a campaign by Occupy for Animals
The tragedy of the Israel-Gaza conflict
August 4, 2014 - In this article, we have sought to avoid any political or religious conclusions. Our concern is for the people and animals which are mutually inclusive in a functioning Gazan society.
Both sides have their respective rationales for maintaining conflict. We make no judgement. What is unavoidable, however, is not to evidence the gross dis-proportionality in civilian casualties.
As a concern for the forced erosion of Gazan society - and as a 'sealed' country, - the opportunity to restore this infrastructure, we express concern about the loss of animals which are essential to the maintenance and therefore the normalization of a Gazan society.
This is a highly contentious subject and we are aware that this article will invite passionate response from both sides. OFA simply tries to help the people - the veterinarians, conservationists and rescuers - who are trying to help the animals of Gaza upon which their owners depend for livelihood, existence and survival.
The Gaza–Israel conflict, taking place in the region of the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, is a part of the long-term Israeli–Palestinian conflict which began in the summer of 2006 when Israel launched Operation "Summer Rains" in the Gaza Strip. [1]
We give no credence to the dimension of time... to the history of the conflict. Our focus and concerns are about the events, implications and legacies created since Israel has been targeting the Gaza Strip with military attacks since July 8, 2014 in response to Hamas rocket attacks.
The air, sea and land strikes by Israel have so far killed at least 1,712 people and injured over 9,080 others, according to figures released on 3rd of August, 2014. [2] Israel has suffered 66 casualties - 63 Israeli soldiers and 3 Israeli civilians.
We give no credence to the dimension of time... to the history of the conflict. Our focus and concerns are about the events, implications and legacies created since Israel has been targeting the Gaza Strip with military attacks since July 8, 2014 in response to Hamas rocket attacks.
The air, sea and land strikes by Israel have so far killed at least 1,712 people and injured over 9,080 others, according to figures released on 3rd of August, 2014. [2] Israel has suffered 66 casualties - 63 Israeli soldiers and 3 Israeli civilians.
As the conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel moved into its third week, the impact of the fighting on Palestinian children has become a heart-breaking signature of the conflict. Reports from Gaza relay stories of shells destroying civilian homes, killing children sheltering within; of tank fire killing a 5-month-old baby; of a strike on a beach killing four young boys who had been kicking around a soccer ball. In Israel, parents hear the first wail of air-raid sirens, grab their frightened children and run for bomb shelters. [3]
Some 3,300 Palestinians, including many women and children, were taking refuge in the school in Jabalya refugee camp when it came under fire around dawn on July 30, 2014, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said, killing at least 16 Palestinians sheltering in the U.N.-run school and another 17 near a street market. [4]
The bloodshed was bad enough to draw howls of protest from an array of international figures and organisations – including Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Christian Aid – who voiced despair at the soaring civilian casualties.
The school itself was a scene of devastation, with what was once a classroom that had housed 123 women and children reduced to a pile of rubble after being hit by a shell. At the school gates lay eight dead donkeys, while another two badly injured animals clung to life.
As if that were not enough, early evening brought even greater carnage when a missile and several shells struck the crowded Shujaiya market, as people queued up to buy fuel and ice that have become vital commodities as the war-torn territory runs out of electricity. [5]
On 30th of July, 2014, Monica Awad, the spokeswoman of the UNICEF, condemned Israel's targeting of women and children in its ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip. Awad said Israeli forces had deliberately killed 264 children in Gaza, which is equal to 11 children per day, and injured more than 2,000. [6]
Another UN-run school in Gaza has reportedly been struck by an Israeli air strike, killing at least 10 people who had been sheltering there from the fighting.
Witnesses and health workers said around 35 more were wounded when the entrance to the facility was struck by. It is the second reported strike on a UN-operated school in less than a week. [7]
Meanwhile, the miserable living condition of Gaza's 1.7 million people deteriorated even further after two Israeli tank shells struck one of three fuel tanks of Gaza's only power plant. The hit set off a massive fire, and a column of thick putrid smoke rose from the site for hours.
"We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room," said Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza Energy Authority. "Everything was burned."
