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JPost Middle East- Analysis: Why has the West Bank been quiet? January 6, 2009
- Lebanon doubts Hizbullah will open second front January 6, 2009
- UNSC to meet on Gaza resolution January 6, 2009
- Hamas opens hospital for gunmen January 6, 2009
- Sarkozy urges Assad to press for truce January 6, 2009
- ynet - Updates for RSS
- Bush adviser: Iran, Pakistan key Obama challenges January 7, 2009
- Judge to ponder whether Bernard Madoff dangerous January 7, 2009
- Rice says US supports Mubarak proposal on Gaza January 7, 2009
- Saddam wouldn't have allowed Israel's Gaza raid, says aide January 7, 2009
- UK voices support for Egyptian ceasefire initiative January 7, 2009
- Haaretz.com - News
- ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza January 7, 2009A few days ago, Physicians for Human Rights began soliciting $700,000 in donations for hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli humanitarian organization also provided a detailed list of the medical equipment Gaza lacks, including portable monitors, respirators, ultrasound and X-ray machines, wheelchairs, needles, dressings, catheters, oxygen, medical gases, endo-tracheal tubes, screws and plates for shattered limbs, and surgical gloves. According to PHR, Gaza also has a severe shortage of intensive-care beds, which cost about $50,000 apiece. Moreover, many Palestinian ambulances are out of commission. ...
- As truce efforts grow, Israel mulls expanding Gaza ground op January 7, 2009Israel's political leadership will meet in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning to discuss expanding the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at a time when most of the aims of the operation have been met. ...
- Rice: U.S. backs Egypt proposal for Gaza cease-fire January 7, 2009U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday Washington backed a proposal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. ...
- Venezuelan President Chavez: Gaza operation is a Palestinian 'holocaust' January 7, 2009Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez called the attacks a Palestinian "holocaust." ...
- Israel to establish 'humanitarian corridor' for Gaza Strip January 7, 2009Israel will set up a "humanitarian corridor" to counter a crisis caused by its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office ...
- ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza January 7, 2009
Gaza operation
At least 140 people killed, over 230 wounded.
• Police Depatment graduation ceremony among targets.
• Gaza Police Chief among the dead.
• Israel says strikes are “just the beginning.”
[Aljazeera.net | Saturday, 27 December, 2008.]
Israel has launched air strikes on Hamas installations across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 140 people and causing heavy damage, according to officials and witnesses. At least 30 missiles were fired at targets on Saturday, with the head of emergency services in Gaza saying that at least 200 people were also wounded.Hours after the Israeli strikes Gaza fighters fired rockets into southern Israel, heeding to calls by Hamas and other affiliated Palestinian groups to avenge the attacks, unprecedented in their scale.
Among those killed in Israel’s massive offensive was Tawfiq Jabber, the Gaza police chief. Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said the missiles hit a police graduation ceremony in Gaza City. The Hamas-run interior ministry said all security compounds in Gaza have been destroyed.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, condemned the “aggression” in Gaza. Mousa Abu Morzouz, the deputy leader of Hamas, told Al Jazeera: “Until now the aggression didn’t stop … they are targeting all the police headquarters and offices. We will defend out people, we will retaliate against this aggression … our military will retaliate.”
Marzouz called on the international community to condemn the attacks: “Nobody in this world can accept what happened and the Israeli aggression … [we expect] the international community to stand agasint this and say that it is not acceptable.”
Mustafa Barghauthi, former Palestinian information minister, said; “This is not an attack on the Hamas. Its an attack on the whole population and the free will of the people of Gaza.” He accused Israel of committing “war crimes” and demanded that Abbas and his government stop all relations with Israel.
The Israel army released a statement saying “terrorist installations” were hit and that all Israeli pilots returned unharmed. The operation against the Hamas is “only just beginning,” Avi Benayahu, an Israeli military spokesman said. (Full story here.)
UN steps up Lebanon border patrols after rockets found
UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops have stepped up patrols along the border with Israel after rockets were discovered aimed at the Jewish state and ready to fire, a UN spokeswoman said on Friday.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army “have deployed additional troops and intensified patrols and security control of the area,” said UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane.
UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano of Italy, is in contact with senior Lebanese and Israeli military officials, Bouziane added.
On Thursday, security forces found eight Katyusha rockets in the coastal region between Naqura and Tair Harfa that were aimed at Israel, an army official said.
The rockets were ready to fire, an officer said on Friday, adding that an investigation was underway and that the rockets had been dismantled.
The area where the rockets were found is a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah group and lies less than five kilometres (three miles) from the border.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war in 2006 that killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
During the war, Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel.
The group has been accused by the Jewish state of using the time since the end of the conflict to rearm. Last month, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told parliament that Hezbollah is now three times stronger than it was in 2006.
We are living in the north of Israel with to small kids. Origianally we are dutch so all this warnews is new for us and not always easy.
Sources:
Qassam rockets Xmas 2008
Xmas 2008!
We are eating, they are running.
We are sleeping, the are hiding.
Lets think for a few seconds………………..
Here are some pictures of the things that are raining down on Sderot.
Both fotos are made by the Sderot police station.
Sderot (Hebrew: שְׂדֵרוֹת) is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2006 the city had a total population of 19,300.The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. In March 2008, the mayor said the population had declined by 10%-15% as families left the city in desperation (aid organizations say the figure is closer to 25%). Many of the families that remain cannot afford to move out or are unable to sell their homes.
Sderot, less than a mile from Gaza, has borne the brunt of Palestinian rocket attacks since 2001, killing 13 people, wounding dozens, causing millions of dollars in damage, and disrupting daily life and ruining the economy. From mid-June 2007 to mid-February 2008, 771 rockets and 857 mortar bombs have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev, an average of three or four each a day.
Source wikipedia
So this is what I read this evening:
How to prepare for an attack:
In light of the warning, it is important to designate a place in which to take shelter during an attack. The first choice for shelter is a reinforced room (known as Mamad in Hebrew) or private/public bomb shelter. If you do not have access to one of these, the next best choice is a protected room (according to the specifications given by the home-front command). Make sure that everyone in your home knows which room is the designated shelter. It is important to designate a shelter in every place you might find yourself. It is important to place a first aid kit in this room, and to prepare your family.
see also here
We are celebrating the coming of Jesus, what are they doing?
What can we do for them?
I prayed! Opening my eyes I read this
More than 60 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel Wednesday.
Is this the peace on earth? Is this what we want?
Try to remind that we are not alone on this earth and try to be for a while in Israel, Gaza and the Westbank with your head.
Shalom…….
decision to attack Gaza will open the gates of hell
‘Israel should know that any decision to attack Gaza will open the gates of hell,’ Islamist group’s armed wing says. Israeli government spokesman: We will answer terrorist attacks with actions to protect our people
AFP
| Published: | 12.24.08, 17:03 / Israel News |
Hamas militants pounded Israel with rocket and mortar fire on Wednesday and vowed more attacks as the Jewish state warned it would hit back, further dimming the chances of a renewed ceasefire. Gunmen launched more than 70 projectiles, the largest barrage since before an Egyptian-brokered truce went into effect in and around the besieged Palestinian territory in June. The ceasefire expired five days ago.
Hamas vowed to step up its attacks if the Israeli army responded with strikes against the impoverished territory.
Israel ”should know that any decision to attack the Gaza Strip will open the gates of hell and we will make you regret your stupidity with tears of blood,” the group’s armed wing said in a statement.
Israel in turn warned that it would strike back.
“Our position is clear — we will answer quiet with quiet,” government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP. “But we will answer terrorist attacks with actions to protect our people.”
“Israel has demonstrated up until now enormous restraint despite daily rocket barrages on our civilian populations,” he said, adding that Hamas has “acted deliberately to torpedo the calm and to undermine the understandings reached through Egypt.”
The Israeli security cabinet met for five hours on Wednesday to discuss a response to the fire from Gaza, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert imposed a black-out on the discussions.
Wednesday’s barrage did not cause injuries but sowed panic among Israelis living near the Gaza border less than two months before a snap general election called for February.
