Israeli Air Strikes: 205 Dead, at Least 700 Injured; Olmert May Call For Ground Offensive

[tekisui]

Source: In The News(UK)

Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 205 Palestinians and injured 700 more.

Israeli F-16 bombers targeted secure compounds run by the paramilitary government of Hamas and launched 30 missiles in the attack.

Most of those killed were policemen but women and children also died, Gaza officials said.

The attacks follow the lapse of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and the Israeli government just days ago. The attacks are the most intense in the region in decades.

Speaking of the offensive Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said: "it won't be easy and it won't be short".

"There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight," he added.

Middle East envoy Tony Blair and the French EU presidency urged an immediate ceasefire.

Israel had warned it would launch the air strikes in response to rocket attacks across the border from the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli military statement claimed the operation targeted “Hamas terror operatives” as well as training camps and weaponry storage warehouses.

Hamas immediately promised to avenge the attacks.

“Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood,” said the group’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station.

Israel told its civilians near Gaza to take cover, and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for restraint.

The first round of air strikes came just before noon, followed by several more waves of missiles. Dozens of security compounds were destroyed, claiming the life of Gaza police chief Major General Tawfiq Jaber among countless others.

There are also suggestions the air strikes were designed to pave the way for a ground assault on the region particularly as Israeli security officials have been briefing about the possibility of a ground offensive for the last few days.

It is expected that prime minister Ehud Olmert may authorise such an offensive as early as tomorrow.

Israel has done nothing to ease the tension saying operations "will continue, will be expanded, and will deepen if necessary".

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/autocodes/countries/israel-palestine/israeli-air-strikes-205-dead-at-least-700-injured-$1257276.htm

[tekisui]

1. Israeli campaign may include ground troops

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip "may last for a long time" and expand to the use of ground forces, a senior Israeli military source said on Saturday.

The source told reporters that Saturday's aerial bombardment of the coastal territory, that killed at least 205 people, was "the opening step of the operation."

"We should be prepared for an ongoing operation that may last for a long time," the source said. "We don't have time limits for that and we are determined to go all the way if needed with all of our options, air, ground, whatever."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE4BQ1KH20081227

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[subsuelo]

30. I wonder how many natives they'll murder until 'mission accomplished'

[Xipe Totec]

2. It's now or never

Chimpie's time is almost over...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4p9USIZ8y0

[grassfed]

3. Done with US built and funded F16s and 186 million gallons of JP-8 jet fuel

As of this writing, Israeli Air Force attacks today on the occupied Gaza Strip killed an estimated 200 or more people and injured hundreds more. These Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, which has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life.

While the scope of civilian casualties in today’s attacks is not yet clear, it is unmistakable that Israel carried out these attacks with F16 fighter jets and missiles provided by the taxpayers of this country. From 2001-2006, the United States transferred to Israel more than $200 million worth of spare parts to fly its fleet of F16’s. In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and “bunker buster” missiles.

In short, Israel’s lethal attack today on the Gaza Strip could not have happened without the active military and political support of the United States. Therefore, we need to take action to protest this attack and demand an immediate cease-fire.

TAKE ACTION
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1773

[Vegasaurus]

4. What should Israel do to prevent rocket fire in Gaza

which has continued unabated?

The rockets continue to wreak havoc, despite efforts to have them stop, including unbelievable restraint, the likes of which no country in the world has ever shown in the face of daily ongoing terrorism.

[polly7]

5. I'd call decades of land theft and locking human beings into

starvation ghettoes 'terrorism', but that probably wouldn't be so PC.

F* it ......... it is terrorism.

[Vegasaurus]

6. Hamas has locked in its people

because their welfare it of no importance.

There needn't have been starvation, locking etc (and history shows this).

The citizens are political pawns.

The Islamist militants can blame everyone but themselves for the misery they have wrought upon their people.

[polly7]

9. Really? Did you know the IDF considers any Palestinian child

over (or looking approximately) over the age of 12 fair game? How original. Islamist militants have caused all this suffering. Really. Well ya know, I don't condone violence, but I tend to think I'd fight back too if I had to watch my children digging through filthy dumps after my home was bulldozed to make room for settlers eager to tend the orchards my ancestors raised their families with. This is happening daily, more land theft, more malnourished, out-of-work, bulldozed out of their homes Palestinians. Thanks so much for the response to my post but my eyes have been opened since the bulldozing death of Rachel Corrie. (Not by an Islamist militant).

[sam sarrha]

12. the IDF also knows that a flat shot to th temple is th only way to kill a child with a rubber bullet

[Vegasaurus]

16. There are no settlers in Gaza

No land theft, no bulldozed homes.


