Gaza Conflict

[Aslkahuna]

A very stupid move on the part of Israel-when you have your enemy on the ropes it's the time to finish him off not let him regain strength. As for Chavez and Morales-eh up yours!

Steve

[MGC]

Agree that Israel has made a mistake. Israel must finish the job and destroy Hamas. Hamas will take this time to regroup and continue to attack Israel......MGC

[vbhoutex]

Agree that Israel has made a mistake. Israel must finish the job and destroy Hamas. Hamas will take this time to regroup and continue to attack Israel......MGC

I think the minute it becomes evident that Hamas will continue with their stupidity that Israel will go ahead and finish the job. Hamas has seen nothing yer IMO.

[cycloneye]

Cease-Fire didnt last much as Hamas throws Rockets into Israel

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Militants fired 13 rockets into southern Israel and exchanged gunfire with troops in northern Gaza Sunday, hours after Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire in the Palestinian territory, an Israeli spokesman said.

The Qassam rockets were fired into Sderot at 9 a.m. -- seven hours after Israel's cease-fire went into effect. The rockets did not injure anyone, and Israeli aircraft destroyed the rocket launcher soon afterward, an Israeli military spokesman said.

An hour or two before the rocket attacks, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli forces in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said. Troops returned fire.


http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast ... index.html

[Stephanie]

Agree that Israel has made a mistake. Israel must finish the job and destroy Hamas. Hamas will take this time to regroup and continue to attack Israel......MGC

I think the minute it becomes evident that Hamas will continue with their stupidity that Israel will go ahead and finish the job. Hamas has seen nothing yer IMO.

I hope so.

I think that Israel had to show the world that is was willing to try and prove that Hamas would never stop their "stupidity". I hope now that Hamas has started with the rockets again the world does see (or more of it will realize) that this is all Hamas understands and will never observe a cease-fire.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

DIE HAMAS DIE!!!!!!!!! GO ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cycloneye]

Will this be a bluff from Hamas to buy time?

Hamas Agree to a Cease-Fire


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops have begun pulling out of Gaza after Hamas and other Palestinian factions annouced they will give Israel a one-week cease-fire starting Sunday.

The move comes as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he wants to withdraw Israel's forces from the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

Olmert said Sunday that Israel has no intention of remaining in Gaza, but wants assurances that a new cease-fire with the Hamas militant group will be stable.

Hamas announced a one-week cease-fire on Sunday, a day after Israel said it was ending a three-week offensive in Gaza.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480445,00.html

[Aslkahuna]

Olmert will be the death of Israel unless they get rid of him soon. He's a worse enemy to Israel's existence than HAMAS, Hezbollah, Iran or anyone else.

Steve

[cycloneye]

The U.S. will send a envoy (George Mitchell) to the Middle East to help bring peace in that part of the world.

Mitchell is expected to help negotiate a sustainable cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Israel invaded Hamas-controlled Gaza earlier this month in what they called an operation to stop rockets from being fired into Israeli territory.



http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01 ... index.html

[cycloneye]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The United Nations will quickly raise money for emergency repairs in the Gaza Strip, the world body's humanitarian chief promised Thursday after witnessing what he called shocking destruction from the three-week war between Israel and Hamas.

But U.N. aid chief John Holmes and another senior U.N. official acknowledged they have no fallback plan if reconstruction is snagged by the power struggle between Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and their moderate Palestinian rivals in the West Bank.

Hamas, which seized power in Gaza by force in June 2007, insisted Thursday that it will not share control over reconstruction projects that initial estimates have said could cost up to $2 billion.

The international community, however, is reluctant to funnel huge sums to Hamas, calling for the group for the group to form a joint government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Prospects for such a deal remain slim.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/ap_ ... lestinians

[cycloneye]

Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes:

JERUSALEM – Special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against potential war crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, the prime minister said Sunday, promising the country would "fully back" those who fought in the three-week offensive.

The move reflected growing concerns by Israel that officers could be subject to international prosecution, despite the army's claims that Hamas militants caused the civilian casualties by staging attacks from residential areas.

""The state of Israel will fully back those who acted on its behalf," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. "The soldiers and commanders who were sent on missions in Gaza must know that they are safe from various tribunals."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090125/ap_ ... lestinians

[cycloneye]

An IDF non-commissioned officer was killed on Tuesday morning when a roadside bomb planted by Gaza operatives along Israel's border with the Strip detonated under the army vehicle he was traveling in.

The casualties were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Following the incident, the IDF fired at several targets inside Gaza and IAF helicopters were spotted hovering over the Strip. Palestinians reported that several people were wounded when IDF tank shells hit residential buildings in the Strip.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the incident "severe" and promised an Israeli response. Barak, who was touring the Ze'elim base in the South, would not say what the nature or extent of the response to the attack would be.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

[Cryomaniac]

Since firing at civilians is a war crime, I'd argue that both sides are guilty of war crimes.

