posted June 28, 2006 04:44 PM              

All Palestinians must suffer because one Israeli soldier was kidnapped by one Palestinan militant.

Hamas issues call to arms as major offensive looms
Jun. 28, 2006. 02:56 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinians inspect a bridge destroyed by Israeli army warplanes on a main road in the northern Gaza Strip, near Gaza City Wednesday June 28, 2006.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes buzzed the seaside home of Syria’s president and bombed Hamas targets in Gaza today to pressure Palestinian militants to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Fighter jets also knocked out electricity and water supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip. Three bridges were destroyed to keep militants from moving Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, who was taken hostage Sunday by three Hamas-affiliated groups.

Israeli military officials said on condition of anonymity that warplanes flew low over the home of Syrian President Bashar Assad because he has sheltered Hamas leaders blamed by Israel for masterminding the kidnapping. Air defenses fired on Israeli warplanes that entered Syrian airspace early today and forced them to flee, state TV said as Mideast tensions escalated over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.

State-run Syrian television said two Israeli planes flew near Syria’s Mediterranean coast early Wednesday, and “national air defenses opened fire in the direction of the planes, and they dispersed.’’

“The overflight by two Israeli planes near the Syrian shores is an aggressive act and a provocation,” the television news said, quoting an Information Ministry official it did not identify.

No casualties have been reported since the offensive began early today. The army sent tanks and thousands of troops into Gaza.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a prisoner swap with Israel, saying the offensive would not secure the soldier’s release. Hamas-affiliated militants holding the hostage previously made that demand, but this was the first time the government did.

Tensions escalated this evening as the military fired artillery near Gaza City — the first time Israel has targeted that area during the offensive. The army said it was testing artillery units and not firing at specific targets.

Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments as warplanes launched missiles in northern and southern Gaza.

Residents of northern Gaza, preparing for what they feared could be a long military operation, stocked up on food, candles and batteries for radios as a minister warned of a “humanitarian crisis.’’

The White House continued pressuring Hamas, saying it was the responsibility of the Palestinian government to “stop all acts of violence and terror.” But the United States also urged Israel to show restraint.

“In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

It was Israel’s first ground offensive since pulling its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza last summer. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not balk at “extreme action” to bring Shalit home but did not intend to reoccupy Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a “crime against humanity,” and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against the Israeli troops.

Meanwhile, concerns about the fate of a missing West Bank settler grew after militants claiming to hold him displayed what they said was a copy of his identification card.

Also, a group affiliated with Abbas’ Fatah party claimed to hold a third Israeli and threatened to attack an unspecified Israeli embassy within days.

Israeli tanks and soldiers began taking up positions east of Rafah overnight under cover of tank shells, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman, said troops moved a mile inside the coastal strip and were prepared for a long operation.

“Everything is on the table,” he said.

Fighter jets fired at least nine missiles at Gaza’s only power station, cutting electricity to 65 percent of the area, plant engineers said. The station’s three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were engulfed in flames.

Wasfi Kabha, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, said Israel was creating a “humanitarian crisis.’’

“They hit the bridges, they hit the power station, so there will be a problem in water supply and health services,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Areas in northern Gaza that receive electricity from Israel still had power, and some southern areas were able to get power from neighboring Egypt. Generators relieved darkness in other places.

The Israeli military said three bridges were attacked “to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier.” Knocking down the bridges cut Gaza in two, Palestinian security officials said.

Witnesses reported heavy artillery shelling near the long-closed Gaza airport outside Rafah. Warplanes flew low over the strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows.

Jets repeatedly fired missiles at open fields in Gaza, the military said. Two missiles hit empty Hamas training camps, witnesses said. Separately, Israel attacked a rocket-making factory in the area.

“We won’t hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family,” Olmert said. “All the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days.

“We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home.’’

The militants who seized Shalit have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for information about him.

Olmert repeated that Israel will not negotiate with militants.

