Israel kills five more Gaza militants; rockets hit Israel

[JEDIYoda]

Very interesting...especially Egypts response.
Hamas is calling for Egypt to get involved.
I`m not sure if the Islamic Brotherhood that now rules Egypt is prepared to get involved militarily......seems to me you get youe butt licked enough times you decide its not worth having a sore butt!!

Then we have Abbas playing this for all its worth.....and Hamas stating it`s not responsible for rockets fired from land that it controls.....

You ever wonder why there will never be a Palestinian state???
Who is going to be resonsible for rocket attacks on israel...not Hamas...not Abbas...lolol

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-kills-more-gaza-gunmen-rockets-fired-israel-103107234.html

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes killed five militants in Gaza on Saturday, the second day of cross-border violence in which Palestinian fighters have fired dozens of rockets into Israel, both sides said. Fifteen militants in the Gaza Strip have been killed since Friday, Hamas medics said. On Saturday, a gunman was killed in a vehicle near Gaza's border with Egypt. Earlier in the day Israeli jets killed two gunmen on a motorcycle and two others in a pre-dawn attack, officials in Gaza said. The sounds of explosions and rocket fire reverberated across coastal Gaza and southern Israel early on Saturday and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said its air strikes would continue.

"This round in the Strip is still far from over," he told reporters on a visit to the south of Israel, where around half a million people have been told to stay indoors and keep bomb shelters open.

Six people in southern Israel have been injured by rockets fired from Gaza. One man, a Thai worker, was reported to be in a serious condition.

MISSILES INTERCEPTED

Militant groups in Hamas-ruled Gaza vowed to exact revenge for Friday's killings and the Israeli military said more than 90 rockets had been fired at its territory since Friday, including 25 longer-range Grad rockets which Israel's "Iron Dome" missile interceptor system shot down.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told local officials in towns under fire the Jewish state would "continue to strike at all those who plan to attack Israeli citizens". He promised to supply additional missile defense batteries. Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed faction largely independent of Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, said it had fired most of the rockets and mortars. The escalating violence drew appeals for a ceasefire from the United Nations, European Union, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and neighboring Egypt, whose peace treaty with Israel has been tested by last year's toppling of Hosni Mubarak. EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, expressed concern. "I urge all sides to re-establish calm," she said in a statement.

Richard Miron, a spokesman for U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry, called for "both sides to exercise maximum restraint" and condemned rocket firings at Israel.

MILITANT LEADERS KILLED IN CAR

The latest violence began on Friday when Israeli missiles destroyed a car in Gaza City, killing two militant leaders. One of them, Zuheir el-Qessi, head of the PRC, had been involved in plotting a cross-border attack from Egypt, Israel said.

Israeli media reported that Qessi had also been involved in the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, was freed as part of a prisoner swap in October.

After darkness fell on Friday, further air strikes killed eight more militants in Gaza, Hamas Islamist officials there said. At least 12 civilians were among 26 wounded in the Israeli attacks, medics reported.

Israel said its attacks were on weapons manufacturing sites and militants preparing to fire rockets.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamal Amr told state news agency MENA that his government was "making crucial calls for an immediate end to this Israeli escalation to end bloodshed of our brothers". Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called for Egyptian aid, saying Gaza was "sinking in darkness and in blood".

In Gaza, thousands attended funerals for dead militants on Saturday, listening to speeches calling for revenge.

Gaza officials said Israeli troops opened fire on mourners at a burial for an Islamic Jihad militant attended by hundreds at a cemetery near the Israeli frontier fence, wounding four. Israel's military had no immediate comment on the incident.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged restraint on both sides. He charged Israel was responsible for the "serious deterioration" but urged militants to avoid an escalation that could hurt efforts to renew talks for Palestinian statehood. Hamas, an Iranian-backed group that refuses to recognize Israel, did not claim responsibility for any missile attack on Israel, and there were no reported civilian deaths in Gaza, factors which may prevent the violence escalating. However, Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for any attacks launched from its territory. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah movement in a bloody 2007 coup, two years after Israel pulled its forces out of the territory it had captured in a 1967 war.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Egypt has a lot of headaches at home. Also lets face it, nobody likes Hamas enough to provide material support especially when Israel is packing. Good thing eh?

