'We have no future!' EU anger unites millions in protest (PHOTOS and VIDEO)

Massive anti-austerity strikes and protests swept across Europe as millions took to the streets to express their frustration over rising unemployment and dire economic prospects. Many rallies ended with violent clashes with police.

Workers marched in 23 countries across Europe to mark the European Day of Action and Solidarity.

General strikes had been called in Spain and Portugal, paralyzing public services and international flights, in Belgium and France transport links were partially disrupted by strikes and demonstrations, in Italy and Greece thousands of workers and students marched through the streets.

Other EU countries, such as Germany, Austria and Poland, saw well attended union-led rallies.

The Europe-wide strike action, the largest in a series of protests against the austerity policies, was coordinated by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and promoted on Twitter under the "#14N" hashtag. 

© Agence France-Presse/Anne-Christine Poujoulat
People attend a demonstration called by unions, as part an European day of protest against austerity, on November 14, 2012 in Marseille, southeastern France.

Spain on strike

Spain, which has the highest unemployment rate in the industrialized world, pioneered the action, with protests and clashes starting overnight and dozens of arrests reported by morning. According to the unions, some 9 million workers took to the streets across the nation.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters in Madrid and Barcelona. More than 142 people were arrested and at least 74 injured, including 43 policemen, Spanish police said. 

© Agence France-Presse/Javier Soriano
Protesters attend a demonstration during a general strike on November 14, 2012 in Madrid.

 Slogans like "Rajoy Go Home" were chanted by Spaniards outraged over Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's public spending cuts that have led to a 26% unemployment rate in the country.

Leaflets saying "They leave us without future. They are the guilty ones. There are other solutions" could be seen all around Madrid. 

© Agence France-Presse/Filippo Monteforte
Riot policemen fight with demonstrators during a protest on a day of mobilisation against austerity measures by workers in southern Europe on November 14, 2012 in Rome

 Chaos in Rome

Strikes and violent protests gripped Italy , as tens of thousands protesters took to the streets all over the country rallying against Prime Minister Mario Monti's austerity measures.

Rome became the center of the chaos, as rioting workers and students brought the streets to a standstill when they confronted the police, throwing rocks, bottles and firecrackers at them.

To scatter the protesters police fired teargas and more than 50 people were arrested. At least 17 police officers were injured. 

© Agence France-Presse/Patricia De Melo Moreira
Protesters march in Lisbon during a general strike on November 14, 2012.

 'The Troika does not rule here'

Portugal entered the general strike with anti-austerity rallies in 40 towns and cities throughout the country.

Lisbon froze as people poured into the streets: the subway was shut down, railway strikes left commuters stranded and half of the flights were cancelled.

Thousands of people frustrated by a record 15.8 per cent unemployment rate, gathered in front of the Portuguese parliament building, shouting "The troika does not rule here!"

The clashes broke out as police tried to clear the streets of Lisbon in the evening with protesters throwing stones and rubbish in response.

At least five injuries have been reported by Portuguese police, with one protester taken to hospital. After more than an hour of standoff, the Lisbon demonstrators were dispersed.

After last week's vigorous 48-hour anti-austerity strike, Greeks gathered in a relatively quiet 5000-strong protest in Athens and called for a three-hour work stoppage in solidarity with the Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese.

People chanted "Athens, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon - everyone in the streets!" as they marched on Syntagma Square carrying flags. There were minor clashes with police, but the demonstration was mainly peaceful. 

© Agence France-Presse/Louisa Gouliamaki
Animateurs from a Greek puppet center stage a performance outside the Greek parliament in Athens, during an anti-austerity protest on November 14, 2012.

Meanwhile, in Brussels eggs and firecrackers were thrown at Portugal's embassy as part of the solidarity protests as crowds of people came to the European Union headquarters to demonstrate.

But although the demonstrations in Belgium were largely peaceful, the unions managed to disrupt transport links as railway workers halted high-speed train services countrywide.

France was hit by 130 rallies against austerity measures, with the French government lashed by the demonstrators.  

© Agence France-Presse/Georges Gobet
People shout slogans and carry banners on November 14,2012, in front of the EU Headquarters in Brussels.

The French General Confederation of Labor referred to the 14 November strikes as the first "social movement of this scale" in the history of the EU.

The European Day of Action and Solidarity organized under the slogan "For Jobs and Solidarity in Europe. No to Austerity" was meant to deliver a message to EU leaders to stop raising taxes and cutting government spending.

But despite mounting frustration and public anger, the governments of the crisis-stricken EU countries are showing few signs of abandoning austerity, which they believe is the best method to get their economies out of debt and back on a sound footing. 

© Agence France-Presse/Jeff Pachoud
A demonstrator holds a flare during an anti-austerity protest in Lyon on November 14, 2012.

© Agence France-Presse/Cesar Manso
Riot police officers clash with protesters at the end of a demonstration organized by Spain's "indignant" protesters, a popular movement against a political system that they say deprives ordinary Spaniards of a voice in the crisis, near the parliament building in Madrid during a general strike.

