Israel Attacked. Again. Still.

Sunday, 01 February 2009
Israel Attacked. Again. Still.

JPost
IDF soldiers patrolling the Gaza border near the Kissufim crossing came under fire Sunday morning, shortly after four Kassams were fired at the South from the Strip. Troops returned fire into Gaza, and no casualties or damage were reported in the attack.
In the rocket attacks, one Kassam landed between two kindergartens in the Eshkol region.

Another two rockets hit open areas nearby and a fourth hit the Sdot Negev region. Four mortar shells also landed next to a western Negev neighborhood.
No one was wounded and no damage was reported in the barrage, and the warning siren was sounded before the rockets landed.
Shortly after the incidents, Fatah's military wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, took responsibility for one of the rocket attacks.

Following the attack, Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called for an immediate IDF response. "We need to respond severely and immediately... Hamas must pay for this," he told Army Radio, adding that no one should give the excuse that a smaller faction was responsible for the attack.
MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) urged the government to immediately respond to the attack.
Eight rockets have been fired at southern Israel since both Israel and Hamas declared cease-fires some two weeks ago at the end of Operation Cast Lead.

Posted by Yael at 10:10 AM

Terrorists Inflating Casualty Numbers?

Saturday, December 27, 2008

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU

WorldNetDaily Exclusive

Terrorists inflating casualty numbers?

Media reports count of civilians dead in Gaza airstrikes using Hamas totals

Posted: December 27, 20086:00 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily

JAFFA, Israel – The U.S. and international news media have largely accepted as fact Hamas-provided casualty counts following a series of Israeli surgical strikes today in the Gaza Strip, despite Hamas' and the Palestinian Authority's long and sordid histories of greatly inflating casualty figures.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told WND, "The Hamas government in Gaza has instituted a Taliban-like regime and has systematically destroyed independent civil society, which makes it pretty difficult for there to be independent verification of these numbers," Regev continued, "One must kept in mind Hamas has a major propaganda interest in highlighting civilian casualties while at the same time minimizing the number of Hamas combatants killed."

Still, the news media today reported as fact that at least 205 people had been killed in the Israeli strikes, which targeted dozens of Hamas buildings in a purported Israeli bid to clamp down on repeated rocket attacks launched from Gaza and aimed at nearby Jewish cities.

Most news reports failed to mention the casualty numbers were provided by Hamas, which claimed only 3 of the casualties were actual Hamas military leaders.

"Israeli air strikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza," reported a widely-circulated Reuters article.

"Egypt condemned as 'murder' Israel's Saturday air raids on Gaza that killed at least 205 Palestinians," reported the AFP. Similar statements were parroted in over 4,500 English language reports today.

With somber music playing in the background, both CNN and the BBC have been airing continuous loops of what the networks claimed were Palestinian civilian casualties being rushed into a local hospital. Both networks aired the same footage, provided to them by Al Jazeera, which is openly sided with Hamas.

"Does hitting so-called Hamas institutions mean over 200 civilians killed?" Regev was twice asked today by a BBC anchor during an interview.

CNN interviewed a man identified as a Gaza-based doctor who claimed two-thirds of the "over 200 casualties" were women and children. The network also featured – without challenge – a man identified as a Gaza-based human rights activist, who accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and perpetuating a "massacre" in Gaza.

Neither CNN nor the BBC have thus far featured any footage today of the southern Israeli towns that have been battered by Palestinian rocket fire in recent days, killing one Israeli.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, claimed his group's casualty counts were minimized.
"We're talking about much more than 200. Every minute we get more information on more civilians killed," Barhoum told WND, speaking by cell phone from Gaza.

"We call on the international community to condemn this Israeli massacre and hold Israel back from more war crimes," he said.

The IDF tonight released a list of some of the targets hit: a Hamas headquarters and training camp in Tel Zatar; a "Palestinian Prisoner Tower" in Gaza City that was turned into a Hamas operations center and armory; a Hamas police academy, which Hamas claims was bombed during a graduation ceremony, killing 70-80 Hamas operatives; training camps in southern and central Gaza; the former office of late Palestinian Yasser Arafat in Gaza City that is now used by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh; and the Izzadin Kassam Brigades headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas and the PA have been caught many times inflating casualty counts. In June, 2006, Hamas claimed the Israel Defense Forces killed over 20 sunbathers on a Gaza beach, but it was later determined seven were killed, and the cause of the explosion was not the IDF but a Hamas explosives booby trap intended for Israeli naval forces.