 

[EagleKeeper]

the issue may be excalating

From AP

Israeli airstrikes kill 15 Gaza militants
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – 1 hour ago
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel pounded Gaza for the second day in a row Saturday, trading airstrikes and rocket fire with Palestinian militants and killing 15 of them as the deadliest Gaza violence in over a year showed no signs of abating.
Despite Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire, Palestinians fired more than 100 rockets, some striking major cities in southern Israel and seriously wounding an Israeli civilian. The military responded with more than a dozen airstrikes and the targeted killings of Palestinian militants from various Gaza organizations.
Israel's lauded Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted more than 25 projectiles. Still, residents were told to stay close to home and the cities of Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon called off school for Sunday.
Tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and Palestinians have been routine since the 2009 war, but a flare-up of this intensity is rare. The Arab League called the Israeli attacks a "massacre." The United Nations and the State Department condemned the violence and called on both sides to exercise restraint.
"This round in Gaza is far from being over," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a visit to southern Israel. "We will not allow anyone to harm the citizens of the country and we will act against anyone who attempts to launch rockets. They will pay a heavy price, and no one will have immunity."
The latest spate of violence got under way Friday afternoon, when an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City killed top militant commander Zuhair al-Qaissi and two of his underlings. It was the highest-profile killing Israel has carried out in many months, interrupting a period of relative calm on the volatile southern front.
Almost immediately, Gaza militants unleashed a barrage of rockets toward southern Israeli border communities.
So far, militants have fired more than 100 rockets since al-Qaissi's killing, a major escalation from recent months. Palestinian militants fired some 50 rockets toward Israel in the previous three months.
Gaza's militant Islamic Hamas rulers condemned the Israeli strike but, pointedly, their fighters did not fire rockets at Israel. Instead, they quietly allowed other smaller Palestinian militant groups to unleash salvos.
In previous flare-ups, Hamas has used such a strategy to allow Palestinian militants to burn off their anger, with an eye toward the exchange of strikes eventually quieting down.
Hamas hasn't been eager to participate in rocket barrages since Israel conducted a punishing three-week war against the militant group in 2009. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians and militants were killed and the air and ground assault destroyed much of Hamas' infrastructure.
Since then, Hamas has sought to shore up its Gaza rule and amass a better weapons arsenal. Still, Israel's military said Hamas, as the territory's ruler, would "bear the consequences" for any attacks that emerged from Gaza.
Egypt, which has helped arrange truces in the past, said Saturday it was trying to cobble together a cease-fire.
"(We) won't give this occupation a free truce while our leaders and heroes are being killed," said Abu Mujahid, spokesman for al-Qaissi's group.
The U.N. and the State Department on Saturday called for an end to the violence.
"We deplore the fact that civilians are once again paying the price," said Richard Miron, a spokesman for Robert Serry, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. He called the situation in Gaza "very fragile and unsustainable."
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, "we condemn in the strongest terms the rocket fire from Gaza by terrorists into southern Israel in recent days, which has dramatically and dangerously escalated in the past day. We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these cowardly acts."
Israel released a number of video clips showing militants who were apparently hit by airstrikes moments before they were to fire rockets.
Palestinian rockets against Israeli communities have killed more than a dozen Israelis in the past decade.
This weekend's events are the deadliest in Gaza in more than a year.
Last April, Israeli killed 11 Palestinians, including four civilians, after Palestinian militants fired a rocket that hit a school bus and badly wounded a 16-year-old boy.
In August, Israel assassinated Kamal al-Nairab, al-Qaissi's predecessor as leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, after the group carried out an attack from Sinai that killed eight Israelis and injured 40.
Barak said al-Qaissi was preparing a similar attack. He said he couldn't say yet whether the plan had been completely thwarted.
The Popular Resistance Committees is a group closely aligned with Hamas that is best known for the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Schalit was freed last year in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The current fighting could spiral out of control if Palestinian militants manage to kill Israeli civilians or if the Israeli strikes kill Palestinian civilians or another top militant.
On Saturday, the low whooshing noise of rocket fire from border areas toward Israel was palpably heard inside Gaza City. Israeli drones hovered in the skies above. Tens of thousands of Palestinian mourners marched through the streets in funeral processions. They carried slain militants in coffins, their bodies too torn up to be wrapped in cloth, as Muslim tradition dictates. Masked militants sprayed machine gun fire above the mourners' heads in angry grief.
"Revenge, revenge!" chanted the crowds.
Airstrikes continued throughout the day. The latest airstrike hit militants in the southern city of Rafah, near where an elaborate network of smuggling tunnels runs between the coastal strip and Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Palestinian officials said one militant was killed and three others wounded. An earlier strike killed two Palestinian militants on a motorbike in the border town of Bani Suheila in southeast Gaza.
Palestinian officials acknowledged that several of the dead were preparing to fire rockets

