A tale of two battles

Two battles took place on Thursday. One was in Gaza, one was in Ramallah. Guess which one gets the worldwide headlines?

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) – A senior Palestinian security officer was killed in an attack Thursday just moments after pleading for help on the phone with a television station: “They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding.”

Col. Mohammed Ghayeb, a loyalist of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, told Palestine TV that his house in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya was being pounded by homemade rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.

Ghayeb’s bodyguards returned fire, sparking a lengthy gunbattle.

“They are killers,” Ghayeb told the television station, referring to the Hamas gunmen. “For God’s sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move.”

Moments later, the phone connection was cut and Ghayeb was dead, said Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa. The officer’s wife was seriously wounded in the attack, Abu Khoussa said.

Two of Ghayeb’s bodyguards and a Hamas gunmen were also killed and more than 35 people were wounded, including eight children who were bystanders.

Try to find that one in the papers. You won’t find it in many, even though Hamas was using rockets and RPGs on a home filled with civilians (looks like those “crude, homemade” rockets are good for more than just launching at Israel, hey?), and caused just oodles of civilian casualties. But once again, the media mostly ignore pal-on-pal casualties. Because Israel didn’t cause them.

Now, this one. First, the headline, which combines the death toll from the above story with the death toll from an IDF arrest in Ramallah that turned into a gunbattle. Note also which is put first—the Israeli “raid.”

10 Palestinians killed in raid, clashes
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli undercover troops burst into a West Bank vegetable market Thursday, seizing four fugitives and exchanging heavy fire with Palestinians in the first major raid since the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to try to ease tensions.

Factional fighting among Palestinian groups also surged, leaving at least six dead and prompting a meeting early Friday between rival leaders _ President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Haniyeh said the two sides agreed to pull back their forces.

And note how the AP downplays the Beit Lahiya attack by Hamas.

The agreement came hours after six Palestinians, including a senior security officer, were killed and more than a dozen wounded in fighting in Gaza between gunmen loyal to Hamas and those allied with Fatah.

Now let’s look at the Ynet article to see what happened in the IDF arrest-turned-gunbattle.

The confrontations developed during the operation of a special IDF force in the city. A special IDF force surrounded a building in Ramallah in which wanted Palestinians were hiding. During the operation, the force identified a wanted man who intended to shoot at the soldiers.

The soldiers shot and wounded him, but he managed to escape.

The IDF reported that during the operation, four wanted Palestinians were arrested, who were subsequently transferred to the security forces for investigation. There were disturbances on site, which included gun battles and stone-throwing.

According to the Palestinians, some of the injured are youths who threw stones at the IDF forces.

Sounds like the “youths” in the area decided to get involved in the battle, and were shot as combatants. But you won’t read that information in the AP report. You will, however, read about how mad Abbas is, and how this is a “setback” for the supposed peace talks (the ones that can’t happen, what with Hamas still running the PA and insisting that it will never treat with or recognize Israel).

Just another example of our biased media, particularly of the AP variety. As for the Reuters view, well, get out your hankies

Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, killing three Palestinians, while a spasm of factional fighting among Palestinians in Gaza left six dead.

Notice, as always, the active verb used to describe terrorists killed by Israel, and the passive verb used to describe palestinians killed by palestinians. But here’s where you really need the hankies.

Smoke rose over central Ramallah after Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, slamming aside parked cars near the main Manara Square, pushed into the city to carry out what an Israeli army spokeswoman called “routine arrest activity”.

She said four wanted men had been detained.

By the way, note that the Israeli spokesperson is not identified, other than by gender. I’d bet it’s Miri Eisen, who is an IDF spokeswoman. But Reuters and AP almost never give Israelis names and faces. They generally use “The army said” or “According to the IDF” or “Israel said.” On the other hand, they did attribute a quote damning the Israelis—to Mahmoud Abbas. No quote about his dead security chief and the innocents harmed by Hamas, though. Color me unsurprised, as always.