Dozens Killed In Escalating Gaza Attacks
Exiled Hamas Leader Calls Israel's Attacks In Which Civilians Are Killed "The Real Holocaust"
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Palestinian medics carry a man wounded during an Israeli army operation in the northern Gaza Strip, into a hospital in Beit Lahiya, Saturday, March 1, 2008. The latest round of clashes, which began Wednesday, has renewed threats of an Israeli invasion of Gaza to crush militant rocket squads that bombard southern Israel daily. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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An Israeli fighter plane releases a flare as it flies over Gaza City, Saturday, March 1, 2008. West Bank leaders threatened to suspend peace talks to protest the Israeli attacks, which came as Gaza militants bombarded southern Israel with dozens of rockets and mortars. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
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Palestinians carry a man wounded during an Israeli army operation in the northern Gaza Strip, into a hospital in Beit Lahiya, March 1, 2008. Two children were among those killed in some of the fiercest fighting in the Gaza Strip since Islamic Hamas militants seized control there in June. (AP Photo/Majed Hamdan)
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Israelis take cover during a siren warning of a rocket attack in Sderot, southern Israel, Saturday, March. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
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Hundreds of Jordanians take part of a demonstration against Israeli air strikes in Gaza, in the al-Wihdat refugee camp in Amman, Jordan, March 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Nader Daoud)
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Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in the clashes, the military said.
The violence took a heavy toll on Gaza civilians. Moderate Palestinian leaders called the killings a "genocide" and threatened to call off peace talks.
"The response to these rockets can't be that harsh and heinous," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "It is nowadays described as a holocaust."
The spasm of violence came days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to arrive in the region to nudge Israel and Palestinians closer to a peace accord. But the rising tensions threatened to mar her visit.
Early Sunday, Israeli aircraft destroyed the office building in Gaza City used by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, witnesses said. Five people were lightly wounded in the raid, seen as a signal that Israel holds the Hamas political leadership responsible for the violence.
While expressing regret for civilian casualties, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed "Hamas and those firing rockets at Israel," his office said in a statement, pledging to continue the offensive to protect Israeli towns and cities.
On Friday, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai renewed a threat to invade Gaza to crush militant rocket squads that attack southern Israel daily.
At least two dozen Palestinian civilians, including a baby, were among those killed, and militants said 25 fighters died. Health officials said about 200 people were wounded, 14 of them critically.
The overall death toll was the highest in a single day since the current round of violence erupted in September 2000. The highest previous death toll was 38 on March 8, 2002.
The intense fighting Saturday pushed the Palestinian death toll to more than 80 since fighting flared Wednesday. About half of those were civilians.
Palestinian fighters kept up a steady stream of rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli targets, firing around 50 on Saturday alone in defiance of the Israeli assault. Six Israelis were injured by rockets that reached as far as Ashkelon, a coastal city 11 miles north of Gaza.
The Israeli military said one of its airstrikes on northern Gaza targeted a parked truck loaded with 160 rockets.
On Thursday, militants raised the stakes by firing Iranian-made rockets into Ashkelon, striking closer to Israel's heartland than ever before and putting more Israelis at risk. Palestinian rocket fire earlier in the week also killed an Israeli man.
Ambulances tried to come, but they came under fire. ... We are in a real war.
Tareq DardounaBefore dawn Saturday, the battleground shifted to the town of Jebaliya and its nearby refugee camp, a center of militant activity in northern Gaza.
Soldiers backed by tanks and aircraft conducted house-to-house searches and took up positions on rooftops as they clashed with militants detonating land mines and firing heavy machine guns, assault rifles and mortar rounds.
A wounded man and boy lay in a gutter near a dead man. Ambulance workers took away the dead man as a youth appealed to paramedics to treat the wounded.
"Take them, they are still alive," he pleaded. Another man urged the wounded to "bear witness," or proclaim their Muslim faith before they die. The two began reciting a Muslim prayer near a boy whose lower body was ripped by shrapnel.
Tareq Dardouna, a Jebaliya resident, said a relative was killed outside his home in the crossfire that began at 3 a.m.
