Dozens die in Israel-Gaza clashes

[Bo]

At least 46 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed in one of the deadliest days of fighting in Gaza since troops withdrew in 2005.
Medical staff said at least eight were children and up to 16 were militants. Israel said most were militants. Seven Israeli troops were lightly injured.

Israel says it wants to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, but about 50 hit Israel on Saturday, injuring five.

The Palestinian leader said the Israeli raids were "more than a holocaust".

Mahmoud Abbas was apparently alluding to controversial remarks made on Friday by Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, who said Palestinians risked a "shoah" - the Hebrew word for a big disaster as well as for the Nazi Holocaust.

Mr Vilnai's colleagues insisted he had not meant "genocide".

RISING VIOLENCE
Saturday:
At least 41 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers killed
Friday:
Ashkelon activates warning system after rocket hits
Thursday:
Four Palestinian children and seven militants killed
Wednesday:
Six-month-old Palestinian boy and six militants killed
Israeli civilian killed in Sderot



But Mr Abbas told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah: "It's very regrettable that what is happening is more than a holocaust. We tell the world to see with its own eyes and judge for itself what is happening."

Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal went further.

"Israeli actions in Gaza since Wednesday is the real Holocaust," he said in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

He said Israel was "exaggerating the Holocaust and using it to blackmail the world".

Civilian deaths

Israel has said it may launch a full-scale attack on Gaza in response to militant rocket attacks.

The BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says Israel's leaders have been under pressure from some quarters to launch a ground invasion.

However, a recent opinion poll has indicated a majority of Israelis favour a truce with the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said "Israel is compelled to take the proper steps to bring an end to these rocket onslaughts" on about 200,000 Israelis living alongside Gaza's border.


Israel says it wants to end the agony caused by militant rockets

Tanks and troops have made an incursion into northern Gaza, encountering resistance from Palestinian militants, as Israeli planes made several air raids.

On one occasion, a house east of the Jabaliya refugee camp was struck - two children, a brother and sister, were killed.

Later, a 15-year-old girl and her 16-year-old sister were also killed.

In another attack, a mother was killed as she was preparing breakfast for her children, medical workers said.

"We are in the middle of a total war. We hear the rockets and the explosions everywhere... we cannot leave our homes," a Jabaliya resident, Abu Alaa, told the AFP news agency.

"They're shooting at everything that moves."

 

There was also fighting in and around the camp between Israeli troops backed by tanks and Palestinian militants equipped with crude rockets and mortars.

Israel says its aim is to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets across the border.

On Wednesday a rocket fired by Hamas militants killed an Israeli student in the southern town of Sderot, the first such death in nine months.

Palestinian militant leaders say they are responding to Israeli attacks.

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed in the violence since Wednesday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7272329.stm


I can't imagine a ground invasion would help the current situation. Hammas has stated that they will cease firing rockets if Israel stops their daily raids and ends their border blockade which severely limits Gaza's fuel, electricty and food supplies.

 

[Shec]

I can't imagine a ground invasion would help the current situation. Hammas has stated that they will cease firing rockets if Israel stops their daily raids and ends their border blockade which severely limits Gaza's fuel, electricty and food supplies.

It was the Israelis who pulled out from Gaza and it was Hamas who launched the rocket offensive.  Not even Mahmoud Abbas can rein them in, presuming the palestinian ******* really wanted to.    The only thing the palarabs understand is the iron fist.  Read up on the Mukawama Doctrine and then tell me they can be trusted.  Israel has the right to secure borders and the Israel Defense Force is doing just that , defending Israel.

