Four Israeli soldiers were killed and nine others wounded when Palestinian gunmen set off explosives in a tunnel they burrowed underneath an army post just outside the Gaza Strip border crossing to Egypt, Israeli officials said. ``This was a large-scale attack on an outpost just outside an international crossing that Palestinian civilians use to get into Egypt,'' Capt. Jacob Dallal said. ``It was a very large blast. It leveled the outpost and caused damage in the adjacent army base.'' Dallal said soldiers were wounded in the attack against the small outpost where Palestinian passports were checked before travelers entered the Rafah terminal. Israeli officials said four were killed.
| First boom like this since Yasser kicked it. I guess there's too much love in the air for Hamas to stomache... |
The attack came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began negotiating with opposition parties to form a new coalition that will allow him to move ahead with a plan to withdraw from Gaza and four Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Sharon threw out his junior coalition partner after they refused to vote for the 2005 budget. The violence also came as Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader who is serving time in an Israeli jail for his role in the killing of five people, said he will withdraw from the Jan. 9 election for president of the Palestinian Authority, his campaign manager Ahmed Ghneim said at a press conference. Barghouti said in a statement he will back Mahmoud Abbas, a former prime minister who is the official candidate of Fatah, the biggest Palestinian faction. The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said it was responsible for the attack, as did a group known as the Fatah Hawks, the daily Haaretz said on its Web site.
| Entirely too much peace, love, and goodwill in the air for Hamas and the "Fatah Hawks," which is probably the Yasser Martyrs Brigades with a false nose and moustache. Getting a good offensive under way, like the hard boyz in Iraq are trying to do, can lead to no elections. Hamas won't thrive nearly as well under any form of government other than anarchy. |
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