns out they weren't
because there's nowhere to hide,
because Gaza is an open air prison.
So it is very densely populated.
It's a tiny strip of land.
And so when they drop bombs,
they know with great certainty that
they're going to kill civilians.
It's not like they missed the over
500 children that they killed in
2014 in that conflict.
It's not like they're unaware of
the 58 children killed in
this conflict.
It's not that they're unaware that
these bombs are massive, and
when you throw them in the middle
of a civilian population,
you're going to kill lots of
people's brothers, sisters in laws,
kids, grandmothers, etc.
And they keep saying Hamas is
hiding in amongst civilian
populations in Gaza.
There is nothing but
civilian populations.
And so one way that the civilians
could be separated from the others
is if, for example, Israel did not
have a permanent blockade and
people could run out of Gaza.
Instead of it being I guess,
a shooting gallery for
the Israeli Defense Forces, but
they're all trapped,
there's nowhere to go.
And let me just address this absurd
talking point that is pure
propaganda by
the Israeli government.
They say Hamas uses civilians
as shields because they fire
from the general vicinity.
This is the same kind of Cheney
Esque talking point we got during
the Iraq war, when Dick Cheney said
Iraq comes from the same geographic
region of the world as the people
who attacked us on Al Qaeda on 911.
No Iraq and Al Qaeda we're enemies
and you just smeared Iraq
because you want to attack in.
They're all Muslims, what
difference does it make, right?
So now in the case of
the Gaza Strip,
what do they want people to do?
They want Hamas to
go into the middle of a desert.
I don't even know if it
exists, right?
I don't know exactly the layout and
the topography of Gaza Strip.
And in the middle of the desert and
plan to fly and go this is where
we'll find the rockets from Israel.
Who would do that?
Of course they're
not going to do that.
It's like the British
saying to the American colonies,
you guys are fighting an unfair
Revolutionary War here.
You're hiding in the trees and
you're doing surprise attacks
which is what we did all the time
because they had superior forces.
You know what the British call
this, terrorists, right?
And you're hiding
among the civilians.
What the hell is somebody
going to hide?
You have the superior forces.
And it's not a matter of hiding
guys, there is no force on earth
that would put something in
the middle of a desert and go here,
go ahead bomb here, right?
And so if they had an actual
country, they would do what Israel
does and Israel has
a massive military, right?
They would have whole different
installations that were incredibly
well protected so they wouldn't
have to be anywhere near civilians.
And by the way,
Hamas could use the same excuse
they're too dumb, right?
But they could say,
well I was firing towards Israelis
military installations.
They haven't landed and
also because our rockets suck,
which would actually be true.
Now it's not true because they're
firing indiscriminately
into Israel, right?
But they could at least make that
claim because Israel claim is just
as untrue yet they use it for
propaganda and
every outlet prints it with overall
pretty good job by the media and
just want to be fair, right?
But yes, they obligatorily print
out Israeli propaganda.
Without mentioning,
it's an open air prison and
there's no where for anyone to go.
They say, they're only hitting them
because t it's Hamas's fault.
The Palestinians heard it coming.
If they didn't wear that skirt,
we wouldn't have to do what we did.
If they weren't in an open air
prison that we put them into and
didn't have a coming, well,
we wouldn't have to kill their
children.
No, you're making an active choice
to do that.
There's no question and by the way,
this would be super clear.
Again, I want to remind everybody
in every story Netanyahu did this
for his own political purposes,
he couldn't form a government.
The other side was about the former
government, or certainly was going
to attempt one and might have used
an Arab voting bloc within Israel.
Now using our voting block has
become nearly impossible.
This was 100% for
Netanyahu's political career, let
alone his corruption charges, etc.
And we're all going around saying
as if it's a legitimate thing to
murder kids so that Netanyahu has
a better chance of retaining power.
It is disgusting, and anybody in
the Biden which includes almost all
of them, that is supported this
throughout is also disgusting and
ruins America's morals,
let alone Israel's.
>> The asymmetry that you're
referring to Cenk is
always depicted in the number
of civilian casualties, right.
So if you look at the civilian
casualties on the Palestinian side
versus the Israeli side you'll
notice that
there's a huge disparity.
And it's because of both
the military capabilities and also
the way that Israel has the ability
to protect itself with advanced
technology, with advanced weaponry,
with things like the Iron Dome.
Whereas you're right in Gaza,
there is really no protection.
And so you hear the same excuse
being used over and
over again in regard to Hamas.
But even if there's evidence, and I
think in some cases and we'll talk
about this later in greater detail.
There's really a lack of evidence
and I'm suspicious of some of
the claims regarding Hamas.