“This Israeli escalation in Gaza is completely condemned and we urge the world community, and the Quartet (of Middle East power brokers), especially the United States, to put enough pressure on Israeli government to stop this escalation,” Rdainah told Reuters television.

The Palestinians admit that they are firing rockets into Israel.
They were so primed that they could send over 20-30 immediately after one of the militant commanders was killed.

More rockets have been fired in the last 2 days than the last 3 months. Gaza is upping the anti - why.
Their rockets are now killing civilians in Israeli cities.

But the Arab League, Abbas, Egypt and Palestinian supporter want to blame Israel for the issue. Keep this up and the Palestinian state will be set back again. Or Gaza will not be part of the so-called state as the Hamas refuse to control the militants on their land and think that they can claim no responsibility for what happens.

Abbas has to condemn Israel to protect his standing; it will also taint him along the path for statehood. Hamas has succeeded. they will be able to retain power, weaken Abbas and ensure that they can continue to fight because statehood will not happen.

 

[William Gaatjes]

The Israeli are in this case defending themselves.

War is dirty. When you poke an eye out, do not expect a thank you or equal treatment. Expect that person to retaliate and defend the other remaining eye.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

The Israeli are in this case defending themselves.

War is dirty. When you poke an eye out, do not expect a thank you or equal treatment. Expect that person to retaliate and defend the other remaining eye.

Expect Iran to try to capitalize on this, oh and you-know-who too

 

[Jaskalas]

Conflict without resolution is par the course.

Israel should be allowed suppress the violence by subduing their opponents. That means full command and control of Gaza, where they control the movement of goods in and out. Where they filter the population of weapons, in what is essentially martial law.

Their lives should be conditional on such surrender, and the human price dependent on how many Palestinian fighters wish to use violence. It is my demand that the world accept that cost.

Generations later a more educated, more peaceful, Palestinian people in Gaza can re-assume personal responsibility. Until such time that is possible, it should be forcibly seized from them. Surrender is the price of war.

 

[Jhhnn]

Very interesting...especially Egypts response.
Hamas is calling for Egypt to get involved.
I`m not sure if the Islamic Brotherhood that now rules Egypt is prepared to get involved militarily......seems to me you get youe butt licked enough times you decide its not worth having a sore butt!!

Then we have Abbas playing this for all its worth.....and Hamas stating it`s not responsible for rockets fired from land that it controls.....

You ever wonder why there will never be a Palestinian state???
Who is going to be resonsible for rocket attacks on israel...not Hamas...not Abbas...lolol

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-kills-more-gaza-gunmen-rockets-fired-israel-103107234.html

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes killed five militants in Gaza on Saturday, the second day of cross-border violence in which Palestinian fighters have fired dozens of rockets into Israel, both sides said. Fifteen militants in the Gaza Strip have been killed since Friday, Hamas medics said. On Saturday, a gunman was killed in a vehicle near Gaza's border with Egypt. Earlier in the day Israeli jets killed two gunmen on a motorcycle and two others in a pre-dawn attack, officials in Gaza said. The sounds of explosions and rocket fire reverberated across coastal Gaza and southern Israel early on Saturday and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said its air strikes would continue.

"This round in the Strip is still far from over," he told reporters on a visit to the south of Israel, where around half a million people have been told to stay indoors and keep bomb shelters open.

Six people in southern Israel have been injured by rockets fired from Gaza. One man, a Thai worker, was reported to be in a serious condition.

