Israel warns of disaster in Gaza By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer FEB 29,08
JERUSALEM - Israel's deputy defense minister warned of disaster in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian rocket fire grew more ominous Friday with an assault on an Israeli city. Gaza's unbowed Hamas rulers promised to fight on. Meanwhile, Hamas said a 13-month-old girl and three other civilians were killed in an Israeli strike on Beit Hanoun, a northern town in Gaza where Palestinian militants often launch rockets at Israel. But local residents said a militant rocket fell short and landed in the area of the baby's house.Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio that because of the militants' attacks, Israel had no other choice but to launch a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip.As the rocket fire grows, and the range increases ... they are bringing upon themselves a greater shoah because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in airstrikes or on the ground, Vilnai said.The Hebrew word shoah most often refers to the Holocaust but Israelis use it to describe all sorts of disasters. A spokesman for Vilnai, Eitan Ginzburg, said the deputy defense minister never intended it as a reference to the Holocaust but used the word shoah to denote a disaster.
The escalating violence comes ahead of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region next week. It also clouds already troubled efforts by Palestinians and Israel — and backed by Washington — to reach a peace accord by year's end.The Israeli military has completed preparations for a major ground offensive and notified the government it is ready to move, defense officials said. An invasion is not expected for the next week or two, in part because the military prefers to wait for clearer weather, the officials said.Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, dismissed Vilnai's comments, saying: We are not afraid of these threats.The violence highlights Hamas' role as a possible spoiler in peace talks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could find it difficult to negotiate with Israel if there is an invasion of Gaza, and Israel's fragile governing coalition will find it hard to make concessions while Palestinian rockets reach deeper into its territory.Hamas and Abbas' Fatah are vying for control of the Palestinian territories. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and Abbas and Fatah control a rival government in the West Bank.Abbas called on Israel to stop all attacks in Gaza and urged Palestinian militants to halt the rocket fire. It is in the interest of the Palestinian people not to give Israel any pretext to continue its aggressions, a statement from his office said.State Department spokesman Tom Casey denounced Hamas' rocket attacks as completely unacceptable and demanded they stop. He also said the U.S. regularly urges Israel to consider the consequences of its actions and to pay careful attention to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.
Tony Blair, the envoy of a group of international Mideast mediators known as the Quartet, condemned the Palestinian rocket attacks and urged Israel to do everything possible to avoid killing Palestinian civilians.Israel evacuated its troops and settlers from Gaza in late 2005. Hamas militants have since fired rockets into Israel from the territory that was abandoned.On Thursday, the threat escalated when Iranian-made rockets struck Ashkelon, a city 11 miles north of Gaza.Most previous rocket attacks targeted small border communities near Gaza. With the strike on Ashkelon, with 120,000 residents, pressure increased on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to protect the Israeli heartland.Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday that the assaults on Ashkelon demand an Israeli retaliation. He blamed Hamas for the spike in violence and said the militant movement would suffer the consequences.The military said Gaza militants fired 19 rockets on Friday, including one that struck an Israeli house, slightly injuring one person. An Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza killed a Hamas militant in the midst of an attack on Israel, Hamas said. The latest round of violence began Wednesday after Israel killed two of the militants' rocket masterminds. Thirty-two Palestinians have died in the past three days, including 15 civilians. Eight were children, the youngest a 6-month-old boy.
An Israeli man was killed in a rocket attack on Sderot on Wednesday. Israel blamed the Palestinian civilian death toll on rocket squads operating within civilian areas of Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets Friday to bury their dead and protest the Israeli attacks. Some children at the protests wore white clothes stained with red paint to signify blood. Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had been hiding for weeks for fear Israeli aircraft would fire missiles at him, but on Friday emerged for prayers and vowed Hamas would not be intimidated. You are mistaken if you thought that targeting buildings, ministries and police stations is going to stop our work, Haniyeh said, directing his comments at Israel. We will work under trees, in tents and in the streets.