 

[time expired]

As a long time supporter of Israel in its struggle for existence against
the howling mobs that surround it. I was shocked and dismayed to
see a report on CNN international which claimed that over 30% of
young Israelis are refusing to serve in the IDF.My God,what hope
do we have in the West,when the youth of a country exposed daily
to Arab terrorist attacks does not see the necessity of fighting back
or maybe hopes that someone else will do it for them.
                                              Regards

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

I can't imagine a ground invasion would help the current situation. Hammas has stated that they will cease firing rockets if Israel stops their daily raids

Well, as is often the case, the article has been modified to better-reflect the truth of what happened/is happening.  Specifically,

On Wednesday a rocket fired by Hamas militants killed an Israeli student in the southern town of Sderot, the first such death in nine months.

is now

The Israeli raids began after a rocket fired by Hamas militants killed an Israeli student in the southern town of Sderot, the first such death in nine months, on Wednesday.

Kinda makes a difference, huh?  (The cart goes after the horse ... "How dare you duck when I throw things at you!!!")

Instead of "Hammas has stated that they will cease firing rockets if Israel stops their daily raids ..." you should have written: "it is a foregone conclusion that Israel would not conduct raids into the Palestinian Territories if the Palestinians would ever abide by their cease fire and, you know, actually stop lobbing rockets and sending suicide bombers into Israeli towns and cities."  This article (from the rather sympathetic Guardian), reports that the Palestinians hit Israel with 2,000 rockets last year (you know, during the "cease fire"): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/05/israelandthepalestinians

and ends their border blockade which severely limits Gaza's fuel, electricty and food supplies.

This is so overblown it is ridiculous: one example http://sandbox.blog-city.com/gaza_buried_in_flour.htm

 

[1feral1]

If the Palestinians would stop 'throwing' rockets into Israel, there would be no counter attacks by the IDF in the first place.

These people just DON'T want peace.

Israel has to do what it does to protect its own.

This conflict will never end.

Palestine has only itself to blame for this, and they are wanting to prevoke an attack from Israel. They don't care about their own women and children, for they are pawns in their twisted political agenda.

I would say 'shame on them', but they just don't care, for they feed and thrive on blood, terror, and mayhem, yes and they hate us too, but will gladly take our money, when the 'limp wristed' donate to their cause. I wonder where the money really goes. I don't have to think too far, do I. More rockets, more ammo, more weapons etc. A big circle of continuing hate. 

I am over it!

Life is cheap there, always will be.

We don't know how lucky we really are, do we.


Cheers,

Wes

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

Another innocent, defenseless Palestinian goes (this time) on a shooting spree in evil merchant-of-death seminary:

Gunman kills 7 in Jerusalem Jewish seminary; Hamas praises attack

Aron Heller, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERUSALEM - A gunman infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a library Thursday night, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Rescue workers said at least 10 people were wounded. Government spokesman Daniel Seaman and police said there was only one gunman though initial reports said there were two.

In case there is any confusion (i.e., anyone is tempted to actually believe Palestinians have any interest whatsoever in a peace that does not include the total annihilation of Israel):

In Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Thousands poured into the streets to celebrate, firing rifles in the air.

"We bless the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last," Hamas said in a text message sent to reporters.

http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=24&id=30692

 

[1feral1]

They are just goading the IDF into another fight, and this time if they go in, lets hope they kick the shyte out of these arseholes.

Just a thankless lot, who's hatred for Israel has really gotten out of hand, and grows by the minute. They want no peace, just to roll and bathe in the blood of others in some type of a frenzy.

If they can't fight with Israel, they'll fight with themselves. Violence is as much in the Palestinian culture as hockey NHL is in ours.

Phuck Hamas!

Wes

 

[Shec]

Damn right Wes.  As friend of mine, a  ret'd Lt. Col. in the IDF,  predicts  “Terrorists today are not only insidious and stealthy but technically sophisticated. It is only a matter of time till they couple their unconventional tactics with unconventional weapons.”

Which brings to mind Gen. Andy McNaughton's advice to "hit 'em first, hit 'em hard, and keep hittin' 'em".

