AS the death toll over the violence in the Gaza strip pushes past 160, the world has reacted with anger over a photograph showing Israelis treating the bombing as a spectator sport.
Locals in the city of Sderot, west of Gaza, have turned a hilltop into a makeshift cinema, bringing up chairs and sofas to get a front-row seat for the fatal air assault.
The world has reacted with outrage after journalist Allan Sorensen posted a photograph of the so-called “Sderot cinema”, which showed Israelis flocking for a good view of the bombing, with one woman winking at the camera and giving the thumbs-up as deadly rockets light up the night sky.
Sorensen’s newspaper, Denmark’s Kristeligt Dagblad, reported that the event attracted more than 50 people who had turned the hill into something that resembled “the front row of a reality war theatre”.
It said people were celebrating the deadly light show by cheerfully sharing popcorn, smoking hookahs and applauding the bomb blasts. We are here to see Israel destroy Hamas,” Eli Chone, a 22-year-old American living in Israel, told the newspaper.
“Honestly. Look at the people around you. They live in this town and must daily deal with being shot at. There’s nothing to say that they are happy that the military is now fighting back. We sit and look at Israel creating peace.
“And it’s also just good fun,” his friend added.
Sorensen’s Twitpic has since been shared 1600 times — and attracted widespread condemnation.