King calls for US help in Middle East By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 29, 5:57 PM ET
PRINCETON, New Jersey - Jordan's King Abdullah II warned Friday that unless a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian agreement is reached during the Bush administration's final months, the chances for a lasting Middle East peace could be set back, perhaps for decades.We are in the best possible position to resolve 60 years of conflict between Israel and Palestine, Abdullah told an audience at Princeton University. It will be two or three years before a new American president will be willing to look at the Middle East.Bush leaves office in January.Abdullah's message was similar to one he delivered to a joint session of Congress last year and is what he will likely tell Bush when he meets with him at the White House on Tuesday.Abdullah said resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more important to the future of the Middle East than any other issue, including the war in Iraq. By agreeing soon to allow a Palestinian state, he said, Israel could quickly gain diplomatic and trade relationships with 57 countries that now refuse to deal with it.Key for the Palestinians in any peace deal is Israel's return to pre-1967 borders, the right of return of refugees and their descendants, and the status of Jerusalem — all issues that have derailed peace efforts before.
Abdullah's comments came as Israel's deputy defense minister threatened a major offensive if rocket attacks on Israel continue from the Gaza Strip. Israeli armaments targeted Palestinian rocket operations in Gaza, leaving 15 wounded, including four children, according to Gaza officials.Abdullah, 46, took the throne in Jordan in 1999 after his father, King Hussein died. Like his father, he is seen as a moderate in the Middle East.On Thursday, Abdullah met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the situation in the region.
Hezbollah slams US warship as interference in Lebanon by Rana Moussaoui Fri Feb 29, 4:21 PM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - The pro-Syrian Hezbollah on Friday slammed Washington's dispatch of the USS Cole to waters off Lebanon as military interference, as the Western-backed government said it did not ask for the warship to be sent. The condemnation came as pro-government dailies saw sending the vessel as a clear signal to Syria, which is being blamed by the ruling majority for blocking a presidential vote in Beirut.This decision proves that it's the United States which is interfering in Lebanese affairs, and that this interference has taken on a military slant, Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan told AFP.The United States said on Thursday it had sent the guided-missile destroyer to the waters off Lebanon, which has been embroiled in a paralysing political crisis for months.The USS Cole was the target of a bombing by Al-Qaeda extremists in October 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17US sailors.It is a show of support for regional stability because of concern about the situation in Lebanon, a US official said on condition of anonymity, declining to say that the show of force was meant for Syria or Iran.Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, whose government is backed by the West and most Arab countries, stressed during a meeting with Arab ambassadors that Beirut did not ask for the warship and summoned a top US diplomat for clarifications.We did not ask anyone to send warships, Siniora said, adding that no US warship was in Lebanese waters.Earlier Siniora summoned US charge d'affaires Michele Sison to ask her to clarify the presence of the USS Cole in the Mediterranean, a government source told AFP.
Mrs Sison assured him that the warship was in international waters and had been dispatched to guarantee regional stability, the source added.The United States, meanwhile, shrugged off Hezbollah's criticism.On Hezbollah's concerns, I would express some of our own concerns with Hezbollah's actions. So I'll just leave it at that, White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.Lebanese parliament speaker and opposition member Nabih Berri meanwhile said in a television interview that the dispatch of the USS Cole was aimed at giving support to Israel's military action in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.The goal is to take attention away from what is happening in Gaza. The USS Cole is here to back the Israeli plan in Gaza, where 31 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday in Israeli air strikes, he said.Lebanon has been without a president since last November amid political feuding between the ruling parliamentary majority and the opposition, backed by Syria and Iran.The majority accuses Syria of blocking efforts to elect a new president in Lebanon, which was under Syrian military domination for 29 years until Damascus withdrew its troops in April 2005.Fears of civil strife in Lebanon have mounted over the continued deadlock and warnings of wider conflict after the February 12 assassination in Syria of top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh.Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah mourned Mughnieh in a massive public rally, threatening open war against Israel, which fought a devastating July-August 2006 war against the Shiite group.
Wars begin by an exchange of messages. The American decision is the first message to its opponents in the region saying we are here, said Wehbe Katisha, a retired Lebanese army general. Beirut has also been the scene of recent street clashes between supporters of the rival factions, prompting several Gulf nations and Western states to advise their citizens against travelling to Lebanon.