The shutdown meant that Gaza has an 80 percent deficit of electricity, said Sari Bashi of the Israeli rights group Gisha. Widespread power outages also disrupt water supplies because electricity is needed to operate water pumps. In Gaza, about 1.2 million have no access to running water, she said.
Maher Salem of the utilities department in the Gaza City municipality said about 600,000 of the city's 800,000 residents were facing water problems.
"But the most catastrophic issue for us, which is the ticking bomb, is that once we have run out of fuel (for back-up generators), we have to shut down the waste water treatment," he said, adding that fuel would last up to four more days. [8]
Already two weeks earlier, on 15th July, 2014 Jacques de Maio, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that "the question is not if but when an already beleaguered population will face an acute water crisis". "Water is becoming contaminated and sewage is overflowing, bringing a serious risk of disease," de Maio added.
"The water and sewage network is barely functioning, and with the sustained bombardment of the past 8 days, it's as good as destroyed," UNRWA spokesman Sami Mshasha told the briefing.
"We're looking at 90 million litres of untreated sewage that flows into the ocean every day because there is no electricity to treat it. Ninety percent of the drinking water is not fit for human consumption."
The World Health Organization (WHO), a U.N. agency, warned last week that health services in the occupied Palestinian territory were on the brink of collapse among severe shortages in medicines and fuel for hospital generators. [9]
Water is now a problem in Gaza, and it can quickly turn into a catastrophe.
Animals - the forgotten victims
During times of conflict, the suffering of animals is often overlooked as the world focuses on human casualties. War, as practiced by humans, is unknown among other animals, but we drag them into all our wars regardless, either actively as conscripts, or just by destroying them and their homes with barely a passing thought.
During times of war, animals are either neglected, injured, killed, left behind, or used as commodities to facilitate the war effort.
Historically, horses, dogs, donkeys, cats, and pigeons have been used to carry soldiers, sniff out bombs, and bring messages across the war zone. Around 8 million horses and donkeys died in World War I and despite technological advances, animal participation is still common in modern day warfare. And more recently, in the Iraq war, bottle nose dolphins were used to find underwater mines, and often got slaughtered by enemy forces in the process.
As the Israeli-Gaza conflicts escalates, it has extracted a grave human toll. However, you won't see much reporting about the effects of collateral damage. In addition to the innocent lives of women and children taken, there's very little news surfacing about how animals in the region are being affected.
A donkey suicide bomb, a farmyard massacre, killed donkeys and horses used to transport fruit and vegetable carts to and from local markets, are three examples of how nonhuman animals have become targets in the current war between Israelis and Palestinians.
In the first example, a donkey strapped with explosives blew up after Israeli soldiers were forced to open fire, a military blog has claimed.
The unconventional tactic was allegedly used by Hamas militants on the evening of 18 July in the city of Rafah, close to Egypt’s border with the Gaza strip.
No one was injured when soldiers belonging to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire on the animal as it came towards them, causing the explosives to detonate.
The anonymous blogger posted on idfblog.com, the official blog website of the IDF, that “a donkey suspiciously began to approach forces”.
He added: “The forces approached the donkey and it exploded at a safe distance, whereas no injuries were sustained by the IDF as a result.”
According to the blogger, troops were responding to intelligence from the Israel Security Agency that “terror organisations” in Gaza intended to “strap explosives to animals and send them in the direction of ground forces”.
It’s not the first time Hamas has used animals in conflict with the IDF claiming it first encountered these “explosive couriers” in June 1995.
Then a Palestinian was said to have ridden an “explosive-laden” donkey cart towards an IDF position west of Khan Yunis, Gaza, and detonated.
Again soldiers escaped injury but the man and animal were both killed. Similar instances in 2001 and 2003 were also cited, with Hamas claiming responsibility for the attacks.
IDF soldiers have also reported multiple incidents where Hamas militants had strapped explosive belts to dogs, according to the blog post. [10]
The other tragic incident was reported by a reporter for The Daily Telegraph who came across a devastated farmyard where dozens of cows had died of their wounds after Israelis had bombed the Sha'af region of Gaza. Others had died of thirst or starvation.
The reporter wrote:
"The bile-inducing, overpowering smell was the first sign that something was very wrong. Then came the truly distressing sight: dozens of dead cows, some with open infested wounds, strewn across the grounds of a partially devastated farm yard.
