Israel Ends Gaza Siege, Killing Continues

Troops Pull Out, Rockets Keep Hitting Israel, Rice To Visit Amid Stalled Peace Talks

(CBS/AP)  Israeli ground troops pulled out of northern Gaza before daybreak Monday, following the first extended sweep in an offensive against Palestinian rocket squads that has left more than 100 dead and led the Palestinian president to call off peace talks.

Israeli infantry started withdrawing from the town of Jebalya after midnight following several days of fighting, the military said, but the government vowed it would continue its offensive against rocket squads. Overnight air strikes targeting weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a Hamas headquarters and groups of gunmen killed five Palestinians, all of them Hamas militants, Hamas said.

Yet despite days of fierce Israeli assaults, Gaza militants continued launching rocket barrages at areas in southern Israel, including Ashkelon, a city of 120,000. Three rockets hit Ashkelon on Monday morning, Israeli rescue services said, with one scoring a direct hit on an apartment building. No casualties were reported.

CBS News correspondent Robert Berger says Israel may have decided to end the ground operation due to the pending the visit Tuesday of America's top diplomat.

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, put peace talks with Israel on hold, clouding the upcoming peace mission by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The Israeli offensive also drew a chorus of international condemnation, with the EU, Turkey and U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon accusing Israel of using excessive force in Gaza.

Palestinian medical teams found three more bodies in Jebalya after the Israeli troops left. At least one of them was a militant, they said. Residents who had been trapped in their houses for days began emerging, and some collected equipment left behind by the Israelis: ammunition clips, food cans, two bloody stretchers and a helmet with a bullet hole in it.

Jebalya resident Ahmed Dardouna said he and his nine children had been confined to one room of their house by soldiers who occupied it for three days.

"We couldn't distinguish day from night," he said. "The sounds of shooting and explosions, mixed with the screaming of soldiers and the screaming of my children who were asking to go to bathroom and for food is still in my ears."

In all, 117 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the fighting erupted last Wednesday, according to militants and medical officials. Roughly half the dead were civilians, the officials said. One Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket, and two Israeli soldiers were killed in the Jebalya fighting.

Despite the lopsided death toll, Hamas sent a message to reporters calling the pullout a retreat by the "cowardly" Israeli military. But Israel said the withdrawal didn't signal it was scaling back its Gaza operations.

"Our efforts against the rocket launchers and those who operate them will continue unabated until Israeli children will no longer be attacked while sitting in their own classrooms, and until their families can sit in their own homes without fear of a rocket crashing through their roof," government spokesman David Baker said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said a full-scale invasion was still possible, and Israel might try to bring down the regime of the militant Islamic Hamas. "We will use force to change the situation," Barak said at a meeting late Sunday of security commanders, according to a statement from his office.

In the early hours of Monday, Palestinians counted nine separate Israeli air strikes all over Gaza, one of them near the office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was not in the area at the time.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Israel should consider returning fire at the rocket launchers, even if it means shelling populated areas. "In the end, this will save lives on both sides," he said, since Palestinian civilians would either force the rocket squads from their neighborhoods or flee themselves. He told Israel Radio early Monday that "no reasonable country" would object to Israeli efforts to defend itself.

However, the residents of many nearby countries saw Israel's operations in Gaza as unwarranted aggression, rather than self defense.

CBS News' George Baghdadi in Syria, reports thousands of people took to the streets of Damascus Monday (pictured at left) to protest Israel's actions.

"Stop the Palestinian massacres and bloodshed in Gaza. No, to Israeli Holocaust. Why are the Arabs silent," chanted angry Syrians, as others carried a huge banner declaring America "the ultimate devil" and burning Israeli and U.S. flags. The slogans were indicative of anger in much of the Arab world, reports Baghdadi.

The crowd, which gathered in Yousseif Azma square in the heart of the capital, brought traffic to a halt and forced shops to close.

Mohammad Saad, a shop owner watching reports from Gaza on television, said, "Arab leaders are unable even to agree on holding the Arab summit. We don't want conferences. We need actions, or let them allow us to react."

[moses2008-2009]

Dedicated for bobacon and all that are against Israel right for self defence.

Psalms chapter 11:

In the LORD I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
"Flee like a bird to your mountain.

For look, the wicked bend their bows;
they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
at the upright in heart.

When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?"

The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
his eyes examine them.

The LORD examines the righteous,
but the wicked, those who love violence,
he hates with a passion.

On the wicked he will rain
fiery coals and burning sulfur;
a scorching wind will be their lot.

For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice;
the upright will see his face.


and by the way ,the word Violance in this chapter is pronounced HAMAS in Hebrew.

[moses2008-2009]

Dedicated for bobacon and all that are against Israel right for self defence.

