If HAMAS plays with fire, it has to be prepared to be
burn.
One has to be prepared to reap what one sows.
Israel will ignore the blatant attempts by HAMAS to use their
own Palestinian people as Human Shield, by firing at Israel within
the midst of the Palestinian schools, residential areas, and public
places such as mosques and markets.
HAMAS will have to learn that it will have to pay a high price
for the foolish strategy that it purposefully perpetuate for a
useless objective that reveal itself as being a pawn used at
will by Iran.
The following articles since 2007 will show the despicably
callous attitude of HAMAS towards their own Palestinian people.
‘YouTube: Motar Bombs shot from UN School in Gaza’
‘YouTube: Weapons in Gaza Mosque struck by Israel
Air Force 1 Jan 2009’
‘YouTube: Rockets ready for launch in Gaza struck by
Israel Air Force 1 Jan 2009’
‘YouTube: Israel Air Force Pinpoint Strike on Grad
Missile Launchers in Gaza 30 Dec 2008’
Even the independent news agency has confirmed that the recent
Israeli artillery retaliation that hit a UN school - was a result
of some HAMAS militants purposefully firing from the vicinity of
the UN school.
This part of the news was not highlighted by the reporters.
Gaza truce proposed after
Israeli shell kills 30
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER
Associated Press Writers: GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) â France and
Egypt announced an initiative to stop the fighting in Gaza late
Tuesday, hours after Israeli mortar shells exploded near a U.N.
school sheltering hundreds of people displaced by the onslaught on
Hamas militants. At least 30 Palestinians died, staining streets
with blood.
The Egyptian and French presidents didn't release details of
their proposal, saying only that it involved an immediate
cease-fire to permit humanitarian aid into Gaza and talks to settle
the differences between Israel and the Islamic militants of Hamas
who rule the small coastal territory.
They said they were awaiting a response from Israel. Israeli
officials in Jerusalem declined immediate comment on the
announcement, which came amid diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and
other nations to resolve a conflict that has seen 600 people killed
in 11 days.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weclomed the initiative, but
cautioned that no agreement would succeed unless it halted Hamas
rocket attacks on Israel and arms smuggling into Gaza.
Earlier in the day, President-elect Barack Obama broke his
silence on the crisis, saying that "the loss of civilian life in
Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern for me." He declined
to go further, reiterating his stance that the U.S. has only one
president at a time.
Israel's military said its shelling at the school â the
deadliest single episode since Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza
on Saturday after a week of air bombardment â was a response to
mortar fire from within the school and said Hamas militants were
using civilians as cover.
Two residents of the area
who spoke with The Associated Press by telephone said they saw a
small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near
the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the
shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of
reprisal.
Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, rushed to the scene shortly
after the attacks. At the hospital, he said, many children were
among the dead.
"I saw women and men â parents â slapping their faces in
grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew
their children were dead," he said. "In the morgue, most of the
killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't
enough space for the wounded."
He said there appeared to be marks on the pavement of five
separate explosions in area of the school.
An Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because he was not allowed to make the information public, said it
appeared the military used 120-mm shells, among the largest mortar
rounds.
U.N. officials demanded an investigation of the shelling. The
carnage, which included 55 wounded, added to a surging civilian
toll and drew mounting international pressure for Israel to end the
offensive against Hamas.
At a news conference in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak said the truce proposal offered by him and
French President Sarkozy envisioned an immediate end to combat, so
humanitarian supplies can safely enter Gaza.
Mubarak said the plan also calls for an urgent meeting between
Israel and the Palestinians to discuss ways to resolve the conflict
and provide necessary guarantees to ensure fighting doesn't erupt
again.
There was no indication of the plan's chances. Sarkozy said at
the news conference that he saw it as a "small hope" for ending the
Gaza violence.
Sarkozy said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
to inform him of the initiaitve and was awaiting a response.
He said Mubarak invited Israel "to come discuss the question of
border security ... (and) that could be in the hours ahead."
In Jerusalem, Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, told AP: "We are
holding off comments on that for the time being."
At U.N. headquarters, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
welcomed the proposal. "I express my support for the plan set in
motion today by President Mubarak and President Sarkozy," said
Abbas, who was in New York for a Security Council meeting on the
Gaza crisis.