Following a 2002 Israeli antiterror raid in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Hamas and the PA claimed hundreds of Palestinian civilians were murdered. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed on CNN that "more than 500 people" were killed. He repeated the charge on CNN a day later, adding that 300 Palestinians were being buried in mass graves.

It was later determined 54 Palestinians were killed, mostly terrorists, while the IDF lost 23 troops it engaged in house-to-house combat – instead of massive air raids – in order to limit civilian casualties.

Israel claimed Hamas routinely labels as civilians its gunmen killed in Israeli anti-terror attacks.
In today's air strikes, the IDF maintains it tried to minimize casualties. An IDF statement said its military strikes were predicated on precise intelligence amassed in recent months to target specific Hamas facilities.

Olmert's office released a statement explaining the attacks were launched, "following the violation of the terms of the truce by Hamas and the unceasing attacks by Hamas authorities on Israeli civilians in the south of the country."

The U.S. for its part squarely blamed Hamas for the Gaza violence.
"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

"The ceasefire should be restored immediately," Rice said. "The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza."

Today's strikes come after Hamas refused to renew a six-month truce with Israel that expired last week unless Israel met a series of conditions, including opening the country's borders with Gaza and expanding the truce to the Fatah-controlled West Bank. In a show of force, Hamas in recent days launched hundreds of rockets from Gaza into nearby Jewish cities, including Ashkelon, which houses a power plant that provides the Gaza Strip with 75 percent of its electricity.

Preparing For War

I noticed in Israel that the IDF was training for the next war. We saw trucks moving, nights we heard airplanes flying.

In Israel, the people are focused and making preparations. Unfortunately these preparations are for war, thanks to the friendly neighbors in Gaza who keep threatening them or launching rockets.

Yes, you heard right, rockets from Gaza continuously land in Israeli towns and farms, but it is not reported on the news, except in Israel. The western media is not interested in reports about daily rocket attacks. They only start reporting, when Israel does something. Consequently the West thinks that Israelis are aggressive, and the poor Palestinians Arabs are “innocent” victims.

Yet, the truth is, that for the past seven years missiles have been flying out of Gaza into Jewish towns and Kibbutzim traumatizing everyone, sending children running for bomb shelters.

News came out of the Knesset a few days ago that we should expect an invasion by the IDF into Gaza some time soon. One would think it was about time even for this weak failed Israeli Kadima Government to do something. No other country in the world would endure rocket attacks like a sitting duck, without retaliation of some sort.

So, the next Middle Eastern war is just around the corner and undoubtedly will be broadcast live on all the major networks in prime time. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be attempting to destroy significant elements of the leadership and rocket squads of Hamas (the acronym of Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya, translated as 'The Islamic Resistance Movement'. Hamas is just one of the many groups of Jihad warriors, who want to bring the West under submission to Islam. – Most people who know about Islam are aware of that, except for Jimmy Carter. He thinks because Hamas leaders wear business suits when they go to a meeting, they can’t possibly be terrorists! LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZYwvkqt4WM

We also note that Hamas receives much of its military and financial support from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran – in turn – gets help from Russia.

Many are concerned, if the IDF masses a large amount of forces in the south, it will weaken our front in the north for Lebanon, Hezbollah and Syria to attack and we are told that they are ready and waiting. This gives Israel more than one front to fight on at the same time, not to speak of the possibility that Iran will join in with their missiles and possibly with nukes. And maybe even Russia extending help to the Islamic Jihad warriors against the west.

At the moment, the nations of the world are caught in molasses, responding to Iran's actions without any great urgency. Some voices in the US are deeply concerned. But Israel's concern goes way beyond deep. It is existential.

The Truth is, - there is no Truce!

When Islam is involved, a truce not a truce as we Westerners understand it. I tried to explain this concept in an earlier blog: http://lilo97423.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/truce-or-hudna .

The Arabic word “hudna”, is often translated as "cease-fire”, and has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history. The term comes from the story of the Muslim conquest of Mecca. Instead of a rapid victory, Muhammad made a ten-year treaty with the Quraysh tribe. In 628 AD, after only two years of the ten-year treaty, Muhammad and his forces concluded that the Quraysh were too weak to resist. The Muslims broke the treaty and took over all of Mecca without opposition.

Hamas uses a “truce” as a tactic aimed at allowing the party declaring the hudna to regroup while tricking an enemy into lowering its guard. When the hudna expires, the party that declared it is stronger and the enemy weaker. Whenever Hamas has acquired enough weapons, they use them again against Israel. – So, you see, in truth, - there is no truce!

