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Israel raids in Gaza - 300+ killed


M.O.A

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Scary times eh...

Abbas, Israel and the US all are in the same boat on this one.

Israel in 'all-out war' with Hamas

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At least 51 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israeli air raids, the UN says [Reuters]

Israel's military is in an "all-out war" with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ehud Barak, the country's defence minister, has said.

Palestinian medical sources say at least 345 Gazans have been killed and another 1,450 wounded in three consecutive days of Israeli bombardment in the heavily-populated territory.

"We have nothing against Gaza residents, but we are engaged in an all-out war against Hamas and its proxies," Barak said on Monday.

There were also growing fears that a ground offensive was being planned after Israel declared a "closed military zone" around the Gaza Strip.

Israel says the creation of a buffer zone along the border will help protect it from rocket attacks.

Civilians, including journalists, could be banned from an area between 2km and 4km deep under the policy. On previous occasions, such a move has sometimes been followed by military operations.

"This operation will expand and deepen as much as needed," Barak said. "We went to war to deal a heavy blow to Hamas, to change the situation in the south."

Trapped Palestinians

Tanks and troops have been massed in the area since the attacks, referred to by the Israeli military as Operation Cast Lead, was launched on Saturday.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said that there was little the residents of Gaza could do to prepare for any possible ground assault.

"In a city that is so densely-populated, a ground offensive would mean urban warfare, street-to-street fighting ... leaving many Palestinians in the crossfire," he said.

"Unlike other conflict zones where there is the possibility to flee the war zone, Gaza itself has become the war zone. There is nowhere for the population to go, they are in the middle of all these attacks."

Israel said it began pounding the Gaza Strip with missiles fired from warplanes and helicopter gunships in order to halt the rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian fighters.

"Military officials said yesterday that this operation will go on until Hamas stops firing missiles into southern Israel," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from southern Israel, said.

"They are also very much aware that they wouldn't really be able to stop that, but at least they will try to degrade the capability of Hamas."

Israeli justification

Scores of rockets have hit southern Israel since the offensive got under way.

On Monday, an Israeli Arab was killed and eight others wounded when one of the missiles hit a construction site in the city of Ashkelon.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said the Israeli offensive was aimed at Hamas and not the Palestinian people.

"We tried to avoid this. You know that Israel accepted the truce that was initiated by the Egyptians in order to create peace and quiet. We adopted the truce. What we got in return? We got in return daily attacks, we got in return smuggling of weapons to Gaza Strip with long-range [capabilities]," she said.

Livni also appealed to Palestinian civilians to leave for safer places within the Gaza Strip and advised them against staying in places close to Hamas infrastructure.

Support for Israel came from the US, with the White House saying Hamas must halt cross-border rocket fire.

"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman said.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, meanwhile, urged Arab and world leaders to press for an end to the violence in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian gesture

On Monday, Egyptian authorities allowed ambulances carrying several wounded Palestinians to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing for medical treatment.

Hospitals in Gaza have been overwhelmed by casualties since Israel started its aerial blitz on the territory.

Egypt also allowed lorries loaded with humanitarian aid to enter its border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Lorries with food and medical supplies have been lining up outside the Egypt-Gaza border since early morning.

The UN relief and works agency said on Monday that at least 51 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were confirmed to be among those killed in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli air raids have pounded the heavily-populated Gaza Strip for three days [AFP]

An UNRWA spokesman said the figure, which was based on visits to hospitals and medical centres was "conservative" and "certainly rising".

Four young girls from the same family in the northern town of Jabaliya and two young boy from Rafah were among those killed in the latest raids, Palestinian medics said.

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros said the situation at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City was chaotic as the territory's health system struggled to cope with the more than 1,400 people injured.

"Hundreds of people are just waiting outside ... the problem is that there simply aren't enough beds to cope with the number of injured," she said.

"Medical sources here are telling us they are running out of everything, from gauzes to saline solutions, and critically now they are running out of almost every type of blood."

A six-month truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended on December 19.

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YOur thoughts?