"His body is still on the ground," Dardouna said in a telephone interview from his home, where he was tending to four wounded people amid screaming children. "Ambulances tried to come, but they came under fire. ... We are in a real war."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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See all 359 CommentsThe United Nations closed down 37 schools it runs in northern Gaza because of the fighting, affecting some 40,000 students said Christopher Gunness, a U.N. official. ''
-that is it! Not only targetting homes and officials'' locations and offices in Gaza, but IDF is going it on United Nations subsidised schools, and Journalists. What next? kindergartens and hospitals?
Posted by joule3
Israeli''s illegal land occupation is causing them to live in fear.
Saudi Arabia has already negotiated a viable peace agreement with Arab leadership and many Israeli leaders which even allows Israel to keep some of the territory they stole in 1967. But Ohlmert, at the prodding of the US, refuses to consider it.
Israel doesn''t want peace. They want to continue to get US dollars, so they will do whatever the Neocons say. It is the sole agenda of the Neocons to keep chaos and hatred alive in the Middle East because they want to force the Middle East to live under a western style democracy which will allow them to steal their oil. This is wrong!
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Posted by joule3 at 11:08 AM : Mar 01, 2008
Well, then, good. Israel can now sit down at the table and negotiate a peace agreement and quit posturizing about being a victim.
Israel does not occupy any of Gaza you fool. The land you say they "stole" was won in a battle with all the surrounding Arab states when Israel was attacked from all sides in 1967. And, since you probably don''''t know anyone in Israel, you have no idea how much they want peace. I do. So, stop showing your ignorance.
The IDF and all of Israel recognize that the daily barrage of rocket attacks are not sent to be friendly. I was there for 2 weeks during the Lebanese war in 2006 and it isn''''t comforting to know that a rocket can strike you at any moment.
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Posted by joule3 at 11:14 AM : Mar 01, 2008
If they don''t like the rocket fire, then quit lobbing off rockets the other direction! Israel itself is fast becoming a terrorist nation itself.
Israel has closed all doors to a negotiation of peace. If they don''t want rockets, quit firing off rockets, and sit down at the table, instead of closing all avenues that will make it stop.
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Posted by joule3 at 11:16 AM : Mar 01, 2008
Hamas, Hezbollah, et al has said it is willing to negotiate peace, and there is already a plan for peace, giving many concessions to the Israelis.
Posted by photty at 11:02 AM : Mar 01, 2008
Sit idly by?!?!?!
Israel conducts this war on the arabs WITH OUR HELP!!!
That''s why the terrorists attack US AND Israel!!!!
Posted by joule3 at 11:09 AM : Mar 01, 2008
The whole nation of Israel was "won" in a war started by Israel in 1948. It''s still raging today, thanks to neither side being willing to capitulate.
Posted by grazinggoat
Im afraid if this madness keeps up that is exactly what is going to happen if that is where large amounts of rockets are coming from. You or many might not like the IDF but they dont park their tanks in populated cities to protect them (that im aware of). If it keeps up Gaza is going to have it''s border fence shortened alot of miles. Dont kid youself they are just building up troups and supplies and waiting. You will know when it is about to happen. Gas and electric will be turned off and the Gasa power plant will be a first target. Any preceived stock piles
of anything will be the next targets. And its so easy for Hamas to stop firing rockets.
clink-clink-clink - TOAST! TOAST!
"Drink up Drink up!
And fill your cup
With the blood of an innocent child."
HYPOCRISY!
What the heck does that mean?
%u201CBlood of an innocent child%u201D
Which one? The one who died from an ill aimed rocked or an air strike to blow up the rocket shooter?
The Saudi government views this accord as the prelude to the offer of a peace settlement with Israel, along the lines of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, a settlement to be guaranteed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, based on the 1967 borders and full recognition of Israel.
But no progress is possible as long as the Bush administration and the Ehud Olmert government persist in their current position of refusing to recognize a unity government that includes Hamas. The recent meeting between Condoleezza Rice, Abbas, and Olmert turned into an empty formality.
ROCKETS FROM IRAN HIT DEEPER INTO ISRAEL
OVER 4000 ROCKETS POUND ISRAEL !
WHEN WILL THEY FINALLY RESPOND TO PROTECT THEIR CITIZENS ????