Ashkelon Katyushas Came From Iran Via Egypt
by Ezra HaLevi MAR 01,08
(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the Grad-type Katyusha rockets fired at Ashkelon came from Iran and may lead Israel back to Gaza.In the past 24 hours, over 15 heavy rockets were fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza against Israel’s southern port city of Ashkelon, a Foreign Ministry dispatch to journalists and diplomatic staff said. The 122 mm Grad rockets (also known as Katyushas), are a type of standard military artillery weapon produced in the former Soviet bloc and by other states deploying non-Western arms. It is manufactured to military standards, by a conventional arms industry, and is equipped with a weapons-grade high explosive fragmentation warhead.The Foreign Ministry pointed the finger at Tehran. The Grad rockets fired today were apparently smuggled into Gaza from Iran via Egypt through tunnels and the breached Rafah border fence, the dispatch stated. Israel has repeatedly warned neighboring states and the international community about the arms buildup taking place in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Today’s attacks constitute a regretful yet unequivocal proof of the veracity of Israel’s warnings.Prior to the implementation of the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria, anti-expulsion activists placed posters all around Ashkelon proclaiming that the withdrawal would herald missiles on the port city and advising resident to oppose the move or prepare for the attacks. Thursday’s missiles slammed into the campus of Barzilai Hospital, destroyed a family home in one of the city’s neighborhood, made a large crater in one of the city’s streets and stuck the municipal cemetery. The Foreign Ministry statement ended with an acknowledgement echoing the predictions of Gaza’s Jewish evictees: that Israel will have no choice but return to settle the region. Israel left the Gaza Strip over two years ago, with no intention of ever returning, the statement said. Yet, the continued escalation of Hamas terrorism emanating from Gaza, purposely targeting Israeli civilians, is liable to leave Israel with no choice.
Ashkelon Shelling Draws Record Day of IAF Air Strikes on Gaza by Ezra HaLevi MAR 01,08
(IsraelNN.com) Israel ratcheted up its air strikes in Gaza in response to another day of heavy rocket fire on Sderot and Katyusha missiles on the city of Ashkelon.At least twenty people were killed in the air strikes. PA reports say five children are among the dead but the kids were apparently involved in moving rocket launchers.
Late Thursday afternoon, an IAF air strike hit a Hamas position outside the home of Hamas PA chief Ismail Haniyeh, killing one and wounding four others. Haniyeh has gone into hiding and was not home at the time. A day earlier another air strike targeted his office.
Another IAF strike killed two Hamas terrorists – one of them a son of senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya who oversaw a rocket-launching cell. Al-Haya visited the Gaza morgue and declared that he was proud his son had died for the cause. I thank G-d for this gift. This is the 10th member of my family to receive the honor of martyrdom, he said. An air strike Thursday night targeted terrorists in a vehicle in Khan Younis. The vehicle was marked as a PA electric company car and both terrorists inside were killed. PA reports claimed the men were mere electric company workers.In Gaza City, two Hamas terrorists, members of the group’s Executive Guard military force, were killed in a strike on a truck carrying Kassam rockets near the Shifa Hospital. PA reports claimed the truck driven by the men in military-style uniforms was just carrying beverages.Four teenagers were killed in an air strike in the Jabalya area. The young men were in an open area used for rocket-fire at the time. PA reports claim they were playing soccer.Two other air strikes killed one Hamas terrorist each in northern Gaza. Two more strikes destroyed a large weapons warehouse and a Hamas training camp facility. Thursday morning a Gaza City strike killed a Hamas terrorist and two members of the Hizbullah-backed Popular Resistance Committee.
Israeli-Arab Teenage Terrorist Arrested in Jerusalem
The Shabak (General Security Service) released for publication the recent arrest of a 17-year-old female terrorist who intended to carry out a suicide bombing on a Jewish target in Israel. The girl enjoys Israeli citizenship and free passage to all Israeli and PA-controlled areas. The girl held several meetings with leading Islamic Jihad terrorist coordinators, where she expressed her hatred of Jews and intentions to carry out a suicide bombing. Two Israeli-Arab members of Islamic Jihad from Jerusalem were arrested in the case as well.The girl’s remand was extended Thursday by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court.
