Can't say Israel didn't warn you:
Meanwhile, Israel pounded rocket sites and tunnels Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation..."The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip," said the leaflets in Arabic dropped from planes. "The IDF is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only. Stay safe by following our orders."
Emphasis mine, because of this:
Israeli forces shelled a house where they had ordered about 100 Palestinian civilians to take shelter, killing about 30 people and wounding many more, witnesses told the U.N.
Accidents happen in war. I'm not saying that the IDF was deliberately targeting this so-called safe house. But it does put the lie to the claim that there's anything people in Gaza can do right now to "stay safe." And if I'm reading the story right, it's the same safe house to which the IDF later refused access by the Red Cross for several days.
You'll notice, by the way, that I linked to a Fox News story, above, which buries the discussion of the IDF escalation amongst a bunch of admittedly inflammatory rhetoric from Hamas leaders. I would have preferred to link to a more impartial news source, but weirdly, the only major-outlet discussion of the leaflet I could find which included the phrase "Stay safe by following our orders" came from Fox News, and the Jerusalem Post (which buried it amongst discussions of Hamas body counts.) I'm trying to decide whether that's because the libruhl medya refuses to recognize how terribly concerned Israel is about Palestinian safety, or whether only those sources were willing to dignify that ludicrous sentiment by reporting it.
Update: I didn't want to focus massive attention on the Fox News/Jerusalem Post aspect; it was really just a quick anecdote about the frustration of trying not to link to Fox News. I did finally find a story by the AP (in the WaPo) which also included the phrase in question.
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