The “hudna” began to unravel last Tuesday. Who started it? The Palestinians had used the time during the cease fire to build another one of their militant tunnels. When IDF troops discovered it, they entered Gaza to destroy it. That set off battles in which seven Palestinian gunmen were killed. The fighting sparked a wave of rocket attacks from Gaza at Israeli border towns.

It seems to happen every time Condolezza Rice travels to Israel trying to create “peace” according to the Saudi peace-plan. Hamas is either celebrating her arrival with rockets or trying to say: “That’s what we think of you!” - But she doesn’t seem to listen either way.

Gaza’s 10-day missile blitz has damaged homes and parked vehicles, forcing tens of thousands of inhabitants in the towns and villages around the Gaza Strip to spend hours in shelters or under cover.

Israel National News reported on Friday that Gaza terrorists aimed a barrage of Kassam rockets at the coastal city of Ashkelon, just a few hours after attacking Jewish communities in the Gaza Belt. They were not certain if the rockets were Kassams or the longer-range Katyusha rockets. One 70-year-old woman suffered shrapnel wounds in the attack and was taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. A number of people in the city – including children -- were treated for emotional trauma and shock. Earlier in the day, Hamas terrorist launched ten Kassam rockets at Jewish communities in the western Negev. Seven of the homemade missiles exploded in the rocket-battered city of Sderot. Two slammed into areas close to Ashkelon, further to the north.

An eyewitness reported: “Here in Ashkelon we had today a barrage of missiles or rockets falling. I was shopping downtown for Shabbat when the siren start sounding, the store was with a lot of people and there was no place for shelter anywhere. We heard the bombs falling behind us, and I decide to go home right away, when I go out again the siren sound and people where running all over, crying it was awful then the bomb fell about a block of where I was standing, just midst to a huge school with thousand of kids there. Kids were let out and they were crying and running home. The traffic was stacked and crazy and everybody was shouting or crying. Finally I got home with a headache and the blood pressure very high. All the rockets fallen down near my home for I live in the center of the city. What else can I say it is hard to see all the people out of control and suffering. So far the economy here has been sustained but people had lost the jobs in the region and stores have no customers. Now it is 4 PM, they stop the Kassams, Baruch Hashem and we hope to have a peace full Shabbat….”

Yet, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, defense Minister Ehud Barak, and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi decided at a special conference Friday evening, Nov. 14, to refrain from responding to the Palestinians’ 10-day missile blitz from Gaza.

Sderot Mayor David Buskila told reporters: “It is sad to be a citizen of a country that cannot deploy its army to give an immediate response to this phenomenon.”

How many more rockets will it take until Israel responds and defends its citizens?

This Is No Way To Live

I read that the Islamic Jihad is manufacturing new rockets with longer range capabilities (12.5 miles), similar to the Grad rockets already in use by Gaza terrorists. The new rockets are armed with a much deadlier warhead that carries double the amount of explosives compared to the regular Qassams.

Security officials say that this information confirms that the terrorists in Gaza are definitely getting outside help as they increase their efforts to develop new weapons, a situation that is cause for deep concern and alarm in the opinion of IDF officials.

Tragically predictable as is their habit, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have launched a new wave of increased Qassam missile attacks to coincide with the arrival in Israel tomorrow of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It has become predictable that more rockets fly every time Secretary Rice is coming to Israel. Hamas is determined to send her a message. A heavy barrage of 7 Qassam missiles struck Sderot last night night, March 26. One exploded in the old market, injuring three people and leaving 16 in shock. Of the 16 missiles fired during the day, one landed south of Ashkelon, several exploded in kibbutzim causing heavy damage to property. Israeli military sources report that Hamas is providing missiles to Islamic Jihad in order to step up the attacks on Israel, without being held solely accountable and drawing Israeli fire.

There is an increased threat from the North as well. The Jerusalem Post carries this headline today: Hizbullah has rockets that can reach Dimona. The officials said the Lebanese group has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of some 300 kilometers. That means they can hit anywhere in Israel's heavily populated cities.

Threats from Gaza - threats from the northern border - as Senator John McCain said last week during his visit to Sderot, "This is no way to live." This is true, not just for Sderot but for all of Israel.

Edi from Israel has a movie on sderot and the qassams on youtube -
please watch and move forward - that the world can see it.

הלינק לאתר:the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cZ6hsA1ogg