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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Islamic radicals from an al-Qaida-inspired group battled Hamas security in the Gaza Strip Friday in a shootout that killed at least seven people. The fighting began when Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up, including some armed with suicide belts and rifles, according to residents of the area. The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the...

Israeli warplanes bombed a Hamas security outpost and tunnels by the Gaza border with Egypt on Tuesday, after a rocket fired from the coastal territory struck an Israeli town, Israeli and Hamas sources said. Palestinian medics said a woman in Gaza suffered moderate wounds from one of several air strikes against tunnels Israel says are used to smuggle weapons into the coastal territory. Another raid targeted a Hamas outpost near a border fence with Israel, a Hamas source said. It was the first time Israel has attacked the Islamic militant group since a January 18 ceasefire went into effect after...

Tensions between Egypt and Lebanon’s Hizbollah group have escalated after the Shia movement admitted that one of its members had been smuggling weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian authorities were chasing 10 Lebanese men on Monday, allegedly members of a Hizbollah cell, on the Sinai peninsula, which shares a border with the Gaza Strip, in a crackdown on a group that they claim was planning to attack Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.

Note: The following news brief is a quote: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3692502,00.html Report: IAF struck arms convoy for Hamas in Sudan in January Published: 03.26.09, 07:09 / Israel News Israeli planes struck in January a convoy of trucks in Sudan carrying weapons meant for the Gaza Strip, the CBS television network reported Thursday. According to the report 17 trucks had been bombed and 39 people had been killed in the strike. (Ynet)

Published: 03.23.09, 11:54 / Israel News Egyptian police seized a flock of 560 sheep set to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels. SNIPPET: "A security official says the flock was discovered on Sunday night, along with the entrances to six tunnels in the Salah el-Din district north of the Rafah border crossing. Police seized five tons of cement and found a half ton cache of TNT hidden in near the border."

Mash’al In Iran: ‘Our Battle Is Your Battle’; ‘Together We Will Liberate Jerusalem’; Iran Will Help Rebuild Gaza; French Leaders ‘Collaborators’ In Zionists’ Gaza Massacres In a speech at the Iranian Majlis, Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al said that Hamas will not stop smuggling weapons, because doing so would be against the armed struggle. He told Iranian MPs: “Our battle is your battle... Your support for the resistance in Palestine is support for yourselves. He called on Europe to adjust its policy vis-à-vis Hamas, and to influence the U.S. to do likewise. He said that Hamas aspires to liberate Jerusalem and...

"$20,000 reward offered for arrests in vandalism of synagogues, schools Jewish organizations seek leads to hate crimes in West Ridge, Lake View" SNIPPET: "Jenna Benn, assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the five incidents may be the result of increased tensions in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas." SNIPPET: "Benn asked that anyone with information about the attacks call the Anti-Defamation League at 312-782-5080. Rottner said the Belmont and Western Area 3 hate crimes unit can take calls at 312-744-8320."

RAMALLAH: After nearly two weeks of showing a united front in the face of Israel’s war in Gaza, some Palestinians are starting to slam Hamas for dragging its feet on a truce as the death toll mounts. With Hamas maintaining a tight grip on the Gaza Strip, most of the critical voices are coming from the rival Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, whose forces the Islamists routed from the coastal enclave in June 2007. Those close to the Fatah party of moderate president Mahmoud Abbas accuse Hamas of trying to extract political gains from the Gaza offensive all the...

(YNET NEWS.com) January 16, 2009 "THE GUARDIANS OF ISRAEL NEITHER SLUMBER NOR SLEEP" SNIPPET: "Israel and the US succeeded in preventing a United Nations announcement condemning the Jewish state for its strike on a UN compound in Gaza Thursday. The condemnation was proposed by Britain among other countries." SNIPPET: "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized for the incident before UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but stressed that IDF forces were attacked from the building before it was hit."

JANUARY 15, 2009...22:58 "IDF Targets Senior Hamas Leader, Summary of Today’s Events, 15 Jan 2009, 22:10 IST" SNIPPET: "January 15th, 2009 IDF Targets Senior Hamas Leader Said Siam Summary of Today’s Aerial Attacks In a joint IDF and ISA operation in Gaza City early Thursday evening, the IAF targeted a building in which the following senior Hamas operatives were residing – Said Siam, Ia’ad Siam and Salah Abu-Sharah. The forces reported a direct hit."

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "Mexico condemns the excessive use of force associated with the Israeli army operation in Gaza, " a statement from the Mexican Foreign Ministry said late Tuesday. It also condemned "the continued launching of mortars into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip". Latin American countries have largely condemned Israel over its launch of 'Operation Cast Lead' on Gaza on December 27. Immediately after Israeli warplanes attacked the strip, Cuba called the offensive an "act of genocide" and a "criminal military operation, the bloodiest one executed by Israel against the Palestinian people." Three day later, the Bolivian Foreign...