But even if there's abundant
evidence indicating that Hamas
is hiding out in a building,
that building has a bunch of
civilian children and
women in it just civilians, period.
How do you still justify bombing
that building knowing that hundreds
of civilians are going to die?
That's just not a good enough
excuse, especially when you look at
the military capability of Hamas,
the weaponry that Hamas has,
come on.
I mean,
Hamas is not posing in many cases,
an imminent threat to the Israelis.
They've been firing rockets,
that is true but there's a reason
why the number of casualties on
the Israeli side is about 10,
whereas on the Palestinian side,
well, let me give you the numbers
as of Monday morning today, right?
The numbers are higher at this
point, but as of Monday morning,
Eastern time, the death toll in
Gaza has climbed to a total of 197,
including at least 58 children and
34 women according to
the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Since the beginning of the Israeli
airstrikes on Gaza this week,
at least 1,235 Palestinians have
been injured with the number
expected to rise.
I have no doubt that the number
of casualties has already gone up
since I produced the story.
On the Israeli side,
10 Israelis have been killed by
rockets fired from Gaza, according
to the Israeli Defense Force.
But let's also acknowledge the fact
that there was an opportunity to
engage in a ceasefire last week.
Hamas agreed to it.
There was mounting pressure for the
Israeli government to agree to it.
But Benjamin Netanyahu said, no,
possibly for the reasons that Cenk
mentioned earlier,
the political reasons and
Netanyahu's own self interest.
And what gets to me is the fact
that people like this exist, right,
that people like Netanyahu don't
care about the deaths of civilian
children, they don't.
As long as it helps his political
career, that's all that matters.
>> Yes >> I can't get past that.
>> Yeah, sometimes I despair of
humanity.
I mean, so the Israeli people,
you have elections you're okay with
this, you and I guess so 500 and
some are children last in 2014.
Look, guys,
let me ask you a question >> 550 to
be specific >> Yeah 58 this time,
and when Netenyahu says we're
going to keep going until,
basically what he's saying is,
until they learn their lesson.
It's not about learning a lesson.
What lesson,
what's the lesson to learn?
Understand that we're going to
enslave you for all of time and
never end the occupation.
And you will be lesser than us, and
inferior to us, and
not have rights and
not have a country.
That's the lesson you want them to
learn, right?
And by the way supporting
occupation, is total moral
depravity, saying that
the Palestinians cannot be free for
over 50 years, because all they
understand is violence, means or
you understand is violence and
you don't mind killing those kids
over and over and over again.
Look, it's a brutal fact.
And it makes people super
uncomfortable.
But you know what's more
uncomfortable?
Having bombs dropped on
top of kids and incinerate them,
that's very uncomfortable.
So if I made you uncomfortable
because in your honestly your
justification is in your head for
whatever reason, that no
the Palestinians must be occupied.
These inferior people are violent
savages, they must be occupied.
If that was your justification and
be honest, there is no other
justification, okay?
It's not a 3 year occupation,
it's a 54 year occupation.
And by some counts obviously could
be longer than that.
All right, so, look, the question I
was going to ask you guys.
And maybe some of will you answer
differently.
I guarantee you that some
conservatives will
answer it differently.
What if someone is firing at
your house?
Now you're scared of death
for your kids.
I mean, they're firing as in,
in this analogy, a gun, right?
You want to protect your family,
but you know that the house
they're firing from if you bomb it,
the threat will be gone.
First of all,
that's not even the right analogy
here because the threat won't be
gone because the threat is based on
the occupation, but let's grant
that the threat will be gone.
But inside the house is the guy
doing the shooting and four kids,
would you drop a bomb on
that house?
I guarantee you a lot of
conservatives say I know hiding in
the bathtub waiting for
the police all these things
are not good enough.
I'll drop the bomb in a second to
protect my family, okay.
And that's what
a lot of Israelis say now.
I wouldn't murder those poor kids.
You're making an active decision.
Yes, I'm going to kill that 4
year old boy, that 7 year old girl,
that 13 year old girl, and that 15
year old boy, I'm going to kill
them because I have some threat.
And by the way again,
the death toll in the actual real
world is 10 Israelis and
nearly 200 Palestinians, right?
So some amount of threat and
a lot of people say no Cenk,
I'm glad you asked that analogy.
No, I'm perfectly comfortable
killing those 4 kids.
Hey, you know what that guy
shouldn't hit among the 4 kids.
It's on his head.
It's not on my head.
I killed him instantly and
I protected people in my house from
5% chance of dying.
In the real world 000001% chance of
dying, whatever the number is, and
I'm comfortable
murdering those kids.
I'm not, and so
as an American citizen and
American voter.
I'm not comfortable with a brutal
occupation and constant killing of
Palestinians and their children.