As Israel enters Gaza to stop the missile fire and terror tunnel attacks from Gaza, 314 Arabs were killed on Thursday.

Those 314 Arabs were killed in Syria’s civil war, and had no connection to Israel or Jews, which explains the hypocritical silence coming from the world and the Jew-haters.

That number is up, from the 229 Arabs killed on Wednesday in Syria.

Foreign media already are running over  each other with unconfirmed Hamas claims of dead children and instant analyses that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to send ground troops into Gaza precludes bloodbath.

Israel has everything to lose and nothing to gain by standing pat and continuing to gamble that Hamas will not score a direct hit a crowded mall, school or factory while the terrorist regime’s policy of using human shields thwarts the Air Force’s ability to rid Gaza of terrorists and storerooms of thousands of rockets and missiles.

Hamas has nothing to gain from a ceasefire, which would strengthen the hand of its rival Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

“Operation Death Wish” is how The Jewish Press described Hamas large-scale attacks on virtually all of Israel, and by all accounts, Hamas has lived up to the name.

If it was counting on Netanyahu to be too afraid to order ground troops into Gaza, it again was mistaken.

If it was counting on the international community to stop Israel, it again was mistaken.

Israel will not win many compliments from foreign media and from supposedly friendly countries, with the possible exception of Canada.

President Barack Obama has been more or less quiet since Israel launched the Protective Edge counter-terror campaign 10 days ago.  He has opposed a ground operation, but Israel no longer considers him as its de facto Secretary of Defense.

Hamas’ decision to bomb try to explode rockets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and even Haifa finally got the message across to the Israeli government to stop playing footisie.

After a decade of sustaining approximately 15,000 mortar shells, rocket and missile attacks and  after retaliating only enough to draw a ceasefire until the next round of attacks, the government now is ready to admit it is “kill or be killed.”

Hamas’ best weapon right now is the international media. After Wednesday’s raid of a Gaza beach used by terrorists but also crowded with children, several of whom were killed in the bombing, Hamas is reporting that children have been killed left and right.

Foreign media lap up the reports without verifying the facts.

However, one offsetting factor was an official announcement by Egypt late Thursday night, “It is all Hamas’ fault” for not accepting a ceasefire. Hamas in effect gave Israel the green light to hit back at Hamas as hard as it can.

Israel’s decision hold up its head and enter Gaza, even if it means a long-term operation and turns Israel into an “occupier,” puts the international media in its place. It can report deaths of women and children, but it cannot disguise the well-documented fact that Hamas is guilty of war crimes by using innocent civilians as shields for terrorists.

The discovery by UNWRA of a Hamas stockpile of weapons in one of its schools Thursday is only the tip of the iceberg.

Hamas will have a harder time ever in trying to win the war for PR, but if that is the only war it can win, it will be left with nothing.

Sympathy from The New York Times, CNN and the U.S. State Dept. is not going to buy Gazans a sack of potatoes.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave the IDF the green light for a ground invasion of Gaza that already has begun late Thursday night as thousands of more reservists, including those serving in tank battalions, reported for duty.

Soldiers already have taken control of relatively less-populated areas in northern Gaza.

“Following ten days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to deescalate the situation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated.

It added, “The IDF’s objective as defined by the Israeli government is to establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continues indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas’ terror infrastructure.

“This stage of operation “Protective Edge,” led by the IDF’s Southern Command, will include close coordination between IDF units including infantry, armored corps, engineer corps, artillery, and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support. This effort will also be supported by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and other intelligence organizations.”

A sure sign of an impending ground incursion Thursday evening was the IDF’s bringing out the artillery to work with naval and air power to try to stem the renewal of a massive Hamas assault on half of Israel immediately after the end of the five-hour United Nations-sponsored “humanitarian” ceasefire,” which Hamas broke after two hours.

Hamas in effect chose to opt for an IDF ground incursion by insisting on what Israeli officials said were impossible conditions for a ceasefire and by unleashing another barrage of rocket and missile fire.

Hamas tested Israel’s will with a barrage or rockets as soon as the five-hour ceasefire ended at 3 p.m. Israeli time.

The Iron Dome shot down more than dozen rockets over Ashdod and Tel Aviv, but one man was critically injured when he jumped out of his car and raced for a shelter.

One building in Kiryat Gat, 25 miles north of Be’er Sheva, was hit by a rocket. No serious injuries were reported.

The Air Force carried out large-scale bombing raids, including a weapons storage room in a Gaza hospital.

Hamas managed to honor the United Nations-sponsored five-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” for a grand total of two hours before attacking Israel with mortar shells. It waited until less than a minute after the end of the ceasefire to stage a massive attack on Israel with more than 50 rockets and missiles from the south to north of Tel Aviv Thursday afternoon.

No serious injuries have been reported, but at least one home in Ashkelon sustained damage. The Iron Dome intercepted several missiles fired at Tel Aviv and surrounding cities, including Kfar Saba to the north.