Later, the Palestinian Information Ministry said it was “natural logic” to carry out a prisoner exchange.

“Previous Israeli governments have done so ... and this is what other countries do in conflict situations,” the statement said.

High-ranking Hamas officials in exile also demanded a prisoner exchange. If Israelis do not negotiate a swap, Palestinians militants will conclude “that they should capture more soldiers,’’ Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told The Associated Press.

Shalit was captured when militants tunneled under a Gaza crossing and killed two other soldiers at a military post. Israel believes the group’s Syria-based leaders ordered the operation.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Hamas’ Syria-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, was “not immune” from Israeli reprisal.

“Khaled Mashaal, as someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target,” Ramon told Army Radio. The station interpreted his comments as meaning Mashaal was a target for assassination.

Israel tried to poison Mashaal in Jordan in 1997. But Mossad agents were caught and King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote in exchange for their release.

Israeli fighter jets also flew over Assad’s summer home in an overnight raid near the Mediterranean city of Latakia in northwestern Syria, military officials said. Israeli TV said four planes were involved in the low-altitude flight, and Assad was there.

The flight caused “noise” on the ground, the military officials said on condition of anonymity, according to military guidelines.

The officials said Assad was targeted because of the “direct link” between Syria and Hamas.

Syria said its air defenses fired at the jets, forcing them to flee.

Abbas deplored the Israeli invasion, calling it “collective punishment and a crime against humanity,” and he urged the United States and other international negotiators to intervene, according to a statement.

An aide said Abbas called Assad to ask him to persuade Mashaal to free the soldier. Assad promised to do so, the aide said on condition of anonymity because he was discussing private talks.

Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer of Hamas said his government, too, was trying to resolve the situation diplomatically.

The normally bustling streets of southern Gaza were eerily deserted, with people taking refuge inside their homes. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt — Gaza’s main link to the outside world — has been closed since Sunday.

Dozens of people living near the airport left their homes, seeking sanctuary in nearby Rafah. A small grocery nearby was open, but there were no customers.

Shalit’s abduction threatened to turn devastated relations between Israel and the Hamas-led government into all-out war. Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January and has been under international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Complicating matters was a new claim by the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out Sunday’s assault, that it also kidnapped Jewish settler Eliahu Asheri, 18, in the West Bank.

Outside a Gaza City mosque, PRC militants displayed what they said was a copy of Asheri’s ID card and reiterated threats to kill him if Israel did not end the invasion.

The group also warned that it had just begun its campaign to seize soldiers.

“The operation of kidnapping soldiers has started and is in a countdown,” spokesman Mohammed Abdel Al said.

Separately, a statement obtained by the AP and signed by Abu Fouad, spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Gaza, said the group was holding an unidentified 62-year-old Israeli from Rishon Lezion.

The statement said the man was kidnapped Monday and that more evidence would be released later.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police had a missing persons report concerning a man named Noah Moskovitch.

posted June 28, 2006 04:47 PM              

Pact touted as concession by hardline Hamas

Jun. 28, 2006. 08:28 AM
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

JERUSALEM - As an Israeli army dragnet squeezed tighter by the hour early today to pressure the release of a kidnapped soldier, the embattled Palestinian leadership came together in a rare moment of unity, announcing a pact touted as a new door to peace negotiations.

But the Palestinian National Accord agreement, though months in the making and potentially a sign of a significant compromise in the Hamas leadership's stance toward Israel, was all but overshadowed by brinksmanship on the ground.

In an air raid just before midnight, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at three bridges in Gaza, effectively severing the strip into three sections and isolating the refugee camps along the Rafah border with Egypt, where Israeli intelligence sources suspect Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, has been held since his abduction early Sunday morning. Israeli army officials said the mission was aimed at preventing militants from moving the soldier.

