Israel starts Assassination of Hamas leaders...

[PathWalker]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...500140191.html
Death toll rises in Israel-Gaza violence
Israel has continued to exchange fire with armed Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip after assassinating the military chief of Hamas, which controls the territory.

The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza rose to at least 11 on Thursday. Also on Thursday, Israeli media reported that three Israelis have been killed in the town of Kiryat Malahi.

Launched on Wednesday, during a deceptive lull in almost a week of surging cross-border violence, Israel's began its air assault with the assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari, head of Hamas' military wing, while travelling in his car. Jabari's son was also killed in the strike.
The world reacts to the air strikes in Gaza

Hamas, reeling at the strategic loss of its top military commander, Islamic Jihad and other armed factions said they resumed rocket attacks against towns and villages in Israel's south after Wednesday's assassinatuion.

Israeli authorities said more than 200 rockets and mortars were fired in from Gaza as of Thursday morning, and its Iron Dome interceptor had shot down 27 of the missiles.

On either side of the frontier, people fled streets for cover.

Expecting days or more of fighting, Israel warned Hamas all its men were in its sights and weathered censure from
influential Arab countries with the Arab League announcing it was to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday and Egypt recalling its ambassador to Israel.

The United States condemned Hamas, shunned by the West as an obstacle to peace.

[PathWalker]

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-speci...emium-1.477888

Israel holds its breath for Hamas' decision: Target Tel Aviv?
For the first time since the waves of suicide bombings in Israeli cities during the Palestinian uprising, Hamas could target Tel Aviv; such an attack could also jeopardize the political capital accrued by the prime minister and his defense minister.

Tel Aviv is holding its breath. This war is the same war, fought for years far to the south, out of sight and firmly out of mind. But abruptly, without warning, it threatens to become Tel Aviv's war.

And the decision rests with Hamas.

In one fiery stroke - the Wednesday Israeli air strike that killed Hamas' most influential and powerful military mind, Ahmed Jabari - the rules of the Holy Land's oldest established permanent floating chess game were, for the umpteenth time, utterly changed.

Rocked by the assassination, Hamas, its strategic hierarchy shredded, now faces a fateful choice. Pressed by a broad coalition of Gaza militants to retaliate and exact revenge, Hamas could order the launch of the Iranian-developed Fajr-5 missile, straight north.

For the first time since the waves of suicide bombings in Israeli cities during the Palestinian uprising, Hamas could target Tel Aviv.

The decision will not be a simple one, however. Hamas has always been hair-trigger sensitive to Palestinian public opinion, particularly in its birthplace and power base, the Gaza Strip. Gazans at the grass roots level have already made it known that they fear a reprise of the devastation and severe loss of civilian lives which Israel's Operation Cast Lead wrought on the Strip four years ago.

Israel, meanwhile, has made it plain that Tel Aviv is the trip wire.

"Today we attacked strategic Hamas targets with precision," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the press late on Wednesday. "We significantly harmed its capability to launch rockets from Gaza to the center of the country."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak added, "Most of the Fajr missiles have been hit."

There was a warning in their words, to Hamas. But there was an implied, if unintentional, threat to residents of Tel Aviv, as well. Hamas can still hit them, should it choose to do so.

Mindful of the significance of a possible attack on Tel Aviv, Israeli leaders spared no effort to head it off. Immediately after the Jabari assassination, the next phase of the newest war was unleashed, an onslaught to destroy Gaza launch bunkers housing Hamas' Fajr-5 missiles.

Wave after wave of Israeli air strikes were launched. Dozens of Fajr launchers were hit.

But not all of them.

As Wednesday night wore on, IDF civil defense officials began to be asked about whether Tel Aviv residents should take special precautions ("There have been nationwide drills, and citizens will know how to respond," one replied). Police and ambulance crews were placed on heightened alert, Israeli media reported.

And, perhaps inevitably, analysts noted the timing of the Jabari assassination, in the thick of an Israeli election campaign in which both Netanyahu and Barak are intent on holding on to their jobs.

As both well know, past wars - Cast Lead among them - have demonstrated that the longer, more complex, and more unresolved a military operation becomes, the more likely it is to claim its initially victorious initiators, among its victims.