One lonely beast had managed to survive, mooing plaintively in distress beside its stricken fellow animals.
Nearby lay a solitary dead horse, again dead from its injuries, in a sight eerily reminiscent of Pablo Picasso's Guernica painting, in which the artist depicted the aerial bombing of a civilian population by Fascist forces during the Spanish civil war.
Most of the animals died as a result of the bombardment of the Sha'af neighbourhood, on the eastern edge of Shejaiya, one of the areas to have borne the brunt of Israel's ground offensive that began on July 17.
Some have also died from starvation and dehydration after farmers were forced to flee in the face of the military advance."
With more than 1,700 Palestinians dead – including many women and children – human suffering has been the inevitable focus of Gaza's more than three weeks of war.
Yet the deaths of cattle and livestock – while heart-rending and cruel in itself – points to another cost of the conflict: economic.
Farmers like Mohammed Ahmed Abu Ajwa, 32, who owns the Sha'af cattle yard along with his eight brothers, say they face financial ruin from the losses inflicted by the conflict.
"My brothers and I have lost 100 dairy cows and 70 oxen for meat, as well as several camels," he said. "Each cow is worth US$3,000 (£1,777), so we think we have lost more than $500,000 (£296,000) from this war. It's very difficult for us. This is a family business that we have inherited from our father, who built it up from money he earned working in Saudi Arabia.
"It's all we know. We cannot do any other job. We will just have to try and bring the business alive again after this. There is no other way."
Gazan farmers say livestock have perished and crops have been destroyed as Israeli tanks and artillery vehicles have cut a swathe through agricultural land during the offensive. Since such zones have been declared effective no-go areas during the current conflict, there is no way of verifying such claims.
But the loss of animals that help to keep the local economy running is evident enough. Besides the 16 people killed in the shelling of an UNWRA school in Jabaliya on Wednesday used to shelter fleeing families, were several donkeys.
The animals had been used to cart the many of the families' meagre possessions to the school after they had been ordered to evacuate their homes. [11] At the school gates lay eight dead donkeys, while another two badly injured animals clung to life. In normal times, they would be a source of income – used to transport fruit and vegetable carts to and from local markets. A Palestinian boy, surrounded by dead animals and caring for a wounded horse after Israeli shelling in the northern Gaza, was photographed by AFP Reporter Mahmud Hams on 30th of July, 2014. [12]
Working horses, donkeys and mules are invaluable for cultivating land and transporting goods and people, and in Gaza, like in many places in the world, entire families are dependent on horses and donkeys for their livelihood. The welfare of these animals is therefore crucially important, not only for the health and survival of those animals, but also for the livelihoods of those people dependent on them.
And then there was the "news" of the 'Donkey Stoned to Death', which was nothing but a hoax spread by "Jews News" and which can be dismissed at once.
Please click on the picture to read the story behind the entire HOAX.
Please click on the picture to read the story behind the entire HOAX.
Helping animals in Gaza
Supporting those working on the ground
As said before, during times of conflict, the suffering of animals is often overlooked as the world focuses on human casualties. We - at Occupy for Animals - do not. We CAN not! We care about people AND animals, as both are mutually inclusive in a functioning Gazan society.
A few days ago we had an extensive Skype conversation with Dr Imad Fouad Atrash, one of the founding members of Palestine Wildlife Society, who has four veterinarians helping animals in Gaza right now and who need financial support to ensure continuance of their important work.
During the 2008 and 2009 conflicts, Palestine Wildlife Society was confronted with the destruction of the Israel-Gaza conflict, affecting not only humans but also their animals, and have helped them during this difficult times ( please see next pictures).
Since then, Palestine Wildlife Society helps animals and their people in Palestine in numerous ways.
Palestine Wildlife Society is an active and professional NGO and non-profit organization working in research and education in nature conservation among the Palestinian society and the region.
Palestine Wildlife Society believes that conservation education is the main pillar in the conservation movement. Therefore it has worked intensively in the field of awareness and education with different sections. A result of its success, was the inclusion of environmental studies in the national education curriculum. Palestine Wildlife Society was also part of the 'National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan' for Palestine in conjunction with the Ministry of Environmental Affairs.