Psalms chapter 11:

In the LORD I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
"Flee like a bird to your mountain.

For look, the wicked bend their bows;
they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
at the upright in heart.

When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?"

The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
his eyes examine them.

The LORD examines the righteous,
but the wicked, those who love violence,
he hates with a passion.

On the wicked he will rain
fiery coals and burning sulfur;
a scorching wind will be their lot.

For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice;
the upright will see his face.


and by the way ,the word Violance in this chapter is pronounced HAMAS in Hebrew.

[libsrweak]

"disproportionate response"


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by bobacorn at 11:09 AM : Mar 04, 2008
+ report abuse

*************

ahh that anti-jewish liberal invention...meaning " the palestinian should be allowed to have the capability to kill more jews" BTW.. who is this "people of the world" you are talking about?? what needs to happen from your camp is for the UN to get some balls and regulate thier dogs. perhaps something a little stronger than thier harsh words..or how liberals say ''and not a disappropriated response"

*************************

[damnedrelign]

To bobacorn:
correction for bleeped-out word:

...absorb a rocket or two in your ''wrecktum'' ?

[damnedrelign]

Focus on the question, bobacorn.
To repeat,
What would YOU do with or to, the rocket launchers that are aiming for YOU & YOUR FAMILY?
Would you bend down and hope for a lucky shot so you can absorb a rocket or two in your ***!
Now babacorn, you may answer the Q.

[damnedrelign]

CONFIRMED!

The one who is under the name ''bobacorn'' apparently is here to lie, slander, incite, and cause as many problems as possible for others - all while refusing to answer clear questions to him/her.

bobacorn insults all of us by PRETENDING and by his/her repeatedly refusing to answer the questions posed to him/her. The questions to the ''fraudster'' called bobacorn, arose as the result of bobacorn''s lies, slander, half truths, and other irresponsible comments. (Scroll back and see for yourselves)
This ''bobacorn'' attempts to focus away from his/her false spew, by name-calling to focus away from the issue of his/her messages of hate, lies, slander and half truths.
Can anyone tell us what drives an individual to seek
his/her pleasure in causing problems for others?

[bobacorn]

BTW damnedreligion - RE: your question to me ...

Did you even read this news article? Well let me highlight a relevant part for you.

"The Israeli offensive also drew a chorus of international condemnation, with the EU, Turkey and U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon accusing Israel of using excessive force in Gaza."

I don''t have any problem with the Israelis defending themselves in a reasonable and just manner. It is the excessive and disproportionate response that I, and the rest of the thinking people of the world, disagree with.

[bobacorn]

"... who spoil it for other decent, well-meaning ones."
-posted by damnedreligion
----------
LOL !!!!!!!!!!! like you? LOL !!!!!!!!!!! I haven''t laughed so hard all day.

[damnedrelign]

To singinrick:

That should lead us to conclude that we must now find an alternative way to alert CBS to these evil, lying, hate-inciting fraudsters.
As expected, there is always a number of abusive individuals who spoil it for other decent, well-meaning ones.

[damnedrelign]

To bobacorn:

Your last posting here is not just flawed, but false and fraudulent, as you made a fool out of yourself by your continuing to avoid and NOT ANSWER the bottom line question here.
Here is the question again to expose what is more than likely your unbridled prejudice/hatred of Jews, or anything the Israeli nation does to defend its citizens.

If deadly rocket/missile launchers were being fired at YOU AND YOUR FAMILY for example, wouldn''t you try to identify the location(s) of those launchers? And wouldn''t you and your family members make every attempt to put an end to them, before they KILL another of you and your family?
Or would you just sit there and wait, and do nothing as these projectiles continue to be fired at you?
Now can you acknowledge that not one other people or nation would not shoot back at the source, especially after long-term and frequent firing of such weapons at YOU, BOB?
Please have the decency to state your answer, or please admit that the placing of said missile launchers RIGHT AMIDST THE CIVILIAN POPULATION are attempts to immunize the perpetrators from receiving ''return'' fire.
The perpetrators also place missile launchers RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR CIVILIAN/RESIDENTIAL AREAS, to use the resultant casualties and deaths for sympathy and propaganda against Israel!!!

[damnedrelign]

To bobacorn:

Your last posting here is not just flawed, but false and fraudulent, as you made a fool out of yourself by your continuing to avoid and NOT ANSWER the bottom line question here.
Here is the question again to expose what is more than likely your unbridled prejudice/hatred of Jews, or anything the Israeli nation does to defend its citizens.

