Free Republic

Dozens of civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded after Russian rocket artillery opened fire on Ukraine's second-largest city, authorities in Kiev have said. Kharkiv, which has witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far, was hit by rockets fired from Russian positions on Monday - with video showing an area around a major shopping centre blanketed by explosions. Graphic images and video then revealed streets littered with the bodies of dead and badly wounded civilians, with other images showing spent shell cartridges laying in the streets and having fallen through apartment roofs. It marks one of...

Key leaders of the U.S. Congress want U.S. President Barack Obama to provide funds to help Israel, should it request it, to produce more batteries of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system. Israel's air force has three batteries deployed to protect cities in the southern Negev Desert against rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but budget problems mean it can't fund more batteries needed to shield the rest of the country. Iron Dome, which racked up a 90 percent kill rate against Palestinian Qassam and Grad rockets in recent weeks, was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems...

Terrorists from the Gaza Strip fired on Wednesday evening a Grad rocket at the Lachish region. The rocket fell in an open area between Sderot and Kiryat Gat, close to one of the communities in the Lachish Region. One woman suffered anxiety from the fall, but no other injuries were reported and no damage was done. Army Radio reported that the “Red Alert” siren was heard in the communities in the area just before the rocket fell. The report noted that this is the farthest that terrorists have fired a rocket into Israeli territory since before Operation Cast Lead in...

Israel's air force fired around 20 missiles at targets in Gaza City on Saturday, causing heavy damage, a Reuters witness said. The IDF has confirmed the report. (Hanan Greenberg and Reuters)

(IsraelNN.com) The cabinet has voted to accept a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza. Two ministers voted against the proposal and one abstained from voting.

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."

"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."

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