Palestine Wildlife Society is an active and professional NGO and non-profit organization working in research and education in nature conservation among the Palestinian society and the region.
Palestine Wildlife Society believes that conservation education is the main pillar in the conservation movement. Therefore it has worked intensively in the field of awareness and education with different sections. A result of its success, was the inclusion of environmental studies in the national education curriculum. Palestine Wildlife Society was also part of the 'National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan' for Palestine in conjunction with the Ministry of Environmental Affairs.
The animals imprisoned in Al-Bisan Zoo
The animals of the Al-Bisan Zoo in the Northern Gaza Strip were literally caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Trapped in their cages, unable to even flee, more than 80 animals died when the zoo - part of the Al-Bisan recreational park in Jabalya - was severely damaged by air strikes. The sights couldn't have been sadder with dead animals laying among those that survived, but were left without food and water. [18]
The carcasses of dead animals, mostly monkeys, lay scattered across the scorched grass between the pens. In one of the cages, a dead peacock lies in front of two hungry lions. In another, a crocodile lounges in the hot sun; there was almost no water in the enclosure, which also held a pelican and a duck.
In a tiny cage, a baboon sat, picking seeds off the floor, desperately eating whatever he could find. Next to the baboon, the carcass of his mate and five offspring lay in the pen, decomposing in the August heat.
The zoo-manager, Shady Hamad, had officially asked the international animal welfare organisation Vier Pfoten for help, following which Dr Amir Khalil, manager of Four Paws, had been requesting permission from Egyptian border authorities for more than three weeks to enter Palestine, but the permission had repeatedly been denied to them.
A few days ago, according to an email that OFA Egypt Correspondent Dina Zulfikar has received from Dr Amir Khalil, access to Palestine was now permitted and a Four Paws emergency team, headed by Dr Amir Khalil and local supporters, was now able to reach the Al-Bisan Zoo in the North of the Gaza Strip, and to help the surviving 20 animals - among them three lions - by providing urgently needed medical treatment and food. The team is currently also restoring the water supply by repairing the pipes.
According to Dr Amir Khalil:
“Most of the enclosures have been severely damaged. There are several dead animals lying around the enclosures. The few surviving animals, among them three lions, are traumatised, ill and very weak.”
Given that OFA has committed to support those helping the animals of Gaza on the ground, a first payment has been made to Vier Pfoten September 15th, 2014, and a second payment on 2nd of October, 2014.
Below, recent pictures received via Dr Amir Khalil - all pictures courtesy of Vier Pfoten.
FOUR PAWS brings traumatised lions from Gaza to Jordan
Last week, in late September, in Amman (Jordan) international animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS planned the next steps to help the traumatised animals in Al-Bisan Zoo in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. Various officials and representatives from four states – Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the State of Palestine – were involved in the rescue.
Veterinary surgeon Dr. Amir Khalil from FOUR PAWS, who coordinated the operation on-site, was particularly keen to secure rapid assistance for the lions (two males of around six years, and one pregnant female of seven years):
“This was about more than species-appropriate shelter, sufficient food and medical treatment. After all, lions are dangerous wild animals. After the air strikes, the enclosures were far from safe for the keepers and for anyone visiting the zoo. That’s why we looked for a solution away from Gaza.”
On Tuesday morning, the lions were anaesthetised, given a medical check, and loaded into transport crates. They were then transported in convoy to a transit station in Jordan, where on the same day they were successfully released into their temporary compound. As soon as their new enclosures are ready (these are still being built), the lions will move into their permanent new home.
FOUR PAWS is currently setting up a new animal shelter, the “Al Ma´wa for Nature and Wildlife”, around 45 km from Amman.
Veterinary surgeon Dr. Amir Khalil from FOUR PAWS, who coordinated the operation on-site, was particularly keen to secure rapid assistance for the lions (two males of around six years, and one pregnant female of seven years):
“This was about more than species-appropriate shelter, sufficient food and medical treatment. After all, lions are dangerous wild animals. After the air strikes, the enclosures were far from safe for the keepers and for anyone visiting the zoo. That’s why we looked for a solution away from Gaza.”