‘Rocket barrages to avenge killing of Hamas men’
Two of the rockets were longer-range Grads, which struck some 13 kilometers (eight miles) north of Gaza, hitting a house and an amusement park in the city of Ashkelon, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Grads are not fired often by Gaza militants, who usually launch home-made projectiles dubbed Qassams, which have a shorter range and are less accurate.
The military wing of Hamas said Wednesday’s volley was “to avenge the killing” of three of its members by the Israeli army late on Tuesday.
The army said it had fired at three militants planting explosives near the border fence.
Since the expiry of the Egyptian-mediated truce on Friday, Israel has threatened to launch a major offensive on Gaza and Hamas warned it would retaliate by resuming suicide attacks inside the Jewish state.
In response to the latest rocket fire, Israel said it would keep the territory sealed on Wednesday after initially planning to re-open crossings to allow in aid shipments.
Aid groups have warned of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the tiny overcrowded territory, which has been largely cut off from the outside world by Israel since Hamas violently seized power in June 2007.
They have repeatedly appealed to Israel to ease its blockade and allow shipments into Gaza, where most of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid. Mahmud Zahar, a hardline leader of Hamas, said on Tuesday that the group was ready to renew the truce “if Israel respects the conditions of a ceasefire,” including lifting the blockade of Gaza and stopping military raids. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was due to travel to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on a possible renewal of the truce.
Both Israel and Hamas face delicate balancing acts in dealing with the escalation around Gaza, analysts say.
Ahead of February elections, the Israeli leadership is maintaining a tough line in public, but is wary of launching any large-scale offensive for fear it does not score a decisive victory against Hamas, they say.
And Hamas, despite its bellicose public statements, is not interested in an all-out Israeli assault as that could threaten its position in Gaza, they say.
Abbas: We won’t agree to Israeli invasion of Gaza
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets with Egyptian counterpart to discuss renewing truce between Hamas, Israel. We won’t agree to Israeli invasion of Strip,’ he adds
Roee Nahmias and AP
| Published: | 12.23.08, 16:51 / Israel News |
“We won’t agree to an Israeli invasion in Gaza or even an aerial attack,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday during a joint press conference in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The Palestinian president said Egypt will push for a new truce between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Strip, and referred to the rocket fire on the Jewish state as “foolish”.
The six-month-old truce, mediated by Mubarak, expired last Friday.
Abbas and Mubarak in Cairo (Photo: Reuters)
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is scheduled to come to CairoThursday for talks with Mubarak about a new truce. Abbas also said he and Mubarak agreed that reconciliation talks between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party should go forward.
Talks brokered by Egypt and slated to take place last November fell apart when Hamas pulled out at the last minute over a dispute with Fatah over releasing Hamas prisoners.
On Monday Mubarak invited Livni to Cairo in the hopes of preventing the further deterioration of the Gaza standoff.
Livni is expected to present Jerusalem’s current stance, which holds that enough is enough – and that Israel is duty-bound to protect its citizens from the incessant rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.
“We will not allow the prolonged existence of a Hamastan state in Gaza,” Livni said during a Kadima security convention in preperation for her visit to Egypt. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar saidTuesday that his organization was willing to renew the truce in Gaza if Israel adheres to the terms that have been agreed upon last June. Speaking with Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram, al-Zahar said that the movement would reassess the situation in Gaza once the 24 hours during which Hamas vowed to halt rocket fire come to an end.
According to the Hamas leader, if the situation appears to be going in a positive direction, the group would consider maintaining the lull.
Hamas signals thaw; Israel sets up Gaza offensive
israel-boy-tank
JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza’s ruling Hamas on Monday ordered militants to hold their fire for 24 hours and said a truce with Israel could be restored, but as rockets continued to fall, Israel signaled it was preparing for a possible offensive.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 10 TV, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar indicated that Hamas is interested in renewing the truce with Israel.
“The price is the lives of the Palestinian people,” he said, demanding regular food and electricity supplies from Israel along with stopping Israeli military actions in the West Bank as well as Gaza.
