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Israeli Fighter Jets Attack Gaza
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes in retaliation to rocket attacks launched from the territory.
Up to seven different Gazan targets were hit overnight on Monday and on Tuesday, according to the Israeli military.
Authorities in Gaza said that eight Palestinian fighters were wounded.
Another rocket was subsequently fired from Gaza into Israel, injuring a 16-year-old girl.
The raids came after the Israeli army accused Palestinian fighters of firing nine mortar shells on Monday into southern Israel, which fell on open ground and caused no deaths.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, says it has tried to curb rocket fire at Israel, but smaller groups
continue to carry out such attacks.
Three
Israeli raids targeted the town of Khan Younis in the south of the
Palestinian enclave, wounding two fighters of the Ezzedin al-Qassam
Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, one of them seriously, the sources
said.
Several airstrikes
Four other attacks were carried out in the north of Gaza, targeting the Jabailya refugee camp and the towns of Beit Lahya, Beit Hanoun and Zeitoun, with no casualties reported.
The Israeli jets also attacked a tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt near the southern town of Rafah, without causing any injuries.
An Israeli military spokeswoman, contacted by the AFP news agency, spoke of seven air attacks against tunnels used for smuggling weapons and "arms dumps used for terrorist attacks".
She described the raids as "reprisals for attacks on Israeli territory".
Nine mortar rounds were fired at southern Israel from Gaza on Monday, without hurting anyone, the Israeli military spokeswoman said.
Earlier, on Saturday night, Israeli jets struck central Gaza, killing five fighters as they were about to launch a rocket attack, according to the Israeli army.
The raid was one of the deadliest since Israel's December 2008-January 2009 war on the Gaza Strip, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, which cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.
Since Israel's war on Gaza, the number of rocket attacks has has gone down considerably. The Israeli army says more than 200 rockets or shells have been fired since the beginning of this year.
29 Comments so far
Show AllThese Israeli attacks are not "reprisals"; the Palestinian mortars are more properly described as reprisals. For what? For a giant act of theft and mass murder now in its 63rd year. And we watch helplessly, as partisans of the Israeli terror state have taken over the US government. No thinking person can now hear about the centuries-long persecution of the Jews without wondering what the Jews did to provoke it.
Bravo, "Revo".
Bravo, "Revo".
One wonders if this latest attack by Israel now means that the United States, that lover of democracy, will now invade Israel for having attacked the Gaza Strip.
No, Errol, USof A will act as Peacebrokers to the face while supplying Israel with death machines in other, private negotiations.
I have been alive 47 years and this has been the same news and it is getting old and Palestine is shrinking.
There will be no Peace - until the World body steps in.
Why ever would they step in after the ME runs out of oil? I would think that would be the absolute best time to simply call it done and walk away.
Israeli bombing attacks on Gaza are meant to provoke a military response and distract from its unwillingness to end the siege.Israel is not picky about the "targets": the tunnels, resistance fighters or farmers working the fields in the so called buffer zone.
I hear this about Israel not being picky, but how did that equate to 5 militants dead according to Hamas itself Saturday and not a dozen or more civilians? Last night the attacks wounded 8 militants by Hamas estimates and no reports of civilians hit again. Seems like at the very least there are a raft of collaborators working with Israel to tell them exactly where people are at exactly what time otherwise there would be many many more casualties.
Happy Bombica...
Yeah, I saw the Israel airstrike story on Yahoo yesterday and noticed that M$M has had no problem not reporting the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes, targeting of peaceful Palestinian protestors, and frequent shootings of Gazans either farming their land or searching for scrap in Israel's imposed buffer zone in Gaza.
You read this article and you think Israel hasn't been doing anything illegal and all of a sudden out of the blue the Gazans fire "rockets" or whatever they are and Israel responds.
http://palsolidarity.org/
Apparently the Israelis don't know history either, or they wouldn't be doing to the Palestinians what the Germans did to them.
The Israelis don't have to wash their hands ... the blood will never come off.
I suspect Al-jazeera assumes that the entire English-speaking world knows at least the bare bones of history. Perhaps they have not yet plumbed the depth of the ignorance of the American sector of that world. Or perhaps they think they are a lost cause either because they have no interest or knowledge in anything outside their borders or because they know that their congress won't pay any attention to them anyway.
More war crimes from Israel?
Just in time for Christmas!!
