Israel invades Gaza

Israel Gaza invasion | World news | guardian.co.uk

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Israeli tanks and troops have launched a ground invasion to reoccupy parts of the northern Gaza strip as the military escalated its assault on the Palestinian enclave in an attempt to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

With Israel's chief military spokesman warning that the attack would take "many long days", the Israeli Cabinet also authorised the call of thousands more reservists. As Israeli tanks and infantry crossed into northern Gaza reports began to emerge of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops. The invasion comes after Hamas warned Israeli forces entering Gaza faced a "black destiny" and vowed that they would be defeated.

Palestinian witnesses said a small column of military vehicles moved across the border firing tracer bullets after dark. The Israeli army said the assault is intended to take control of territory in the north of the Gaza strip from where Hamas fires its rockets.

"The objective is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations," said a spokeswoman, Major Avital Leibovitch. "We are going to take some of the launch areas used by Hamas."

However, Israel said this is not the start of a reoccupation of Gaza.

Hours earlier, an intense Israeli artillery assault along the border, apparently intended to drive away enemy forces and clear mines or roadside bombs, cleared the way for the incursion.

The ground offensive followed a day of heavy air, sea and artillery bombardment of Gaza that left at least 11 people, including children, dead and dozens wounded when an Israeli missile strike hit a mosque in Beit Lahiya as worshippers were praying inside.

The death toll, as the Israeli assault on Gaza entered its second week, rose to about 450 Palestinians, about one third of them civilians or policemen, with four Israelis killed by Hamas rocket fire.

As diplomatic pressure for a truce gained momentum, the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, rejected a ceasefire in Gaza until Israel agrees to end its three-year blockade of the territory which has caused economic collapse and widespread hardship.

The latest of more than 700 Israeli aircraft strikes over the past week also killed another senior Hamas official, Abu Zakaria al-Jamal, a leader of its armed wing.

Israeli forces attacked the American school in Gaza, killing a guard. The Israeli military said the school, which has no links to the US government, was being used to store Hamas weapons and to shelter its fighters.

But the continued Israeli assault did not stop Hamas from firing rockets. Fifteen hit Israel yesterday, one of which lightly wounded two people when it hit an eight-storey building in Ashdod. Another rocket struck an empty house in Ashkelon, setting it on fire.

As diplomatic efforts continued to reestablish the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that collapsed last month, Meshaal said in a televised address that the organisation had been contacted by European and Arab countries about a truce.

Egypt says it has begun exploratory talks with Hamas.

President George Bush said in his weekly radio address that Hamas must take the initiative to end the fighting by halting its rocket fire into Israel.

"Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable," he said. "There must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure the smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end... I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace."

But Meshaal said Hamas would not agree to a truce until Israel stops its attacks and lifts the blockade of Gaza.

"Our demand is clear – that aggression should end immediately. The siege must be ended and the crossings must all be opened," he said. "We will not break, we will not surrender or give in to your conditions."

Meshaal also warned that the organisation would fight an Israeli ground assault if it comes.

"We are ready for the challenge: this battle was imposed on us and we are confident we will achieve victory because we have made our preparations," he said.

Meshaal said Hamas will attempt to capture Israeli combatants and hold them prisoner alongside Gilad Shalit, the soldier who was snatched from his armoured vehicle and taken in to Gaza in June 2006. "If you commit a foolish act by raiding Gaza, who knows – we may have a second or a third or a fourth Shalit," Meshaal said.

A ground offensive carries great risks for the Israeli military and the country's political leaders, particularly the defence minister and Labour party leader, Ehud Barak. His support in the polls in the run-up to next month's general election has risen sharply over his handling of the assault on Gaza. But if Israeli military casualties were to rise sharply, or soldiers were to be captured, as Meshaal threatens, public support for the war is likely to ebb away.

Still, Barak and the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, may feel they have little choice but to escalate if the air bombardment continues to fail to stop Hamas rocket fire. The pressure for more action is likely to intensify further if there are more Israeli civilian deaths.

Meanwhile, the head of the Arab league, Amr Moussa, said he was astonished at claims by the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, that there is no humanitarian crisis in the densely populated Gaza strip.

"I am greatly surprised by, and I reject, the words of the Israeli foreign minister, who asks: 'Is there a humanitarian crisis? There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,'" he said. "This is an astonishing thing, that after more than 450 victims and more than 2,000 injured... then it is said there is no humanitarian crisis.

"There may be those that sympathise with such a remark. This is something we must condemn, and we must say there is a major humanitarian crisis."

The UN said there is growing shortages of basic foodstuffs and fresh water because of damage to the infrastructure. The main power plant has shut down. Fuel for cooking is no longer available.

When is this going to stop? Hamas kills what, 20 people in 4 years, and Israel kills 200 in an afternoon - and that's par for the fucking course.