Israel did not agree to halt operations in the West Bank under the truce, which expired Friday, and Israeli officials refused to comment on the interview.
Hamas said militants were told Monday to halt rocket fire for 24 hours to see if Israel would allow vital supplies to be shipped into Gaza.
Smaller factions that also attack Israel, including the Islamic Jihad, said they received no such order, and another Hamas official Ayman Taha, threatened a renewal of suicide bombings in Israel.
The Israeli military said three rockets were fired by nightfall, far fewer than in previous days, but military spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner said the cargo crossings remained sealed on Monday. Israel routinely seals its border with Gaza in response to rocket fire.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who brokered the initial truce, invited Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to Cairo on Thursday to discuss a new deal, Livni’s office said.
Officials in her office said Livni was prepared to listen, but she would also complain about the hundreds of rockets and mortars that have been fired at Israel over the past month. The renewed attacks have stepped up pressure on the government to respond with force.
Israeli officials said the government has dispatched diplomats to win international sympathy for the plight of Israelis within range of militant fire — a reflection of the fact that most world attention has been focused on hardships in Gaza.
Since Hamas overran Gaza last year, Israel has severely limited shipments through its crossings with Gaza, and shortages are widespread. Israel accuses Hamas of manipulating supplies for propaganda purposes.
“People abroad perhaps do not understand the real distress of Israelis in the south who live with the rocket threat,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. “Then you wake up in the morning with an Israeli response, and you don’t understand where it came from.”
The new diplomatic offensive sent an indirect message to Hamas that Israel is ready to act. Still, analysts believe both sides want to renew the truce, which held for five months before unraveling in November and ending formally on Friday.
Past incursions have not stopped the rocket fire, and an Israeli operation into Gaza’s dense urban landscape would likely mean heavy casualties on both sides.
“There is real concern in the military and the defense ministry about the price, and they are trying everything not to go into Gaza,” said Reuven Pedatzur, a military analyst at Tel Aviv University.
But if a rockets kills a large number of Israelis, he said, “they won’t have a choice.”
Another factor influencing Israeli decision-making is a general election, set for Feb. 10. Barak and Livni are battling for the same centrist voters, and a failure to act might play into the hand of their main opponent, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, who favors stern and swift action in Gaza.
Late Monday in southern Gaza, a Hamas militant was killed and three others wounded when a shell they were carrying exploded accidentally, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official.
While battling Hamas, Israel has been negotiating peace with Hamas’ rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules from the West Bank. Abbas was in Moscow on Monday to discuss the peace efforts with Russian leaders.
“We hope we will continue to cooperate productively, especially as the number of problems we are facing haven’t become smaller,” said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Russia is a member of the “Quartet” of international Mideast mediators. Unlike its Quartet partners, it has maintained ties with Hamas, potentially giving it influence as a mediator.
Hamas declares day-long Gaza truce as mortar shell hits Negev
By Barak Ravid,
Haaretz Staff and News Agencies
Palestinian armed factions in the Gaza Strip are observing a 24-hour halt to rocket fire against Israel at the request of Egyptian mediators, a senior official of the ruling Islamist Hamas group said on Monday.
The announcement was released just as a mortar shell exploded in the Eshkol region of the western Negev. There were no reports of injuries.
The Hamas spokesman, Ayman Taha, said the brief cease-fire went into effect on Sunday evening. He said Hamas might consider a longer truce if Israel were to reciprocate by ceasing all military attacks in Gaza and lifting an embargo on the impoverished territory.
A six-month Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas expired on Friday with exchanges of fire across the border, raising fears of a wider conflict.
“Hamas and other factions agreed in order to give a chance to the Egyptian mediation and to show that the problem was always on the Israeli side,” Taha told Reuters.
“If a new [truce] offer were made, which met our demands, then we would be willing to study it.”
The surge of Palestinian rocket fire and Israel Air Force strikes over the weekend prompted calls in Israel to launch a wider offensive in Gaza.
Taha said any such escalation would be met by Palestinian retaliation including suicide bombings inside Israel.