SNIPPET: "A North Texas imam is calling on Muslims to take up arms in defense of Palestinians in Gaza. Sheikh Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti, director of the Islamic Center of South Plains in Lubbock, Texas, participated in an online chat, "Fatwas on Gaza," at the web site IslamOnline.net. El-Shinqiti encouraged readers to fight - or if they can't, to send money to those who are fighting - in response to six out of the eight questions posed to him in the online chat. When asked what can be done to help the people in Gaza, El-Shinqiti emphasized war over sending food...

"HAMAS MISSILES FOR ISRAELI FOOD" (Added January 12, 2009) VIDEO DESCRIPTION - QUOTE: IsraelMFA January 12, 2009 Israel gives food, medicine and electricity to Gaza citizens and gets rockets in return. Category: News & Politics Tags: Israel Hamas war rockets missile humanitarian aid children shield Gaza

"HAMAS AND THEIR SYSTEMATIC VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS (NOT TO MENTION BASIC HUMAN DECENCY)" "Video follows"

"IT'S NOT SO MUCH THAT THE HAMAS OFFICER WAS KILLED... ...it's that he was killed operating a mortar that his subordinates were not firing, because they refused to come out of hiding."

Note: See map inlcuded on this report. Note: The following text is a quote: JANUARY 9, 2009...17:54 Captured Hamas Intelligence, 9 Jan 2009, 16:26 IST Jump to Comments Confiscated Intelligence Map from Hamas Hamas turn a Gaza neighborhood into a warzone. This map, confiscated Wednesday (Jan. 7) by IDF paratroopers operating in the north of Gaza, shows how Hamas uses an entire neighborhood, rigging it with explosive devices and putting the entire civilian population at great risk. The map shows the al-Tatraa neighborhood in Gaza City divided into three areas of operation (red, blue and green). The dots on the...

SNIPPET: "The fundamental truth is that Hamas' road to Iran runs through the international Muslim Brotherhood, and has for two decades. What is often missing in the discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood is that Hamas, according to its own founding charter, is an integral and armed part of the Ikwhan, not separate from it."

Israel on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombing of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700. After a brief lull to allow Gaza's beleaguered population to hunt for food and fuel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak was given the green light by the security cabinet to order a deeper offensive into Gaza towns as part of the campaign to halt Hamas cross-border rocket attacks. But Barak has also decided to send an envoy to Cairo on Thursday to get details on an Egyptian ceasefire plan, which secured...

"THE BRIEF LIFE AND EXQUISITE MARTYRDOM OF A HAMAS MORTAR CREW" Snippet: "Via Hamas' al-Aqsa TV station, said to be filmed in Jabaliya on 06 January 2008. At about 1'15" the crew is hit by an apparent Israeli counter-strike."

The Venezuelan government expelled Israelí Ambassador Shlomo Cohen in protest against his country's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, in which hundreds of people are reported to have been killed. The decision was first announced by the Foreign Ministry, and afterwards by National Assembly President Cilia Flores, the Foreign Minister's wife, in the legislative chamber. Legislators, nearly all of them members of President Hugo Chávez' ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) applauded as Flores spoke. Chávez has publicly repudiated the Israeli military action, urging the government to withdraw its military forces immediately and to halt the violence. During a...

CARACAS (AFP)--The Venezuelan government Tuesday expelled Israel's ambassador to Caracas, to protest the Israeli military's operation in the Gaza Strip, the Venezuelan foreign ministry said.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Ttragedy_school_Jebaliya_6-Jan-2009.htm Behind the Headlines: The tragedy at the school in Jebaliya 6 Jan 2009 An initial inquiry by forces on operating in the area of the incident indicates that a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jebaliya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source. Preliminary Background Briefing Today, a reported 30 Palestinians were killed in a heartrending tragedy at a school in Jebaliya. Initial investigations indicate that Hamas terrorists fired mortar bombs from the area of the school...

Watch Former Ambassador Dore Gold's interview on the BBC about the Israeli ground operation in Gaza.

Three years after being evacuated from settlements in the Gaza Strip, some of the evacuees are now returning - in uniform. Aharon Cruz, a paratroops officer, lived in Netzarim for two years before the disengagement. On Sunday, he and his unit, to which he had been recalled a mere day after his wedding last Thursday, were back at the settlement's ruins in central Gaza. "On one hand, there's a feeling of 'what did we leave for?'" said his father, Rabbi Ze'ev Cruz. "On the other hand, there's joy that he is returning to a place he knows." The ground operation...