Additional missile strikes early today incapacitated Gaza's primary power plant, cutting electricity to most of the coastal territory. Simultaneously, an Israeli armoured column later began rolling into southern Gaza, creating the impression a major invasion of the coastal territory was underway.

An Israel Defence Forces spokesman, describing the entry of ground forces as "an opening presence," said the operation "is obviously not a takeover of the Gaza Strip."

"This is not the end of diplomacy. Diplomatic channels remain the ideal way to get our soldier home. But as we work toward that, the IDF has opened a military channel with our physical presence," he said.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz stressed the army's readiness to roll in greater numbers barring an immediate breakthrough in reportedly stalled diplomatic attempts to free the kidnapped soldier.

"The clock is ticking regarding the soldier's return. The IDF is prepared and willing to act," Peretz said.

Some Israeli observers cautioned the aggressive IDF actions should not be taken at face value, suggesting the defence force is unlikely to launch a direct attempt at rescuing Shalit as long as a diplomatic avenue remains. Any such raid, they said, would likely place the soldier's life in grave danger.

"It sounds very serious, but don't take it as serious as it sounds," said Hebrew University analyst Nachman Ben-Yehuda. "I'm not saying there won't be a military operation in Gaza because the Israeli public is fed up with the flow of Palestinian rockets against Sderot. But in fact, the kidnapping actually is likely to delay any such operation. Because everything we know about Israeli policy when it comes to kidnappings shows us that Israel always prefers to negotiate. Especially when there is a living person involved."

The newly elected Israeli leadership under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under increasing pressure to act militarily — pressure expected to increase today amid growing fears that a second Israeli citizen, 18-year-old Eliyahu Pinchas Ashari, is now in the hands of a militant group in the West Bank. Ashari was last seen Sunday night at a hitchhiking station on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Palestinians in Gaza tried to block roads with dirt mounds and barbed wire to brace against the Israeli armour. Egypt also moved to deploy an additional 2,500 security officers along its border with Gaza, a move intended to pre-empt the potential flow of refugees.

Egyptian and French mediators working toward Shalit's release reported no progress yesterday, despite mounting international pressure. It is unclear whether the contacts made thus far, an exchange of handwritten notes relayed by Palestinian runners, had successfully penetrated the labyrinthine militant networks in southern Gaza to reach the soldier's real captors.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate-minded leader of the secular Fatah movement, made no headway in working toward Shalit's release during meetings with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas government that now controls the Palestinian Authority government.

Instead, the two emerged to announce a long-awaited political breakthrough intended to reconcile their rival movements. The contentious, 18-point National Accord agreement appeared to represent a significant shift in Palestinian politics, first and foremost bringing Fatah and Hamas together under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization — a move that for years eluded the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Because the PLO is signatory to peace accords with Israel, the move is seen as a dramatic compromise on the part of Hamas, which has long advocated Israel's outright destruction.

Whether the document, in calling for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, implies recognition of Israel remains open to interpretation. And whether the fragmented Hamas movement, whose exiled leadership in Damascus opposes any such compromise, is likely to honour the paper is even more questionable.

Palestinian analyst Nader Izzat said the agreement may prove "a very significant moment."

Israeli commentators, however, seized on the document's shortcomings, noting it lacks the explicit recognition of Israel and renunciation of violence.

Moreover, the agreement adjusts the focus of Palestinian attacks toward territories captured during 1967's Six Day War. While some may interpret that to mean no more suicide bombs in Tel Aviv or the rest of Israel proper, Israelis see the clause as a promise for continuing attacks.

posted June 29, 2006 11:40 AM            

A spokesman for gunmen in the Gaza Strip said they had fired a rocket tipped with a chemical warhead at Israel early on Thursday.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the claim by the spokesman from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.

The group had recently claimed to possess about 20 biological warheads for the makeshift rockets commonly fired from Gaza at Israeli towns. This was the first time the group had claimed firing such a rocket.