At noon, two hours after the brief ceasefire was upheld by Israel and Hamas, the terrorist regime hit the Eshkol region in the Western Negev with three mortar shells

Hamas also Hamas executed four civilians for collaborating with Israel during the Protect Edge counter-terrorist campaign that began last week. More than a dozen of others have been arrested and face the same fate.

Foreign leaders have not commented on the executions or commented if they represented a “disproportionate response.”

Hamas followed up the mortar shelling with rocket attacks seconds after the official end of the ceasefire, shooting at Ashkelon, Gaza Belt communities and Be’er Sheva within an hour.

By 6 p.m., the Iron Dome system already was in action over the skies of Tel Aviv.

After the initial attacks, the IDF swiftly responded, bombing terror targets in northern and central Gaza.

Israel has suffered a bad name following the bombing of Gaza beach on Wednesday that had been used by terrorists but where children also were playing until the Air Force combed the area killing at least four minors.

Hamas also suffered PR damage when it was exposed again for using civilian areas for terror. UNRWA discovered weapons in one of its school, as reported here.

Foreign leaders or would-be leaders, ranging from former U.S. President Bill Clinton to Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, castigated Israel, Erdogan told a meeting of Islamic scholars in in Turkey, “Since 1948, we have been witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every day and every month. But above all we are witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every Ramadan.”

Clinton, whose Oslo Accords unwittingly created “new Middle East” exactly opposite of what he intended, still is on the soap box preaching that Israel is the reason Hamas attacks.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu could and should make a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians,” he told an Indian news channel Wednesday.

“Over the long run it is not good for Israel to keep isolating itself from world opinion because of the absence of a viable peace process,” he added. “In the short to medium term, Hamas can inflict terrible public relations damage on Israel by forcing it to kill Palestinian civilians to counter Hamas.”

Did he really say “civilians”? Did he really say Israel might suffer, oy veh, “public relations damage.”

Now we have another reason why the U.S. Constitution prevents a president from running for a third term.

There also are other reasons, such as Barack Obama.

Israel has agreed to a United Nations request for a six-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” effective 10 a.m. Thursday, amid a race between a broader counter-terror offensive including a ground incursion and efforts by Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to arrange a stable ceasefire.

The “hold-fire” break would allow the United Nations and Hamas to freely operate, presumably to help the injured.

The IDF warned, “Should the humanitarian window be exploited by Hamas or other terror organizations for the purpose of launching attacks against Israeli civilian or military targets the IDF will respond firmly and decisively.”

Even center-left Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said Wednesday that the IDF has no choice but to send soldiers into Gaza if Hamas continues to attack. Terrorists in Gaza fired three more rockets late Wednesday night towards Kiryat Malachi, halfway between Be’er Sheva and Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome system intercepted them.

The IDF called up 8,000 additional reservists Wednesday night, bringing to more than 55,000 the number of reservists beefing up combat units or freeing them from other positions for availability to enter Gaza.

Hamas has been all over the lot in its official statements, proposing a 10-year ceasefire, demanding that Israel remove the maritime blockade, snubbing the idea of a ceasefire brokered by Egypt but then indicating it might be willing to accept it.

If Hamas continues to attack as it did on Tuesday and Wednesday, when it fired approximately 150 rockets and missiles at Israel each day, Israel will have little choice but to send ground troops into Gaza.

Israel has no more points to win on the diplomatic and PR front. The effect of its being a “moral army” amid Hamas’ use of civilian shields has worn off, and the deaths of half a dozen Arab children on a Gaza beach used by terrorists and bombed by the Air Force have tipped the sympathy scales in favor of Hamas.

“Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives,” the military said in a statement shortly after the bombing,

It added, “The IDF has no intention of harming civilians dragged by Hamas into the reality of urban combat. We are carefully investigating the incident in question.

“The reported civilian causalities from this strike are a tragic outcome.

“Hamas’ cynical exploitation of a population held hostage has caused the IDF to cancel strikes on terrorist targets on multiple occasions this operation.”

A ground operation becomes more probable every day. Hamas convinced many Gazans Wednesday to remain in their homes despite IDF warnings for them to leave before terror targets, including homes and public institutions, would be bombed. The military already has called off several bombing missions because of the presence of civilians.

However, a “ground invasion” does not mean that thousands of soldiers will suddenly swarm into Gaza City

Tanks and foot soldiers initially would cross slowly and carefully into northern Gaza, which is not densely populated. Sorties into larger villages would be the next step, with aerial cover.

The IDF knows that hundreds of terror tunnels, many of them underneath homes, remain in Gaza, and Hamas would raise its morale, however immoral, if God forbid, it succeeded in kidnapping soldiers through the tunnel systems.

