Israeli Military reports eight casualties since beginning of Israeli offensive

Friday January 09, 2009 03:21 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Four of the Israeli military casualties killed by "friendly fire"

Since Israel began its full-scale military assault on the besieged population of the Gaza Strip on december 27th, eight Israelis have died. Six of the casualties were soldiers, four of whom died from so-called 'friendly fire'.

Israeli soldiers invading

Israeli military censors have severely restricted the release of information about Israeli casualties, and some unconfirmed reports claim that Israeli military casualties are higher than the military is reporting.  In contrast, on the Palestinian side, over 765 people have been killed and over 3,000 injured, overwhelming hospitals that no longer have any place to store the bodies of the injured or the dead.  Dozens of people are waiting in overcrowded emergency rooms, with Palestinian hospitals almost completely out of medicine and supplies due to the Israeli siege followed by the most devestating combination of Israeli Air Force and Israeli Army offensives since the Six Day War in 1967.

Two of the Israelis who died were civilians killed by Palestinian home made rockets fired blindly from inside the besieged coastal Strip. Nearly all Israelis living in southern Israel have since been evacuated, and the few thousand who remain all have access to bomb shelters to protect them. The Palestinian population of 1.5 million, living in one of the most densely populated aeas of the world, have no such shelters, and many have been forced to take refuge in schools and hospitals, which are also being bombed and attacked by invading Israeli forces from air and ground.

Two of the Israelis killed were soldiers invading the Gaza Strip in a massive ground invasion. One, a major in the military, was shot off of his tank while standing up to fire rounds toward Palestinian homes. The other, a captain in the military, was shot while firing at Palestinians during the ground invasion in northern Gaza.

The four other Israeli casualties were a result of 'friendly fire', meaning that they were killed by their Israeli soldiers in what have referred to as accidents.

gaza strip | palestinian attacks | news report saed at imemc dot org