© Agence France-Presse/Filippo Monteforte
Demonstrators march during a protest on a day of mobilisation against austerity measures by workers in southern Europe on November 14, 2012 in Rome.

© Agence France-Presse/Miguiel Riopa
A protester throws stones at police officers during a demonstration outside the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon on November 14, 2012 during a general strike.

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Looks like the SHTF all over the world!

If You're not prepared yet, IT IS TIME NOW!!! 

THIS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW, IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY PREPARED, AND EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU ARE.

A Radical Remedy - Humanity and Truth

A normal human being, just a boy really, in 'war' - terrified and seemingly broken by it. Look at his hands, clenching in the panic of a child, his bladder releasing in the terror of war. You see, war is not natural; it is not 'normal' for human beings to slaughter each other at the bidding of psychopathic leaders - yet generations later, psychopathic leaders send boys to 'other' lands to kill and die; all for lies and for their own profit.

Nothing has changed for soldiers since World War II, only now we try to drug away the terror, or train it away with video games, propaganda and even more lies.

We are a nation that utilizes preemptive war to accomplish our financial and political objectives. This is fact. We are a nation run by people so bereft of conscience and normal human empathy that we most damage those willing to live and die in service of our current society, or more accurately, in service of what they think our current society is. I read this article on the drugging of soldiers recently and realized that the men they are writing about represent a few tiny drops in the ocean of suffering that we as a society have created through war and the aftermath, through inhuman designs and inhuman acts. This ocean of suffering is all but ignored by the people in positions of power who have the resources to address it, those who run the very government organizations that design the wars. Pathological individuals in positions of power send young men and women to war. Pathological individuals in positions of power abandon these same young men and women to the streets or psychotropic medication, or both, when they return.

From the referenced article:

The mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) announces the second in a four-part series by award-winning investigative journalist Kelly Patricia O'Meara exploring the epidemic of suicides in the military and the correlation to dramatic increases in psychiatric drug prescriptions to treat the emotional scars of battle. The second installment covers psycho-pharma's disastrous chemical experimentation within the military ending in sudden unexplained deaths, including those of Marine corporal Andrew White and Senior Airman Anthony Mena who were prescribed a total of 54 drugs between them, including Seroquel, Effexor, Paxil, Prozac, Remeron, Wellbutrin, Xanax, Zoloft, Ativan, Celexa, Cymbalta, Depakote, Haldol, Klonopin, Lexapro, Lithium, Lunesta, Compazine, Desyrel, Trileptal, and Valium.

Andrew White and Anthony Mena have become part of ever-increasing numbers of young, seemingly healthy soldiers who survived the horrors of war only to return home to fight, and lose, their toughest battle. Their deaths were not suicides. Rather, they are among a growing list of sudden deaths among military personnel, which many believe is due to sudden cardiac arrest brought on by the drug cocktails being prescribed. Fred Baughman Jr., MD has been researching these questionable deaths and believes the few that are known are just the "tip of the iceberg."

 By the time many of these soldiers return home, they realize, often only on a subconscious level, that they've spent years of their life in service of a lie so large that it can't be spoken. Their minds can't deal with the cognitive dissonance that results from having witnessed and taken part in the atrocities our nation is known for, while simultaneously buying into, or even passively accepting, the idea of being a 'war hero' or 'veteran of freedom'. Their minds can't deal with the idea that they are the only ones who see this horror, this contradiction, the utter insanity of it, while their families and communities welcome them home and expect them to get "back in the swing of things". While there are individuals who can be successful in such an environment - those inherently lacking in conscience and normal human emotional capacity - the healthy human mind breaks under such pressure because it is not adaptive for human beings to go to war and kill other human beings for corporate goals and aims - even if those goals and aims are well hidden behind false flag terror events and shady bogey-men of doom. It breaks us - it breaks our minds, our bodies and our hearts.

So, we have hundreds of thousands of men and women suffering intensely and a power structure with no capability to, or intention of, helping them because it is not in that power structure's inherent nature to do so. We cannot, as a society, expect organizations run by psychopathic individuals to care for the physically and psychologically devastated - yet we do, and we wonder and beat our chests and rail against a system that "does not work" for these people when it was never designed to work. Another article that caught my eye that is directly related stated:

From 2001 to 2009, the Army's suicide rate increased more than 150 percent while orders for psychiatric drugs rose 76 percent over the same period.

Our soldiers are killing themselves because they see no other way to end their suffering - suffering built on and breeding on lies, official denial and the isolation that comes from never being able to speak about a lie so large that no one dare acknowledge it.

So, what is the solution? Is there a solution or have those who ended their lives found the only realistic one? Here's a radical idea: tell them - all of them - the Truth. Tell them that they were lied to, that they fell for a marketing pitch, that the people they killed did nothing wrong, that they're not having nightmares for no reason. Tell them that it's a sign of their humanity that they can't forget, that they can't sleep, that they're losing weight and getting sick. Tell them that we, as a nation, as their families and as their friends, deeply understand because we were lied to as well. Tell them that there is a way out of this lie and it has to happen one person at a time, starting with them. The reality is that a human being cannot recover from severe trauma (physical or psychological) without understanding what happened - without understanding the truth of the matter.