MISSILES INTERCEPTED

Militant groups in Hamas-ruled Gaza vowed to exact revenge for Friday's killings and the Israeli military said more than 90 rockets had been fired at its territory since Friday, including 25 longer-range Grad rockets which Israel's "Iron Dome" missile interceptor system shot down.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told local officials in towns under fire the Jewish state would "continue to strike at all those who plan to attack Israeli citizens". He promised to supply additional missile defense batteries. Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed faction largely independent of Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, said it had fired most of the rockets and mortars. The escalating violence drew appeals for a ceasefire from the United Nations, European Union, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and neighboring Egypt, whose peace treaty with Israel has been tested by last year's toppling of Hosni Mubarak. EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, expressed concern. "I urge all sides to re-establish calm," she said in a statement.

Richard Miron, a spokesman for U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry, called for "both sides to exercise maximum restraint" and condemned rocket firings at Israel.

MILITANT LEADERS KILLED IN CAR

The latest violence began on Friday when Israeli missiles destroyed a car in Gaza City, killing two militant leaders. One of them, Zuheir el-Qessi, head of the PRC, had been involved in plotting a cross-border attack from Egypt, Israel said.

Israeli media reported that Qessi had also been involved in the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, was freed as part of a prisoner swap in October.

After darkness fell on Friday, further air strikes killed eight more militants in Gaza, Hamas Islamist officials there said. At least 12 civilians were among 26 wounded in the Israeli attacks, medics reported.

Israel said its attacks were on weapons manufacturing sites and militants preparing to fire rockets.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamal Amr told state news agency MENA that his government was "making crucial calls for an immediate end to this Israeli escalation to end bloodshed of our brothers". Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called for Egyptian aid, saying Gaza was "sinking in darkness and in blood".

In Gaza, thousands attended funerals for dead militants on Saturday, listening to speeches calling for revenge.

Gaza officials said Israeli troops opened fire on mourners at a burial for an Islamic Jihad militant attended by hundreds at a cemetery near the Israeli frontier fence, wounding four. Israel's military had no immediate comment on the incident.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged restraint on both sides. He charged Israel was responsible for the "serious deterioration" but urged militants to avoid an escalation that could hurt efforts to renew talks for Palestinian statehood. Hamas, an Iranian-backed group that refuses to recognize Israel, did not claim responsibility for any missile attack on Israel, and there were no reported civilian deaths in Gaza, factors which may prevent the violence escalating. However, Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for any attacks launched from its territory. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah movement in a bloody 2007 coup, two years after Israel pulled its forces out of the territory it had captured in a 1967 war.

You're so lame. This latest round of violence was instigated by the Israelis, killing "militant leaders" in Gaza city.

If it's OK for Israel to do that, then it must be OK for Pals to retaliate.


No insults or personal attacks.

Administrator Idontcare

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

You're so lame. This latest round of violence was instigated by the Israelis, killing "militant leaders" in Gaza city.

If it's OK for Israel to do that, then it must be OK for Pals to retaliate.

"Militant leaders" have a habit of causing civilians to die. Now if Hamas wants to retaliate they may. Of course that means Israel can escalate. When the sky becomes the limit for retaliation, who do you think will get hurt the most?

 

[SamurAchzar]

You're so lame. This latest round of violence was instigated by the Israelis, killing "militant leaders" in Gaza city.

If it's OK for Israel to do that, then it must be OK for Pals to retaliate.

Israel assassinated terrorists in a precision strike that hurt no one but the intended target.
Palestinians are blindly firing missiles into cities.

I think - although not sure - that even you understand the subtleties.

 

[cybrsage]

You're so lame. This latest round of violence was instigated by the Israelis, killing "militant leaders" in Gaza city.

If it's OK for Israel to do that, then it must be OK for Pals to retaliate.

You probably also think it ok for FARC to slaughter civilians when the Columbian military kills some of their fighters.

amirite?

 

[JEDIYoda]

I think - although not sure - that even you understand the subtleties.

nO JHHNN DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THAT!! IT`s real obvious if Jhhnn had his way Israel would not be in the middle east and the palestinians would have everything they want.......

 

[EagleKeeper]

If Hamas wants to allow the escalation, who will end up absorbing the most punishment? What will it accomplish for Gaza and the Palestinians?

 

[Jhhnn]

Israel assassinated terrorists in a precision strike that hurt no one but the intended target.
Palestinians are blindly firing missiles into cities.

I think - although not sure - that even you understand the subtleties.

Negative. Gazan sources claim that many were wounded, and anybody killed by Israel is reported by them to be a militant, anyway.

