Dozens Killed In Escalating Gaza Attacks

Exiled Hamas Leader Calls Israel's Attacks In Which Civilians Are Killed "The Real Holocaust"

(AP)  Two sisters and another civilian were killed by tank shells that struck two houses in separate attacks in Jebaliya, Palestinian officials said.

At one of the damaged houses, paramedics rushed an unmoving woman lying on a stretcher, her face covered with a cloth, out of a room clouded with dust.

By evening, more than 40 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers had been killed in the Jebaliya fighting.

All but the most critically injured were sent home from Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest. Beds crammed hospital corridors, and the intensive care unit was overflowing, a doctor at the hospital said. The doctors union urged its members to cancel leaves and appealed for blood donations.

The U.N. shuttered 37 schools it runs in northern Gaza because of the fighting, affecting some 40,000 students said Christopher Gunness, a U.N. official. A three-day strike was declared in Gaza, and publicly run schools and universities were closed.

Mosques across northern Gaza and Hamas-affiliated radio appealed to civilians to stay home. Hamas closed off roads to evacuate security compounds and to keep residents away from potential airstrike targets. They also turned off street lights, apparently so militants wouldn't be seen from the air.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia said Palestinian leaders including Abbas recommended suspending peace talks at a meeting Saturday in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

"I think it will be suspended," Qureia said. "What is happening in Gaza is a massacre of civilians, women and children, a collective killing, genocide," Qureia added. "We can't bear what the Israelis are doing, and what the Israelis are doing doesn't led the peace process any credibility."

Hamas remained defiant and vowed to retaliate.

Hamas Leader Lashes Out At Israel, Likens Gaza Fighting To Holocaust

In Syria, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal described Israeli attacks against civilians in Gaza as "the real Holocaust."

"If (Israeli officials) decided stupidly to invade Gaza, we will fight them with God's help," Mashaal told reporters from his base in Damascus. "We will fight them like lions."

Mashaal blamed the rival Fatah, headed by Abbas, for helping along Israel's attacks.

"I accuse the president of the Palestinian Authority of providing coverage of this holocaust in Gaza," Mashaal said. Hamas has said Abbas' condemnation of rocket fire has given a pretext to Israel's assault on Gaza.

Israeli officials met Saturday to discuss the Gaza violence and its implications for peacemaking. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said talks didn't preclude fighting. Talks are "based on the understanding that when advancing the peace process with pragmatic (Palestinian) sources, Israel will continue to fight terror that hurts its people," he said.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon told Channel 2 TV that Israel should fight in Gaza, but not reoccupy it. Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the tiny seaside territory in late 2005, but militants proceeded to fire rockets from the abandoned territory at Israeli communities.

Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, took control of Gaza by force from the rival Fatah in June.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said Israel was "compelled to continue to take these defensive measures" to protect more than 200,000 Israelis living under the threat of Palestinian rocket barrages.

Militants "hide behind their own civilians, using them as human shields, while actively targeting Israeli population centers," Baker said. "They bear the responsibility for the results."

Israeli military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich called Saturday's action a "pinpoint operation" provoked by the rocket attack on Ashkelon earlier in the week. She blamed the high civilian toll on Hamas' practice of using homes to store and produce projectiles.

"We are not targeting homes and we have no intentions of targeting uninvolved civilians," she said. "We will target launchers and Hamas militants, and bunkers."

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which had been in a deep freeze for seven years, resumed in November at a U.S.-sponsored conference. At the gathering, the two sides pledged to try to reach an accord by the end of this year. In recent weeks, negotiators have met almost daily.

But even when violence is at a lower level, Abbas' efforts are compromised by the fact that he only rules the West Bank, while Gaza is controlled by Hamas. And Israel's fragile government would be hard pressed to make concessions to the Palestinians while Gaza militants pummel southern Israel.

[moses2008-2009]

Don''t allow yourself to be fooled by their media manipulation of woman and children, the Hamas'' true message to Israelis is unequivocally clear: "You are our target - We want you dead."

Israel''s goals are also clear - Staying alive.

