Israeli soldiers push into Gaza Tanks enter Gaza Israeli forces have taken up positions by the town of Rafah in southern Gaza following an overnight incursion aimed at rescuing a captured soldier. The move came hours after Israeli aircraft struck at bridges and a power station in the Gaza Strip. Cpl Gilad Shalit was taken prisoner by Palestinian militants after a raid on an Israeli post near Gaza on Sunday. Israel has been massing its tanks along the Gaza border, warning of a major assault if Cpl Shalit was not released. It is unclear how many troops are being used in the operation, launched from the Kerem Shalom crossing near southern Gaza. An Israeli army official told the BBC the operation had one objective alone - to bring Cpl Shalit home safely. We saw the tanks coming and we decided to leave before anything else happens Mohammed Abu Zakr Gaza resident "As soon as we do that, our job is done," spokeswoman Noa Meir said, confirming that Israeli troops would leave Gaza once they had accomplished their mission. This major incursion comes less than a year after Israel pulled soldiers and thousands of settlers from Gaza, which it had first occupied in 1967. Since completing the withdrawal in September 2005, the Israeli army has regularly shelled targets in Gaza in an attempt to halt the firing of rockets into Israel by Palestinian militants. Many Palestinian militants and civilians have been killed in the shelling. 'No resistance' Israeli forces entered Gaza overnight under the cover of shelling and gunfire and set up camp on farmland outside the town of Rafah, near Gaza's disused international airport. Israeli officials said the soldiers planned to set up observation posts. According to the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Jerusalem, the military manoeuvre may be designed to re-enforce, rather than replace, diplomatic moves to free the soldier. The US has been calling on Israel to give diplomacy more time and both Egypt and France are said to have been involved in talks to free Cpl Shalit. Palestinian families living near Gaza's southern border have been fleeing their homes to find refuge in Rafah, the AFP news agency reports. "We saw the tanks coming and we decided to leave before anything else happens," a local man, Mohammed Abu Zakr, told the agency. Palestinian militants anticipating an Israeli assault have been erecting barricades and preparing hideouts and ambush positions. A spokeswoman for the Israeli armed forces said they had not encountered any resistance from the Palestinians. Militant demands Israeli military officials have been quoted as saying Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had backed a "limited operation" targeting the "terrorist infrastructure". Hours before the ground assault, Israeli jets attacked three bridges and a power plant in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed the first strike on the bridge was aimed at stopping militants from moving Cpl Shalit. The strike on the plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness. It is not yet clear if there were any casualties. Cpl Gilad Shalit was captured when Palestinian militants burrowed under the Gaza border and attacked an Israeli army position, killing two soldiers. Israel has rejected the militants' demands for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails to be freed in exchange for information about the soldier. The statement issuing the demands was signed by the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and the previously unknown Army of Islam. Hamas political leaders have denied they know of Cpl Shalit's whereabouts and have urged his captors not to mistreat him. 'United front' Earlier on Tuesday, rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed a document outlining a common political platform. As part of the agreement, Hamas said it would accept a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza - while maintaining its refusal to recognise the legitimacy of Israel. The Hamas government also authorised the Fatah leader and President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to conduct negotiations with Israel. A Fatah official said the aim of the deal was to present a united front in talks. The BBC's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, says there is little in the document to hint at a longer-term peace deal with Israel. There is no peace process on the ground, he says, and the dynamic of violence in the area has outpaced efforts at peace. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/5123640.stm Published: 2006/06/28 06:00:48 GMT © BBC MMVI Wow, just wow. Most certainly an over-reaction on Israel's part. Gaza has been devestated yet again, and infrastructure is being destroyed.
The United States needs to declare war on Israel. This is a blatent example of unchecked Israeli agression, an act of war.
So in order to rescue one soldier they're willing to lose a few more in the process, not to mention cause massive hardship to the civilians living in Gaza (I would be surprised if a few dozen Palestinians aren't dead in the process)?
So far the latest reports I've heard is that Israel is showing remarkable restraint and there hasn't been any casualties on either side. How long this keeps up though I'm not sure since it just looks like both sides are taking positions. The Israeli military like many other militaries have the "leave no one behind" attitude which means that they will risk the lives of other troops to rescue wounded or captured soldiers. At the same time I will agree that there doesn't seem to me to have been much diplomacy on this issue. One troubling aspect of this situation though may be that even if the Palestinian leadership agrees to release this soldier the Palestinians may be too fractured for the leadership to order the group holding this soldier. The Palestinians are taking steps to unify but they still have a way to go and seem to still be in a low grade civil war.
Come on, it is, unfortunately, under Israeli control. The reasons they wish to hang on to are strictly political. What I can't understand is how tanks going in can save a hostage? If anything they are showing a disregard for this hostage and are just trying to punish the Palestinians. Or is there a larger issue at stake. Trying to disgrace the Hamas government? Not sure but the story that is being told in the media doesn't make since.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but they (Hamas, palestine militants) have been shooting rockets from the Gaza strip...It is their doing which ultimately caused the cute pic of the girl on the beach...They kidnap a soldier outside the Gaza strip...Israel has recently and completely pulled out of the Gaza... The Israelis are showing tremendous restraint, they are meeting halfway and the other side is not...Israel, pound for pound could probably surpass the U.S. due to their battle-hardened class of tactics and strategy...They know how to go for the throat, yet they are showing incredible restraint thus far...
Just another day in the Holy Land. Is anyone surprised by this anymore. I mean its like illegal immigration from Mexico, it has been going on my entire lifetime.
What going into Gaza and destroying the infrastructure (water supply/electricity/bridges to 1.3 million people) counts as restraint?
Considering the rocket launches, the kidnappings, after Israel trying to meet halfway by pulling out of Gaza, yet no accord whatsoever from Hamas, and the palestine militants...Yeah restraint. Enough is enough...Bring me back the soldier! Do what must be done Israel,...but this time it is time to go for the throat...That would be my mindset if Israel was my home...I'm impressed with the military effectiveness of Israel...We can thank Hitler in part for that, btw...
Israel wasn't meeting halfway by pulling out of Gaza. That was a diversion while they INCREASED the number of settlements in the West Bank. They should pull out of Gaza, but they shouldn't pretend like they are making great comprimises while they are building more settlements on the West Bank.
Sure two bananas is better than one...however the other side gives none...In fact what they give is worse than nothing...Stop the attacking, the kidnapping and the west bank may be negotiated the right way in the right manner...
I have to assume Israel is not trying to save the soldier but instead trying to teach Palestine a lesson. I can't imagine that soldier can possibly come out of this alive. If I had kidnapped him, and this was the response, I'd shoot him and dump the body in the street, watch the Israeli reprisals come and complain about how harshly I was persecuted.
If they released the soldier it would force Israel to back off. Killing one soldier is going to cost a lot of Palastinian lives. I can not help but think that if the Jews had not gone through the genocide issue with Nazi Germany, they would be a LOT more harsh on the Palastinians. And the rest of the Arab world is not exactly helping the Palastinians...where is all that aid that was promised....???? DD
If the Jews had not gone through the "genocide issue with Nazi Germany", otherwise known as the Holocaust, the state of Israel would not be in existence, period.
Don't forget that you never heard "Palestinians" clamoring for their own homeland while the West Bank was occupied by Jordan from 1948-1967 either. Only after Israel occupied the West Bank after winning the Six Day War did you ever hear of "Palestinians" wanting their own country. Coincidence? I think not.