© Mr.Fish

 The truth will empower them because most of those demons that command their days and their nights were born from believing the lies they were told and then being infinitely, tortuously confused about why, if they are soldiers for freedom and democracy and on the "good side" of the fight, it feels like they lost their soul.

The truth will empower them because, without it, they can only look back through a haze at why they made the decision to join an organization they thought was Good and Mighty, only to find out through their own blood and screams that it is a criminal, twisted machine of death for no "good" reason.

The truth will empower them because in that truth they can begin to put back together their view of not only the world, but themselves. They can begin again to tell the "good" from the "bad" and be able to choose, this time with clear eyes, which side they want to take. Without the truth, there is no hope for them, with it, they have a chance.

The mental illness that is created by forcing non-psychopathic human beings to behave in a psychopathic manner, or be killed, which is the condition on today's battlefield, cannot be truly cured with anything other than the truth.

Of course, this radical remedy is one that can only be administered by those of you reading this - by those of us who know these men and women and care enough to reach out with the truth and give them an opportunity to discuss the reality of it all without the whitewash of patriotism and democracy and the "good fight". It has to come from individuals because the current power structure cannot, by definition, tell these men and women the truth about what has happened and why and how their part in it all was wholly stage-managed by pathological men and women in power. If the power structure could remedy this, it would be done - they can't because it does not, and cannot ever, benefit them to do so.

Yes, it's a harsh, scary, truth - but nowhere near as harsh and scary as the nightmare those with a conscience are trapped in due to the lies. The truth is an infinitely more effective remedy than psychotropic medication that leaves already ravaged bodies and minds in a hopeless, mindless, zombified state one step from death - one final step that many take themselves. We, as a society and as individual human beings, can do better for these men and women - all it takes is the truth and the bravery to speak it and helping them know that they can safely speak it as well.

For background information on pathological people in power and their effect on society, please read these works: Political Ponerology, Political Ponerology a Review, Ponerology 101

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Anart Grey - Author

Israel Encourages Palestinian Rocket Attacks

When a people that have been dispossessed of their land, livelihoods and homes, periodically murdered and regularly terrorized, take action to resist and defend themselves, they are guilty of nothing but standing up for their human rights and their rights under international law.

BBC Arabic Photo Journalist, Jihad Masharawi, weeps as he holds his baby son who was murdered by the Israeli army today

Yesterday, Wed. 14th Nov. 2012 Israel launched the latest in a long line of "Operations" that stretch back over 60 years aimed at terrorizing the people of Palestine. By naming the attack 'Operation 'pillar of cloud" the Israeli military was unambiguous about its intent: to blow up as much of Gaza and as many Palestinians as they saw fit.

Why do Palestinians fire rockets into Israel? The vast majority of them, and I mean the VAST majority either miss their target or make a small hole in the ground far from their intended target. The rocket attacks appear to serve only as justification for the Israeli military to attack Gaza and murder Palestinians. So what's the point?

The point is that the rocket attacks are the Palestinians ONLY way of protesting against the 60 year long occupation of their land responding to unprovoked Israeli attacks against and murder of Palestinian civilians. Think about that. The Palestinians have no option to appeal to the international community because no one listens. They have zero chance of the Western media applying pressure to halt Israeli aggression and redress Palestinian grievances because the Western media is unashamedly biased towards Israel.

The Palestinians have two choices: they can sit quietly by and allow the IDF to arbitrarily and summarily murder them, or they can fire primitive rockets at the closest targets inside Israel and hope that they make the Israeli government think twice. But even here the Palestinians have a problem: the Israeli government welcomes the firing of Palestinian rockets into Israel, and they periodically provoke it.

'Nonsense!' I hear you say. 'Why would the Israeli government want to provoke Palestinians to attack Israelis?' The state of Israel was born out of and has prospered ever since on the basis of there being a threat to its existence. Israel wields massively disproportionate power around the world, especially in Western nations and the USA, largely because it is surrounded by Arab nations that are the target of the "war on terror" being waged by the American Empire and its pusillanimous partners.

The war on terror is, of course, a cover for a war of acquisition of the natural resources of many of those Arab nations, and Israel has always acted as the Western nations' garrison in the Middle East, tasked with the job of ensuring that the Middle East remains unstable and therefore controllable. In fact, the establishment of the state of Israel on land belonging to Middle Eastern Arabs and the long-standing conflict that has resulted, has been the method via which Western governments have ensured the instability of the Middle East. It is much easier to sell Western military intervention and political meddling in a region of the world that is "in conflict" than if it were peaceful and stable. The fact that Western nations themselves are the cause of the 'conflict' is apparently of little importance or relevance.