Buried in the report is the fact that NOW 1. Rockets made in IRAN have BEGUN falling into Israel - WHAT NEXT FIGHTER BOMBERS ?? IS THAT OK TOO ?? 2. The Rockets hit MUCH deeper location , now targeting a major Is Cities !!!. 3. CBS DID NOT REPORT THIS !!!!That over 4,000 missiles have been fired into Israel over the last year !!!
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Can you imagine if the US had over 4000 missiles coming over the boarder of Mexico or Canada ? to kill us ?? (THE LACK OF OUTRAGE is racist.)
When Turkey attacked the Kurds for their terrorism from the north of Iraq killing anybody they could, was there an outrage ?? None. Turkey hasthe right to defend itself. Guess what so does Israel, and it will. TO THE WORLD - get used to it.
YESTERDAY : 40 ROCKETS from Gaza pound IS towns, hitting deep into ISRAEL including the CITY OF ASKELON.
CITIZENS FLEE SIDEROT AS SCHOOLS TARGETED BY GAZA ISLAMIC TERRORISTS !
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-28-federal-budget_N.htm
There are always two sides to every story and some of the Palestinians probably deserve it, but we only hear one side. Many are children and innocent civilians and don''t deserve their holocaust. I''m more than weary of our country expending our treasury and world credibility in Iraq and elsewhere for the sake Israel. The political power in the USA is being sabotaged from within by foreign agents called AIPAC.
HAMAS and AL Queda are allies.
Therefore HAMAS is our enemy.
KILL THEM.
Bring me up to speed here.
Hamas has agreed "to respect international resolutions and the agreements [with Israel]
Then why are they still firing rockets in there?
Bring me up to speed here.
Hamas has agreed "to respect international resolutions and the agreements [with Israel]
Then why are they still firing rockets in there?
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Posted by lewiston14 at 12:29 PM : Mar 01, 2008
Because they''re being fired upon!
Bring me up to speed here.
Hamas has agreed "to respect international resolutions and the agreements [with Israel]
Then why are they still firing rockets in there?
Because they''''re being fired upon!
Posted by RowdyTexan2
As far as I am aware Israel only attacts when fired apon ie. rockets. If I am wrong I will trust your reply
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Posted by lewiston14 at 12:41 PM : Mar 01, 2008
The point is...Israel has an opportunity to sit down at the table and enter a peace agreement with Arab countries who are offering to recognize their country.
Israel, at the best of the US and their own agenda to keep chaos and hatred spread throughtout the Middle East, are prodding Israel not to sit down at the table, nor to negotiate peace with ANYBODY!
Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. (Luke 6)
,, You would throw rocks, bottles, cans & anything you could find at the people trying to take over your family''s property & you know it
And that is only one part of the problem.
Posted by jochitragman at 01:32 PM : Mar 01, 2008-----Don''t mean to cut in, but "Zechariah 12:2,3" says that the trouble in that area is actually caused by the Lord,.....Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 3- And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered against it.------Henceforth is my base reason for voting for Ron Paul; to get us OUT of there seeing we are foremost in meddling with God''s property. We will not survive this if we keep on doing it,.....or God is a liar, which he is not.
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Posted by mbievtea at 01:34 PM : Mar 01, 2008
Yeah, and the same applies to the Israeli''s.
It is Israel refusing to sit down at the table, not the Arabs.
The government of Isreal has lost their Jewish values & principles in a big way.
Seriously amigo, you can''t look at the issue through the lens of the bible, I respect your view but it has absoultly nothing to do with the problem.. It''s a land grab & partially the zionist desire for an all Jewish state. --
-- Many of our politicians know this & only use Isreal for getting elected & party control. The archaic concept of nation building.
.. But it has become a tool for our own fringe Christians & their "Religion of Intolerence" and the politicians that pander to them.
to present themselves for receiving such
colorful moral characterizations other than
the abject loneliness of Bushies causing
them to embrace each "you are a scumbag!"
as afirmation of their acceptance or even
of their very existance itself?
What would you want your government to do if terrorists lobbed 8000 missiles and 10000 mortars into your town??? Think about it and think about living day to day under that threat because it is not very far fetched given the ease at which these crude weapons can be made. It could happen anywhere in the world if nations do not fight it. Who is to say that someone across our border could not do the same for no "valid" reason other than to create chaos.
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