As preparations for a ground operation continue, Mahmoud Abbas is in Egypt trying to work out a ceasefire with Egyptian officials and with the help, or hindrance, of Kerry. State Dept. spokeswoman Jen Psaki revealed on Tuesday and speculated in The Jewish Press here, that he had been involved in the Egyptian proposal, which Hamas rejected Wednesday morning although Israel accepted it for six hours.

Kerry was scheduled to take time off from his visit in Europe and fly to Egypt this morning but called off the trip, perhaps because he saw he only would make himself look ridiculous, again.

Approximately 100 out of more than 1,000 rockets fired on Israel in the past two weeks have exploded in Gaza, the IDF reported Tuesday.

When foreign media outlets. and Haaretz, show photo-ops of children and women wounded from explosions, they won’t mention that the victims may have been hit by none other than Hamas.

Twenty percent of Gazans now are without electricity following another Hamas rocket that hit a power line Tuesday evening, two days after a rocket knocked out electricity to part of the Gaza region.

So when foreign media report that Hamas is crying that the IDF has left its poor citizens without electricity, skip it.

The Israeli government has told Israel Electric Corp.(IEC) not to try to repair the damaged power lines because of the danger of being shot at by terrorists.

Any doubts that Hamas is on a suicide mission with what The Jewish Press has termed Operation death Wish were removed by Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. He said in an interview on Hamas’ TV network Al Aqsa TV this week, “We aren’t leading our people today to destruction. We are leading them to death.” The video with English subtitles can be seen below.

Nearly 150 rockets were aimed at Israel on Tuesday, and two of them nearly killed Palestinian Authority Arabs in Hebron. Like most of the missiles and rockets fired on the rest of Israel, they landed in open areas.

Hamas celebrates over every attack. Will they dance in the streets if one of their rockets blows up Arabs in Hebron like they wounded Bedouin in Israel on Tuesday?
American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on Bloomberg News earlier this week, “Mahmoud Abbas, the sometimes moderate, often ineffectual leader of the Palestinian Authority, just asked his rivals in Hamas a question that other bewildered people are also asking: ‘What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?’”
Goldberg suggested that the answer, given the facts on the ground the past week, is that “Hamas is trying to get Israel to kill as many Palestinians as possible.”
He explained, “Dead Palestinians represent a crucial propaganda victory for the nihilists of Hamas. It is perverse, but true. It is also the best possible explanation for Hamas’s behavior, because Hamas has no other plausible strategic goal here.”
Goldberg didn’t have to analyze the situation to draw that conclusion. All he to do was ask Abu Zuhri.

Eight day of Hamas’ Operation Death Wish: The Palestinian Authority refused Israeli blood donations, and the Israel Air Force resumed bombing Gaza after a six-hour ceasefire that Hamas snubbed.

“Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services organization on Monday offered to transfer blood units and donations to the Gaza Strip, but the humanitarian gesture was rejected by the Palestinian Authority,” JNS.org news service reported, in an exclusive attributed to the Israel HaYom newspaper.

“According to MDA Director Eli Bin, the organization then offered to assist the PA by facilitating blood drives involving Palestinian or Israeli Arab donors, but that offer was also rejected.”

Bin said the offer  was a “humanitarian gesture” that “brings us respect as human beings.”

Six hours after Israel accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal and held fire while Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected it and continued to bombard Israel, the Israeli Force bombed 20 concealed rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and “other operational infrastructure,” the IDF spokesman stated.

Gaza medical sources reported one person was killed in the raids, and according to their count, the death toll as reached 193 while more than 1,400 have been wounded.

If Hamas is hoping a higher casualty figure will make the world feel sorry for the terrorist regime, it should not hold its breath, unless it wants a premature death through self-asphyxiation.

Its refusal to accept the Egyptian ceasefire proposal because it allegedly favored Israel, despite giving Hamas huge lifelines, cost it dearly in the international community. The refusal by the Palestinian Authority to accept donations of Israeli blood was poisoned icing on a cake of diplomatic explosives.

Even  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discarded the usual “balanced” statements aimed at placating both Hamas and Israel and stated, “I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a ceasefire, in which Egypt and Israel worked together.”

He added that Hamas is “purposely playing politics” by continuing the rocket fire, using innocents as “human shields… against the laws of war.”

International media finally have begun  given up playing as fig leaf for Hamas’ lies but still holds on to the last straw of Hamas’ phony figures of “civilian casualties”,”

“A Washington Post foreign affairs blogger, Ishaan Tharoor, listed the names, ages, and places of death of the 83 Palestinian Arabs killed in the first three days of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge,” JNS.org reported.

A media watch group exposed the truth behind the deaths.

“In a quick check of the first 24 names, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America’s (CAMERA) Israel office found that one through three were Hamas members. Numbers five through 12 were individuals who rushed into a house previously evacuated after an Israeli warning,” it stated.

“Number 17 was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, like Hamas a U.S.-designated international terrorist organization. The fatalities listed 18 through 22 were family members of his. And number 24 apparently was another terrorist, affiliation not confirmed.”