Tel Aviv is the trip wire, as well, for candidates Netanyahu and Barak. If Israel's financial, cultural and media capital is successfully attacked, much of the political capital accrued by the prime minister and his defense minister, will suddenly, literally, go up in smoke.

[panopticon]

Interesting to see how the Gaza Strip region has gradually shrunk over the last few decades:

The History of Gaza's Security Zone

The security buffer zone along Gaza’s northern and eastern border came as a part-clause of the 1994 Oslo Accord, under which, the Israelis were to maintain a 0.5 Km wide security zone across the northern and eastern Gaza’s 58 Km border. This security zone occupied 29 Km2 (8%) of Gaza’s area to remain under the Israeli Army’s control.

When the Palestinian second Intifada broke out in September 2000, the Israeli Army expanded the area of the security zone unilaterally by few hundred meters (width ranges between 0.8 and 1.30 km). The area became off limit to Palestinians to build, cultivate, or just be there. By the time the Israeli Army completed their redeployment in Gaza by the end of 2005, the security buffer zone area stood at 61 Km2 (17%) of the Gaza Strip area under the Israeli Army occupation.

In June 28, 2007, and in a unilateral step, the Israeli Army expanded the security buffer zone along Gaza’s northern an eastern border to 1.5 Km width. Accordingly, the newly defined security buffer zone, occupy an area of 87 Km2 (24%) of the Gaza Strip area.
Source.

Source.

[bennycog]

we cannot just focus on trying to make it better. i think we need to shed a tear for those people that are losing their lives too..
it has always been a sensational frenzy of war "in sitcom value" by the media, it has to stop and the world has to see the true real stories, and soon i hope

[deridan]

Posted by Carmody (here)
Controlling Gaza in totality would be the wisest course, in preparation, if one was planning to hit Iran's nuclear facilities.

such nasty end tactical like solutions are disgusting and bloody

rather should have gone with the more outrageous solutions dictated by strtegic logic decades ago

[kreagle]

Posted by Rocky_Shorz (here)
word is when the ground war starts they will be cutting off all communications to the outer world so we are no longer getting updates...

one bomb killed an 11 month old child of a BBC employee


Satellite communications dish on the house, hit it as a terrorist target...

Hey Rocky_Shorz,

Thanks for the updates and info on this unfortunate timely event that is unfolding before our very eyes. I have referred to these events, and the 11-month old boy, on the thread, 'Bible Topics and Questions', and it's titled,.....'Rising above the Fray'. Take a gander at it when you can, my friend.

Link: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...l=1#post584076


panopticon,

Thanks for you valued contributions on this, also. I originally looked for information on the Israeli 'leaflets', myself, but was unable to find it. I knew you would 'come through' with your determination, so thank you, very much.

Very 'trying and perilous times', my dear friends!


As always,.....your brother, friend, and servant,...........kreagle

[Scott]

Posted by astrid (here)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9ksFuEuro

Interview of Harry from Scott, from Spectrum Radio Network,
if my memory serves me... Scott was once a member here..

Yup, still a member

I will be talking Live with Harry again later on today to get any updates he has on the situation.

Scott

[astrid]

ahh.. there you are... GOOD WORK!

Please keep us updated.

[Belle]

Received a statement on this situation from the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in my email this am...found here: http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/...lar-of-defense

At the end of the article they provide a link to the IMEU (Institute for Middle East Understanding) twitter page...found here: https://twitter.com/theIMEU/watching-gaza Their website is http://www.imeu.net/

Netanyahu knows his NLP...calling leaders and asking if Israel has a right to defend themselves. Of course, they have a right to defend themselves...but this is a case of "Goliath going after David". He plays the victim card over and over...but more and more people are no longer buying what he's selling and are awakening to the truth.

On-going prayers, focus and energy for the people of Gaza...and the Israeli people who do not support what their government is doing.

Enough is enough. This must end.

[modwiz]

Tis a pleasure to see you, Scott. Your work is not given the credit it deserves, IMO.

[PHARAOH]

What garbage....

[Rocky_Shorz]

Gaza is off the net, cell service still working

after launching on Tel Aviv, 30,000 reserves were called to duty

Egyptian tanks are rolling into the Sinai Peninsula

this is escalating fast...

