Gaza Conflict

[cycloneye]

This back and forth between Israelis and Palestinians has been going on for many decades,but today it escalated to a very bad point when Israel rained missiles to Hamas targets killing over 200 people,many of them civilians.Now lets see what will happen from here.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years.

Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were also among the dead. Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and responded with several medium-range Grad rockets at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past. One Israeli was killed and at least four people were wounded in the rocket attacks. With so many wounded, the Palestinian death toll was likely to rise.

The air offensive followed weeks of intense Palestinian rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel, and Israeli leaders had issued increasingly tough warnings in recent days that they would not tolerate continued attacks.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would expand the operation if necessary. "There is a time for calm and there is a time for fighting, and now is the time for fighting," he told a news conference. He would not comment when asked if a ground offensive was planned.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_ ... lestinians

[Derek Ortt]

he Palestinians should have thought about that BEFORE sending rockets into Israel

[cycloneye]

Israel / Palestinian Conflict Could Escalate

Source: Reuters
JERUSALEM, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Israel's air attack on the Gaza Strip on Saturday could signal a return to a much higher level of violence in the conflict with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas after nine months of lower-level confrontations.

The peace process with Israel, already in a coma in the last days of George W. Bush's presidency in the United States, could be killed off by renewed violence.

Several factors point to the likelihood of violence worsening following a series of Palestinian rocket attacks since Hamas ended a ceasefire just over a week ago.

* Israel's Defence Ministry signalled it was ready to pursue and widen actions against Hamas in Gaza, including targeting the militant group's leaders, and made clear it was preparing for a potentially long campaign.

"We face a period that will be neither easy nor short, and will require determination and perseverance until the necessary change is achieved in the situation in the south," Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

* Hamas quickly vowed revenge, ordering "all fighters to respond to the Israeli slaughter". It did not say what form this action would take but one fighter maddened by the sight of the mangled bodies of his comrades said suicide bombers would blow themselves up in Israeli restaurants, cafes and streets.

Hamas leaders left the door open to a strong response, saying their movement was popular and deeply rooted. "All options are open to the Palestinian resistance to strike the Zionist enemy," a statement said. "One leader will be replaced by a hundred leaders."

* Islamist fighters fired a salvo of rockets into Israel, killing one Israeli. The mostly homemade, inaccurate rockets have caused few Israeli casualties in the past two months but militants could fire longer-range rockets which can reach the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

* Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to defeat right-wing hawks to become prime minister in an election in February, has said the rule of Hamas in Gaza must be ended because the Islamists will never make peace with Israel.

* The Israeli air attacks caused widespread anger in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Hebron staged demonstrations and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack and called for "this aggression to stop immediately".

* The Gaza Strip is the bloodiest arena in a militarily lopsided conflict. Some military analysts see it as a proxy war between moderate Arab regimes such as Egypt and hardline states such as Iran and Syria, which back Hamas.

Saturday's end to six months of relative calm during an Egyptian-brokered truce propels the Islamists into the frontline of the Palestinian struggle.

A longer battle could marginalise Abbas's Fatah movement and its Western and Arab peace backers.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LR160170.htm

[cycloneye]

I got these photos from Al-Jazerra network.(Discrection recommended to see the crude photos).







http://www.aljazeera.net/portal

[RL3AO]

The air strikes come amid rumours that an Israeli ground operation is imminent.

Israeli television said on Saturday evening that Israeli troops were massing on the Gaza border "in preparation for a supplementary ground offensive". The report has not been confirmed by independent sources.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7800985.stm

[Aslkahuna]

Hamas needs to be wiped out.

Steve

[MGC]

Hamas has brought this on themselves. Hamas should stop the rocket attacks.....MGC

[Brent]

Hamas does needs to be wiped out, otherwise it will just be this same story every few months with more of this, as it has been for years.

[cycloneye]

Hamas has no interest but to escalate violence to get concessions from Israel in a war they clearly want. Hamas haved made a terrible mistake this time as they brought this on themselves. When will this terrorist organization be held accountable?

[cycloneye]

Here is when things may escalate not between these two but with Iran if Israel blocks this ship.

Iran Red Crescent heads to Gaza

[Aslkahuna]

Wouldn't put it past Iran to be smuggling arms into Gaza under a phony Red Crescent flag. Ahmanutjob is that kind of whacko.

Steve

[RL3AO]

I have a feeling this will become a long thread as we head into 2009.

[Derek Ortt]

Some want the UN to comdemn Israel.

Why not condemn Hamas. Israel can wipe out the Palestinians for all I care. If they will not as much as speak out against the terrorists, then they are the same as the terrorists and must be eradicated

As most know, I am sick and tired of the terrorism that these people commit and or condone

[cycloneye]

Death toll rises.

Day 2 of Israel Air Strikes in Gaza and Hamas firering of Missiles into Israel

[Ed Mahmoud]

It will cause casualties in the IDF, but if Israel doesn't attack soon with ground forces, the UN will start applying the same pressure that made Israel stop the war against Hezb'Allah prematurely, and give Hamas a tactical loss but a strategic win.

[cycloneye]

Israel tanks roll towards the Gaza border.The question is if they will launch a full ground invasion.



Tanks position in border waiting for further orders.

[Derek Ortt]

they should and last year

[cycloneye]

International pressure grows for end of violence

[Derek Ortt]

the international community needs to shut up or start speaking out against the terrorists

[cycloneye]

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has blamed Hamas for triggering Israel's deadly raids on Gaza, by not extending a six-month truce with the Jewish state.

He also blamed Hamas, which controls the coastal Gaza Strip territory, for disrupting national unity talks that could have paved the way for general and presidential elections.

More at hyperlink below.

Palestinian President Abbas Blames Hamas