[colonieny]

Turkey had a right to send a large army into Northern IRAQ and is still there killing KURDS who are terrorists for the population of Turkey. As Turkey has a right to defend it s people, as USA has a right, as Egypt, and Pakistan and Jordan has a right, guess what ( you moral idiots) SO DOES ISRAEL.

At the end of WWII many people from German families having lived in Poland for generations were kicked out and sent packing. Many millions of Hindus were killed or shipped out our modern Pakistan, because they were not Muslim. Jews were kicked out of Syria, Egypt, and esp. IRAN, many more than the "poor Palest.". Isn''t it time we all move on ?? Listen, Take Gaza and do something wonderful there. Take West Bank and do something good there too. Stop your hatred. Stop your killing. Stop teaching hate. You have driven yourself mad, and the rest of the modern world is getting sick of it , and you.

[colonieny]

Why Israel Can Not Trust the UN or the Pales.

Way back in 1956, the UN said that they would patrol the Sinai, to keep Egypt''s military machine a good distance away from the new nation of Israel, as they had promised by treaty, ending the 1948 fighting. When Nassar, told the UN to move out of the way or fight them, the UN did not resists, but in fact left completley opening up the entire Sinai to an armor tank attack on little Israel.
Similarly, at the end of the last Leb. war. The UN was suppose to leave in place a "ROBUST FORCE" ( to quote Condol. Rice. ) to keep Hezbollah a good distance away from menacing Israel. That stopped the Israeli from destroying Hez once and for all.
That was the agreement. Like their UN tradition suggests, they have not kept their promise for one seond, and Hez. has returned unstopped to dig in just north or Israel, and plans to kill more innocent Israeli. Rockets from Iran ? Sure. Of course.

The point is- The UN is useless. The agreements of Terrorist or Terrorist States are useless. Both work together for EVIL and are anti- modern. And third the world does not care, and on this web site, many writing here vs. IS. are ignorant moral idiots who who care less because they hate Israel and Jews, or are so left wing that they hate all things from Western Cultures.
Just as Turkey recently sent a huge army to mop up terr

[prinzowhales]

The Israelis stole the Palestinian homes and businesses in the region now called Ashkelon. It is time for the Israeli interlopers to leave and go back to Israel. It is illegal under international law to place colonies on captured lands.

[prinzowhales]

Time to remove the illegal Israeli settlements on the Palestinian lands encompassed by Ashkelon. Israel stands in defiance of the UN resolutions on this matter.

[prinzowhales]

When Hamas unilaterally suspended attacks on Israel, the Israelis not only did not respond peacefully, they continued to launch targeted assassinations against Palestinians. They have launched terrorist attacks on Palestine for years and now the Palestinians respond with their puny little home made rockets and the Israelis whine about security...not mentioning that they have not allowed the Palestinians a moment of security. Its time to enforce the 1948 UN boundaries for Palestine.

[colonieny]

No Palest. so called leader can be trusted. They have not lived up to even one agreement.

Remember OSLO where the IS. even spent money on training Pal how to shoot so they could be effective police ? Brought the terrorist Arafat back to rule.
And so on. There is no trusting any of them, except to cause more war, terror and target innocent people.
They are so intolerant that they even outlawed the YMCA, burned them down in GAZA and WEST BANK and killed the Palest. who worked there ! Talk about a peace partner, what a joke.
Egypt told them, officially, that any Palest caught crossing over into Egypt would have his legs broken ? why ?

[telecom_1]

It''s so simple, if the suicide terrorists of Hamas stopped there terrorists attacks against Israel then Israel will not be forced to respond.

[prinzowhales]

Stop American aid to the racist Ashkenazi Zionist Regime in Israel. It is long past time that America become an honest arbiter for peace in the region and not a yeah-sayer for the Likudnik racists.

[prinzowhales]

Israel has placed thousands of illegal colonists in the areas assigned to the Palestinians by the UN. Israel has engaged in a war against the civilian population of Gaza, shutting off their water, electricity and attacking civilian targets well before the rocket attacks...Now that the Palestinians are fighting back the Israelis whine about rocket attacks.

Every time the Palestinians stop fighting, the Israelis see it as a sign of weakness and demand more concessions from the Palestinians and assert their ''right'' to continue to attack Palestinian civilians as part of their spurious war against terrorists.

