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WHAT HAPPENED IN GAZA? 1.) The Gazan population legally elected Hamas to lead the country (1/06). Shortly thereafter Israel closed off Gaza from the world (3/06 boycott, 6/07 full blockade); the embargo/blockade cut off food, energy supplies, medical supplies, and just about everything else. 2.) Barak Obama was elected to the presidency, November 4, 2008. 3.) On November 4, 2008, Israel provoked the Gazan leadership (Hamas) by breaking the cease-fire then in effect, killing five Palestinians (See NY Times). 4.) Gaza residents retaliated against Israel's invasion with homemade rocket strikes on Southern Israel, killing three. 5.) Israel launched massive airstrikes over Gaza with widespread use of experimental and incendiary weapons, including white phosphorus (which burns human flesh to the bone) over civilian areas. The result: a Gazan death toll of over 1,010, approximately one-third of whom were children. Injures as of 1/6/09 numbered 4,700. Israeli occupation forces suffered 10 deaths and 100 injures as of that date. 6.) THE PRESENT: Israel's provocation of Gazans to strike
back allows Israel and the US government to cry out that the Palestinian
in Gaza (condemned as terrorists) must be stopped in the name of those
who love peace and justice. |
NEW
YORK TIMES JERUSALEM — Israel carried out an airstrike on Gaza on Tuesday night after its troops clashed with Hamas gunmen along the border in the first such confrontation since a cease-fire took effect in June. Five militants were killed, Palestinian officials told The Associated Press. An Israeli security force had entered Gaza to destroy a tunnel and fought with Hamas gunmen, killing one and wounding at least three, according to Palestinian hospital officials. An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under army rules, said that the tunnel lay about 270 yards inside Gaza and was apparently intended for use in the abduction of a soldier or soldiers. The tunnel was ready for an “imminent” operation, the official said. The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement that it had fired at least 10 mortar shells at the Israeli force. Several landed in Israeli territory, the Israeli military said. Israel then launched an airstrike, in which four militants were killed, The A.P. reported. Military officials said that the initial army raid was a “pinpoint” operation aimed at thwarting a specific threat, and that Israel remained committed to the truce. The truce has largely held so far, despite some sporadic rocket and mortar fire by Gaza renegades and complaints from Hamas that Israel has not gone far enough in easing the economic embargo on the area. Israeli security officials regularly accuse Hamas of exploiting the calm to build up its strength and prepare for a future war. But in the meantime, both sides have found the truce convenient and have expressed an interest in extending it beyond its original six-month term. An Israeli corporal, Gilad Shalit, was captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid and taken into Gaza in June 2006. Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails for his return. On Tuesday, a World Bank delegation opened a sewer project, long delayed by the standoff between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza to prevent raw sewage from spilling into residential areas, The A.P. reported. The $63 million project is the initiative of Tony Blair, the international envoy for the Middle East, and the opening brought the highest-level World Bank delegation to visit Gaza in three years. The delegation met with representatives of the Palestinian Water Authority, but not with members of Hamas, which has run Gaza since it seized power in June 2007. |