Collective punishment for mortar shells that didn't hurt anyone.
Nice.
I wonder how much of a rush a super-cool fighter pilot gets knowing that he's bombing defenseless refugees?
Super awesome, dude!!!
Notice the implicit suggestion that the Israeli attack in 2008 stemmed abundant rocket attacks. But the fact is that there was a ceasefire before the Israeli attack and it was Israel that broke the ceasefire and was unwilling to renew it, not Hamas. "Since Israel's war on Gaza, the number of rocket attacks has has gone down considerably." Thanks Al-Jazeera, what are you giving us that's any different than what is on Fox news?
Keep fighting the good fight Israel! God bless Israel and Zion!
Talking points? Just showing support for Israel. Don't over analyze things, will just make your head hurt more. :-)
Cha-ching!
Mine seem to be all there.
For a better idea of what is going on between the Israelis and Palestinians day by day, check out the websites of The Occupation Magazine, which is published by Jewish Israelis in Israel, and Mondoweiss, which every day has a section called, "Today in Palestine."
Like rust, the IDF never sleeps. By night, it breaks into Palestinian homes and roughs up and arrests children. All night long, IDF planes fly low over Gaza, their mission: to create huge sonic booms and terror.
By day, the IDF protects Israeli "settlers" as they attack the Palestinans whose land they have stolen. The IDF maintains checkpoints where bored young Israeli soldiers humiliate, terrify, and sometimes kill, the Palestinians trying to move between their villages or to seek medical care. The IDF snipers pick off Palestinian school children, laborers gathering rubble, and farmers trying to work their fields. The IDF bulldozes Palestinian homes and even destroys cisterns, to limit access to water.
Of course, the IDF is even-handed in its human rights abuses: they are just as brutal to Israeli Arabs as to Palestinians as they carry out ethnic cleansing of Israeli Arabs across Israel. Recently in Lod, Israel, the IDF bulldozers destroyed a bunch of homes, leaving 50 Arab-Israeli children homeless.
But destroying the homes wasn't enough. For good measure, a soldier in the world's "most moral army" shot a young boy's puppy. The boy sat in front of his home, now rubble, and held his puppy in his arms as it died.
In a few years, maybe we'll be reading about this kid's death as a "militant." Funny how the Palestinians are called "militants" when they are killed by Israel, just like all the people the U.S. kills in its various occupations. Wouldn't "freedom fighter" would be more accurate?
Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israli combat veterans, has a great website:
http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp
Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the routine situations of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. We endeavor to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday life.
I just don't believe anything coming from the U.S. media nor from Israel. Yes, I suppose that this will be Israel's reason for NEVER ever having to hold peace talks ever again.
How in the world does Palestine, after 62 years of being under the boot of Israel ever find anything to shoot? There's no way to get any humantarian aid in so where do these "bombs' come from?
What do the Palestinians possibly have to arm themseleves, except rocks and as Israel seems to be bulldozing everything Palestinian, I'm sure that they are even taking the rocks too.
Oh, United States, YOU and your jets seem to be giving "material support" to terrorists.
Israel has to be stopped.From memory it was the day Obama was confirmed as the Democratic nominee for President that he addressed AIPAC and pledged "unconditional support" ...How stupid was that? I knew then that the hopes of a new era was a fallacy....As a non American I cannot understand the double standards applied by continuous USA governments...Last night I watched the BBC as a jubilant President (with his Vice President and others surrounding him) signed the "don't ask don't tell repeal" bill...he stated proudly "we are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot ... a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal."
Hold on???Who is he fooling? A nation that believes all men and women are created equal.....?? meaningless words when one considers who the United States support in the world....is he saying that America believes Palestinians and Israeli Jews are created equal ? when Israel with American support is hellbent on exterminating Palestinians a people they regard as sub human ? Steal their lands and expell all non jews from a "greater" Israel..Obama surely needs to do some serious reading....
All indications are that the Israeli right wing government is going to turn the Gaza Strip into todays equivilant of Warsaw in the 1940's .....what angers me is the denial of defence engaged in by America and others ...Palestinians should be allowed to arm themselves with the latest in surface to air and anti tank missiles ...I see as cowardice this practice of sanctions on people leaving them defenceless to attack... I see as criminal the non condemnation of Israel by countries round the world including my own...Sadly until these countries suffer a huge cost for this attitude Palestinians face the possibility of extinction .