THIS HAMAS POLICE STATION IN GAZA WAS DESTROYED BY THE ISRAELI MILITARY
“Iran strongly condemns the Zionist [Israel’s] wide-ranging attacks against the civilians in Gaza,” said Iranian foreign minister spokesman Hasan Qashqavi. “The raids against innocent people are unforgivable and unacceptable.”
The United States and the rest of the world should join Iran and also condemn Israel’s unjustified killings in Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from President-Elect Barack Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii with his family.
“This is how our incoming president is reacting to the worst attack on the Palestinian people in 20 years — by not reacting at all,” wrote Justin Raimondo in Anti-War.com.
“The Bush White House, of course, has responded as we all know they would: Israel-has-the-right-to-defend itself, let the killing begin, ad nauseum,” Mr. Raimondo added.
Kurt Nimmo wrote in Alex Jones’ Infowars:
Obama no longer has to placate pro-Israel voters, including no shortage of Christian Zionists, so his lack of comment on the premeditated slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza should send us a message — an Obama administration will continue the long-standing U.S. policy of allowing Israel to wantonly kill Palestinians and pay the Israeli government handsomely to do so. In 2008, the U.S. gave $20.27 billion to Israel, more than a 12 percent increase in foreign aid from 2007.
(Emphasis in original.)
The response by the Bush administration
“Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop,” said Gordon Johndroe, deputy assistant to Mr. Bush.
“These people [Hamas] are nothing but thugs, and so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas,” Johndroe said.
“Israel’s hammer blow against Hamas in the Gaza Strip bears all the hallmarks of its doctrine of overwhelming force,” wrote Ian Black in London’s Guardian.
The attacks by Israel on Gaza
During the morning of Saturday, December 27, F-16s supplied by the United States fired missles on the Gaza Strip. More than 225 persons were killed and more than 750 persons were seriously injured. On Sunday, December 28, the Israelis resumed the attacks. More than 20 air strikes were counted during the first hours.
One Israeli was killed by Palestinian rocket fire.
BODIES FROM THE SITES OF ISRAELI AIR STRIKES ARE LINED UP AT A HOSPITAL IN GAZA
“The air strikes began about 11:30 a.m. and continued for about two hours,” reported Arab News. “The first wave of air strikes was launched by about 60 warplanes, which hit a total of 50 targets. In a second wave of attacks, 20 warplanes struck another 50 targets.”
“Gaza witnesses reported heavy damage after more than 30 missiles were fired from helicopter gunships and fighter jets on about 40 different locations in the strip,” reported Al Jazeera. “Many of the dead in the series of attacks were police officers, including Tawfig Jabber, the Gaza chief of police.”
“The deadliest Israeli strike was at the Hamas police headquarters, where a graduation ceremony for cadets was taking place at the time,” reported Hisham Abu Taha in Arab News. “After the strike, the courtyard of the headquarters was littered with disfigured bodies of policemen, while survivors were rushed to the city’s overwhelmed Al-Shifa Hospital.”
The attacks could fuel a humanitarian crisis
“Aid groups said they feared the Israeli operation could fuel a humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, half of them dependent on food aid,” reported Nidal al-Mughrabi of Reuters.
After meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia contacted President George W. Bush. King Abdullah told Mr. Bush that the United States and other major powers have a responsibility to stop the Israeli attack.
SPA, the Saudi state news agency, said that King Abdullah and Mr. Bush discussed “the Israeli aggression against Gaza” and the “implications of continuing Israel’s policies of blockage, occupation and torture against the Palestinian people all over the Occupied Territories.” SPA also said that King Abdullah called for “the major countries to shoulder their responsibilities to stop this Israeli attack and save the lives of the innocent and remaining infrastructure in the Palestinian territories.”
The Bush administration called on Hamas to stop cross-border rocket attacks and urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties. It did not demand that Israel stop the Israeli attacks.
Israel’s intention is to “obliterate Hamas”
Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said the attacks to “obliterate Hamas will take place as long as it takes.”
Barak said in a televised statement: “There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight.”
ISRAELI F-16 WAR JETS, WHICH WERE SUPPLIED BY THE UNITED STATES AND BUILT BY LOCKHEED MARTIN. THE WAR JETS WERE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED BY GENERAL DYNAMICS FOR THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] also begun mobilizing tanks and reinforcement infantry troops to the Gaza region in the event a ground incursion is ordered,” wrote Hanan Greenberg in Y News Net, a website of Israel News. “Barak said that ground forces indeed would enter the Strip if the move was deemed necessary by Jerusalem.”
Operational deception by Israel
An editorial by Barak Ravid in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel defense minister Barak “instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.” The editorial stated:
Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public — all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces “Cast Lead” operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
“I believe what happened . . . is a continuity of the Israeli collective crime against Palestinians,” said Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebannon. “Israel is not learning the lesson. They don’t know that this kind of aggressive attack against the Palestinians creates a new cycle of violence inside Palestine. It will not defeat the Palestinian resistance.”
“This is nothing short of a massacre, an outrage,” said independent Palestinian MP Hanan Ashrawi of Ramallah to BBC News. She added:
This will enhance the standing of Hamas. People are sympathizing with Hamas as the people who are being ruthlessly targeted by Israel. They are seen as victims of ongong Israeli aggression.
“We are facing a continuing spectacle that has been carefully planned,” said Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa. “So we have to expect that there will be many casualties. We face a major human catastrophe.”
The world’s largest Muslin organization speaks out
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest Muslim organization in the world, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) denounced Israel’s attacks upon Palestinians and urged the international community to stop the unjustified killings
“The latest Israeli massacre is a war crime and shows what little regard Israel has for international law and the 4th Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in time of war,” said OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ishanoglu said in a statement.
GCC secretary general Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah called upon the international community to stop “the heinous massacre and barbaric acts being committed by Israeli military forces” against Palestinians.
“Despite the peace initiatives, conferences and agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel over the past years, scenes of killing, destruction and dispelling and starving of Palestinians continues,” the GCC chief said.
Attacks called “criminal” by Palestinian president
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called the Israeli attacks “criminal” and called for the international community to intervene.
European Union foreign chief Javier Solana stated: “We are very concerned at the events in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire and urge everybody to exercise maximum restraint.”
Egypt asked Israeli ambassador Shalom Cohen to demand an end to the attacks. Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing to Gaza so that persons wounded could get medical care.
Egypt president Hosni Mubarak said that “Egypt condemns the Israel attacks.”
Statement by the president of the UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council called for an end to all violence in Gaza.
“The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all violence,” said council president Neven Jurica, Croatia’s ambassador, in a statement that he read.
“The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military activities,” Mr. Jurica said.
A video of some of the death and destruction caused by the Israeli military was found on the website of The Real News Network: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=91&task=videodirectlink&id=704
Photo Credits:
Bodies lined up (Mahmud Hams for AFP/Getty Images)
Destroyed police station (Mohammed Abed for AFP/Getty Images)
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