On Tuesday morning, the lions were anaesthetised, given a medical check, and loaded into transport crates. They were then transported in convoy to a transit station in Jordan, where on the same day they were successfully released into their temporary compound. As soon as their new enclosures are ready (these are still being built), the lions will move into their permanent new home.
FOUR PAWS is currently setting up a new animal shelter, the “Al Ma´wa for Nature and Wildlife”, around 45 km from Amman.
A solution will also be found for the remaining 30 or so animals (including a macaque, vervet monkeys, wild cats, wolves, ostriches, pelicans, birds of prey, porcupines and a crocodile).
Amir Khalil:
“We can see how much the people in Gaza love their zoo and its animals. So FOUR PAWS is pledging its expertise and financial support for the correct reconstruction of the enclosures. We also want to train the local team in how to deal with the animals.”
Amir Khalil:
“We can see how much the people in Gaza love their zoo and its animals. So FOUR PAWS is pledging its expertise and financial support for the correct reconstruction of the enclosures. We also want to train the local team in how to deal with the animals.”
We have all seen it...
...and we have wept the tears of a frustrated humanity. Tears of anger and outrage, as we - helplessly - witness the decimation of society, the annihilation of a people.
Most in distant lands have no cognizance, or interest, in the politics of far off places. What is taking place now is a human disaster of enormous proportions. Suffice to say that one of the world’s biggest military machines is engaged in a targeted destruction of a population of some 1.8 million people - 800,000 of which are children - on a strip of land some 25 miles long and 4 to 7 miles wide. A population which is contained within its sealed borders. They cannot leave... they cannot bring in resources. This has been called ‘the biggest open air prison in the world’. They are now being attacked from land, air and sea.
We are at the very edge - the place where ‘humanity meets inhumanity’.
100,000 people took to the streets of London, and similar demonstrations were witnessed globally to represent humanity.
Israel has suffered 66 casualties - 63 Israeli soldiers and 3 Israeli civilians - whereas the death toll on Palestine's side is of close to 1.900 people, with around 10.000 others being injured, according to tallies from the respective sides. According to latest news, there are 373,000 children who require psychological support. Half a million Palestinians have been displaced, with at least 187,000 still living in U.N. emergency shelters. Ten thousand homes have been completely destroyed, 30,000 homes partially wrecked. [17]
More than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed so far! Many of them women and children. This is condemnable. Targeting of ANY civilian population is inexcusable!
The USA was the ONLY nation to veto calls for an investigation to indict Israel for war crimes at the Human Rights Council. [15] Some nations were braver: Chile has stopped all trade with Israel [16] - Brazil, Ecuador and South Africa have asked the Israeli Ambassador to leave.
The conflict is grossly and obscenely disproportionate. The analogy here is an elephant claiming it defends itself against a mouse. The mouse can only bite the feet of the elephant, whereas the elephant simply has to raise its foot and... bring it violently back to earth. Such is the disproportionate nature of events in Gaza.
The blockade and willful decimation of the economy ensures that human suffering will continue long after the conflict engagement ceases.
This is a basic land where animals form an essential function for transport and agriculture. This is the peoples’ future and whereas all concern is focused on the human dimension, without securing the health and safety of the animals, the future economic infrastructure has no floor on which to walk.
With the blockade in place, those existing animals MUST be preserved for any self-sustainable future to be possible for the battered communities of this land.
We, who watch from afar, cannot perhaps influence the directions and events of the conflict BUT we can help to assure that the people can return to their lives with any semblance of normality and to re-create their lifestyles.
In this society, animals are central. Not emotionally, but pragmatically and essentially.
OFA will help to ensure that Gaza can rise again... that the animals upon which its people so essentially depend - upon which its economic infrastructure depends - are protected and saved.
The Power of Love...
Regimes and politics will have a finite existence. They will pass. The fires of hatred, too, will diminish in the cool wind of time.
But there is one whose existence is eternal, beyond politics, beyond borders, beyond allegiances, beyond nationalism, beyond existence...
The greatest power which we humans have, the power of love.
The ONLY power which is indestructible.
The ONLY power which transcends time and space, transcends death itself.
Let us not in our grubby scrambling in the depths of human disharmony and anger, forget that we, too, can raise ourselves to what we CAN be and forgive those who trespass against us.
