Posted on 06/28/2006 3:07:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Airstrikes and sonic booms shook Gaza on Wednesday as thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks penetrated the impoverished coastal strip in a show of might designed to force Islamic militants to free a soldier whose fate has jolted Mideast politics.
In a bold warning to the country that shelters the political leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, Israeli warplanes buzzed the home of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Palestinians filled up on basic supplies after warplanes knocked out electricity, raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis. The Hamas-led government's information ministry warned of "epidemics and health disasters" because of damaged water pipes to central Gaza.
Witnesses reported heavy shelling around Gaza's long-closed airport, and Israeli missiles hit two empty Hamas training camps and a rocket-building factory. Warplanes flew low over the strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows. Troops in Israel backed up the assault with artillery fire.
No casualties were reported in the incursion, launched in southern Gaza. The area's normally bustling streets were eerily deserted, with people taking refuge inside their homes. Dozens of people living near the airport, which Israeli troops took over, fled to nearby Rafah.
There was no sign of ground troops moving into northern Gaza. But late Wednesday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets urging residents to avoid moving in the area because of impending military activity. Three gates in a border fence were open, in apparent preparation for the Israeli forces, and Israeli helicopters hovered at low altitudes.
Dozens of Palestinian militants — armed with automatic weapons and grenades — took up positions, bracing for attack.
Anxious Palestinians pondered whether the incursion, the first large-scale ground offensive since Israel withdrew from Gaza last year, was essentially a "shock and awe" display designed to intimidate militants, or the prelude to a full-scale invasion.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened harsher action, though he said there was no plan to reoccupy Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity."
Further complicating the situation were militant claims that they had kidnapped two more Israelis: an 18-year-old Jewish settler in the West Bank named Eliahu Asheri and a 62-year-old Israeli from the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion. Asheri's mother confirmed her son was missing, and police said they had a missing person's report that matched the older man.
The Israeli assault came as diplomatic efforts to free the 19-year-old Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, bogged down with Hamas demanding a prisoner swap and Israel refusing, demanding Shalit's unconditional release. Shalit was abducted by Hamas-linked militants on Sunday and is believed to be in southern Gaza.
"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert declared.
Abbas and Egyptian dignitaries tried to persuade Assad, the Syrian president, to use his influence with Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader exiled in Syria, to free Shalit. Assad agreed, but without results, said a senior Abbas aide.
Israeli airplanes flew over a residence belonging to Assad near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria, military officials confirmed, citing the "direct link" between Syria and Hamas. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved in the low-altitude flight, and that Assad was there at the time.
Syria confirmed Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace, but said its air defenses forces the Israeli aircraft to flee.
As for Mashaal, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the hard-line Hamas leader, who appears to be increasingly at odds with more moderate Hamas politicians in Gaza, is in Israel's sights for assassination.
"Khaled Mashaal, as someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target," Ramon told Army Radio.
Israel tried to kill Mashaal in a botched assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997. Two Mossad agents injected Mashaal with poison, but were caught. As Mashaal lay in a Jordanian hospital, King Hussein of Jordan forced Israel to provide the antidote in return for the release of the Mossad agents.
The European Union on Wednesday urged both Israel and the Palestinians to "step back from the brink" and, echoing a statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to give diplomacy a chance.
The White House kept up its pressure on Hamas, saying the Palestinian government must "stop all acts of violence and terror." But the U.S. also urged Israel to show restraint.
"In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure," said White House press secretary Tony Snow.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged restraint in a phone call to Olmert, saying he had spoken with Assad and Abbas and asked them to do everything possible to release the soldier. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on the U.S. to assume its role as "honest broker" and to make the Palestinian-Israeli conflict its top priority in the Middle East.
Israel's concern goes beyond the rescue of the soldier and the negative precedent abducting soldiers would set. Olmert's government is alarmed by the firing of homemade rockets on Israeli communities around Gaza and support for Hamas in the Arab world, especially from Syria, which hosts the exiled Hamas leaders.
Hamas' negotiators' tentative acceptance Tuesday of a document that Abbas allies claimed implicitly recognizes Israel appeared beside the point a day later, with Israel saying no political agreement can substitute for Shalit's freedom.
On Wednesday, Palestinian militants braced for a major strike, fanning out across neighborhoods, taking up positions behind sand embankments and firing several rockets into Israeli communities bordering Gaza. Civilians stockpiled food, water, batteries and candles after warplanes destroyed the coastal strip's only power plant, and main roads linking north to south.
Gaza's economy was already in the doldrums before the Israeli assault, a result of five years of Israeli-Palestinian violence and an international aid boycott that followed Hamas' parliamentary election victory in January. The Israeli assault threatened to turn a bad situation into a disaster — underscoring the extent to which hopes have been dashed following the optimism that accompanied Israel's pullout.
Palestinian plans for high-rise apartments, sports complexes and industrial parks in lands evacuated by Israel have given way to despair, with rising poverty, increasingly violent relations with Israel and a looming threat of civil war.
The strike on the power plant early Wednesday knocked out electricity for about 750,000 residents, two-thirds of Gaza's population, said Walid Sayel, executive director of the strip's power company. Sayel said power will be out in Gaza for between three and six months, and that the power cut will affect hospitals and medical centers as well as households.
Areas in northern Gaza that get electricity from Israel still had power, and some southern areas were able to get power from Egypt. Generators relieved darkness in other places.
How terribly sad for the family. A black mark on the souls of the terrorists....if they have souls.
Expected. That's bad.
Prayers for his family.
Sickening, sickening news.
Disgusting, senseless, and an invitation for the OPPOSITE of peace...as usual.
"The group said its members would not hesitate to add the new weapons to Kassam rockets that are being fired at Israeli communities almost every day. It also threatened to use the weapons against IDF soldiers if Israel carried out its threats to invade the Gaza Strip."
That's so transparent. It goes without saying that if they'd, indeed, had those weapons, they would've added them to the rockets LONG before now.
You left out the part about de facto military invasion that resulted in two deaths and a capture. It wasa blatent act of war.
I watched the first part of Munich last week...in the years since, nothing has changed.
Wait a minute, I am wrong. What has changed is that the world kisses their collective ass.
A particularly risky proposition when you're dealing with a group of people who are threatening their adversaries with exploding donkeys.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian terrorist group said it executed an 18-year-old Israeli settler kidnapped earlier in the West Bank.
The statement from the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza said the settler, Eliahu Asheri, had been executed. The group, which has links to Hamas, had threatened to execute the Israeli if Israel did not halt its invasion of Gaza.
Palestinian security officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah said they believed a body had been found.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201437,00.html
They want a war.
04:04 Hamas officials: More than 30 lawmakers have been arrested in the West Bank (AP)
What I would hate is that the answer is that they cannot do it because they killed him already. When they offer a trade for information on him instead of his release, it does not bode well.
Israeli media reported a roundup of Hamas lawmakers in Jerusalem and other locations.
Also, the Hamas mayor of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and his deputy were detained, security officials said.
...
Despite the size of the Israeli operation, with large troop movements, artillery barrages and many airstrikes over two days, no one was hurt.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14924077.htm
"They want a war."
Israel should gladly oblige. And the US ought to stay out of the way. I say we use this opportunity to wipe the Islamofacist vermin off the face of the earth once and for all
Or maybe Iran does.
All of those arrests..Wall to wall coverage on the cable news.....NOT!!!
They don't have souls. Just a darker shade in them.
They are one and the same.
Yes they are...showtime!
I hope the IDF pounds the Palis for a couple of days...too bad we don't have the fortitude to do the same.
What a smile. Dear God.
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