Amid Gaza bombardment, Israeli minister seeks Facebook, TikTok blackout

Israel has asked Facebook and TikTok to ditch what it calls posts that incite violence on the platforms as the regime’s war machine breathes fire on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Benny Gantz, who is Israel’s minister of military affairs as well as justice minister, urged executives of the American technology conglomerate, Facebook, and the Chinese-owned popular site, TikTok, to unleash a crackdown on such content.

“These are measures that will directly prevent the violence that is being intentionally stirred through social media by extremist elements that are seeking to do damage to” Israel, Gantz said on Thursday night during two separate Zoom meetings with executives of both major social media firms, his office reported in a statement on Friday. 

“We are in a moment of social emergency, and we expect your assistance,” Gantz was further quoted as saying.

The statement said the executives of the two firms had vowed to “quickly and effectively” address the alleged incitement.

Israel has been bombarding the blockaded Gaza Strip repeatedly for the past several days.

At least 139 Palestinians, including 39 children and 22 women, have been killed and about 1,000 others injured since Monday.

Red alert Sirens blare in occupied territories as Hamas rocket lands in Ramat Gan

Sirens blare in Tel Aviv and central occupied territories as a Hamas rocket lands in Ramat Gan.

Palestinians share shocking footage and heart-wrenching images of civilians in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza to show the international community what is really going on and what hell-like situation Israel is creating there.

What Gantz is really asking Facebook and TikTok is apparently a sort of news blackout on the platforms regarding the situation in Gaza in an attempt to conceal the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against more than two million Palestinians living in the densely populated enclave. 

Facebook, Instagram censorship of Israeli crimes

Facebook and Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012, have imposed a massive and strict censorship on the contents posted by Palestinian and pro-Palestinian users documenting the brutalities of the Israeli regime, the Intercept news website reported on Saturday.

The two popular social media platforms equate Zionism with Judaism and immediately remove any content revealing the atrocities of Zionists in pounding the besieged Gaza Strip during the past several days, claiming that the move is in defense and for the safety of Jews, it added in an article titled “Facebook’s Secret Rules About the Word ‘Zionist’ Impede Criticism of Israel.”

However, Facebook says the abrupt removal of disturbing footage and images documenting Israel’s violence against Palestinians was just a mistake and the result of human error.

Nevertheless, the claim clearly contradicts the warning messages sent to Facebook and Instagram users in not posting such contents again.

The United Nation said on Friday that it estimates some 10,000 Palestinians have had to abandon their homes in Gaza “due to the ongoing hostilities.”

The resistance groups in Gaza, not least Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, have so far launched hundreds of rockets against Israeli targets in retaliation.

Israel’s so-called Iron Dome missile system has done little to prevent damage to the areas in the occupied territories that have been targeted by the Palestinian rockets.

Israeli airstrike kills 8 children, 2 women from same family in Gaza

An Israeli airstrike has killed 10 members of a Palestinian family, including eight children, in a refugee came in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a pre-dawn airstrike by Israeli warplanes against al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, eight children of a family were killed, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. Two women from the Abu Hatab family also lost their lives in the bombardment.

Palestinians on Saturday took to the streets in the occupied West Bank in a public display of outrage against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

The rallies marked the Nakba Day or the day the occupation of Palestine began 73 years ago.

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