The fact of the matter is that, if the state of Israel had been established in Kenya or Madagascar for example, it would undoubtedly have evolved to play a role in world politics commensurate with its population i.e. a largely insignificant one. But today, Israeli governments via their infamous Israel lobby in Washington, are able to manipulate large sections of all three of the United States Executive branches. Read Mearsheimer and Walt's 'The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy' for the hard facts on this.

Over the past few days, the massively pro-Israel Western media and politicians have been subtly and not-so-subtly blaming the Palestinians for provoking the latest violence during which 17 Palestinians (and counting) have been killed and over 100 injured. Among the Palestinian dead were an 11-month-old baby and a woman pregnant with twins. This is compared to 3 Israelis killed and 7 injured. For example, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague stated:

"Hamas bears principal responsibility for the current crisis. I utterly condemn rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups. This creates an intolerable situation for Israeli civilians in southern Israel, who have the right to live without fear of attack from Gaza,"

Apparently the intolerable situation for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza who are regularly murdered by the Israeli military and confined to a open air prison pales in comparison to the plight of the 24,000 Israeli inhabitants of towns like Sderot who are subject to the homemade, sugar-fueled rockets that wobble their way from Gaza and which generally land harmlessly far and wide of their targets.

But my point is not to make judgements on the relative value of the lives of Palestinian or Israeli civilians (even if the difference in levels of suffering and death is clear). My point is that the Israeli government is to blame for ALL such deaths and suffering.

The truth is that the latest round of violence (like so many previous round of violence) was clearly and deliberately provoked by the Israeli government and military.

Manufacturing Terrorism

The Western media would have us believe that Israeli attacks on Gaza are always in retaliation to Palestinian rocket fire into Israel. This is not true, and it is not true of the latest violence. The firing of rockets from Palestine into Israel usually only occur in response to Israeli aggression.

On October 29th the BBC reported that:

"Militants in Gaza have fired 26 rockets into Israel, officials say, amid a flare-up in fighting which shattered a brief ceasefire between the two sides. No injuries were reported from the barrage, in the south of the country." The BBC said that, "It came hours after Israeli aircraft hit targets in Gaza, after militants fired rockets following the killing by Israel of a Gazan who Israel said fired mortars at its troops."

On November 4th, Israeli forces shot dead "an unarmed, mentally disabled man" who made the mistake of walking too close to an Israeli-imposed "buffer" area inside the occupied Gaza Strip. So the Israelis shot dead a mentally retarded man because he was walking inside the open air prison that the Israelis have allowed the Palestinians to call home.

On November 8th, the Israeli military invaded the Gaza Strip near al-Qarara villlage northeast of Khan Yunis and fatally injured a child. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR):

"They leveled areas of Palestinian land amidst indiscriminate shooting. A few hours later, they moved southwards to 'Abassan village. They opened fire indiscriminately and leveled areas of Palestinian land. An Israeli helicopter gunship also opened fire at the area. At approximately 16:30, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF [Israeli occupation forces] military vehicles, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen. At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his family's house, located nearly 1,500 meters away from the area where the IOF were present."

Ahmed subsequently died of his injuries.

In response, on November 10th, Palestinian resistance fighters attacked an Israeli army jeep near the boundary with Gaza, injuring 4 Israeli soldiers and fired several rockets into Israel.

Following this, Israel attacked civilian neighborhoods in Gaza. In the ensuing 72 hour period, Israeli forced killed 7 Palestinians. According to PCHR, five of the dead were civilians, including 3 children. Fifty-two others, including 6 women and 12 children were wounded.

"Four of these deaths and 38 of the injuries resulted from an Israeli attack on a football playground in al-Shoja'iya neighborhood east of Gaza City," PCHR reported.

On Nov. 13th, Reuters reported:

"After five days of mounting violence, Israel and the Palestinians stepped back from the brink of a new war in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, sending signals to each other via Egypt that they would hold their fire unless attacked."

The report added:

Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Gaza's Hamas government, praised the main armed factions in the enclave for agreeing on Monday night to a truce. "They showed a high sense of responsibility by saying they would respect calm should the Israeli occupation also abide by it," he said.

Then, yesterday, Israel summarily executed Hamas military chief Ahmad al-Jabari. Reuters noted that the Israeli attack "appeared to end a 24-hour lull in cross-border violence that surged this week." 

The Israeli government has a LONG history of deliberately breaking cease-fires with Palestinians in order to provoke Palestinian response and then justify Israeli mass murder of Palestinians.

For example, two months before the 2008-2009 Israeli 'Cast lead' operation that resulted in the mass murder of 1400 Palestinians, most of them civilians and 400 of them children, Israel broke a five-month-long ceasefire with Hamas on November 4th, 2008 by assassinating six Hamas officials in Gaza. Further proof of Israeli cynicism was the report that the 'Cast Led' attack on Gaza was planned six months previously.

I noted above that the firing of rockets from Palestine into Israel usually only occurs in response to Israeli aggression. Now and again, rockets are fired from Palestine and no one seems to know who was responsible.