As for this latest incident, lets hope it doesn't spark a re-escalation.

[HURAKAN]

As for this latest incident, lets hope it doesn't spark a re-escalation.

Too late.

Israel launches attacks in Gaza

Israel has carried out an air attack in the Gaza Strip and launched an incursion with tanks and bulldozers across the border.

Palestinian sources say there has been fighting near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with people fleeing their homes.

The incursion follows a bomb attack which killed one Israeli soldier and wounded three near the Gaza border.

It is the worst violence since Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza ended with both sides declaring ceasefires.

An Israeli soldier was killed by an explosive device planted on its side of the border near the Kissufim crossing, prompting troops to opened fire into Gaza.

A farmer was killed, Palestinian officials said.

There is now heavy fighting going on in Khan Younis, south of the Kissufim crossing.

Palestinian sources say 20 Israeli tanks and seven army bulldozers have made an incursion.

Two people were also wounded in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis.

Hospital sources say one was a member of Hamas' Popular Resistance Committee who was on a motorbike at the time, and the other was a passer-by.

Israel has closed border crossings into Gaza because of the attack on the patrol, Israeli officials said, stopping the flow of aid supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Aid agencies have been struggling to meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of displaced, homeless and injured people in Gaza.

US visit

The fresh violence comes as US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region to seek a more permanent truce.

He will hold talks with Egyptian officials, who have been mediating between Israel and Hamas, before travelling on to Jerusalem and Ramallah.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US supported "Israel's right to self-defense".

"The rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas (in Israel) cannot go unanswered," she said in her first news conference at the State Department.

Israel and Hamas declared separate ceasefires on 17 and 18 January, ending an Israeli offensive in which nearly 1,300 Palestinians and 10 Israeli soldiers were killed. Three Israeli civilians were killed by rocket fire from Gaza in the same period.

Israel said its objective to stop militant rocket fire into Israel had been fulfilled.

When Hamas called its ceasefire, it said Israel had one week to fully open all the crossings into Gaza, in order to end an 18-month blockade of the territory that has crippled its economy.

Israel wants guarantees that Hamas militants will not re-arm via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/m ... 853803.stm

[tranquill]

I was surprised to learn that Israel censors military info and even banned international reporters from conflict areas. Here is an underground site called Israeli Uncensored News http://samsonblinded.org/news which runs some very odd reports.

[Derek Ortt]

I was surprised to learn that Israel censors military info and even banned international reporters from conflict areas. Here is an underground site called Israeli Uncensored News http://samsonblinded.org/news which runs some very odd reports.

are we supposed to believe the Hamas propaganda?

[somethingfunny]

I was surprised to learn that Israel censors military info and even banned international reporters from conflict areas. Here is an underground site called Israeli Uncensored News http://samsonblinded.org/news which runs some very odd reports.

are we supposed to believe the Hamas propaganda?

Not necessarily, but millions in the Muslim world do, so it might be wise to pay attention to it. Wars are won with information and public opinion.

[Derek Ortt]

I was surprised to learn that Israel censors military info and even banned international reporters from conflict areas. Here is an underground site called Israeli Uncensored News http://samsonblinded.org/news which runs some very odd reports.

are we supposed to believe the Hamas propaganda?

Not necessarily, but millions in the Muslim world do, so it might be wise to pay attention to it. Wars are won with information and public opinion.

Not necessarily... wars are still ultimately won by strong resolve and by crushing the enemy. If a country lets public opinion influence how they fight, that is when they often lose

[cycloneye]

Israel vows strong response to latest Hamas attacks

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised a "strong Israeli reaction" after Palestinian militants fired four rockets into southern Israel on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says his country will "act by new rules" if fighting resumes in southern Israel.

"If there will be firing on residents of the South, there will be a strong Israeli reaction that will be disproportionate," Olmert vowed at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting. "We will not go back to the rules of the game that the terror organizations tried to dictate in the past ... we will act by new rules that will ensure that we won't get dragged into a never-ending shooting along the southern border."

One of the mortars landed near a kindergarten in western Negev, but there were no injuries in that attack or the others, police said.

The attacks were another breach in a tentative cease-fire which Israel and Hamas militants each declared unilaterally after a three-week Israeli military operation in Gaza which has left the territorry still tense.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast ... index.html

[vbhoutex]

Call me a war monger or whatever you want. It is time for the Israeli's to take care of business pure and simple. Hamas and the fools that follow them have been given more than enough warning of consequences if the attacks continued. Simple fact of the matter is we need to get rid of terrorists in this world and destroying Hamas would be a good first step and a good shot across the bow for the rest of them.