Israeli officials have said any cease-fire agreement must
prevent further rocket attacks by Gaza militants and put in place
measures to prevent the smuggling of missile and other weapons into
the small Palestinian territory.
Rice told the Security Council meeting that the U.S. understood
the growing desire for a cease-fire. "In this regard, we are
pleased by, and wish to commend, the statement of the president of
Egypt and to follow up on that initiative," she said.
But Rice added that any solution must address Israel's
security.
"There must be a solution this time that does not allow Hamas to
use Gaza as a launching pad against Israeli cities. It has to be a
solution that does not allow the rearmament of Hamas, and it must
be a solution that finds a way to open (border) crossings so that
Palestinians in Gaza can have a normal life," she said.
In the wake of the criticism over civilian casualties, Israel
agreed to set up a "humanitarian corridor" to ship vital supplies
into the Gaza Strip. Under the plan, put forward by the Israeli
Defense Ministry, Israel would suspend attacks in certain areas to
allow people to get supplies.
At U.N. headquarters, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the
Israeli bombardment of U.N. facilities in Gaza "totally
unacceptable." Israel's shells have fallen around three schools,
including the girls school hit Tuesday, and a health center for
Palestinian refugees.
Ban added that it was "equally unacceptable" for militants to
take actions that endanger Palestinian civilians, referring to the
practice of militants making attacks from residential areas.
Some 15,000 Palestinians have packed the U.N.'s 23 Gaza schools
because their homes were destroyed or to flee the violence. The
U.N. provided the Israeli military with GPS coordinates for all of
them.
The three mortar shells that crashed down on the perimeter of
the U.N. school struck at midafternoon, when many people in the
densely populated camp were outside getting some fresh air,
thinking an area around a school was safe.
Images recorded by a cameraman from AP Television News showed
crowds fleeing the scene, pavements smeared with blood and battered
bodies being carried off by medics and bystanders. A youth who
limped away was helped along by several others. Sandals lay
scattered on the pavement by a pock-marked wall.
"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and
traumatized," said John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
An Israeli military statement said it received intelligence that
the dead at the girls school included Hamas operatives, among them
members of a rocket-launching squad. It identified two of them as
Imad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar.
Two residents who spoke to an AP reporter by phone said the two
brothers were known to be low-level Hamas militants. They said a
group of militants â one of them said four â were firing mortar
shells from near the school.
An Israeli shell targeted the men, but missed and they fled, the
witnesses said. Then another three shells landed nearby, exploding
among civilians, they said, refusing to allow their names to be
published because they feared for their safety.
A total of 71 Palestinians were killed Tuesday â with just two
confirmed as militants, Gaza health officials said.
An Israeli infant was wounded by one of about two dozen rockets
fired into southern Israel by Gaza militants.
Eleven Israelis have been killed since the offensive began:
three civilians and a soldier by rocket fire and seven soldiers in
the ground offensive, according to Isaeli officials.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8205462
Israel will continue to ignore HAMAS use of the Palestinian
people as Human Shields when firing the undirected rockets and
motars into Israeli villages.
It is no use for HAMAS to cry foul or seek world
sympathy.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike
has hit a U.N. school in the northern Gaza Strip, the second deadly
Israeli airstrike to hit a U.N. school on Tuesday.
Israel's military said its shelling was a response to mortar
fire from within the school, pressing its assertion that Hamas
militants are using civilians as cover. Two residents of the area
who spoke to the Associated Press by telephone said they saw a
handful of militants firing mortar shells from a street near the
school.
Israel has accused Hamas of using schools, mosques and
residential areas for cover and staging grounds for terrorist
attacks.
Earlier Tuesday there was an attack that killed three at a
school in the Gaza city itself.
U.N. and Palestinian medics said 40 Palestinians were killed in
the attack, including children, women and elderly people.
Palestinian health official Said Joudeh told the Associated
Press the school was turned into a shelter for people displaced by
Israel's offensive against Hamas militants.
Click
to view photos from the conflict.
Under similar circumstances, if ex-PM Mahathir had acted in his
extreme stupidity to carry out his threat of bombing Singapore,
while using his civilians as Human Shield - do you expect the SAF
to allow Singaporeans to be exposed to Mahathir's explosive antics,
while we retaliate with one arm tied behind our backs ?