What do you think is going to happen when you take away a people's rights, homes, families, and oppress them for years and years and years? Did Israel honestly expect them to just take it in the ass and be happy about it?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Does anybody here honestly buy into the shit that Israel is spewing? Jesus fucking Christ. 600 dead. 600 fucking DEAD. I doubt that half of them are actually members of Hamas, and even fewer those that actually fired rockets. Jesus fucking Christ. Can I go and annex my neighbour's apartment, and then rape and torture his family before murdering them all? Is this the lesson we're fucking learning here.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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So the country is called Israel and it always was called Israel. And the Israelis are trying to get rid of the terrorists that are in Israel. And the Palestinians have a whole country called Palestine but they want to live in Israel? Why can't the Israelis just live in Israel, and the Palestinians just live in Palestine?

If only it were that simple...

First of all, the Palestinians were there first - the Israeli's were given the land after WW2 because we all felt really bad for them, the whole genocide thing and all, but didn't really think of the consequences of giving them land that someone else already lived in. The Israeli's keep on annexing more and more land, be it through illegal settlements, illegal occupations, etc...

How would you honestly feel if you were living in your apartment, and your neighbour literally buldozed your wall and annexed your apartment, kicking you and your family out on the street (if he didn't run you over with the bulldozer in the first place). Would you just take it? Be like "Oh well, that's life?"

Do you think that's fair? Do you think that they have no claim to land that was once rightfully theirs? It's not like they all just got up and left, and they claimed the land because of some fairy-tale book and "god" told them it was theirs - they lived there, they worked thier, they paid for and owned that land.



This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

And you'd think the Israelis had learned a thing or two about descrimination, but they sure love to descriminate against palestinians. Has anyone here ever been to Palestine?

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I'm going to piss off a large amount of people, but like that's stopped me before.

The loss of Israel is only the fault of the Palestinians because they run one of the worst fucking cultures in the world. Being Arab fucking sucks, and poor state of the Arab nations is nothing but their own fault even though they continue to blame Western culture for their misfortunes. The only mildly successful Arab nations are ones that have close Western ties, AKA OIL.

Lets assume for the moment that the Arab nations get their wish and Israel is pushed into the sea. Now what? Will gaining the land of Israel somehow create this wonderful Arab utopia? Fuck no, it will become just another Arab nation shithole that nobody wants to deal with. Fuck you Palestinians, you've done nothing to deserve your own country.

Are you kidding me? How did your ignorant ass even manage to get online?

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..worst fucking culture…fucking sucks…poor state…

Do you actually read the drivel you write? I was living in the Middle East before I moved to Canada, and can’t say that I met an arab who thought that it sucked. Just because your white ass is in the majority wherever you live, doesn’t mean that people of other skins are worse off then you. Jesus fucking Christ – where’s your bedsheets klanboy? When do you start burning crosses and lynching niggers?
And I’d hazard to say that many Arab nations are far more prosperous then many of the western ones you hold with high regard. Get your head out of your ass, you ass out of your momma’s house, and take a look at the real fucking word – not the one you’re taught at the klan meetings.

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How about a self sustaining government and economy that can actually feed its people? Active participants of the global market? Israel has the 21st most prosperous economy in the world and an active business and industry.

What is this self-sustaining government and economy you speak of? Nothing like the “good ‘ol USA” obviously, because it looks like a shit show right now. Israel would be nowhere if it wasn’t for backing from lobbies in the west.

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The difference is Israel has also taken the initiative to properly distribute and invest in the aid they receive. They also developed a stable government and have become less and less reliant on foreign aid by developing their own industries. This has been the pattern for pretty much every successful nation in the past.

By distribute and invest you mean create nuclear and chemical weapons? Gun down children? Have you BEEN to Palestine? It’s not a shithole because the Palestinians like living in a shithole, it’s a shithole because of Israel.

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Iraq was just given a similar opportunity and they have pissed it all away.

Are you fucking shitting me? Really? You’re going to say this.

Listen Cetra, put your ignorance, bigotry, and fucking KKK buddies aside for lets say, 10 seconds here, and lets do a little exercise. Ok? Can you do that? I know it’s scary to let go of these things, but I promise it is OK. Really. I do. Ok, now that you’re ready, imagine yourself living in your family’s apartment, doing whatever it is that you do that makes you happy, and then all of a sudden, BANGO BOOMO SHIZZAM, the neighbor crashes through the shared wall, killing your parents who were sitting at the table and eating lunch. Your neighbor looks at you, smiling, and exclaims, “I’m just expanding my apartment, I found that it was too small. Thanks for your apartment!” and goes on to annex everything that you owned – leaving you to the streets with barely the clothes on your back.
How would you feel? Is that giving you “every opportunity” to prosper? Really?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hey, if you look closely, it's Rabbi's burning the flag, not me

*Sent the wrong message, obviously*

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Obviously I was joking, as noted by the at the end. Can't you guys see a little humour in the situation?

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Oh you know what I mean. Bleh.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Anyways...

To get back on topic, it looks like the UN is halting aid missions into Gaza as the Israeli's have been attacking their convoys.

UN halts aid to Gaza, citing Israeli attacks on staff

"Sure, we'll let aid come in for a few hours every other day, we'll even stop shooting at the 'rabs for you, but now we'll just practice with you!"

How ya doing, buddy?