Hamas agreed to temporarily stop fighting Israel for 24 hours on Monday, but the Palestinian organization said it would respond to any subsequent military action from Israeli forces with suicide attacks at the end of the cease-fire.
AFP:
“It is our right as an occupied people to defend ourselves from the occupation by all means possible including suicide attacks,” [Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha] said. Hamas last carried out a suicide attack in Israel in January 2005.
Israel on Monday began a campaign to muster international support for any major offensive to try to halt rocket fire from the impoverished Palestinian territory.
Tensions have mounted since the expiry on Friday of a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas in and around Gaza.
In a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, said the government would respond to continuing rocket fire, foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, leader of the main governing Kadima party, has ordered Israeli ambassadors around the world to emphasise that Israel “will not hesitate to react militarily if necessary” to protect its citizens.
She is also due to meet foreign envoys to Israel and contact her counterparts abroad.
“We cannot accept a situation where Hamas continues its attacks on the citizens of Israel,” she said in a telephone call with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
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By Mike, December 27, 2008 at 11:35 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
If you think President Elect Obama will be any less sypathetic to the State of Isreal, than former US administrations, then you need to look no further than to his recently appointed cabinent. With Clinton, Gates, and the likes of Emanuel, the Obama adminstration will support Isreal to the fullest possbile extent.
Until militant Islamic factions can be neutralized, there will be no peace in the Middle East for anyone.
Until the Palestian people realize there will be two states that must live with each other, there will be no peace.
Report thisBy Fadel Abdallah, December 22, 2008 at 9:12 pm Link to this comment
Blackspeare, Namer and Howard:
You’re three Zionist cowards who keep waging your wars of hatred and false propaganda from the safety of your distant places.
Though your Zionist brethren in illegitimate Isreal are waging their cowardly wars against the outnumbered and under-armed natives of Palestine, hiding behind their superior weapons of mass destruction, I still consider them a one degree higher in dignity and courage than the ultimate cowards that you are.
I wish you had the courage to ship yourself to your perpetual evil battleground in the land you stole and brutally occupy, so you get the chance to cowardly kill some of your home-made enemies, but eventually and hopefully to come back in a corpse’s bag.
Report thisBy P. T., December 22, 2008 at 9:00 pm Link to this comment
Howard, you’re not telling the truth again. Next you’ll be saying the Zionists would not be building illegal settlements without instigations.
Report thisBy Howard, December 22, 2008 at 8:25 pm Link to this comment
Gaza being bombed? Turning events upside down? as usual !
Missles, rockets and bombardments have been sent out daily from Gaza and every day since truce set up months ago. These missles are indiscriminate in use against the civlian population in Israel.
Israel would not respond without these incessant daily instigations and then only when they can spot the rocket launching crews. And only aimed at them and certainly not a random fire.
Without the instigations there would be no response from Israel.
Report thisBy P. T., December 22, 2008 at 7:28 pm Link to this comment
What do you think the US would do if Mexico was bombing San Diego the way Gaza is bombed? Or if Mexico was confiscating land for Mexican-only settlements?
Report thisBy Blackspeare, December 22, 2008 at 7:17 pm Link to this comment
Namer…
I do not disagree with you on a typical state response to aggression. However, Israel lives in a world punctuated by resentment and all military responses by the IDF is measured against the cause and Israel is always accused of over reacting. Israel knows this, but more important Hamas and Fatah know this and continually goad Israel to over respond.
If you’ve read my other posts you know that I am a hawk when it comes to a military response——hit the enemy hard (real shock & awe) and then things will change. The present day Hebrews have to take a lesson from their ancestors and vanquish their enemy.
Report thisBy namer, December 22, 2008 at 2:19 pm Link to this comment
By Blackspeare, December 22 at 12:13 pm #
“The Hamas political wing is expert at timed propaganda ploys——this 24 hour truce is one. Hamas needs to push Israel over the brink have them invade and occupy Gaza hoping that international pressures will be applied against Israel.
Yes, like the propaganda ploy that there is widespread starvation (or any at all) in Gaza. I can’t think of any other sovereign state on the planet that would ever show as much restraint as Israel has as she endures daily bombardment of civilian towns by Hamas in their effort to slaughter Israeli civilians. You think Israel needs to be pushed over the brink? What a classically idiotic remark. Any other country would have responded to the unceasing Palestinian Arab rain of missiles with a ten-fold carpet bombing. Israel has not, and, unfortunately for the citizens of southern Israel, will not do this. What do you think the US would do if Mexico was raining thousands of missiles on San Diego for the past five years? And Californian schoolkids had to hide under their desks for fear of being blown apart?
Report thisBy hippy pam, December 22, 2008 at 1:31 pm Link to this comment
“ole mr. bullshits’ buddies” are now messing with THE WORLD….His friends are so corrupt as to take the money out of the mouths of women and children-here as well as abroad…WHEN will we STAND UP TO THESE LIARS AND THIEVES?????HOW CAN WE STOP THEM???
Report thisBy Blackspeare, December 22, 2008 at 1:13 pm Link to this comment
The Hamas political wing is expert at timed propaganda ploys——this 24 hour truce is one. Hamas needs to push Israel over the brink have them invade and occupy Gaza hoping that international pressures will be applied against Israel. The Palestinian leadership is placing much hope in that president Obama will be less than friendly towards Israel and give the Palestinians an edge in future negotiations. Of course there’s always the danger of a wider war, which perhaps the Israelis wouldn’t mind at this point. Remember the bulk of Israel’s economy sits upon military technology.
Report thisBy P. T., December 22, 2008 at 12:49 pm Link to this comment
Time to shed tears for Bernard Madoff bankrupted organizations such as Birthright Israel and Hadassah and “philanthropists” like Ellie Wiesel and Mort Zuckerman that made this possible?
Israeli blockade “forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food”
December 21, 2008 | The London Observer
By Peter Beaumont, Foreign Affairs Editor
Impoverished Palestinians on the Gaza Strip are being forced to scavenge for food on rubbish dumps to survive as Israel’s economic blockade risks causing irreversible damage, according to international observers.
Figures released last week by the UN Relief and Works Agency reveal that the economic blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza in July last year has had a devastating impact on the local population. Large numbers of Palestinians are unable to afford the high prices of food being smuggled through the Hamas-controlled tunnels to the Strip from Egypt and last week were confronted with the suspension of UN food and cash distribution as a result of the siege.
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