But there is terrorism and rocket fire every day from the thugs of Hamas and their militant counterparts Islamic Jihad and the rest.

They could have had another Dubai.

Instead they have a hellhole.

Terrorism is not the way to go.

[Rage for Order]

29. Please don't interrupt the victimhood narrative with facts

Now they'll have to find new myths to hold onto.

[Statistical]

27. No settlers. The wall is built on the 1959 cease fire line. (n/t)

[Kurska]

7. More like decades of lost wars that lead to land losses

Most of whicht they started, but thanks for playing

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[polly7]

14. I'm not playing. I find what has been done to these millions of innocents horrific.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/downloads/oxfam_gaza_lowres.pdf

[azurnoir]

24. What land losses who is losing land? n/t

[Horselover Fat]

11. I guess bombing civilians must be the answer.

You will never stop terrorists with death from above. It doesn't matter how many bombs or F-16s you have.
You will only make more of them because inevitably there is collateral damage. But you know that, right?

It is amazing to me that Israel does not accept this truth and act accordingly.

If they are the model of 'unbelievable restraint', then I'm the King of England.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[TomClash]

15. Incredible

Disproportionate and inhumane. State terror so well orchestrated the Iranians and other "terror states" should be taking copious notes.

[Vegasaurus]

17. Had Hamas the same firepower

every Jew in Israel would be dead by now.

Let's keep it honest here.

[Horselover Fat]

18. But why is that? Be honest.

Nobody was annihilating the original Jews as they immigrated there in the late 19th-early 20th century.
If that had been the case, Israel would not have become a State.

No, the current mindset of Hamas is a result of actions which Israel has taken multiplied to the extreme.

There have been great wrongs committed which Hamas is the by-product of.

[rockymountaindem]

20. The events of your first paragraph are due to two factors

Firstly, Arab nationalism arose quite late compared to other forms of nationalism (including Zionism), so there was no real movement of Arabs to oppose the Jewish presence.

Secondly, the whole area was dominated and policed by world powers (the Ottomans and then the British) until 1948. They kept things on a low boil. Look up the 1929 Hebron Massacre.

[Horselover Fat]

26. "Arab nationalism arose quite late compared to other forms of nationalism"

that is because some of the reasons for it hadn't occurred yet

[TomClash]

21. There were few jews in Palestine until after the Ottoman Empire collapsed

And until Israel was established, there were far fewer jews in Palestine.

Today, counting Israeli Arabs, the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and the refugees and their descendants, there are still many more Palestinians than jews.

[Statistical]

28. What exactly was the six day war? A tea party? (n/t)

[TomClash]

19. No need to call me dishonest

Hamas or Fatah killing 225+ Israelis (Israeli arabs too) would be just as bad.

[uppityperson]

22. kick since can't rec in this forum. Horrific. Happy Holy days. sad sad sad sad sad

[Frank Booth]

23. What's the big deal?

Doesn't it take more than 205 Palestinian lives to equal 1 Israeli life?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

25. Israeli airstrikes continue on Gaza; 228 Palestinians dead, 700 injured

Date: 27 / 12 / 2008 Time: 11:57



Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli airstrikes continue to bombard Gaza and Palestinian military factions launch homemade projectiles at Israeli targets.

The toll for Saturday’s violence is 228 Palestinians dead and around 700 injured. Medical sources say most victims are arriving to Gaza City hospitals in “pieces,” while Israeli sources reported one dead, five injured.

Two massive waves of airstrikes dropped 100 bombs on Gaza at 11:30 and a second at approximately 2pm. Smaller strikes hit northern Gaza at 5:30 and 8pm.

Israeli strikes targeted de facto government buildings; one Hamas source told Ma’an “every de facto security building was targeted.” Confirmed casualties include Commander of the de facto Government Police Tawfiq Jabir, Governor of the Al-Wusta (central) Districts Ahmad Abu Aashur and Commander of Security and Protection Services in the de facto government police Ismail Al-Ja'bari.

Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said that the attacks destroyed most of the police headquarters in the Gaza Strip and that a police graduation ceremony was being held during the assault.

Saturday afternoon Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared the 20 square kilometers of Gaza a “special military zone.” The classification is one degree below a declaration of total war against an enemy state.
http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34246

[ProgressiveProfessor]

31. Interesting Confirmation of what the Israelis were saying

The IAF claimed to be only targeting Hamas buildings. This seems to confirm that. No discussion of misses by either side yet, but surely there were some with attendant purely civilian casualties. To repeat myself, this is the first non-IAF source I have seen that confirms the targets were Hamas buildings.