Tension surges as Gaza truce ends

[Ban Hammer 14,293]

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Tension surged in and around Gaza on Friday as the Islamist rulers of the besieged Palestinian enclave declared an end to the troubled truce with Israel and warned they would respond to any attack.

Shortly after the armed wing of Hamas formally announced the shaky six-month truce was over, the smaller Islamic Jihad group said it fired three rockets at Israel, which reported no damage or casualties.

Security sources also reported that an Israeli driving a tractor in a field just outside the Gaza Strip was targeted by Palestinian gunmen but not hit.

At dawn, Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades military wing said: "The ceasefire is over and there won't be a renewal because the Zionist enemy has not respected its conditions."

Both Hamas and Israel have said they would respond if attacked, but neither has said it would go on the offensive at this stage.

"We issue a warning to the Zionist enemy: all attacks against the Gaza Strip or any new crime will trigger a large-scale confrontation and we will retaliate very fiercely," Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak for his part told the Haaretz newspaper that "if the quiet continues, there will be quiet. If the lull is shattered, we will act."

Israeli media highlighted the increased state of alert among security forces and communities around the Gaza Strip, but also uncertainty about the risk of an escalation of violence.

"Hamas continues to maintain ambiguity," the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said. "If causing the situation to deteriorate will serve its immediate interests, it will open fire even without declarations."

Several newspapers said the Israeli defence establishment was not eager for battle at this stage.

"There are myriad arguments against a war in Gaza, but the strongest is the one defence officials can't utter aloud ... It would be hard to go into Gaza at the height of an election campaign," the liberal Haaretz daily said.

Israel scheduled legislative elections on February 10 after scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert presented his resignation in September.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak has stressed that he sees no urgency in launching a large-scale military intervention in Gaza.

"I do not flinch from an operation and I do not rush into an operation," he said in an interview with Haaretz.

The truce had been uneasy ever since it went into effect on June 19, and violence has increased since early November, with 18 Palestinians killed and Israel reporting more than 250 rocket and mortar fire attacks.

Israeli forces launched several air strikes and killed one Palestinian while Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets on Wednesday and again on Thursday.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the truce that was negotiated through Egyptian intermediaries because the Jewish state regards the Islamists as a terrorist organisation.

The Israeli government blames Hamas for not stopping attacks often carried out by smaller Palestinian factions, while the Islamists say that not only Israel's raids but also its continued blockade of the impoverished territory were in violation of the truce agreement.

Israel responded to the surge of violence in early November by tightening sanctions and closing crossing points with Gaza, halting deliveries of humanitarian aid and other supplies.

The UN Relief and Works Agency said shortages caused by the closures and the rocket fire forced it to suspend distribution of food assistance to about half of Gaza's 1.5-million-strong population on Thursday.

Egypt's foreign ministry, meanwhile, pinned the blame on Israel for the deteriorating situation of Gaza.

"Under international law and the 4th Geneva Convention in particular, as the occupying power, Israel must ensure the basic needs of the inhabitants of the territory it occupies are met, such as electricity, water, fuel, food and medicine," it said.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was to discuss the situation in Gaza with US President George W. Bush in Washington on Friday.

Abbas has called for the truce to continue, but his authority has been limited to the occupied West Bank since Hamas ousted his forces and seized control of Gaza in June 2007.

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[Saddle Bronc 124]

Officially over, a ceasefire declared but never honoured.

[Ban Hammer 14,293]

Officially over, a ceasefire declared but never honoured.

[mawilson 2,133]

Shortly after the armed wing of Hamas formally announced the shaky six-month truce was over, the smaller Islamic Jihad group said it fired three rockets at Israel, which reported no damage or casualties.

Oh man, that must have felt so good! Poor terrorists... having to wait six months!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Shortly after the armed wing of Hamas formally announced the shaky six-month truce was over, the smaller Islamic Jihad group said it fired three rockets at Israel, which reported no damage or casualties.

Oh man, that must have felt so good! Poor terrorists... having to wait six months!

They have been itching to kill more innocent civilians. I say drop a daisy-cutter on each rocket launch site.

[bhajishah 4]

Israel has no business being there or settling there or invading there. Even George Sr warned Israel (the one who knew something about international rules and etc.) but time time again its the muslims who are "bad" and have no rights.

[peejay 327]

Israel has no business being there or settling there or invading there. Even George Sr warned Israel (the one who knew something about international rules and etc.) but time time again its the muslims who are "bad" and have no rights.

The right to what? Hurl rockets and mortars into Israel? As if we don't already know what that tactic leads to. I feel sorry for the civilians that have no hand in this madness, but they repeatedly get used as human shields by the bad guys. And Israel won't sit idle to repeated attacks.

So now we are back to square one with invasion and occupation on the menu again.

At some point the dominant side must prevail. That has been the way of the world since the beginning of time. Might really does make right.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Israel has no business being there or settling there or invading there. Even George Sr warned Israel (the one who knew something about international rules and etc.) but time time again its the muslims who are "bad" and have no rights.

No. It's the TERRORISTS that are bad. Quit lumping in all Muslims for some sympathetic reasons.

[mawilson 2,133]

Israel has no business being there or settling there or invading there.

The last Israeli settlers left Gaza in 2005. They have no business being there and they

don't want to be there; but Hamas keeps pushing them and pissing them off with their rockets.

Why? Because they want Israel to reinvade and become the "bad guys" in the eyes

of the world once again. They absolutely HATE it when Israel shows restraint.

[bhajishah 4]

oh ok, stand corrected hmm. but when you say daisy cutter drop, wouldnt that be muslims in general. hmmph. and yah peoples have a right defend thier land. You wouldnt want Canada to shove you out of your house into refugee camps. without a fight.

[mawilson 2,133]

and yah peoples have a right defend thier land.

Defend what land? Israel has no military presence in Gaza. None.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

#### all of the people living in that region. The lot of them are more trouble than they're worth.

[bhajishah 4]

Merry xtian mas and happy peaceful ny to you to Sir fuz it Paul. have another ALe

They have settlements and often military, how can you say not???

[mawilson 2,133]

They have settlements and often military, how can you say not???

Not in Gaza they don't.

Israel completes Gaza withdrawal

Monday, 12 September 2005

Israeli troops have pulled out of the Gaza Strip more than 38 years after capturing the narrow coastal area.

Tanks and armoured vehicles left under cover of darkness and the last officer shut the Kissufim border at dawn.

Thousands of jubilant Palestinians entered the former Jewish enclaves, and some set an abandoned synagogue ablaze in a settlement near Khan Younis.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas described the withdrawal as an historic and joyful day for his people.

...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4235768.stm

[Ban Hammer 14,293]

oh ok, stand corrected hmm. but when you say daisy cutter drop, wouldnt that be muslims in general. hmmph. and yah peoples have a right defend thier land. You wouldnt want Canada to shove you out of your house into refugee camps. without a fight.

a daisy cutter on the drop site would tend to put a damper on things. although i'd opt for fae.