REAL FIGHTING IN GAZA STRIP!
PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!
January 17, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
The Gaza Strip of today was the home base of the Philistines in the days of the Judges, Samuel, and the Kings of Israel.
It has always been a real source of trouble to Israel, a thorn in the side, even as it is today.
I Samuel 4:1,2 – And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. [2] And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.
I Samuel 4:10,11 – And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. [11] And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.
1 Samuel 31:1-3 – Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. [2] And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchi-shua, Saul’s sons. [3] And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers.
I Samuel 31:6-10 – So Saul died, and his three sons,
and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together. [7] And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were on the other side Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. [8] And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. [9] And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. [10] And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
The three articles which follow, describe the situation in the Gaza Strip over the last few days.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Palestinians: Three killed as IAF fires at car in central Gaza
JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST
January 16, 2008
Three Palestinians were killed on Wednesday night when the IAF fired a missile at a car in the central Gaza Strip, near the Bureij refugee camp, Palestinians reported.
The IDF said
that the targeted vehicle was loaded with weapons.
Moments earlier, with over 50 Kassam rockets striking Israel on Wednesday alone, Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed to increase the pressure on the Gaza Strip until the terrorism stops.
“We will increase the pressure on the Gaza Strip in order to bring an end to the Kassam rocket fire,” Barak said during an opening speech at a Naval graduation ceremony in Haifa.
The Israeli public sees what is happening in Gaza, Barak said, adding that Israel will continue its pinpoint attacks against terrorists.
“We are doing the most we can in order to hit the sources of terror, so that the rocket fire will end,” Barak said.
Two people were lightly wounded as around 20 of the rockets fired Wednesday landed in Sderot, including one which struck a house and another
which landed near a restaurant. Another western Negev home suffered a direct hit from a Kassam later Wednesday evening, sending several people in to shock.
Billionaire businessman Arkady Gaydamak bused some 200 Sderot residents to Jerusalem for some respite from the beleaguered town.
The IDF had been striking repeatedly at Palestinian rocket squads in northern Gaza since Wednesday morning and in one botched attack on a pickup truck east of Gaza City, a 12-year-old boy, his father and uncle were killed.
The Popular Resistance Committees said the apparent target was its chief rocket maker, who was driving in the area in a similar vehicle at the time.
Relatives identified the dead as 12-year-old Amir Yazagi, his father Mohammed and uncle Amr, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza health ministry.
Maj. Avital Leibovich, an IDF spokeswoman, acknowledged that the Yazagi family’s vehicle was “unintentionally hit.”
Civilians regrettably are hurt when militants operate in civilian environments, Leibovich said.
“It is important to me to stress that we have no intention whatsoever to hit or hurt uninvolved civilians,” she said.
Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu called the strike “a new crime,” saying Israel was “killing more and more of our innocent people and our freedom fighters.”
Security forces had been bracing since Tuesday night for a major escalation on the Gaza front out of concern that the deaths of the 19 Palestinians, including the son of a top Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar, would spur the terror group to fire Kassam rockets into Israel.
The commander of the Lachish precinct convened a meeting Wednesday morning and decided to deploy large police forces around Sderot and Ashkelon and back them up with Traffic Police, Border Guard, volunteers and other special forces.
Hamas called a three-day mourning period for the Palestinians killed Tuesday, and a general strike took hold across the territory.
Palestinian flags were lowered to half-staff, verses from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, poured forth from mosque loudspeakers, and government offices, banks and shops were shuttered. Government offices and shops were also closed in the West Bank. Leading PA officials called Zahar to express condolences, and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad issued his condolences in a statement to the media.
On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the head of Gaza’s government, Ismail Haniyeh, to express his condolences for the death of Zahar’s son, Nunu said.
Ahmadinejad accused US President George W.
Bush of giving Israel his approval for military operations in Gaza during his trip to the region last week.
“Without the green light of the criminal Bush, yesterday’s massacre would not have occurred,” Ahmadinejad said, according to Nunu.
Begin YNet News Article
Army chief: IDF to boost Gaza operations if needed
Chief of Staff Ashkenazi: Troops engaged in ‘real fighting’ in Strip, army may boost operations if necessary
Hanan Greenberg
January 15, 2007
IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Tuesday evening that the army may further expand its operations in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at a bereaved families’ convention in the Dead Sea, Ashkenazi addressed the fierce fighting in and around Gaza Tuesday, which saw the southern town of Sderot coming under ceaseless rocket barrages, as IDF forces targeted Gaza terrorists.
