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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel pulls out of Gaza leaving 110 dead |
| 2008-03-03 |
| Israeli tanks and infantry moved out of Gaza before dawn today after a five day operation to kill militants that left more than 110 Palestinians dead, including 22 children. Hopes that the incursion had ended the barrage of Palestinian rockets raining down from Gaza on Israeli border towns proved in vain, however, when three missiles hit the resort town of Ashkelon this morning, damaging an apartment building. No-one was hurt. Israel said that its withdrawal did not mean it was scaling back its operation against the Islamists, but merely suspending it temporarily for a two day visit by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State. “This very limited (Gaza) operation was intended to show Hamas what could happen, what you may call a ’prequel’,” said an Israeli official. “If they decide they’ve seen enough and stop the rockets, if they get the message, then we may get into a period of quiet. If they continue to fire the rockets, then there will be more operations like this one, or worse.” But Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip since its military overthrow of forces from its rival Fatah movement, issued a taunting message saying that the Israeli incursion had flopped. "This retreat is an expression of the failure of the Israeli soldiers facing the fighters of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman. A senior Israeli security source has told The Times that the incursion was triggered last Wednesday when an airstrike killed five top Hamas militants who had been training in Iran and Syria. They had been planning to carry out a terrorist attack inside Israel, the source said. Hamas launched a barrage of homemade al-Qassam rockets in retaliation for their deaths, prompting the Israeli army to move beyond the borders of Gaza where the rockets were being launched. The fiercest day of fighting was Saturday, when more than 60 Palestinians died, about half of them civilians. Yesterday the streets of Gaza City were choked with funeral corteges, as gunbattles between militants and Israeli soldiers raged a couple of miles away. The victims included several children and a 21-month-old baby. Israel said the high civilian death toll was Hamas's fault for storing weapons in residential areas. Israeli airstrikes continued during the night, targeting a Hamas administration building and militants' workshops where weapons were made and stored. The military withdrawal began around midnight, as foot soldiers moved back from the Jabaliya refugee camp, where there has been fighting for several days. Palestinian medics found at least three more bodies in Jabaliya after the Israelis moved back. Residents who had been trapped in their homes emerged to fetch food and scavenge any equipment that the Israelis had left behind. Ahmed Dardouna said that he and his nine children had for days been confined to one room by soldiers who took over the rest of the house. "We couldn't distinguish day from night," he said. "The sounds of shooting and explosions, mixed with the screaming of soldiers and the screaming of my children who were asking to go to the bathroom and for food, is still in my ears." The Israeli death toll is believed to number three - two soldiers killed in the fighting in Jabaliya, and a civilian killed by a rocket. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President who belongs to the Fatah movement which Hamas removed from Gaza, has broken off peace talks with Israel in protest at the death toll in Gaza, and the UN, the EU and Turkey have criticised Israel for disproportionate use of force. Riots broke out in the Fatah-controlled West Bank cities yesterday as Palestinians protested against the killings. One person died and a dozen were injured in clashes with Israeli security forces. Hamas has called for renewed talks with the West Bank administration to reforge a Palestinian national unity government, which was broken by Hamas when its gunmen drove Fatah forces from Gaza. Dr Rice is to hold talks in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah tomorrow and Wednesday on moving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations forward. Washington hopes a Palestinian statehood deal can be reached this year. But as both sides count the cost of the five days of violence, the peace process is likely to be the most prominent casualty. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 Israeli troops abruptly withdraw from Gaza. Seven-story Ashkelon building hit by Katyusha Monday March 3, 2008, 10:28 PM (GMT+02:00) Israel's anti-missile operation aborted Shortly after Israel’s withdrawal, Monday, March 3, the Palestinians stepped up their missile and rocket attacks. One of three Katyusha rockets fired from Gaza at Ashkelon hit a seven-story building, sending a dozen people into shock and sowing wide panic in the city of 120,000. Eight missiles exploded in Sderot, 2 in Shear Hanegev and 4 in the Eshkol farmland area south of Sderot. DEBKAfile reports: Prime minister Ehud Olmert suddenly decided on the pullback of Israeli ground and armored units from northern Gaza before dawn Monday without completing their mission of halting Palestinian fire. Stage one of Operation Hot Winter was announced at an end. He was later attacked by members of the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee for aborting the operation in contradiction of the pledges he and the defense minister made Sunday. Both had vowed that military ground action would press on until the Hamas