Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen
* Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 November 2008 14.32 GMT
Gaza strike Israel
A man sifts throught rubble after Israel's overnight operation
Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP
A four-month ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in
Gaza was in jeopardy today after Israeli troops killed six Hamas
gunmen in a raid into the territory.
Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel,
although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious
break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they
wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.
Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip late last night near the
town of Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said the target of the
raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture
Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away. Four
Israeli soldiers were injured in the operation, two moderately and two
lightly, the military said.
One Hamas gunman was killed and Palestinians launched a volley of
mortars at the Israeli military. An Israeli air strike then killed
five more Hamas fighters. In response, Hamas launched 35 rockets into
southern Israel, one reaching the city of Ashkelon.
"This was a pinpoint operation intended to prevent an immediate
threat," the Israeli military said in a statement. "There is no
intention to disrupt the ceasefire, rather the purpose of the
operation was to remove an immediate and dangerous threat posted by
the Hamas terror organisation."
In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said the group had fired
rockets out of Gaza as a "response to Israel's massive breach of the
truce".
"The Israelis began this tension and they must pay an expensive price.
They cannot leave us drowning in blood while they sleep soundly in
their beds," he said.
The attack comes shortly before a key meeting this Sunday in Cairo
when Hamas and its political rival Fatah will hold talks on
reconciling their differences and creating a single, unified
government. It will be the first time the two sides have met at this
level since fighting a near civil war more than a year ago.
Until now it had appeared both Israel and Hamas, which seized full
control of Gaza last summer, had an interest in maintaining the
ceasefire. For Israel it has meant an end to the daily barrage of
rockets landing in southern towns, particularly Sderot. For Gazans it
has meant an end to the regular Israeli military raids that have
caused hundreds of casualties, many of them civilian, in the past
year. Israel, however, has maintained its economic blockade on the
strip, severely limiting imports and preventing all exports from Gaza.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, had personally approved the
Gaza raid, the Associated Press said. The Israeli military concluded
that Hamas was likely to want to continue the ceasefire despite the
raid, it said. The ceasefire was due to run for six months and it is
still unclear whether it will stretch beyond that limit.
Peace,
Doc
On Dec 30, 12:01 pm, killer <[email protected]> wrote:
> G-d bless Israel and strenthen it's hand in defense of the Jewish
> people.If Palestinian Muslims had agreed to recognize and live
> peacefully with a Jewish state there would be no violence-just two
> peaceful states side by side prospering.Instead from the very start
> they have denied a Jewish connection with any part of "their land" and
> have tried to annhilate Israel from the moment of IT'S birth.The only
> thing Israel is guilty of is its very existence and even more so it's
> audacity to resist extermination !!Stop the rejection,split the land
> equitably and let's have peace.By the way your analogy toPurim offends
> Jews everywhere and betrays your own antisemitism!!!
>
> On Dec 30, 3:20 pm, powersun <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Israelis celebrate Purim, a long Almsakr "Purim" the usual way.
>
> > Israeli Zionists and the special rituals in the observance of holidays
> > many pleasures of the standard is not complete and the scenes of joy,
> > however, gratified by.
>
> > First and most prominent of these rituals, and a tightening of the
> > siege and destruction of the already besieged Palestinian territories
> > and to provoke a storm and a scarecrow mania security conditions of
> > stability can not be planted without further pain, poverty, recession
> > and the strangulation of movement and access to the livelihoods of
> > thousands of workers, traders and even the sick Palestinians.
>
> > Traditionally, the Palestinian nation pay the bill for all the happy
> > and sad events of the Israelis of their liberty and livelihood of
> > their children, as if the joy and pleasure for the Israelis will not
> > be complete until further suffering of the Palestinians.
>
> > Having decided to Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Friday
> > morning (10-3) at a meeting of security consultations with the leaders
> > of intelligence and the army imposed a total embargo on the
> > Palestinian territories on Saturday and until Wednesday in a move
> > described by Dr. Saeb Erekat, an official in the negotiations - the
> > Palestine Liberation Organization as: "the siege of the siege,
> > suffocation and strangulation, collective punishment and is contrary
> > to all laws and humanitarian norms."
>
> > So happy and celebrating the barbaric Zionists is not a strange
> > anomaly palate all systems and humanitarian laws.
>
> > What will bring the joy of Israel when deprived thousands of
> > Palestinians from the cup of tea as a result of shortage of sugar and
> > the disappearance of markets and deprives children of infant milk and
> > medicines, become essential goods and fruits is a rare covets deprived
> > Palestinians of their most basic necessities of human life.
>
> > Day was farcical Israeli Jewish tradition to wear face masks and
> > counterfeit clothing and ball for the happiness of their children, as
> > well as being fully compatible with the politicians but narrowly ...
>
> > The masks and figures used in the counterfeit Almsakr on Jewish
> > Ikhalaha some Jewish leaders, but the Zionists continue to bring the
> > rest of the year, not cherishing the people around them, but to
> > withhold Sahnathm infected spores of expansion and occupation,
> > terrorism and fascism.
>
> > As the festival is appropriate for use by the Jewish carnival of new
> > and renewed appetite Alolog and bidding on the Palestinian blood on
> > the occasion of new blood, called the Israeli elections.
>
> > To prove the work of the prime minister, "Ehud Olmert that" the
> > successor of the most war criminal "Ariel Sharon" and increase the
> > popularity of the Israeli society has issued instructions to intensify
> > the war crimes against the Palestinians in more murders and looting of
> > the land and fattening the settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank
> > and prevent the diversion of taxes owed to the Authority Palestinian
> > shelling the northern Gaza Strip with artillery and warplanes.
>
> > Thus, the series of bloody Almsakr disastrous for Israel is the
> > Palestinian people and the region in case of a spur to sit waiting for
> > the ills of new caps under Israeli politicians and rabbis
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