As explosions lit up the Gaza skyline, Israelis gathered to watch missiles hit the strip during Israel's offensive on Thursday, in a scene aired on CNN. An international correspondent for CNN, Diana Magnay, reported live from a hilltop near the Israel-Gaza border where the crowd cheered and applauded every time a missile struck Gaza. “I think you can probably see there are lots of Israelis gathered around who are cheering when they see these kinds of Israeli strikes,” Magnay said in the report. Minutes later, the reporter tweeted “Israelis on hill above Sderot cheers as bombs land on #gaza; threaten to ‘destroy if I say a word wrong'. Scum.” However, 20 minutes later, her post was deleted. More than 260 people in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of Israel's operation Protective Edge on Tuesday. Two Israelis have died, including one soldier. The operation comes in response to Hamas firing rockets into Israel. The Israeli military said its objective is to create a safe environment in which Israel's residents can live. This week, a Danish journalist posted a picture on Twitter showing Israeli citizens cheering as missiles struck the Gaza Strip. This photo has been re-tweeted over 7,000 times. The picture shows Israelis bringing their chairs to the hilltop of Sderot to watch the strikes. A follow-up article published in English on the Kristeligt Dagblad website elaborated more on the scene shown in the picture. “People have dragged camping chairs and sofas to the top of the hill. Several sit with crackling bags of popcorn, while others smoke hookahs and talk cheerfully,” it said. Both sides to the conlict have given different signals to the Egyptian-inspired ceasefire. For a few hours on on Wednesday, a ceasefire took effect enabling the hapless Gazans to buy essential thnings to keep fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. — Al Arabiya News