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I feel for the average Palestinians just trying earn a living and raise a family, problem for them is that Hamas and the Fatah considers the average Palestinian as canon fodder to be used up as required for political reasons If the average guy speaks out against Hamas or Fatah, they will likely end up dead very quickly. The sad thing is that things will have to get much worse before the Palestinians are willing to take care of their own nutbars, plus the most of the ones that would fight back against their leaders (read: oppressors) have for the most part already left, leaving the fanatics and the poor to their fate.

 

[time expired]

Just a sec.,Colin P who are the people who voted this terrorist gang
into power?.A people who act against their own personal self interest
because of their all consuming hate for the West in general and Israel
in particular generate very little sympathy IMHO.
                                          Regards

 

[1feral1]

Well, I am tarring them all with the same brush... remember the proud PALESTINIAN mom's of 3 yr olds in toy bomb vests and toy AK's, all so proud for their kids to grow up, kill themselves for one Jew.

Thats pretty sick shyte, and they belong where they are, not here!!

If the IDF goes in, no PC BS, and lets hope Israel teaches them some tolerence once and for all and  goes in full-on this time.

No mercy, no quarter drawn or given. Give it to them hard!

Time for some payback!

I am not afraid to say how I feel, no PCness here.

Enough is enough!

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Just a sec.,Colin P who are the people who voted this terrorist gang
into power?.A people who act against their own personal self interest
because of their all consuming hate for the West in general and Israel
in particular generate very little sympathy IMHO.
                                           Regards

To be fair their choices were the devil they knew and the devil they knew was bad but slightly less corrupt. They had no real choice and wanted to punish Fatah. There are no other groups that can challenge the two, anyone that could is either dead or left. What people say to media when their is a Hamas minder watching them and what they feel is to different things.

 

[Mike Baker]

Wes...+1!

 

[retiredgrunt45]

I don't think that anything is going to stop this, peace talks or what ever. As long as the state of Israel exists the Arabs will try and bring it down. The present Hamas government is a joke, they can't control or don't want to stop their people from attacking Israel.

I think stopping short of dropping a few nukes in the region, nothing will work. Talk is cheap and the way Hamas See's it human life is even cheaper. When you strap a bomb onto a 15 years old and tell them to go and blow themselves up in a busy marketplace or on a bus, that's very cheap labour and it just shows all to well the length these depraved fanatic's are willing to go to.

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

To the Westerner who 'understands' the terrorist
By Bradley Burston

To the Westerner who "understands" the terrorist:

Spare us the explanations.

Spare us the learned, sociology-drenched justifications.
Spare us the reasons why you "get" Palestinians when they gun Jews down in cold blood.

Spare us the chapter and verse on how the plight of the Palestinians is at the root of Islamic terrorism the world over, and if the Palestinians were to receive full justice, Islamic terrorism would pass from the world.

Spare us.

You may well believe, with the blind faith of the hopeful and the fear-stricken, that when these people are through with the Jews, they won't come for you.

Think again.

Spare us the post-modernism and the radical chic and the guff.

Open your eyes.

When a gunman walks into a Jewish religious seminary at the main entrance to that part of Jerusalem which has been Jewish since 1948, and which was stolen from no one, pay attention.

When he opens fire on religious students hunched over books in a library, firing and firing until blood soaks holy book bindings and open pages of Talmud and the whole of the floor, pay close attention to the reactions of the self-styled people of faith who run Hamas.

Spare us the conclusion that the only reason Hamas kills Jews, and that its underlying motive for encouraging others to do the same, is to force Israel to agree to a cease-fire.

Spare us the "Israel's policies are responsible for the bloodshed" and "the seminary is, after all, an ideological bastion and symbol of the religious right" and all the other scholarly, arrogant, condescending and amoral ways of saying "they had it coming to them."

Spare us the understanding for the motivations of the mass murderer who kills with God on his lips. Spare us the understanding of the words of the Hamas official who says that after all the Israeli killings of Palestinians, the Jerusalem killings are "our only joy."