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israel broke the most recent cease fire, but then again, palestinian bombers killed 150+ civillians yesterday or the day before i think it was...

in the end though, i can't side with israel - they will do whatever they want since they know the US will back them up

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they had both been breaking the cease fire without formally dissolving it for 6 months

a ground offensive could be catastrophic

god i hope Livni wins tho....

egypt needs to fucking open there borders more

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israel broke the most recent cease fire, but then again, palestinian bombers killed 150+ civillians yesterday or the day before i think it was...

in the end though, i can't side with israel - they will do whatever they want since they know the US will back them up

i have no idea where the hell youre getting your information from,

but palestine/hamas hasnt even managed to kill 150 civilians OR

israeli military personnel in the past 12 MONTHS, let alone 24 HOURS.

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fucking minsinformation and bullshit spin makes me almost as angry as the excessive use of force itself.

living in a world where people see fit to equalize a body count of 364 to one that numbers less than 25 is insane to me. purely insane.

hamas' rockets are chintzy pieces of shite, sometimes cobbled together from auto parts... israel responds with smart bombs that

the united states supplies them with.

all this fucking is is grandstanding on the moderate party's part in order to cement themselves as virile and strong in the face of impending elections in february.

the fact that israel threatened to attack sometime before the end of 08 and yet, the US is calling on hamas to stop firing before israel does, is beyond me.

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i have no idea where the hell youre getting your information from,

but palestine/hamas hasnt even managed to kill 150 civilians OR

israeli military personnel in the past 12 MONTHS, let alone 24 HOURS.

Jose is telling the truth on this matter, they said Palestinians militants had fire some 70 rockets at the Jewish state killing one Israeli man.

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i have no idea where the hell youre getting your information from,

but palestine/hamas hasnt even managed to kill 150 civilians OR

israeli military personnel in the past 12 MONTHS, let alone 24 HOURS.

you're right, i read the article when i was high on e and literally read it backwards

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:(:mad::(:mad: ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i try not to get involved cause it hurts to hear shit like this and me wanting to do something but not really being able to.

my fathers home in palestine is getting bordered off, more ppl getting killed. and i have relatives that just left to go back to palestine.

with our souls, with our blood, we will avenge you palestine

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fucking minsinformation and bullshit spin makes me almost as angry as the excessive use of force itself.

living in a world where people see fit to equalize a body count of 364 to one that numbers less than 25 is insane to me. purely insane.

hamas' rockets are chintzy pieces of shite, sometimes cobbled together from auto parts... israel responds with smart bombs that

the united states supplies them with.

all this fucking is is grandstanding on the moderate party's part in order to cement themselves as virile and strong in the face of impending elections in february.

the fact that israel threatened to attack sometime before the end of 08 and yet, the US is calling on hamas to stop firing before israel does, is beyond me.

so what would you do if you had bombs falling on your street? people don't seem to realize that hamas is targeting CIVILIANS and always has targeted CIVILIANS. you argue that the hamas bombs are pieces of shit- this is partially correct, the other part being that they have russian-made katyusha rockets, courtesy of iran...hmmm.

what would you have israel do? let its citizens rot in bomb shelters? fire back their own homemade rockets? of course not, that makes no fucking sense. you say excessive force; try living with bombs raining on your head and then see how what you think about striking back with "excessive force." we do surgical strikes. of course civilians die. you'd have to be high off your ass to think that in a war, civilians won't die. and it's fucking sad that they do, no one wants innocents dead. but it is unavoidable, especially when you have hamas operating from inside apartment buildings, filled with palestinian civilians.

but let me break it down: israel is attacking hamas targets, hamas people, hamas gunmen, hamas rocket squads, hamas hamas hamas. meanwhile, hamas is attacking ANY israeli it can get its hands on, and it prefers civilians because mass panic and fear within the entire country, not just the military, is good for them. we're talking about the same hamas that was behind hundreds of suicide bombings of civilian targets in the past two intifadas. who is the fucking bully? the israeli government, that is trying to protect its citizens, and by doing so, has to fire at the enemies who are hiding in the middle of cities? or is it hamas, the group that targets citizens and doesn't give a fuck about their own as long as there are enough to serve as human shields? and as for the ceasefire, you can't gloss over the fact that rockets were still being fired from gaza on a regular basis.

the blame for this situation lies on hamas and i hope to god that every last fucking one of those terrorists dies because maybe, maybe then, we can get people together who aren't just interested in shooting one another and they can figure out a peaceful solution to the whole situation.

