The Ugly Truth
news.yahoo.com
GAZA
(Reuters) – Israel killed the military commander of the Islamist group
Hamas in a missile strike on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and launched
air raids across the enclave, pushing the two sides to the brink of a
new war.
The
attacks marked the biggest escalation between Israel and Gaza militants
since a 2008-2009 conflict and came despite signs on Tuesday that
neighboring Egypt had managed to broker a truce in the enclave after a
five day surge of violence.
Hamas
said Ahmed Al-Jaabari, who ran the organization’s armed wing, Izz
el-Deen Al-Qassam, died along with an unnamed associate when their car
was blown apart by an Israeli missile. Palestinians said nine people
were killed, including a seven-year-old girl.
Video
from Gaza showed the charred and mangled wreckage of a car belching
flames, as emergency crews picked up what appeared to be body parts.
Israel confirmed it had carried
out the attack on Jaabari and warned that more strikes would follow.
Reuters witnesses reported numerous explosions around Gaza, with Hamas
security compounds and police stations among the targets.
“This is an operation against
terror targets of different organizations in Gaza,” military spokesman
Avital Leibovitch told reporters, adding that Jaabari had “a lot of
blood on his hands”.
Immediate calls for revenge were broadcast over Hamas radio.
“The occupation has opened the doors of hell,” Hamas’s armed wing said. Smaller groups also vowed to strike back.
“Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences,” Islamic Jihad said.
The escalation in Gaza came in a
week when Israel pounded Syrian artillery positions it said had fired
into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights amid a civil war in Syria that
has brought renewed instability to neighboring Lebanon.
Hamas has been supported by both
Syria and Iran, which Israel regards as a rising threat to its own
existence due to its nuclear program.
Israel’s intelligence agency Shin
Bet said Jaabari was responsible for Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip
in 2007, when the militant Islamist group ousted fighters of the Fatah
movement of its great rival, the Western-backed Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas.
It said Jaabari instigated the
attack that led to the capture of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in a
kidnap raid from Gaza in 2006. Jaabari was also the man who handed
Shalit over to Israel in a prisoner exchange five years after his
capture.
Israel holds a general election
on January 22 and conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
come under pressure to respond firmly against Hamas, with residents of
southern Israel complaining bitterly about repeated missile strikes.
Hamas has been emboldened by the
rise to power in neighboring Egypt of its spiritual mentors in the
Muslim Brotherhood whom it views as a “safety net”.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13
Israelis died in the 2008-2009 conflict. There was a lull in hostilities
after that, but the violence has flared again in recent months and
Israel has repeatedly warned of dire consequences unless Hamas and its
fellow militants stopped rocket attacks.
In
the latest confrontation, which appeared to have ended on Tuesday, more
than 115 missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza and Israeli
planes launched numerous strikes. Seven Palestinians, three of them
gunmen, were killed. Eight Israeli civilians were hurt by rocket fire
and four soldiers wounded by an anti-tank missile.
Helped
by Iran and the flourishing contraband trade through tunnels from
Egypt, Gaza militias have smuggled in better weapons since the war of
2008-09, including longer-range Grad rockets and anti-tank missiles of
the type they fired last week at an IDF patrol vehicle.
But
Gaza’s estimated 35,000 Palestinian fighters are still no match for
Israel’s F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gunships, Merkava tanks
and other modern weapons systems in the hands of a conscript force of
175,000, with 450,000 in reserve.
Israel’s
shekel fell nearly one percent to a two-month low against the dollar on
Wednesday after news of the Israeli airstrikes broke.
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I have no problem with this sort of news from the region, Israel has its faults, yes, but the only thing holding back progress is Hamas and its armed wings. Would any of the readers here live complacently under daily rocket barrages into their neighbourhoods? Most likely not, so the fact Israel has taken action after repeated warnings is justifiable and should set an example to the terrorists who insist on perpetuating the violence.
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