Spare us the sight of the thanksgiving prayers for the great victory, prayers that began in Gaza City mosques just after the slaughter of the Jews. Spare us the sight of the sweets being handed out by little children to motorists in passing cars in the Strip, sweets to celebrate the young Jews dead on the floor, the young Jews dead at their desks, the Jews killed for the crime of being Jews in that place of study and worship.

Spare us the righteousness of those who condemned Baruch Goldstein for entering a holy place with an assault rifle and murdering Palestinians, but who can understand why a Palestinian might do the very same thing,

Open your eyes.

Last week, when Israeli forces drove into Gaza, and some 120 Palestinians were killed, many of them were gunmen, but with children making up another sixth of the total, one grieving father spoke with quiet eloquence, saying "Other places in the world, when this happens, there is a great outcry. When this happens here, the world is silent. No one cares."

He's right. The world has grown content to let Palestinians die. The reason is not simple callousness. And it is not, as Hamas proclaims to its followers in Gaza, that the Jews control the world media and world finance, and thus Western government as well.

The reason is terrorism.

The world has grown weary of the Islamist's creed, that only the armed struggle can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the only proper resolution is the end of Israel.

Even the Israeli left, which for decades championed the Palestinian with courage and determination, has, in large part, had it with the Palestinians. The reason is terrorism. The reason is murder. The reason is that the rulers of Gaza are people who see an intrinsic value in the killing of Jews for the sake of increasing the number of dead Jews in the world.

The rulers of Gaza cannot bring themselves to accept the concept of sharing the Holy Land with the Jews.

The best that the rulers of Gaza can do, is to bring an end to hope among their own people and ours as well.

They believe that the Jewish state is temporary, and that they Jews will soon abandon it to Islamic rule.

After all this time, you'd think they'd know the Jews a little better.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960745.html via www.damianpenny.com

 

[1feral1]

This just in in the past 30 mins

--------------------

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=122150

Islamic Jihad shells Israel after raid
Thursday Mar 13 19:19 AEDT
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired rockets into Israel, ending a week-long Egyptian-brokered moratorium in what it called an "initial" response to deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank.

No one was hurt by the salvo against the border town of Sderot. Israel later carried out an air strike against a rocket launcher in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

No one was hurt in the first such Israeli attack in a week.

Islamic Jihad, a relatively small Palestinian faction that shares the powerful Hamas's refusal to accept co-existence with the Jewish state, had vowed revenge after Israeli troops killed four of its members in two West Bank towns.




Hamas said such "aggression" risked killing off Cairo's mediation, seen as key to securing enough quiet for there to be progress in US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

But Hamas stopped short of scrapping the truce talks. It has largely held its fire since March 3, when Israeli forces ended a five-day offensive against Gaza rocket crews in which more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and two soldiers died.

Israel has played down speculation a formal ceasefire could be imminent. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to halt attacks on Gaza if there are no rocket launches, but Israel argues that its West Bank raids are needed to stop militants from striking.

"We'll witness more difficult things yet, an even tougher reckoning, before we get to the calm stage," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday.

At least 12 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza on Thursday. A house was damaged but no casualties caused, the Israeli military said.

"This was our initial response," an Islamic Jihad spokesman said. The faction suspended its Gaza rocket launches on March 5.

As part of any truce, Hamas - which seized control of Gaza in June after routing Abbas's forces there - is demanding a say in the future functioning of the coastal territory's border crossings, a condition rejected by Israel.

"There must be a commitment by Israel to end all acts of aggression against our people, assassinations, killings and raids, and lift the (Gaza) siege and reopen the crossings," Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas's administration in Gaza, said in a speech.

A truce, he said, should be "reciprocal, comprehensive and simultaneous", approved by other factions, and apply to Gaza and the West Bank - territories where Palestinians seek statehood.

Unlike penned-in Gaza, the West Bank has a porous boundary with Israel and is peppered with fortified Jewish settlements.

