Article includes a link to video of the attack on Israeli soldier. --------------------------------------------------------------- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7853803.stm Israel has carried out an air attack in Gaza and sent tanks into the Strip, after Palestinian militants killed an Israeli soldier. Palestinian sources said there had been fighting near Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Israeli troops pulled back across the border several hours later. It was the worst violence in Gaza since Israel's offensive against Hamas ended with both sides declaring ceasefires. Israel is also preventing aid convoys from entering the Gaza Strip. An Israeli soldier on patrol in a vehicle was killed by an explosive device deliberately planted on Israel's side of the border near the Kissufim crossing, prompting troops to open fire into Gaza. The explosion was filmed by the militants, as was gun fire and a grenade blast. Three soldiers were injured in the attack. Israeli troops fired into the Gaza Strip in retaliation, as a result of which Palestinian officials said a farmer was killed. Heavy fighting was reported in Khan Younis, south of the Kissufim crossing, and many people had fled their homes. Palestinian sources say 20 Israeli tanks and seven army bulldozers made an incursion. Two people were also wounded in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis. Hospital sources say one was a member of Hamas' Popular Resistance Committee who was on a motorbike at the time, and the other was a passer-by. It was Israel's first air strike since the end of its offensive against Hamas. There has been Israeli artillery and naval fire against Gaza targets since the ceasefires were announced. Israel has closed border crossings into Gaza because of the attack on the patrol, Israeli officials said, stopping the flow of aid supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Aid agencies have been struggling to meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of displaced, homeless and injured people in Gaza. The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Gaza says that although the latest fighting has been much less intense than that of earlier this month, it is a reminder that until a long-term truce agreement is drawn up, those levels of violence could return. US visit The fresh fighting comes as US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region to seek a more permanent truce. Mixed with the rubble and shrapnel on the floor is a shell collection, a pink hairbrush, belts, handbags, a fragment of cardboard printed with a Barbie and lots of school books, caked with dried blood He will hold talks with Egyptian officials, who have been mediating between Israel and Hamas, before travelling on to Jerusalem and Ramallah. In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US supported "Israel's right to self-defence". "The rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas (in Israel) cannot go unanswered," she said in her first news conference at the State Department. Israel and Hamas declared separate ceasefires on 17 and 18 January, ending an Israeli offensive in which nearly 1,300 Palestinians and 10 Israeli soldiers were killed. Three Israeli civilians were killed by rocket fire from Gaza in the same period. Israel said its objective to stop militant rocket fire into Israel had been fulfilled. When Hamas called its ceasefire, it said Israel had one week to fully open all the crossings into Gaza, in order to end an 18-month blockade of the territory that has crippled its economy. Israel wants guarantees that Hamas militants will not re-arm via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.
Did Hamas carry out the attack? Israel's blockade has been, in effect, an attack on Gaza as a whole. Everything needs to be understood in that context. There's nothing Hamas can do to guarantee that they won't rearm, which Israel knows. And clearly both sides have been openly hostile toward eachother. So how can we allow one side to amass arms unparalleled in the region and attack the other with impunity, while denying the right of the other side to arm itself? I guess an Israeli life must be just far, far more valuable than a Palestinian life.
Don't you guys know, that 1 Israeli soldiers life is far FAR more important than the 1 Palestinian farmer that was killed, along with the thousand others..
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1874151,00.html How bad does this have to get before America reexamines its relationship with Israel?
It's their fault that during their "truce" a soldier was blown up, by video camera wielding terrorists...and 3 others injured? That's what caused the retaliation.
I think the proposition that Israel is blameless is kind of nuts. And of course I'd say the same thing about Palestinian militants that put their civilians in danger. Israel just carried out a siege on Gaza, killing several hundred non-militants. They've been instituting a blockade that is devastating to the Gaza economy, and has suppressed the flow of food and medicines into the area. Given that, these attacks from Palestinian militants -- justified or not -- should be expected.
There was no truce. Israel was insisted on implementing the ceasefire unilaterally, with their own conditions. Hamas also stopped firing rockets aimlessly into Israel, and they had their own conditions (namely, Israel was to end their blockade).
I did not say that. I would think that you, of all people, would be aware of how I feel in regards to the "sides" in question.
It doesn't sound like Israel has been honoring the truce either. From the original article: [rquoter]It was Israel's first air strike since the end of its offensive against Hamas. There has been Israeli artillery and naval fire against Gaza targets since the ceasefires were announced. [/rquoter] I have a hard time saying either side deserves the blame more than the other.
The article doesn't say that Hamas was responsible for the killing of the soldier. It's quite possible it's from one of the other militant groups.
That's what Hamas themselves claim. Not that they're particularly trustworthy, but it certainly is plausible that some militant groups are operating outside the control of Hamas. After all, Israel is doing all they can to undermine Hamas's ability to govern in Gaza -- even the prime minister is in hiding.
