Posted on 06/28/2006 1:41:46 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Israeli artillery pounded the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday as troops and tanks prepared to widen an offensive designed to force Palestinian militants to release an abducted soldier.
Israel also turned up the heat on Syria, sending warplanes low over one of President Bashar al-Assad's palaces to warn him against backing militants who kidnapped the soldier, the Israeli army said. Bashar was there at the time, Israeli media said.
Threatening what he called extreme steps if Corporal Galid Shalit was not freed, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a large-scale operation that began with a push into southern Gaza earlier on Wednesday would go on "over the coming days."
A Defense Ministry source said Olmert had given approval for forces massed opposite northern Gaza to also push across the border. No timeframe was given but Israeli media said leaflets would soon be dropped warning Palestinians of imminent attack.
Israeli shells were landing every couple of minutes in open areas of northern Gaza, witnesses said. There have been no clashes with masked gunmen waiting behind barricades and in alleyways for battle to begin.
Foreign powers trying to revive moribund Israel-Palestinian peace talks expressed dismay at the surge in tensions, demanding militants free Shalit while urging Israel to show restraint.
The ground offensive is Israel's first into Gaza since it quit the territory last year after 38 years of occupation.
CROSS-BORDER RAID
Gunmen seized Shalit in a cross-border raid on an army post on Sunday. In a statement, the ruling Hamas movement defended the kidnapping but did not say the militant group held Shalit.
The fate of the fresh-faced conscript has transfixed Israelis. The last time Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a soldier was in 1994. He was killed during a rescue attempt.
Israeli television reports said the flights over Assad's palace created several sonic booms. Syrian state television said Syrian forces fired at the Israeli warplanes, forcing them away.
Israeli leaders have accused Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal of being responsible for Shalit's kidnapping. Hamas leaders say they were not involved.
"This is a provocative action and it is totally rejected," said a senior Syrian official, who declined to be named.
Earlier, Israeli troops backed by assault helicopters and artillery set up a strategic observation post at a disused airport outside the southern town of Rafah.
Aircraft also attacked Gaza's only power plant, cutting off electricity to much of the impoverished coastal territory, where 1.4 million Palestinians live.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the bombardment of civilian infrastructure "a crime against humanity."
Olmert said Israel had "no intention of recapturing" the Gaza Strip. "We have a central goal and that is to bring Gilad home," he said in a speech in Jerusalem.
International power-brokers sought to calm tensions.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called Olmert to ask Israel to use restraint, the prime minister's office said.
Washington said Israel had the right to defend its citizens but should ensure innocent Palestinians were not harmed. The European Union called on those holding Shalit to free him and urged Israel to "act with prudence."
In another challenge to Israel, militants threatened to kill an 18-year-old Jewish settler they said they had seized in the West Bank. Israeli authorities said the settler had been missing since Sunday but have not confirmed he was abducted.
Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, showed a photocopy of the missing settler's ID card at a Gaza news conference.
Another militant group said it had seized another settler in the occupied West Bank. Police said a 62-year-old man was missing but did not know if he had been kidnapped.
unless Israel dropped a nuke on Gaza they didn't hit it hard ebough.
The US State Department can go to hell.
ebough is ebough !!!
Yeag, I gave notging but sympatgy for Israel!
President Bashar al-Assad was probably already wondering what Israel was going to do. Then he heard the approaching jets going right over his head. Think this guy didn't have to change his shorts? Gotta love it.
Syria, you've pushed your like for the last forty to fifty years. I'm thinking there's a new alternative for a Palestinian state these days, and if Bubba Bashar doesn't want Israel to implement that plan, he better get religion.
luck = like
SAT
Sorry, I lost part of a finger in an industrial accident and sometimes screw up my typing. Thanks.
NOW, it's getting SYRIAs LOL ;)
Oooooo, and I thought I was bad. LOL
I am getting so ticked off that this is not being covered on TV!!!
Come on!!
Hehehhehehe...can't take credit though, another freeper posted it first. We have such WITTY folk here! :)
I find that amusing.
"I object!"
"Who are you?"
"Ain't tellin'!"
I don't like to take credit for other people's creativity either, but it was great to see you spread it around. It's the middle of the afternoon and I'm just barely hanging on (heh heh), and because of you I just may make it. "MAY" LOL
John Brown.
Franz Ferdinand.
A. Peter Dewey.
Syngman Rhee.
Galid Shalit.
Sometimes it takes just a spark.
LOL on the pun...
Israel should destroy everyone and everything for a distance of five miles into Gaza...all the way across the territory. Then move the incursion fence five miles to Israel's new border on Gaza. If there is another act of terrorism...do it again and move the border five more miles into Palistinian territory. Soon there will be no more Gaza, no Palis and a larger Israel.
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