Though Abbas's secular Fatah faction still holds sway in the West Bank, Israel credits its military presence there for the territory remaining free of the rule of Hamas and its allies.

On Wednesday evening, undercover Israeli commandos drove into the West Bank town of Bethlehem and killed a local Islamic Jihad leader, two of his comrades, and a militant from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed Fatah wing.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the soldiers planned to arrest the Palestinians but opened fire after spotting weapons.

The Islamic Jihad men had been involved in attacks, she said.

Another Islamic Jihad militant was killed by Israeli troops earlier in the West Bank town of Tulkarm.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas's administration as calling the West Bank killings "an ugly crime" and warning Israel of unspecified "consequences".

Egypt has stepped up truce efforts amid Israel's insistence it is not negotiating with Hamas, which the West also shuns.

Israel tightened its Gaza border restrictions after the Hamas takeover there, making life harder for ordinary Gazans.

Israel is under international pressure not to cause the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million inhabitants more hardship.

-------------------

So much respect for the Gyppos eh.

Goes to show you they want war as much as the world CRAVES peace.

excuse me for not being PC here ..... but Phuck islamic jihad, and hamas for that matter!

 

[a_majoor]

Moving away from direct confrontation, the same pattern seen throughout Iraq and Afghanistan as well:

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3524720,00.html

New terrorist traps attempt to fool troops

Palestinian terrorists deploy new booby-traps: Bombs meant to explode in soldiers' hands hidden in books, canteens, shampoo bottles. IDF special task force: 'There is no room for error'
Yossi Yehoshua

'Yahalom', a special task force of the Engineering Corps, is battling a revolution in the world of terrorism these days. A few months ago a unit of troops from the force was doing a routine scan of a seemingly ordinary tunnel dug by Hamas militants near the Karni Crossing in Gaza, when they discovered that the hen-house blocking the entrance was actually a ticking time bomb.

Tunnel Smuggling
Report: Explosives, mines found near Egypt-Gaza border / AFP
Egyptian security forces find 1100lbs of explosives near border, locate second mine stash nearby. Weapons nabbed shortly before being smuggled into Strip, says Egyptian police
Full story

This is one of the many examples of sophisticated terrorist plots the task force has come in contact with lately, in which Palestinians hid bombs inside of mundane objects. Recently Yahalom soldiers have seen booby-trapped books, egg trays, canteens, and even baby shampoo bottles. On the eve of perhaps yet another operation in Gaza, this is worrying news for the IDF.

Deputy commander of the force, Major Eran Davidi, warned that the plots' ingenuity lies in setting the bombs to respond to touch. Thus, if an IDF soldier opens the booby-trapped book or picks up the army-issue canteen from the ground, the bomb explodes in his hands.

Another way terrorists have chosen to disguise bombs is inside of plastic rocks. The troops nicknamed these faux rocks skirts, because they must be lifted in order to recognize the trap. "Recognizing a 'skirt' in open territory full of rocks that all look exactly the same is a real mission impossible," Davidi remarked.

Dealing with the threat well

The task force distinguishes between operations performed in Gaza and those performed in other territories, such as the north of Israel. Davidi explained that the controlled detonation of bombs should ideally be performed in open territory, but in Gaza the heavy population makes controlled detonation very difficult. "The operations almost require tweezers," he said.

The good news is that during the last three years Yahalom has been recognized as deserving of more funds, and new technology has been made available to the force. For example, recently they received a new light-weight robot that has the added bonus of a deployment arm. Use of the robot quickly replaced the presence of soldiers in dangerous areas, such as tunnels and other enclosed spaces.

Even so, the IDF continues to invest in the competence of the Yahalom troops. "It is crucial that they stay on their toes. There is no room for error," said Davidi.

"The enemy has had a few successes, but when compared to the amount of failures they point to an overall conclusion, that the IDF is managing to deal with the threat quite well."