Hamas blames 'Israeli collaborators' for launching rockets

Albawaba.com
Sun, 12 Oct 2008

The Hamas rulers of Gaza Strip on Tuesday lashed out at gunners who fire rockets at Israel from the Palestinian territory in violation of a seven-week-old calm, calling them Israeli collaborators. "About the rocket-firing, I think those who are responsible are those who collaborate with Israel because there is a consensus by all Palestinian groups to respect the truce," said Dr. Mahmud Zahar, a senior leader of the Hamas movement.

On Monday, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an empty field outside the southern Israeli city of Sderot, causing no casualty or damage.

According to AFP, Zahar told a Gaza radio station that the party which fired the rocket was "linked to Israel as they provide a pretext to exercise pressure on the Palestinian people."

And from 2006:

Confusion in PA: Who launched Qassam?

Ynet
27/11/2006

There has been general confusion in the Palestinian Authority after a Qassam rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev. One of the cells of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military arm, has taken responsibility for the firing.

However, Abu Ahmad, one of the group's senior officials in the northern Gaza Strip, said to Ynet that he had no knowledge that his people carried out the shooting.

"As of now, we continue to be committed to the truce, but are reserving our right to respond to Israeli infractions," said Abu Ahmad.

Speaking of Israeli collaborators:

Palestinians arrest al-Qaeda 'poseurs'

December 8 2002

Palestinian security forces have arrested a group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official said yesterday.

The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged al-Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon.

"The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of collaborators who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as al-Qaeda operatives in the Palestinian territories," said the official, on condition of anonymity.

He said the alleged collaborators sought to "discredit the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide [Israel with] reasons to carry out a new [military] aggression in the Gaza Strip."

Sixty some years ago very similar scenes to those Palestine and Gaza over the past ten years were playing out in Germany and Poland, and the then Nazi government urged Western citizens to accept it all as necessary and justified. Many people then accepted and condoned the Nazi atrocities, and many more turned a blind eye.

The Nazis 1942 war on Poland's "terrorists"

Israel's ongoing war on Palestine's "terrorists"

You are probably bored of being reminded that 'those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it', or that history really does repeat itself. But you should remember that history only repeats itself when the people of this world sit back and wishfully think that this time things will be different. The Nazis massacred millions of people over a twelve-year period from 1933 to 1945. WWII (which claimed the lives of 65 million people) was ignited by an act of brutality very similar in nature to the Israeli actions in Palestine.

The ideological descendants of the bankers, political leaders, military men and global geopolitical strategists that financed, pursued and profited from that last "great" war are today sitting in Tel Aviv, Washington and London with mass murder and mayhem once again on their minds. So let us not allow history to repeat itself, yet again, by permitting the clearly psychopathic morality of our political leaders to be passed off as "freedom and democracy" or a "just fight" against some manufactured foe. Let us, if only with our collective conscious awareness, resist the blatant crimes against humanity and massacring of the innocent that is taking place in Gaza. And let us remember the core issue and injustice that must be addressed before Israel's right to exist can ever be recognized:

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Joe Quinn - Author

Gaza Israeli War as it Began: Timeline and Photos

1:25 pm GMT: The head of Hamas’ military wing, Ahmed Jabari, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike, both Hamas and Israel confirm, as the IDF announces a widespread campaign on “terror targets” and begins bombing the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian firefighters extinguish fire from the car of Ahmaed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 14, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

1:30 pm GMT: Jabari was traveling in his vehicle in Gaza City when his car was struck.

A Hamas policeman checks a destroyed car of Hamas’s military chief following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Mohammed Salem)

Palestinian security forces wheel into a hospital the body of Ahmaed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after the car he was riding was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 14, 2012. (Reuters /Mohammed Abed)

Palestinian youths look inside a building where the body of Ahmaed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, was brought to after the car he was riding was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Mohammed Abed)

1:35 pm GMT: The crackdown follows the recent escalation of violence in the region. The conflict broke out last week when Palestinian militants attacked at an Israeli military jeep.
Israel responded with retaliatory attacks, to which the Gaza Strip replied with heavy rocket fire at southern Israel.

1:45 pm GMT: The IDF stated on its website that it has launched a

“widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip”

and Jabari was its first target. He’s the highest ranking Hamas official to be killed since 2009, when Israel conducted ground offensive against Gaza.

2:20 pm GMT: Many of the buildings in the downtown Gaza city are on fire after being attacked by Israeli warplanes, RT`s Arabic correspondent Saed Swerky reports in his Twitter.

2:35 pm GMT: Dozens of injuries in a strike on a HOUSE that belongs to Arafat family. Ambulances haven’t arrived there yet.

2:40  pm GMT: Explosions rock Gaza as Israeli jets bomb Hamas positions, our correspondent reports.

The death toll from the Israeli strikes on Gaza has risen to nine.

2:47 pm GMT: Killing of top Hamas Ahmed Jabari brings Hamas into open war with Israel.

2:50 pm GMT: IDF declare the onset of a wide scale air, maritime and land military operation against Gaza.

2:53 pm GMT: IDF is moving army brigades to the South to prepare for a ground assault. Home Front Command meeting for possible attack on Tel Aviv

2:55 pm GMT: All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza.