/end of rant

ps arguing about politics on superfuture is fucking retarded, lets just go back to talking about jeans

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but let me break it down: israel is attacking hamas targets, hamas people, hamas gunmen, hamas rocket squads, hamas hamas hamas. meanwhile, hamas is attacking ANY israeli it can get its hands on, and it prefers civilians because mass panic and fear within the entire country, not just the military, is good for them. we're talking about the same hamas that was behind hundreds of suicide bombings of civilian targets in the past two intifadas. who is the fucking bully? the israeli government, that is trying to protect its citizens, and by doing so, has to fire at the enemies who are hiding in the middle of cities? or is it hamas, the group that targets citizens and doesn't give a fuck about their own as long as there are enough to serve as human shields? and as for the ceasefire, you can't gloss over the fact that rockets were still being fired from gaza on a regular basis.

So basically what you are saying is that you don't really care how many civilians die and as long as you are aiming for militants everything is fine and dandy.

Fuck you.

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so what would you do if you had bombs falling on your street? people don't seem to realize that hamas is targeting CIVILIANS and always has targeted CIVILIANS. you argue that the hamas bombs are pieces of shit- this is partially correct, the other part being that they have russian-made katyusha rockets, courtesy of iran...hmmm.

what would you have israel do? let its citizens rot in bomb shelters? fire back their own homemade rockets? of course not, that makes no fucking sense. you say excessive force; try living with bombs raining on your head and then see how what you think about striking back with "excessive force." we do surgical strikes. of course civilians die. you'd have to be high off your ass to think that in a war, civilians won't die. and it's fucking sad that they do, no one wants innocents dead. but it is unavoidable, especially when you have hamas operating from inside apartment buildings, filled with palestinian civilians.

but let me break it down: israel is attacking hamas targets, hamas people, hamas gunmen, hamas rocket squads, hamas hamas hamas. meanwhile, hamas is attacking ANY israeli it can get its hands on, and it prefers civilians because mass panic and fear within the entire country, not just the military, is good for them. we're talking about the same hamas that was behind hundreds of suicide bombings of civilian targets in the past two intifadas. who is the fucking bully? the israeli government, that is trying to protect its citizens, and by doing so, has to fire at the enemies who are hiding in the middle of cities? or is it hamas, the group that targets citizens and doesn't give a fuck about their own as long as there are enough to serve as human shields? and as for the ceasefire, you can't gloss over the fact that rockets were still being fired from gaza on a regular basis.

the blame for this situation lies on hamas and i hope to god that every last fucking one of those terrorists dies because maybe, maybe then, we can get people together who aren't just interested in shooting one another and they can figure out a peaceful solution to the whole situation.

/end of rant

ps arguing about politics on superfuture is fucking retarded, lets just go back to talking about jeans

the blame in this situation lies on europe and israel, decades ago, creating a nation state that never existed and shouldnt exist in the capacity that it does.

europe passed the buck to the arab world for both positive and negative

reasons and committed what, in my mind, is the most egregious political mistake in the history of humankind: treating religious scripture as a legitimate and binding document.

there is no doubt whatsoever as to who started this, in this respect.

however, i understand that the blame for the situation being dragged out as long as it has lies with both sides, and the respective allies of both sides, who often stoke the flames for their own reasons.

in this instance, though, there is only this to consider, for now:

a measured response, as opposed to a "war to the bitter end", would draw much less ire from the international community.

the number of israelis killed by hamas rockets pales in comparison to

the number of palestinians killed by israeli missiles.

the amount of damage done to infrastructure in israel pales in comparison to the amount wrought in gaza.

israel is preventing third-party humanitarian efforts from reaching gaza with much needed medical supplies.

the oppressed have become the oppressors.

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you would think that a people who have experienced such persecution would be able to see when they are the perpetrators

guess not

this.

the oppressed have become the oppressors.

and this.

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