Israel did not seek approval from Washington before waging a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip ruled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday. "They didn't seek clearance or approval from us, certainly," the vice president said on CBS' Face The Nation on Sunday, his first public remark on Israel's military strikes targeted Hamas. Israel's ground troops, backed by gunships and tanks, on Saturday night launched an invasion into the Gaza Strip. Reports here quoted Palestinian security sources as saying that the troops have gained control of the eastern section of the northern...

Cheney stressed the US support for the Gaza operation, saying the rocket fire on Israel must stop.

Israel severs Gaza Strip into two below Gaza City. Two key Hamas guys dead. Syria squealing to Russia. US tells UN to stuff it. 238 updates so far.

"Summary of Overnight Events, 03 January 2009"

While much of the world engages in hand-wringing, placard-waving, teeth-gnashing, and rocket-launching over Israel’s “disproportionate” response to Hamas attacks from Gaza, it’s worth looking at what the doctrines of “proportionality” actually say. Making the rounds is a two-year old quote from Lionel Beehner’s paper for the Council on Foreign Relations in which he summarizes the principle of proportionality as laid out by the 1907 Hague Conventions. “According to the doctrine, a state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary,...

Israel launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after a week-long air campaign against Hamas militants firing rockets into the Jewish state. The Palestinian death toll, before tanks moved in, reached nearly 450. Gaza rocket attacks have killed four Israelis. Here are some questions and answers about the conflict: Q - Where do things stand now? A - Columns of Israeli tanks backed by helicopters crossed the boundary fence from at least four points into the Gaza Strip under darkness. Israeli military affairs commentators said troops were unlikely to move into Gaza City, the largest population centre...

Ground Operations are underway in the Gaza Strip.I wish the IDF the very best of luck and every success in this phase of Operation Solid Lead.This paragraph from the Jerusalem Post is key: The IDF warned that terrorists using civilians as human shields would bear full responsibility for their fate. The IDF spokesperson emphasized that "anyone who hides a terrorist or weapons in his house is considered a terrorist," adding that "the residents of Gaza are not the target of the operation." This is precisely what separates the "good guys" from the "bad guys." It is what distinguishes terrorists from...

UPDATE 207. GROUND OFFENSIVE HAS BEGUN. At one tank base along the border, the roar of tank engines and the rumble of their movements toward the border could be heard after dark, though none moved across the frontier. Hamas officials also reported tank movement toward the border near the northern Erez crossing point. / Defense officials said some 10,000 troops, including tank, artillery and special operations units, were massed on the Gaza border and prepared to invade. They said top commanders were split over whether to send in ground forces, in part because such an operation could lead to heavy...

One of Israeli's leading newspapers says only one one leader has shown genuine understanding of Israel's dilemma. The Jerusalem Post says George W. Bush's understanding has been steadfast during Israel's confrontation with Hamas. The newspaper said Bush's approach contrasted with that of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who initially said he understood Israel's stance, but then allowed the Foreign Office to join with Europe in calling for an immediate ceasefire. "In contrast, from Texas, where the president has been marking the holidays, his spokesman Gordon Johndroe placed the onus for the hostilities where it belongs: "Hamas's continued rocket attacks into...

ISRAEL has taken out its most senior Hamas scalp, Nizar Rayan, dispensing with efforts to avoid civilian casualties to kill him at home with family, as its bombardment of the Gaza Strip entered a seventh day. Israeli warplanes yesterday pounded about 20 targets, including a mosque in Gaza, as Hamas ordered a "day of wrath" against Israel over the killing of Rayan, who died with his four wives and 11 of his children. Officials warned Hamas had acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles, raising fears the nuclear warheads at Dimona, 30km east of Beersheba, had fallen within the Islamic militants'...

191 updates and counting. Friday's events so far (1800 hours local time as this is written): Hamas continues to lob rockets and missiles; Israel targeting Hamas leadership homes; lots of op-eds supporting Israel; PA's Abbas trashing Hamas; and West Bank getting cranky but under control.

"OPERATION CAST LEAD The IDF's Fight Against Terror in Gaza" # A blessed New Year to everyone here and abroad. Today's thread beginning January 1, 2009 (U.S.A. Time)

Cambridge, Mass. - Israel's decision to take military action against Hamas rocket attacks targeting its civilian population has been long in coming. I vividly recall a visit my wife and I took to the Israeli city of Sderot on March 20 of this year. Over the past four years, Palestinian terrorists – in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have fired more than 2,000 rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people. The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others...

December 30, 2008: Oh What a Day! I'm so glad that my father told me to buy a special notebook and to write everything down because that's exactly what I did. When we left from Cyprus, one reporter asked me "are you afraid?" And I had to respond that Malcolm X wasn't afraid; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't afraid. But little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be recollecting my life and mentally preparing myself for death. When we left Cyprus, the Mediterranean was beautiful. I remember the time when it might have been...