Not easy. Action begets a reaction. But without this, the spiral of hatred will rise and revenge will become an eternal response, which in return will invite a response.
Let us take a lesson from those who dismiss boundaries, who dismiss politics or any such artificial human constructs in their compassion for the weak and innocent.
We salute those whose compassion and love embraces the forgotten ones of Gaza. The abandoned, those who must dwell in the shadows, the burnt, broken, maimed, innocent animals, victims of a human catastrophe.
We salute Dr Amir Khalil - Manager of Vier Pfoten - and his team that is helping the animals at the Al-Bisan Zoo... we salute Dr Imad Atrash - Co-Founder of Palestine Wildlife Society - and his team in Gaza, and Eti Altman - Spokesperson and Founder of 'Let the Animals live, Israel' - and her team in Israel, who stand on either side of the artificiality of politically induced differences, but stand shoulder to shoulder in the fundamentals of human existence, compassion, empathy and love.
All else is artificial, divisive and destructive. We are proud of being able to say that we - OFA and our kind donors - stand beside them.
A question which the world is now asking itself - governments and individuals - is:
"Do we care?"
If your answer to this question is "Yes" - please support this appeal by making a donation today to ensure that the people helping the animals right now in Gaza, will be provided with the necessary financial support.
Occupy for Animals will forward the collected donations in regular intervals, or according to needs, to ensure the most efficient use of the money by avoiding unnecessary transfer fees.
Given that Occupy for Animals is a registered charity organization, your donation grants you a tax deduction, the percentage depends on your country.
We make no judgement...
As said at the beginning of this page, in this article, we have sought to avoid any political or religious conclusions. Our concern is for the people and animals which are mutually inclusive in a functioning Gazan society.
Both sides have their respective rationales for maintaining conflict. We make no judgement. What is unavoidable, however, is not to evidence the gross dis-proportionality in civilian casualties.
As a concern for the forced erosion of Gazan society and as a 'sealed' country, the opportunity to restore this infrastructure, we express concern about the loss of animals which are essential to the maintenance and therefore the normalization of a Gazan society.
OFA simply tries to help the people - the veterinarians, conservationists and rescuers - who are trying to help the animals of Gaza upon which their owners depend for livelihood, existence and survival.
If you want to help, too, please make a donation today.
Donations can be made simply and easily by using the PayPal button, but PayPal deducts some costs for donations. These can be be avoided by sending your donation to: [email protected], and selecting "sending money to family or friends". Either option is acceptable and both will provide essential support for the people working on the ground and who are helping animals in Gaza right now.
We thank you very much, in advance, for your support!
Sources & references
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza%E2%80%93Israel_conflict
2. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/02/337322089/gaza-update-fate-of-israeli-soldier-unknown-death-toll-surpasses-2009-level
3. http://time.com/3012088/child-death-toll-gaza/
4. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-285584335.
5. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/gaza/11001759/Gaza-crisis-Nothing-is-more-shameful-than-attacking-sleeping-children.html
6. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/americas/13172-unicef-israel-deliberately-killed-264-palestinian-children-in-gaza
7. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-air-strike-on-un-school-condemned-by-ban-kimoon-as-moral-outrage-9644813.html
8. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/israel-gaza_n_5631899.html
9. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/palestinians-israel-aid-idUSL6N0PQ3TW20140715
10. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-donkey-bomb-explodes-after-idf-troops-open-fire-on-animal-carrying-explosives-9616705.html
11. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/gaza/11002480/Gazas-corpse-ridden-farms-reveal-destruction-of-Palestinian-livelihoods.html
12. https://www.facebook.com/AFPnewsenglish/photos/a.163022200402458.25949.155857464452265/707931532578186/?type=1
13. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/02/337322089/gaza-update-fate-of-israeli-soldier-unknown-death-toll-surpasses-2009-level
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal-borne_bomb_attacks#cite_note-9
15. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/07/24/us-stands-alone-vote-against-un-inquiry-gaza-assault
16. http://www.hangthebankers.com/chile-suspends-trade-talks-with-israel-over-gaza-bombings/
17. http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/7/despite_ceasefire_humanitarian_crisis_continues_in
18. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/18/world/meast/gaza-zoo-destroyed/