missile-rocket offensive against Israeli civilians was stamped out. Up until late Sunday night, Qassam rockets continued to explode in Sderot and surrounding villages and Katyusha rockets in Ashkelon at the average rate of 50 per day since Wednesday. The three-day Israeli infantry, tank and air incursion left more than 100 Palestinians dead, most Hamas combatants, some civilians and children. Two Israeli soldiers were killed. DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Aborting this action in mid-stream leaves Israel with the options of air, surface missile and artillery raids - or short, shallow forays – all of which have long proved ineffectual. Olmert’s order to the Israeli ground force to turn around and withdraw in mid-offensive was astonishing and unprecedented. Senior officers fully expected the Palestinian Hamas terrorist leaders to rush into declarations of victory and claims that they had beaten the Israeli army into a retreat. And indeed, Hamas staged a victory march in Gaza City later Monday. Our political sources disclose that Olmert, during his absence in Tokyo last week, was far from happy with the way acting PM Tzipi Livni and Barak handled the sharp spike in Palestinian missile attacks. He felt they had caused an unnecessary escalation of the crisis to the point that a major military operation became unavoidable. Olmert insisted that short, sharp military strikes would have defused the crisis and obviated the need for a broad military offensive in Gaza, which he had consistently prevented. By aborting the operation Monday night, he rapped them both and also moved to put down the incipient revolt in his government and Kadima party, spearheaded by two senior ministers – Avi Dichter, internal security and former Shin Bet chief, and Shaul Mofaz, transport, ex-defense minister and chief of staff. Both publicly urged a stepped-up ground offensive to crush Hamas rule of Gaza, arguing that all other tactics - military, sanctions and siege - had failed. DEBKAfile’s political sources report that Hamas won useful points in the propaganda war by getting images and footage of Palestinian women and children casualties of Israeli strikes onto TV screens and front pages way ahead of the suffering of Israeli civilians from the gratuitous Hamas blitz. This eased the way for Washington to lean hard on the prime minister to break off the operation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened to call off her visit on Tuesday, March 4, and laid the blame on Israel for the breakdown of peace talks with the Palestinians, although it was Mahmoud Abbas who formally suspended all contacts with Israel. She accused Israel of undermining the Bush administration’s entire Middle East strategy. Olmert found it politic to bow to this pressure. |
| Posted by: legolas 2008-03-03 19:58 |
| #8 condi sucks on the israeli-pali issue plain and simple |
| Posted by: legolas 2008-03-03 19:36 |
| #7 Old Patriot Yes, I agree, Condi is a major disappointment on this issue (and some others). It may be an intellectual failure to understand the difference between killing civilians intentionally and killing them unintentionally. On the other hand, it may be that Condi is manuvering for post federal work getting fat consultant fees from Arab States. Either way it sucks. |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-03-03 16:27 |
| #6 Saw an article where Egypt is accepting the wounded in the hundreds. The deader headcount often overlooks the wounded. Hamas, others, will have a heck of a bill coming for this bit of showboating. I wonder if they have retirement, disability pay? Or is that where the money the US & EU contributes goes to? |
| Posted by: tipover 2008-03-03 16:16 |
| #5 But Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip since its military overthrow of forces from its rival Fatah movement, issued a taunting message saying that the Israeli incursion had flopped. Yep, 110 dead. Let's have more Hamas victories like this. I suppose tomorrow they'll be bitching about how the Zionists aren't sending them anymore diesel for their powerplants. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-03-03 14:53 |
| #4 Hopes that the incursion had ended the barrage of Palestinian rockets raining down from Gaza on Israeli border towns proved in vain, however, when three missiles hit the resort town of Ashkelon this morning, damaging an apartment building. Well, then rinse and repeat as necessary. This also suggests a good place for Israel to offer to hold meetings with any other foreign dignitaries who want to complain about Israel's response to having Israeli civilian centers bombed at random. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-03-03 14:48 |
| #3 Condi is proving to be such a disappointment at State. The United States should come out with a blanket statement that any group that attacks the civilian population of any nation should be identified as terrorists, and any nation so attacked can do whatever it wishes to both to the armed terrorists fighting against them and the civilian population that supports them. Period. Full Stop. Anything else is stupidity to the nth degree. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-03-03 14:15 |
| #2 Hopes that the incursion had ended the barrage of Palestinian rockets raining down from Gaza on Israeli border towns proved in vain An order of magnitude increase is clearly required. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-03-03 14:10 |
| #1 "leaving 110 dead'" It's a start.... Does the number include the people killed by Ham-ass' backfires? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-03-03 14:06 |