Israeli media focus on Hamas rockets, keep gore to a minimum
Coverage is also heavy on soldiers and their families, emotional issues in a country with mandatory military service and thousands of reservists in combat.
Reporting from Jerusalem — There's no visceral wartime imagery; details on injured Israeli soldiers are handled delicately. Bloody scenes such as the carnage following Tuesday's shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip appear only in snippets, and often in the context of analysis of how the world will react.
There is, however, round-the-clock coverage of the Israeli south, where rockets fired by Gazan militants have killed three Israeli civilians and injured dozens since the conflict began Dec. 27.
As Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip entered its 12th day Wednesday, the divergent realities between the Jewish state and the Arab world were on full display in the way the conflict has been covered by Israeli news media.
Channel 10 offered continuing coverage of the conflict, with simultaneous live shots from the rocket-plagued southern cities of Ashkelon, Sderot and Beersheba. When a pair of rockets landed in Beersheba on Wednesday afternoon, the first to strike the city in several days, the network correspondent scrambled for cover live on the air. After the projectiles landed harmlessly, the cameras rushed to the scene and filmed a small impact crater and police sappers retrieving rocket remnants.
In Sderot, a correspondent summarized the concerns of residents that the government would agree to a cease-fire too soon, without definitively crippling the militant group Hamas' ability to fire rockets.
The people of Sderot, he said, "would rather the [army] continue and finish this story once and for all."
Israeli public opinion overwhelmingly supports the Gaza campaign, buttressed by frustration over years of rocket attacks on southern communities and by the widespread belief that Hamas has brought the bloodshed on its own people. Israeli media coverage has largely reflected that sentiment.
"This is something we needed to do for a long time. It's not going to be pleasant, but it's necessary," said Gadi Taub, a communications professor at Hebrew University. "People are resiliently in favor of this operation."
An editorial published Wednesday in the conservative daily Jerusalem Post summed up the prevailing mood.
"How do Israelis feel when our artillery strikes a U.N.-run school building, killing dozens of people? The answer is: deeply shaken, profoundly distressed, sorrowful at the catastrophic loss of life," the article said. "But we do not feel guilt. We are angry at Hamas for forcing this war on us."