It's brutal, there's no sign of it ending any time soon and scores of innocent people have lost their lives in the spiral of violence that has erupted in the Gaza Strip. But for all the suffering on both sides of the border, there is nevertheless the distinct possibility that when the fighting has died down, the long-term prospects for peace in the region will have been considerably improved. No one can condone the loss of life, no matter how great the provocation, and the Israeli military has an unwelcome reputation for not taking sufficient care to avoid unnecessary civilian...

CAIRO, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Ezzat Abdel-Rahman says Palestinians are suffering "great injustice" at the hands of Israel but they should have followed Egypt's lead and long ago made peace with the Jewish state. He also says Egypt should not open its border with Gaza to let Palestinians flee the six-day Israeli assault, as demanded by Hamas militants and many Arabs. "This could get Egypt into trouble with Israel," said the 42-year-old, who runs a shop selling shoes in central Cairo. "Israel could accuse Egypt of smuggling weapons into Gaza and dump the problems of Gaza on Egypt." Despite the...

The NYT today features two articles about Israel’s war against Hamas that are rather revealing. One is Striking Deep Into Israel, Hamas Employs an Upgraded Rocket Arsenal, and the second is In Dense Gaza, Civilians Suffer They are revealing both for what they say and don’t say as well as their juxtaposition. In the first, the reporter describes the efforts Hamas has made to upgrade its arsenal to threaten (and attack) Israel. For Hamas, a group largely confined to a sliver of land along the Mediterranean Sea, attacking Israeli cities with a rocket barrage has proved an effective strategy to...

New Year's Day ... Hamas bombings continue. No word of ground invasion. Hamas "run like a cheap movie extra" strategy becoming clear.. Over 170 updates and counting.

<p>ASHKELON, Israel - Banquet halls have canceled weddings, parents are holding makeshift day care centers in bomb shelters and motorists avoid driving during the day. As Hamas shells southern cities, hundreds of thousands of Israelis in rocket range are finding new ways of coping. "This is the situation and we have to deal with it," Linor Eliav, 31, said Wednesday, a day after getting married.</p>

Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited a Beersheba school hit by a Grad rocket. During the visit, Barak said that "we delivered a serious blow to Hamas, and it continues to be hit – but it's also responding, as we can see." (Ilana Curiel)

DEARBORN, Dec. 30--In one of the largest demonstrations in Dearborn in recent years, organizers estimated that some 5,000 people formed a human chain along Warren avenue in Dearborn, the heart of the Arab-American community in metropolitan Detroit, to express solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians now under siege in Gaza by the Israeli military. Chanting slogans such as "Free, Free Palestine", the crowd flew Palestinian flags on the street along Warren avenue as well as from automobiles driving up and down the streets surrounding the demonstration. Although most of the demonstrators were of Palestinian and Arab heritage, there were...

WASHINGTON: As Israel kept up its string of attacks on Gaza for a fourth day that has killed hundreds and injured hundreds more through air attacks, US President George W. Bush leaned on Palestinian leaders to urge Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel. Israel has said it will not cease its assault until Hamas stops firing missiles into its territory. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said yesterday in Crawford, Texas that Bush telephoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to discuss a “sustainable cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip. “They agreed that for any cease-fire to be...

RESIDENTS at certain addresses in the Gaza Strip have been receiving unusual phone calls since the Israeli air assault began on Saturday - a request that they and their families leave their homes as soon as possible for their own safety.

Chronicling the Gaza Strip action. 115 updates since it began. Latest: UPDATE 115. Israel all a twitter: Israel's New York Consulate will hold a "live citizen press conference" over Twitter on Tuesday hosted by David Saranga, consul for media and public affairs at the consulate. / But the Tuesday event, to be held between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Israel time, is "the first time that a government is holding such a conference on Twitter," the consulate said in a statement. / Twitter users can take part in the event by going to: http://www.twitter.com/IsraelConsulate and directing their messages to @israelconsulate...

Last week I was in the Middle East. I was meeting with renowned Muslim scholars, men who lead millions, in a move to condemn extremism and violence. We at the Quilliam Foundation made huge headway, with a high-profile regional event planned next year to help reshape the discourse surrounding Islam and the west. At home in England, behind the scenes, Muslim leaders were also moving in the same direction. The air was becoming ripe for outright rejection of suicide bombings. Everywhere. Tel Aviv. London. No exceptions. But now? After Israel's massacre of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, out on the streets...

Activists trying to bring aid to Gaza today claimed their boat had been rammed by Israeli gunboats in a "criminal attack" in international waters. The Free Gaza Movement said its vessel, the Dignity, was intercepted by several Israeli vessels as it was heading to the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli aerial bombardment since Saturday. One gunboat rammed the Dignity on the port bow side, causing heavy damage, although no one was hurt, the group said. "[The Dignity] is taking on water and appears to have engine problems," the movement said on its website. "When attacked, the Dignity was...