Asked about Taha’s statements, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said they were “not true at all.” Israeli government officials were not immediately available to respond to Taha’s statements.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said that, as of Sunday evening, Palestinians in Gaza had fired at least one rocket and four mortar bombs across the border.
‘Hamas hasn’t signaled desire to renew truce efforts’
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority sources told Haaretz earlier Monday that Hamas has not given Egypt any signals that it is interested in renewing a cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The sources, who recently held talks with officials in Cairo, said Hamas has apparently not asked Egypt to renew its mediation efforts on the truce, which began in June and collapsed last Friday following numerous breaches.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Egypt on Tuesday for a series of meetings with senior officials, on issues including the cease-fire agreement and internal Palestinian dialogue.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held talks Monday morning with her Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Abu Gheit, during which she emphasized that Israel would not tolerate the continued firing of Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip.
Livni also said reiterated Israel’s stance that Hamas was responsible for the collapse of the six-month truce and for the ongoing rocket fire. She added that Israel would do everything necessary to protect its citizens in the south.
Barak: Israel won’t accept continued rocket fire
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has drawn criticism for his perceived reluctance to launch a massive military operation into Gaza, also said earlier Monday that Israel would not accept the continuation of rocket fire on its southern communities from Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.
The six-month truce between Israel and Gaza rulers Hamas ended late last week, when Hamas announced it would not be renewing the cease-fire.
“We have no intention of accepting the situation as it is developing in Gaza and we have no intention of accepting a continuation of fire on the Gaza envelope communities,” Barak told a meeting of the Labor Party’s Knesset faction.
The defense minister also called for an end to the speculative “chatter” about any Israeli military action in Gaza, which he said was interfering with IDF planning and the army’s capabilities and effectiveness, which in turn would extract a higher price.
Meanwhile, one of Barak’s Labor Party colleagues said Monday that Israel might be ready to consider a new truce with Hamas, in an apparent change of tone since the cease-fire ended.
Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog, a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet, questioned the long-term efficacy of any major military sweep of the crowded and impoverished coastal strip, and said renewing the truce, originally brokered by Egypt, could be an option.
“The calm is, of course, one alternative, and it is an alternative that can be seriously examined,” Herzog told Israel Radio. “I, like many of my colleagues, am ready to consider continuing the calm, on terms that are comfortable for Israel.”
Asked whether this might be broached with Hamas, Herzog said: “No, I don’t think we can open negotiations. Right now we are dealing with an enemy who is not looking for negotiations.”
Israeli officials are split on a response to the rockets which have pounded areas of the south over the past week. Both Barak and Olmert continued to urge restraint on Sunday, but Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who replaced Olmert as Kadima’s head, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads Likud, argued that Israel must get rid of the Hamas-run government. Israelis in the Qassam-hit communities have accused politicians of acting with an eye on the upcoming general elections.
While it seems that Israel’s government has still not decided on a course of action regarding Gaza, it has nonetheless kicked off a public relations campaign with the intention of widening a basis for international support of a military offensive.
No Gaza orders yet
Meanwhile, senior IDF officers told Haaretz on Sunday that the army has not been ordered to make any preparations for a major operation in the Gaza Strip, but did not rule out the possibility of a future offensive.
Th Gaza Division has received no orders for any ground operations, said the officials, despite Barak’s announcement Sunday that he has instructed the defense establishment to prepare for an offensive on Gaza in light of the escalating rocket fire from the coastal territory.
The officials said that as of now, offensive efforts would be waged mainly from the air. However, they added, a ground operation could be launched in the future if Hamas escalates from relatively small-scale attacks on border regions to large-scale rocket attacks deeper inside Israel.
The IDF is, nonetheless, increasing its level of readiness. In particular, the Home Front Command has worked hard over the past two weeks to improve rocket alert systems in communities located 30 to 40 kilometers from the Strip. It has systematically examined the warning systems in those communities and installed sirens in locations that lacked them, including educational institutions.
It also sent explanatory letters to residents and distributed 12,000 beepers to notify people of “Color Red” alerts whenever a Qassam is fired.
Nineteen rockets struck the western Negev on Sunday, following a barrage of 13 rockets and 20 rounds of mortar shells on Saturday alone.
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