Israel started up the current round of violence, by their own admission, and now wrap themselves in the mantle of victimhood.

The Pals will fight back with what they've got, and their weaponry obviously doesn't allow for precision strikes.

 

[cybrsage]

Lesson learned, do not stand near a bunch of loons who are setting up a rocket to shoot into Israel - you might get hurt by the body parts being thrown all over when Israel blows them up.

 

[Lemon law]

When Jewish refugees in the Warsaw ghetto attacked Nazis it was a good thing, when Gaza residents do the same thing to Israeli oppressors its a bad thing. Especially given the fact Israelis continue to boycott the residents of Gaza and Murbarak is now longer around to rubber stamp it.

Its really quite laughable on the face of it, only seven million Israelis Jews telling a 6 billion people world that they have a God given right to dominate a 300 million people mid-east while dis respecting the rights of every one of their neighbors. And all this while continuing to steal disputed land that does not belong and can never belong to them.

 

[Jhhnn]

If Hamas wants to allow the escalation, who will end up absorbing the most punishment? What will it accomplish for Gaza and the Palestinians?

Who says they want to allow it, or that they have the power to stop it?

When the Israelis aren't busy killing other "militants", they're plinking Hamas leaders, and have been for decades. They keep Hamas weak & disorganized in that fashion, prevent them from controlling the other factions in Gaza, serving Israeli purposes of expansion into the West Bank entirely well, if only as distraction.

 

[cybrsage]

If HAMAS declared they would end all violence, and then actually do it, you would see the world shift to supporting them. When they shoot anti-tank missiles at clearly marked school buses, it is hard for anyone to say they are the good guys.

 

[Jhhnn]

If HAMAS declared they would end all violence, and then actually do it, you would see the world shift to supporting them. When they shoot anti-tank missiles at clearly marked school buses, it is hard for anyone to say they are the good guys.

Nice attempted duh-version from the current round of violence, which the Israelis instigated.

If you're going to attribute that particular attack to Hamas, you'll need to document it.

 

[SamurAchzar]

Negative. Gazan sources claim that many were wounded, and anybody killed by Israel is reported by them to be a militant, anyway.

Are you claiming those killed weren't militants, or do you have any information that contradicts Israel claims - that the two killed were directly involved in an imminent terror attack on its southern border?

 

[Jhhnn]

Are you claiming those killed weren't militants, or do you have any information that contradicts Israel claims - that the two killed were directly involved in an imminent terror attack on its southern border?

Nice twist. I never made any claims in that regard, and it's Israel's responsibility to back up their own.

 

[nonlnear]

If Egypt decides to get their asses beat again maybe Israel can carve out a homeland for the Palestinians there. Not a crappy one either. Take a couple hundred square miles of nice beachfront that makes Gaza strip look like a refugee camp the Gaza strip and let everybody be happy.

 

[SamurAchzar]

Nice twist. I never made any claims in that regard, and it's Israel's responsibility to back up their own.

The only way to back these claims, as you must know, is for Israel to disclose intelligence materials. That's not going to happen, and in any case Israel is not obliged to do so. Either you believe Israel, or you believe the Palestinians (not that I've seen the Palestinians denying Israel's allegations on that one).

 

[Jhhnn]

The only way to back these claims, as you must know, is for Israel to disclose intelligence materials. That's not going to happen, and in any case Israel is not obliged to do so. Either you believe Israel, or you believe the Palestinians (not that I've seen the Palestinians denying Israel's allegations on that one).

Of course. So, we've apparently established that Israel opened the current round of violence voluntarily, based on "information" that they refuse to reveal. Correct?

Basically, You claim that Israel has the right to high tech murder for whatever reasons they state to be true, correct?

And that we should accept their claims of victimhood for the violence they instigated, obviously.

 

[cybrsage]

Nice attempted duh-version from the current round of violence, which the Israelis instigated.

If you're going to attribute that particular attack to Hamas, you'll need to document it.

Is this your way of saying "yes, you are right, but if I admit to it publically it will destroy my carefully crafted position that Jews are at fault for everything from the Black Plague to flouride in our drinking water"?

 

[cybrsage]

Is it OK for the UK to kill IRA Militants? After all, the UK is occupying the northern counties of Ireland.