[telecom_1]

Suicide terrorist are the filth of the world. Hamas is sworn to suicidal terrorism. Hamas is determined to destroy Gaza and blame Israel. You cannot randomly fire thousands of missiles as civilians and not be punished for your terrorism. Hamas will be punished for their rebellious stubborn death cult ways.

[prinzowhales]

ajayvee-On the financial end...put your savings in a credit union. You can always buy low-end goods with lower profit margins for the monsters. You can buy local...buy fresh food from farmers markets--you''ll benefit health-wise as well. Join a co-op! Don''t buy processed food. Every little bit helps. And vote for candidates who will help destroy the power base of the Anglo-American Oligarchy--the FED--in the final analysis it is they who support religious obscurantism and violent racist ideologies from A to Z.

[ajayvee]

Prinzowhales wrote: Boycott all Israeli products!

Well, Sir, I don''t know where you are writing from but here in America the American-Israeli lobby owns and controls the financial industry, the justice system, the media, the food industry, the clothing industry, the banks, and most of the politicians. Under such circumstances, suggesting a boycott of all Israeli products is rather naive.

[prinzowhales]

You will not find in the Zionist the kind of soul that responds to non-violence with anything with violence...These are the same animals who wore the uniform of the NKVD and left prisons full of the corpses of Eastern Europeans for the German army to discover...these are the people who stole the food of the Ukrainians and starved and murdered them while their brethern in America gave a Pulitzer to the ''Judith Miller'' of the age, Walter Duranty, for covering up the death of millions for the deluded readership of the NEW YORK TIMES.

Fight Zionism! Cancel your newspaper subscription! Boycott Israel and AIPAC-spy backed candidates!

[prinzowhales]

Note IDF Major Liebovich''s "precise" fire was being aimed at ambulances. Boycott all Israeli products!

[formrusmcsgt]

Here is a link to the maps. The history of Ashkelon can be found at Wikipedia and other sites. It is time to enforce the UN partition of Palestinian and remove the Israeli thieves from the land of Palestine.

Posted by Prinzowhales at 10:10 AM : Mar 02, 2008

Agreed, but as long as Israel has its 800 pound trained gorilla (the U.S.) sitting on the Security Council, it won''t happen.....

[prinzowhales]

Here is a link to the maps. The history of Ashkelon can be found at Wikipedia and other sites. It is time to enforce the UN partition of Palestinian and remove the Israeli thieves from the land of Palestine.

http://www.teachersparadise.com/ency/en/wikipedia/1/19/1947_un_partition_plan.html

[prinzowhales]

Major Avital Liebovich is a lying flak catcher. The Israelis are targeting anything and everything. In the past the IDF monsters have targeted UN observer stations precisely after receiving their coordinates to warn them off...they have murdered unarmed wounded girls on the ground...

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Security/4532.htm

They have dropped bombs on crowded apartment buildings in their alleged hunt for terrorists and wiped out families at the beach simply because they were Palestinian.

Here are maps of UN partitioned Palestine...The rockets are more than likely falling on occupied Palestinian land--not Israel. Ashkelon is part and parcel of the land assigned to Palestine. The Israelis should leave this stolen land. Israel was assigned the land north of Palestine. The village of al Majdal was there since the 16th century and it was conquered by Israel in their terrrorist on-slaught against the Palestinians and Arab homes were stolen and given to Israelis.

[formrusmcsgt]

Sarge,

That''''s exactly my point! What brought world pressure was the ANC taking the high road for the most part.

Posted by realpatriot1 at 10:02 AM : Mar 02, 2008

Your qualifier "for the most part" is not refected in the violence totals from 1992......

[realpatriot1]

Sarge,

That''s exactly my point! What brought world pressure was the ANC taking the high road for the most part.

When Jihadists resort to violence the world sees 2 wrongs not making a right. They diminish the moral authority of their own cause!

Mandela "put up with apartheid" for 30 years spent in jail, but he never lost faith that he would ultimately prevail and he did!

I know you think that religious faith is *** but for Ghandi, Martin Luther king, and Mndela it was the inspiration which kept them believing that justice would ultimately prevail if justice was follwed.

As MLK said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."