2:58 pm GMT: The IDF has seriously damaged Hamas’ long-range missile capabilities (40 km/25 mi range) & underground weapons storage facilities.

3:00 pm GMT: Netanyahu: The world must understand that Israel has the right and a total obligation to defend its citizens.

3:01 pm GMT: Hamas spokesman: “Netanyahu can kill Palestinians but struggle against occupation will continue”

3:03 pm GMT: Netanyahu officially announces the military operation against the Palestinian military parties in Gaza

3:15 pm GMT: Hamas says Israeli Prime Minister Nyetanyahu ‘will regret this operation’ as Israeli jets bomb over 20 sites in Gaza.

3:20 pm GMT: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood calls on Egypt’s president to review its relations with Israel following Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza

3:25 pm  GMT: Israeli military starts emergency call up of reservists while saying they are prepared for a ground invasion of Gaza.

3:30 pm GMT: Palestinian health ministry in Gaza announces death toll so far is 9, including, at least, one kid.

3:32 pm GMT: Israel starts emergency call up of reservists, says they’re prepared for ground invasion of Gaza.

3:34 pm GMT: Iran Condemns Israel’s Fresh Strikes on Gaza – Fars News Agency. 
3:35 pm GMT: The Israeli army plans to persist with a land and air military operation targeting ‘all militants’ in Gaza for 72 hours, al-Mayadeen.

3:40 pm GMT: Israel Announces Gaza Invasion Via Twitter, Marks the first time a military campaign goes public via tweet, according to the fast company online magazine.

3:42 pm GMT: 7 year old Raneen Arafat killed says Al Shifa Hospita, Gaza, according to Palestinian activists.

3:50 pm GMT: Haaretz reports that the IDF has hit Rafah again, with the IDF claiming that the strike killed “two terrorists” riding on motorcycles.

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Amir Cohen)

4:00 pm GMT: IDF issues draft orders for Israeli Homefront Command reserve soldiers, according to Haaretz.

4:11 pm GMT: Egypt recalling ambassador to Israel. MB asking to review relationship with Israel, according to blogger Gaza Under Attack.

4:12 pm GMT: Egypt’s FM condemns Israeli strikes on Gaza, and urges Israel to end attacks immediately acording to Al Arabiya.

4:15 pm GMT: Hamas says Israeli Prime Minister Nyetanyahu ‘will regret this operation,’ as Israeli jets bomb over 20 sites in Gaza.
Hamas official: Israel will ‘pay a price for this cowardly assassination’.

4:20 pm GMT: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood calls on Egypt’s president to review its relations with Israel following Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza.

4:25 pm GMT: Israeli military starts emergency call up of reservists while saying they are prepared for a ground invasion of Gaza.

4:30 pm GMT: Palestinian health ministry in Gaza announces death toll so far is 9, including, at least, one kid. 

4:32 pm GMT: Israel starts emergency call up of reservists, says they’re prepared for ground invasion of Gaza.

4:34 pm GMT: Iran Condemns Israel’s Fresh Strikes on Gaza – Fars News Agency. 

4:35 pm GMT: The Israeli army plans to persist with a land and air military operation targeting ‘all militants’ in Gaza for 72 hours, al-Mayadeen. 
4:40 pm GMT: Israel Announces Gaza Invasion Via Twitter, Marks the first time a military campaign goes public via tweet, according to the fast company online magazine.

Palestinian medics wheel a wounded boy into the al-shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli air strike on November 14, 2012. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

5:00 pm GMT:  IDF issues draft orders for Israeli Homefront Command reserve soldiers, according to Haaretz.

5:11 pm GMT: Egypt recalling ambassador to Israel. MB asking to review relationship with Israel, according to blogger Gaza Under Attack.
5:12 pm GMT: Egypt’s FM condemns Israeli strikes on Gaza, and urges Israel to end attacks immediately acording to Al Arabiya.

5:21 pm GMT: Medical sources in Gaza saying at least 9 dead and 20 wounded.

Palestinians stand next to wounded children at a hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City November 14, 2012. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

5:24 pm GMT: Israel confirms 10 dead in Gaza, reports say.

5:25 pm GMT: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood says it “will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression”.

5:30 pm GMT: Britain has called for restraint after Israeli strike on Gaza, saying that further violence was in no one’s interests according to Al Arabiya. 

5:32 pm GMT: Palestinian President Abbas calls for urgent Arab League meeting after Israeli strike on Gaza according to Alarabiya.

5:38 pm GMT: UN Chief Ban Ki-moon reiterates call for de-escalation of tensions in Gaza on both sides, spokesman says. 

5:40 pm GMT: Israel has carried out 2 new bombing raids in the Tel el-Hawa and Zetun districts of Gaza city, according to bloggers in Gaza.

5:45 pm GMT: Big explosion near home of Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar according to Al Arabiya correspondent. 

