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.
Thank you for that post at 66. I had thoughts of doing the same thing, but you made the effort.
:-)
Every liberal was told repeatedly that once the Palestinians elected a openly terrorist government to control their new nation, further conflict would no longer be a police action by the Israelis against some poverty-stricken Palestinians living like prisoners in Israeli 'occupied territories' -- it has now simply become warfare between two nations.
Can you believe Drudge's Headline is about a catfight between Barbara Walters and Star Jones?
What a putz.
02:32 Palestinians say IAF fires missile at Islamic University in Gaza City (AP)
02:28 Residents report sound of explosion in Gaza City, IDF has no comment (AP)
Must have been a typo. The words "self created" should have been inserted between "a" and "humanitarian". It must have been inadvertent, surely AP wouldn't have intentionally left them out.
I predict this'll ultimately be discovered to be another one of those junior jihadists accidentally blowing himself up.
UPDATE 06/28 @ 19:30: Israeli navy battleships fired shells toward Qassam launching sites in the northern Gaza Strip. Also, Israel Army Radio reports that a Qassam rocket has landed in the western Negev. No injuries have been reported.
UPDATE 06/28 @ 19:36: This from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: "In previous invasions the Israeli side absorbed heavy losses in armored personnel carriers and jeeps that blew up, but this time we promise that the losses on the Israeli side will be much larger. We are preparing suicide bombers, car bombs, tunnels, and booby trapped donkeys. Everything that the Israelis encounter could turn out to be a deathtrap."
UPDATE 06/28 @ 19:41: Reuters is reporting a huge explosion in Gaza City. Details to come if this can be confirmed.
Very weird. Unless all the bosses are away on vacation and the mice are playing.
If you are thinking logically, you aren't an arab.
Speaking of leaders, I think I have a solution to this whole incident. It involves the Israeli government sending an intentionally leaked message to Germany asking if any of those guys who lead the invasion of Poland are still alive.
Then we tip the press, line up a couple of seniors in Berlin, and slip them a few bucks to get on an El Al flight for the cameras. I figure the kidnapped duo (trio) would be home before the flight left German airspace.
An Israeli Battleship???
details... details....
Let's re write this sentence, shall we?
Gaza's economy was already in the doldrums as a result of Palestinian violence and an international aid boycott that followed Hamas' parliamentary election victory in January. The Israeli defensive action threatened to turn a definitive moment— underscoring the foolish hopefulness of Israel's pullout.
Hamas is not really in charge of this affair. It was a sub group of Hamas that is controlled by Meshaal in Damascus. He gave the order to the subgroup to make the attack on the IDF outpost, and Hamas is stuck with that decision for several reasons. First, because they have already made the PR and the Palestinians are happy about it, and second because they don't want to admit they are not in charge and third because they rely on Damascus and Tehran for support. If they back down now, they lose face, and might as well concede the loss. But they cannot do that because they already claimed "victory".
Lots of complicating political factors.
Also, Israel is forced to continue this now. It is a game of brinkmanship. Hamas claimed victory when Israel withdrew from Gaza, but then only used that to increase bombardment of Israel. Israel has to hold the line at Gaza and cannot let Ashkelon and Sderot be attacked by missiles. So Israel has to stuff it back into Hamas' face. But Hamas won't admit defeat, and Israel cannot or else it concedes to Hamas.
So, Israel needs to crush Hamas. So far, I've heard of only token bombings and arrests. Israel needs to keep twisting the vice and eventually it seems it will either have to destroy Hamas or Hamas will have to admit defeat and accept that it cannot defeat Israel.
Good post, and great tag line.
Well... there's a battle, and it's a ship, so I guess to them.....
(Either that, or we need to have somebody run down to the docks real quickly and check.)
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