"The al-Aqsa Brigades have fired one rocket with a chemical warhead" at southern Israel, Abu Qusai, a spokesman for the group, said in Gaza.

posted June 29, 2006 11:54 PM              

Gee it looks like the Israelis are the terrorists...but you wont ever hear that on the news, because that term is specially reserved for Muslims. These type of people can go to hell.

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago

Israeli warplanes struck the Palestinian Interior Ministry early Friday, setting it ablaze as Arab leaders tried to forge a deal that would halt the Israeli offensive and free a 19-year-old soldier held by gunmen allied with the ruling Islamic Hamas.

The bombing was one of more than a dozen across the Gaza Strip after midnight, though Israel called off a planned ground invasion of northern Gaza on Thursday in order to give diplomacy another chance.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said militants agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped soldier but that Israel had yet to accept their terms, which he did not specify. Israel said it was not familiar with any such offer.

No one was hurt in the strike on the Interior Ministry in downtown Gaza City. The Israeli military said the ministry office, controlled by Hamas, was "a meeting place to plan and direct terror activity." The Interior Ministry is nominally in charge of Palestinian security forces, though moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas removed most of its authority.

Israeli warplanes also hit a Fatah office as well as roads and open fields. During the day, aircraft and artillery pounded sites across the coastal strip, including suspected weapons factories, an electrical transformer and militant training camps.

A strike at a Hamas facility near the Gaza beach ignited a fire and set off explosives, witnesses said. Another air attack, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, set an intelligence office on fire, Palestinian security officials said.

Casualties began to mount. The local leader of Islamic Jihad was seriously wounded in an airstrike in Rafah, hospital officials said, and three Fatah-affiliated gunmen were wounded in a gun battle in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Earlier, a 5-year-old girl was wounded in an airstrike in northern Gaza, the first casualty in more than two days of military action that began with a ground invasion of southern Gaza. Doctors said her wounds were not life-threatening.

On Gaza's southern border, hundreds of Palestinian and Egyptian police formed human cordons to block Palestinians trying to escape into Egypt after militants blasted a hole in a cement wall near the crossing.

Israel also vowed to hunt down the killers of a kidnapped 18-year-old, whose body was found Thursday in the West Bank with a gunshot wound to the head. Hamas-linked militants said they killed him.

Abbas, a moderate, met with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and spoke twice with Mubarak to try to end the crisis, an Abbas aide said.

In remarks published Friday, Mubarak told the pro-government Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram that "Egyptian contacts with several Hamas leaders resulted in preliminary, positive results in the shape of a conditional agreement to hand over the Israeli soldier as soon as possible to avoid an escalation. But agreement on this has not yet been reached with the Israeli side."

Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, said Israel did not know of such an offer and would have no comment until later Friday.

"The soldier will only be released unconditionally and there will be no negotiations with a gang of terrorists and criminals," Meir told The Associated Press. "There is nothing to talk with them about."

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said significant diplomatic developments were possible, though he did not indicate there had been a breakthrough.

"Right now, our thoughts are focused on the unconditional liberation of the kidnapped soldier," he said in a speech to air force graduates. "The efforts to bring about his return are being carried out intensively through various channels."

Israel said the crisis will end when Cpl. Gilad Shalit is released.

"If the Palestinians act now to release Cpl. Shalit and hand him back to us ... we would immediately initiate a dramatic reduction in tension," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "He is the primary issue, he is the primary reason for the crisis."

After previous diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Jordan, France and other nations failed, Israel sent thousands of soldiers into vacant areas of southern Gaza on Wednesday.

But on Thursday, Israel decided to delay a further offensive into northern Gaza at Egypt's request, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the diplomacy.

Israeli officials said the delay was also meant to defuse possible international criticism of a broad ground campaign in Gaza. In Moscow, foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations called on the Palestinians to free the soldier and urged Israel to act with restraint.