5:56 pm GMT: Pentagon: “We stand by our Israeli partners in their right to defend themselves against terrorism”, news agencies report.
6:04 pm GMT: PM Netanyahu & Defense Minister Barak to make a joint statement statement to the Israeli public at 2030. (8:30 pm)

6:15 pm GMT: Defense Minister Ehud Barak has declared a special situation in all Israeli territory, covering all Israeli cities up to a radius of 40 kilometers around the Gaza Strip.

6:20 pm GMT: the IDF has warned Hamas leaders not to show their faces above ground in the days ahead.

6:24 pm GMT: Six rockets from the Gaza strip hurled toward Beersheba on Wednesday evening, Army Radio and Jerusalem Post staff  reported.

Palestinian youths evacuate an elderly man following an Israeli air strike on November 14, 2012 in Gaza City. (AFP Photo/Mohammed Abed)

6:27 pm GMT: The Iron Dome rocket defense system successfully intercepted a total of 15 rockets on Wednesday evening, Israeli’s Channel 2 reported.
6:30 pm GMT: Medics in Gaza report more than 30 injuries in the last attack on Tal Al-Hawa most of whom are kids and women, according to tweets from inside Gaza.
6:35 pm GMT: Israeli Navy has struck terror sites in the Gaza Strip according to an IDF spokesman.
6:40 pm GMT:“Israel’s goal is to achieve a long-term ceasefire with Egyptian mediation. IDF will continue to pound Gaza until such a truce is reached” says Volunteers for Israel, a charity that connects Israel and the USA.
6:45 pm GMT: Health minister says 10 people killed in 20 airstrikes on Gaza Strip today, including 2 young children according to AP.

Palestinian medics carry a wounded baby into the al-shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli air strike on November 14, 2012. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

6:54 pm GMT: Israeli prime minister says military is `prepared to expand’ Gaza operation, according to AP.
6:58 pm GMT: Israeli Defence Minster Ehud Barak says “We are at the start of the action, not the end. But in the long term, this military action will restore calm” according to the Jerusalem Post.
7:00 pm GMT: Palestinians in Gaza fired two rockets in the Eshkol region of southern Israel Wednesday night. The rockets exploded in open areas and no injuries or damages were reported, according to AP.
7:06 pm GMT: Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired a Grad rocket toward Dimona Wednesday night, Channel 2 reported. No injuries or damages were reported from the attack. It was not immediately clear where the rocket struck, according to the Jerusalem Post.
7:10 pm GMT: Locals inside Gaza take to Twiiter to claim that at least 3 children have already been killed in the attacks.
7:15 pm GMT: Hamas has announced a state of emergency in Gaza, and evacuated all its security buildings, according to bloggers in Gaza.
7:20 pm GMT: People in Gaza describe how  ships have been shelling the ground, they can hear bombs dropping, F16s flying above them all day &  drones buzzing overhead, according to tweets from inside Gaza.

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip November 14, 2012. (Reuters/Darren Whiteside)

A Palestinian man evacuates a woman following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 14, 2012. (Reuters/Ahmed Zakot)

7:22 pm GMT: Former US President Jimmy Carter was quoted by Israel’s Haaretz daiy as saying: “Both sides should cease all hostilities; Israel should end iblockade of Gaza“.
7:27 pm GMT: Egypt has decided to withdraw its ambassador to Israel.
7:34 pm GMT: Egypt’s president orders UN representative to call for emergency security council meeting over Israel Gaza strikes, spokesman says, according to Egyptian state TV.
7:40 pm GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov calls for end to violence in Gaza.
7:48 pm GMT: According to AlJazeera, the Israeli army has reported a rocket from Gaza hitting a shopping center in a southern Israeli city.
7:55 pm GMT: Israel is reportedly preparing for a ground operation into Gaza.
8:43 pm GMT: Israel’s ambassador to Egypt has left for Tel Aviv together with a number of the embassy’s employees, claim some media reports. Others insist embassy functioning as usual.
8:51 pm GMT: The Arab League will meet Saturday to discuss the Gaza attack, reports Egypt’s news agency.
9:06 pm GMT: The Israeli Security Cabinet has given the IDF permission to draft reservists and expand the Gaza operation.

A rocket is launched from Rafah, in the southern Gaza strip towards Israel, on November 14, 2012. (AFP Photo/Said Khatib)

9:37 pm GMT: Israeli National Security Minister Avi Dichter: “We have no intention to end this round of fighting and suffer more hits in the next”
10:26 pm GMT: Hamas’ armed wing, the  Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claims to be shelling “the occupied city of Tel Aviv”.
10:43 pm GMT: Alarms sound in Be’er Sheva as two Gaza rockets hit city; no casualties reported.
12:02 am GMT: Palestinians report 15 people dead and over 100 wounded since the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense.

12:51 am GMT: The United Nations Security Council has called an emergency meeting to discuss escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The meeting is scheduled for 0200 GMT, and will take place behind closed doors.
1:13 am GMT: Diplomats say both the Israeli and Palestinian envoys are to speak at the emergency UNSC meeting.