“Our best commanders and soldiers are engaged in real fighting in the Strip,” the army chief said. “We will continue to operate in the Strip in order to minimize the Qassam fire.”
Referring to the possibility of upgrading military operations in Gaza, Ashkenazi said that “if necessary, we will expand our operations there.”
More than 40 rockets fired from Gaza
Meanwhile, officials in Sderot and other Gaza-region communities are concerned about the prospect of continued rocket fire. Municipal officials in Sderot decided to boost public services aimed at supporting residents in the southern town, and opened bomb shelters.
However, despite the tensions the IDF gave the go-ahead for schools to remain open.
More than 40 Qassam rockets landed in Sderot and other communities in the region throughout Tuesday, including at least 10 rockets fired from Gaza after 10 PM. The rockets landed in open areas and caused no injuries or damage.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Hamas vows revenge after 18 killed
Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST
January 15, 2008
Security forces were bracing Tuesday night for a major escalation on the Gaza front out of concern that the deaths of 19 Palestinians, including the son of a top Hamas official, would spur the terror group to fire Kassam rockets into Israel.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the killing of an Ecuadorian volunteer on a Gaza-belt kibbutz by a Palestinian sniper on Tuesday. The shooting took place in fields belonging to Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha near the Gaza border.
Until now, while Hamas has assisted Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in the production and delivery of Kassams, it has refrained from directly participating in their launching, preferring to operate via proxy. The concern within the defense establishment was that following the high number of Hamas casualties in Tuesday’ s operation, the terror group would decide to become directly involved in firing rocket
s.
“If this happens, there will be a major increase in the number of rockets fired into Israel,” a defense official explained.
On Tuesday, 28 rockets pounded the western Negev and the city of Sderot. One scored a direct hit on a home, wounding five people, including a mother and her young daughter. Another rocket, a Grad-model Katyusha, hit an empty field in southern Ashkelon.
Elite troops from the Golani Brigade’s Egoz Unit, backed by tanks and Engineering Corps squads, swept into central Gaza early Tuesday morning in pursuit of Kassam rocket squads and terror infrastructure the IDF feared was being built up along the border fence.
Nineteen Palestinians – including three civilians, according to hospital officials in Gaza – were killed in the ensuing gunbattles and air strikes. One was Hussam Zahar, 24, son of hard-line Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, who is viewed as the mastermind behind the violent Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June. Zahar’s eldest son, Khaled, was killed in 2003 when an F-16 dropped a bomb on his house in a failed attempt on Zahar’s life.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned what he described as “the Israeli massacre in Gaza.” According to the PA leader, Israel carried out barbaric actions that damage the peace process. “[We] cannot remain silent in light of these crimes,” he said.
Hamas declared three days of mourning throughout Gaza. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said that the IDF operation was the result of US President George W. Bush’s visit to the Middle East.
“This crime is the ugly fruit of Bush’s visit to the region. He has incited the Zionists and has exerted pressure on the Palestinian side to become more hard-line against Palestinian dialogue,” he said.
Zahar accused Abbas of complicity in his son’s death.
“This is the hope of Abu Mazen and his colleagues, the collaborators with Israel and the spies of America,” Zahar said, referring to Abbas by his nickname.
Hamas, he vowed, would respond to Tuesday’s raid “in the appropriate way. We will defend ourselves by all means.”
The foreign volunteer killed in a western Negev kibbutz by a sniper on Tuesday morning was identified as Carlos Andres Muscara Chavez, 20, from Quito, Ecuador. Chavez was working in a potato field in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, about 100 meters from the perimeter fence, when he was shot in the back. A Magen David Adom team summoned to the scene took the man, who was in serious condition, to the kibbutz infirmary, where he died of his wounds.
Defense officials said that Tuesday’s raid did not signify a change in policy and that no large-scale operation was expected in the immediate future. Officials acknowledged that raids like the one carried out in Gaza did not contribute to a positive atmosphere for talks with the PA, but said that the actions were “unfortunately necessary.”
“We are in a peace process, and we are also fighting terrorism, and both those things will continue in parallel,” a senior government official said.
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office said that as much as Israel was willing “to be creative in negotiations, we will not compromise on security.” The official also stressed that Tuesday’s actions did not represent a new policy toward the Gaza Strip, but rather a continuation of activities over the last few weeks that have actively targeted terrorists.
“These actions are designed to protect our people,” the official said. “They are surgical incursions designed to deal with the terrorist infrastructure. The operations have been successful in taking out hardcore terrorists, and we believe that the combination of military, economic and political pressure in Gaza will bring about a change.”
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