Anger flared across the Middle East over Israel's assault, and many Arabs criticized their governments for not aiding the Palestinians. The Egyptian government's top rival, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, urged Egyptians to gather at pro-Palestinian demonstrations Friday, the Muslim Sabbath.

The request from Egypt came after Israel increased the stakes in the search for the soldier by arresting more than one-third of the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet, including the deputy prime minister, in a series of early morning raids in the West Bank.

Israel hinted that the 64 Hamas officials were intended as bargaining chips for Shalit, but one official said the opportunity for preventing a blowup was slipping away.

"We are at the edge of a cliff here, and I would urge the Palestinian leadership to release Cpl. Shalit," Regev said.

Osama Hamdan, an exiled Hamas official based in Lebanon, declined to say whether the group would be willing to trade Shalit for its officials.

"It is premature to discuss this matter," he said. "If the Israelis want to trade them (the Hamas politicians) for the soldier, then let them say it frankly and then we will react."

There has been no sign of life from Shalit since his abduction Sunday. The Popular Resistance Committees — one of the groups holding him — did not confirm his condition in a statement Thursday, but insisted on swapping him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Israel has rejected that demand.

The group also said it killed Eliahu Asheri, the 18-year-old West Bank settler whose body was discovered Thursday. The militants had said they would kill Asheri if the raid on Gaza did not stop, but an Israeli military official said he was shot in the head shortly after he was abducted Sunday.

posted June 30, 2006 12:08 AM            

Expect more of the same and just keep in mind this government is supported by the Palestinians who were and are well aware Hamas are terrorists, terrorists in league with terrorist Syria and terrorist Iran...and they voted for them anyway.

There is no more cover for the government to claim the terrorist attacks were committed by some unknown or unaffiliated group. Now, it's Hamas which IS the government and I would say if the attacks continue, there will be REAL war and not the counter attacks against specific targets caused by terrorist attacks inside Israel.

posted June 30, 2006 12:48 AM              

quote:

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BTW, the use of chemical weapons against Israel IS a war crime

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quote:

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An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army had not detected that any such rocket was fired, nor was there any report of such a weapon hitting Israel.

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posted June 30, 2006 10:58 AM              

lets not be so blind. anyone with ANY knowledge of hamas' policy, and that of fatah, would easily see that fatah is way worse. not that hamas is great. but its the lesser of the two evils. thats what u get in a two party system.

and that was even validated by rabbi krause and rabbi stephen einstein, some of the most famous rabbis in california, who have written world renowned books on judaism. if the isrealis can understand the palestinians but dont agree with them and dont like them (and vice versa), why do people like yourself jwhop, think that they have more insight into the palestinian people, sitting so far away from them, and never having been to palestine in ur life?

interesting.

posted July 01, 2006 12:15 AM            

I also think if Hamas doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist as a nation and stop ALL rocket attacks against Israel, ALL bombing attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings, then I don't think many members of Hamas are going to continue to exist.

I think that song needs to be sung to a different group!

posted July 02, 2006 06:59 PM              

And Hamas will probably never die out only if you see sheer statistics. Branches of Hamas exists in several countries, thats how they get aide from Iran for example. Also the more Palestinians are slaughtered, the stronger the support for Hamas. The slaughter isnt becuase of Hamas. Even after truces and peace treaties and during Fatahs time the same thing would happen. The only thing thats diff about Hamas is it isnt scared of America and it isnt scared of Israel. It believes in its people and wants to represent them. It doesnt want to be Americas little ***** puppet government like so many other countries and thats its biggest fault. If you really advocate democracy why not face the facts?

DD, Im in egypt learning Classical Arabic (Fusha) and Colloquial Egyptian dialect (Ameyya Masreyya) seven hours a day!!! I went to Alexandria and Qanatar and had a blast though. Might drive up to Jordan to see Petra coz thats something Ive always wanted to do. Just studying abroad here this summer and will be back in August, or I may take a job in Pakistan if they accept my applications there