Israel Strikes Gaza
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Israel Strikes Gaza
225 Dead
Hamas Threatens To Unleash Hell
[ Update, Editor’s Note: As we post, it should be noted that Israel has continued sporadic air strikes into Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Israel’s actions will likely expand Sunday. There will be more analysis of the situation and additional intelligence data being posted for A-O donors at “The A-O Insider Report” throughout the weekend. The public side of The A-O Report is now on Yellow Alert and will post significant news updates as the situation develops. ]
(AO Newswire) As Palestinian rockets continued to pummel southern Israel over Christmas and the day after, the Israeli Defense Forces were finalizing preparations and deployments for military operations against the Gaza Strip Palestinians.
Early on Saturday, December 27th Israeli forces struck back with a vengeance with air power. Israeli warplanes and helicopter’s conducted over 100 air strikes into the Gaza Strip killing 225 Palestinians. It has been one of the bloodiest days ever in the ongoing struggle between Israel and her Palestinian neighbors.
Even as Israeli air strikes were underway, Hamas Party officials were characterizing the attacks as a “massacre.” Hamas responded to the Israeli action by threatening to unleash "hell" to avenge the dead, including possible suicide bombings inside Israel.
Black smoke billowed over Gaza City, where the dead and wounded lay scattered on the ground after the Israeli air strikes destroyed more than 30 security compounds, including two where Hamas was hosting graduation ceremonies for new recruits.
The Palestinian Presidential Compound was also targeted for destruction by Israeli air strikes as part of what an IDF spokesman called – a “shock and awe” strategy by IDF military planners prior to some sort of ground operation that is expected to commence shortly.
Witnesses also reported heavy Israeli bombing along Gaza's border with Egypt. Palestinians use hundreds of tunnels under the border to bring in everything from goods to weapons.
At sunset, Hamas reported more than 100 of its security forces were killed including a top commander of security forces. Perhaps nearly 100 more civilians also had also died in the first day of fighting. Morgues and hospitals in the Gaza Strip were reported to be overflowing with the dead.
Israeli Retribution
After days of incessant rocket bombardment by Palestinian racketeers, Israel’s retribution, once it started, became swift and viciously extensive.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement saying:
"There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight.
Barak added that the military operation would be expanded “as necessary” and would take time. He noted that Hamas leaders could and would be targeted as Hamas leaders are largely responsible for the rocket barrage although most if not all of the recent rocket attacks were launched by break-away groups that had rebelled against Hamas leadership because Hamas leaders were perceived to be too soft on Israel.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is one of the contending candidates for Israel’s Prime Ministership in the February 10, 2009 elections was hard at work rounding up international support for Israel’s military action against Hamas and the Gaza Palestinians.
In a public statement Livni noted that Hamas is "an extremist Islamist organization ... that is being supported by Iran." She went on to add:
"Only last week Israel was attacked from the Gaza Strip and in a day about 80 missiles and mortars were fired against Israeli civilians. Enough is enough."
International Response:
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called for an immediate halt to Israel’s military action and Palestinian violence.
US Response:
As the Bush Administration closes out its last 4 weeks of existence, the White House seemed to be siding with Israel and urging Hamas to step forward and negotiate an agreement with Israel to halt the rocket attacks on Israel, which is what precipitated the latest Israeli military response.
The White House issued a statement saying:
"Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop,"
The White House statement also went on to advise Israel to avoid civilian casualties but it never called for Israel to end the military operations.
Obama Monitors
President-elect Obama’s transition team issued a statement on the Gaza situation. The team’s statement merely stated that the President-elect was monitoring the situation carefully.
The statement noted that the President-elect, "is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza," according to his chief national security spokesperson Brooke Anderson.
Anderson however emphasized that "there is one president at a time," a statement Obama has said often since he was elected on November 4.
In a July interview with The New York Times, Obama said he didn't think that "any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens," in reference to rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Obama said. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
EU Response:
The EU response was not so limited as the American stance on the situation. The EU’s Foreign Policy chief, Javier Solana called for an immediate cease-fire and urged both sides to exert “maximum restraint.”
Even as his statement was issued, Hamas was warning that “Hell” was about to be unleashed on Israel to avenge the Israeli actions. Hamas threatened to use suicide bombers within Israel as a counter-strike to IDF aerial bombardments.
International Aid Groups React:
International aid and relief groups are now expressing concerns that a humanitarian crisis will emerge from the new conflict in Gaza where one and a half million people live, half of whom are dependent upon foreign aid for food.
Egypt Reaction:
Egypt’s President Mubarak condemned the Israeli action and called for an immediate halt to the conflict. The Egyptian government announced it would attempt to mediate some sort of ceasefire compromise and announced that the Arab foreign ministers were set to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday or Monday.
Arab League Reaction:
"We are facing a continuing spectacle which has been carefully planned. So we have to expect that there will be many casualties. We face a major humanitarian catastrophe". Arab League Secretary-General, AMR MOUSSA:
Iran’s Reaction:
"Iran strongly condemns the Zionist regime's (Israel) wide-ranging attacks against the civilians in Gaza. …The raids agains innocent people are unforgiveable and unacceptable."
Russia's Reaction:
"Moscow deems it necessary to stop large scale military action against Gaza, which had already led to big casualties and suffering among civilian Palestinian population. At the same time we call on Hamas leadership to stop shelling Israeli territory."
Strike Details LINK HERE LINK 2
Foreign Reaction - LINK HERE
More Reaction - LINK HERE
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