Hamas leaders who snuck from Syria to Sudan are back on the air...



Egypt PM is going to Gaza today, is Hamas ready to be under Egyptian control?

[161803398]

Now, it appears the Moslem Brotherhood is getting involved. http://www.theird.org/issues/middle-...izes-for-hamas

[panopticon]

The way this is going seems to resemble the 2008 Cast Lead Operation (aka Gaza War) with some calling it Cast Lead 2.0 however it is being reported that this conflict will escalate a lot quicker than in 2008 due to Israel's advanced weaponry (especially drones) and the changed political environment in Egypt (and the Middle East in general).

In 2008 there was extensive bombardment for a week and then Israeli ground troops moved in resulting in:
Israeli deaths: 14
Israeli injuries: ~500
Palestinian Deaths: ~1500
Palestinian Injuries: ~5300
Homes destroyed: ~4000
Infrastructure destruction: $2 Billion

Egypt has opened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza in anticipation of refugees and injured from Gaza.

[Camilo]

HAMAS BURNING... MIDDLE EAST ESCALATES

Wednesday, 14 November 2012 20:05
Written by Kerry Cassidy

SENT TO ME BY A SOURCE:

..It has also been reported that Egyptian commando's and tanks have moved into the Sinai Desert (unverified).

"14/11/12 The operation, called “Pillar of Defense”, has been launched by the Israel military. Many of the buildings in the downtown Gaza City are on fire after being attacked by Israeli warplanes."

And so it goes... Israel taking advantage of what? An opportunity horizon...?

Meanwhile, we have a coup in the American government,... going against the Bush Cabal. This involves high level generals and other military. They may be fighting to turn this ship of state around... Do not fall for the lies about extramarital affairs and other nonsense.

[astrid]

Anon has launched " OP Israel" as a response to the threat of the internet being cut in GAZA,
Here is one their statement..

" Israel has “crossed a line in the sand” by threatening to cut off internet and telephone service to the Gaza Strip, warned the hacktivist collective Anonymous on Wednesday. In an online statement, the worldwide group issued orders to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the Israeli government to cease and desist from their “terror upon the innocent people of Palestine.”

A tweet by Anonymous condemned Israel for breaking 65 United Nations resolutions without a single consequence, comparing it to Iraq, which was invaded and bombed for breaking only two resolutions.

Anonymous warned the Israeli government that they would be taking action to show their displeasure towards Israel, calling the Zionist regime “evil”: “Like all the other evil governments that have faced our rage, you will not survive it unscathed.”

Further, Anonymous made a pledge to the Palestinians to support them: “We will do everything in our power to hinder the evil forces of the IDF arrayed against you.

“Know that Anonymous stands with you in this fight. We will use all our resources to make certain you stay connected to the internet and remain able to transmit your experiences to the world.”

The hackers meant every word, it seems. A “Gaza Care Package,” containing instructions in Arabic and English to assist Palestinians in the event the Israeli government threatens their internet connection, was circulating on the internet yesterday, along with advice on evading surveillance and first aid information."

from here..

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed...ne-in-the-sand

And to update... the ground invasion has now started in Gaza

[panopticon]

A little known fact is that out of the ~1.7 million residents in Gaza ~1.1 million are registered as refugees with the UNRWA (of which ~500,000 live in one of 8 refugee camps).
The largest refugee camp is in Rafah (104,000 registered refugees Source) with the following demographics:


Remember: over half the Gaza Strip's population are children (under the age of 18).

[Belle]

Tanks entered the West Bank about an hour or so ago. Bombing continues unabated...everywhere...refugee camps, even in open land where the freedom fighters try to set off their rockets, away from the people in case Israel retaliates.

IDF calling Palestinians to grab their location....Palestinians being told not to answer their phone if they do not recognize the number.

International UN school teacher killed...babies...pregnant women...children...elderly...no one is safe.

Feeling like I'm being called to be a witness to these atrocities...don't know why. Interesting.

[panopticon]

Posted by Belle (here)
Tanks entered the West Bank about an hour or so ago.

Can you confirm that the West Bank is now under assault?

[Belle]

I heard it from Harry live on UStream...hopefully he put it into one of his recent videos.

I think there is a tweet somewhere on the IMEU twitter page...I'll check that out and get back.