1:57 am GMT: Worldwide protests are being planned to protest Israeli strikes in Gaza. People in the US, the UK, Israel and many European countries plan to gather to show their concern over escalating violence in the Middle East.
2:34 am GMT: Russia hopes the UNSC will convince Israel to cease fire, said the country’s permanent representative in the United Nations Vitaly Churkin.
3:06 am GMT: ­Increasing number of reports claim Israel is planning to shut down internet services in Gaza, citing IDF.
3:25 am GMT: Internet hacktivist collective ‘Anonymous’ claims to have taken down the Israeli Defense Ministry website www.idf.il. In a message shared via one of the group’s Twitter accounts, they posted the site address with a popular hashtag used for similar actions, ‘tango down’.
3:50 am GMT: President of the Security Council Hardeep Singh Puri calls for the end of violence in Gaza during UNSC meeting.
3:55 am GMT: Palestine warns UNSC that Israel is mobilizing on the ground as the emergency meeting is happening and that fear and panic engulf Gaza’s population.
4:15 am GMT: The UN Security Council emergency meeting on Gaza ends with no concrete decision reached.
4:40 am GMT: Palestine says if Israel does not stop aggression, it will keep returning to UN Security Council seeking a resolution.

5:04 am GMT: One million citizens in Israel spent the night in bomb shelters, hiding from dozens of rockets flying in from Gaza, according to the IDF.

Israelis prepare to sleep in a bomb shelter in the southern town of Netivot November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Nir Elias)

5:05 am GMT: 25 rockets have been fired since midnight from Gaza, Haaretz reports.
05:04 am GMT: One million citizens in Israel spent the night in bomb shelters, hiding from dozens of rockets flying in from Gaza, according to the IDF.
5:24 am GMT: Reports of civilian casualties in Israeli airstrikes: BBC Arabic journalist Omar Jihad lost his 11 month-old-son, sister-in-law and has a brother wounded in a Gaza strike.
5:12 am GMT: Israel continued its rocket attacks in Gaza overnight, according to Haaretz.
5:09 am GMT: Three Palestinian militants killed by Israeli strike in southern Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

5:41 am GMT: IDF disperses leaflets over Gaza Strip, warning residents to stay away from Hamas and terror operatives because that would pose a risk to their safety and stating that Hamas is dragging the region into violence.

A picture taken from the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows warning leaflets falling on the Gaza Strip dropped by Israeli military planes on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mohammed Abed)

5:52 am GMT: About 100 people protested outside Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s apartment in Tel Aviv Wednesday night following the start of the offensive on Gaza. The activists were shouting “money for welfare, not war.”

(Image from screenshot of youtube video user@SocialTV)

5:58 am GMT: Death toll from Israeli strike on Gaza Strip rises to 13 dead and more than 100 injured, PressTV reports.

A Palestinian man looks at the damage after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 15, 2012. (Reuters / Suhaib Salem)

6:16 am GMT: All schools within a 40km range of Gaza have been closed. People living within a 7km range of the Gaza border are not allowed to leave their homes and gatherings of over 100 people in one place are prohibited, Yeshiva World News reports.
6:19 am GMT: Israel’s army has allowed journalists to go into Gaza, but police are not letting cars pass in order to get there, according to the BBC’s Middle East Bureau Chief Paul Danahar.
6:34 am GMT: Hamas stated that they will avenge the assassination of one of the organization’s leaders, Ahmed al-Jabari, who was killed in the Israeli missile strike, by sending suicide bombers into Israel.

A picture taken from the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows smoke billowing from a spot targeted by an Israeli air strike inside the Gaza strip on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

7:05 am GMT: A baby has been seriously injured by a rocket attack on a house in the South of Israel, tweets RT correspondent Tom Barton.
7:06 am GMT: Rocket strikes on the South of Israel have killed three people, reports Israeli television.
7:32 am GMT: Alarm sirens are going off in a number of southern Israeli cities close to the border with Gaza, including Ashdod, Yavne and Kiryat Malakhi, reports RT’s Paula Slier.
8:11 am GMT: Two women and a man were killed in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Malachi when a rocket hit a building. A one-year old child and another infant were also injured in the strike. Additionally, 10 people suffered panic attacks, according to Israeli publication Ynet.
8:19 am GMT: Angry crowds are gathering in Gaza to participate in the funeral of Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari, killed by an Israeli airstrike.
8:23 am GMT: Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing in preparation for possible inflow of injured from Gaza. Hospitals and ambulance service are on standby.

9:12 am GMT: BBC correspondent Jihad Masharawi weeps as he cradles his 11-month-old son in his arms after he was burned alive during an Israeli rocket attack.

(Image from twitter user@WalaaGh)

9:28 am GMT: A crater caused by the impact of Israeli missiles in Gaza city, following a barrage of 60 rockets targeting Palestinian territory.

A general view shows a crater at a sport targeted by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City in the early hours of November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

9:47 am GMT: The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas has announced it is launching “Operation Shale Stones” in response to the Israeli “Pillar of Defense”.