If deadly rocket/missile launchers were being fired at YOU AND YOUR FAMILY for example, wouldn''t you try to identify the location(s) of those launchers? And wouldn''t you and your family members make every attempt to put an end to them, before they another of you and your family?
Or would you just sit there and wait, and do nothing as these projectiles continue to be fired at you?
Now can you acknowledge that not one other people or nation would not shoot back at the source, especially after long-term and frequent firing of such weapons at YOU, BOB?
Please have the decency to state your answer, or please admit that the placing of said missile launchers RIGHT AMIDST THE CIVILIAN POPULATION are attempts to immunize the perpetrators from receiving ''return'' fire.

[zootallures2]

That GENUINELY DELUSIONAL/REVELATIONAL, ''''holy sheeyut'''' stuff has been causing mankind more danger, more divisivness, more destruction, and more death than just about anything.

Posted by DamnedRelign at 10:00 PM : Mar 03, 2008

Vietnam, Korea, WWI, WWII... sure tells us another one! But not sa*dism, greed and money. No that never caused a war.

[damnedrelign]

Look, all of you concerned, caring individuals.
RELIGION - ALL RELIGION - is no damned good. Can you figure out why? Because of the ''holier-than-thou'' mindset that religions create. God already has recognized this.
If it''s a need for some, then RE-WRITE it and take out the nasty, ''insensitive-to-others'' parts, chapters, verses, etc !!! If IMPROVING ancient religious doctrines, and what was written by FAR LESS educated men in ancient times of limited knowledge, is forbidden, then at the very least, wouldn''t that indicate that something is ''not kosher'' about it? Maybe illogical, irrational and insane?
That GENUINELY DELUSIONAL/REVELATIONAL, ''holy sheeyut'' stuff has been causing mankind more danger, more divisivness, more destruction, and more death than just about anything.
Religion has also ''mortgaged'' us into an abysmal, doomsday future!!!
Now y''all suck on that and get back here with some REAL POSITIVELY CONTRIBUTING ANSWERS. OK, my good associates? CAN WE AGREE ON THAT?

[zootallures2]

"Oh my gawd" ... Wait Fred Phelps will do your wedding cerimonies with an AK47!

[zootallures2]

That is why the Israelis are wrong in their response...

Posted by bobacorn at 09:46 PM : Mar 03, 2008

After 9/11, the US and Israel will never do anything right. Unless Hitler and Charles Manson is you idea of a "tune in dude". Bush should shave his head and yell I''m the devil with some crazy chanting sadistic hippys.

Pull it! Larry can do a lot of that in prison.

[zootallures2]

Condolleeza "Tower Bombing Maye Glutz" Rice from the Bush family Spawn Ranch is coming to bring peace...LOL! Atta''s passport, the Manson Family and the wallet......

Instead of Hillary and Obama, hey just get Charley and Geraldo...LOL! No wonder yawl listen to that sick kike Myrlin Manson.

[bobacorn]

The Bible teaches an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It doesn''t teach an eye for an eye, and a tooth, and a toe, and an ear, and a finger. That is why the Israelis are wrong in their response to these rockets. These rockets have killed maybe one person, according the news reports I have seen. Yet the Israelis, in the maniacal passion to injure the Palestinians, launch an invasion into their territory and kill over a hundred people, the majority of which were innocent civilians. It is not just me that thinks that the Israelis have committed crimes of aggression in doing this. The opinion of the whole world is pretty much against the warmongering policies of the Israeli leadership. You can say that disagreement with this policy is anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic or whatever other ridiculous comments you like. But you can''t make me think, not even a second, that the deaths of all these innocent people is the fault of anybody but the Israeli government which authorized them. If an Israeli drops a bomb on a house in a populated area that could contain a family, that is an intention act, and the Israelis are culpable when those innocent people die.

[zootallures2]

The brilliance of US and A and Israel

How do you go from the example of God following brave good guys, winners of WWII against Hitler the most vile cruel sadistic dictator ever - to being the worst darkness the world has ever seen, 1000 times worse than Hitler?

[bobacorn]

OMG ... just looking over the latest posts and I see my name here being mentioned, even though I haven''t posted on here for like 10 hours. I guess I touched a nerve ... You lovers of the Israeli-death-machine are a sensitive bunch.

[zootallures2]

If you go back to basics, in 1948, even the smaller sliver of land for the Jews to live in was ''''not permitted'''' and attacked immediately. Are you saying that the Jews have NO RIGHTS to ANY LAND OR COUNTRY of only a few THOUSAND square miles, even if the Moslems have about 25 countries and a few MILLION square miles of territory?

Virtually all nations fought it out to establish their nation-states - Israel as well.

Posted by DamnedRelign at 09:02 PM : Mar 03, 2008

Well, yea, but not after 9/11. That''s like saying Hitler and the Nazis should have Germany. You gave up the whole thing the US worked to be for so many years with the stupidest cheapest most obvious false false flag operation the world has ever seen. The only thing stupider would be trying to rob a police station.