Posted on 01/10/2009 3:18:09 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
DUBAI: The Palestinian group Hamas has claimed that its rockets have attacked an Israeli air base located 27 km from Tel Aviv as the conflict in Gaza entered its third week on Saturday.
The Izzeddine Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said on its website that its rockets had landed at the Tel Nof air base where Israeli fighter jets and helicopters are stationed. This is the longest distance that Hamas rockets fired from Gaza into Israel have covered so far.
The Qassam Brigades also said its fighters had killed 12 Israeli Special Forces soldiers on Friday during an ambush in Beit Lahyia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli military has so far acknowledged that 10 of its soldiers have been killed since fighting began on December 27.
Civilian casualties in the conflict have surged with Palestinian death toll rising to 821. More than 3,300 people have been injured during the Israeli military offensive. An Israeli tank shell killed eight members of a single family in the Jabalya refugee camp, said Palestinian medical staff on Saturday.
With Israeli forces nowhere close to wrapping up their operations in Gaza, a new round of diplomacy in Egypt for a ceasefire has begun.
Analysts point out that talks in Egypt hope to reconcile two separate plans — the Syrian-Turkish proposals which Hamas supports and the Franco-Egyptian plan on the cessation of hostilities.
The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, arrived in Cairo on Friday, the official Egyptian MENA news agency said. Simultaneously, the rival Hamas delegation has also arrived for talks, where Syria will also be represented. The Turkish newspaper Zaman said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited a Turkish delegation which will reach Egypt on Sunday. The Arab and Turkish representatives are arriving in Egypt following a meeting between Israel’s senior defence official, Amos Gilad and the Egyptian leadership.
The Syrian-Turkish plan envisages a ceasefire and the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip. It also proposes the formation of a special international committee to monitor Gaza Strip’s border crossing points.
The Franco-Egyptian plan had called for a temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian supplies to flow into Gaza. During the lull, Egypt has offered to pursue efforts to bring about a lasting truce. Unlike Israel, Egypt and Hamas are opposed to deployment of foreign forces along the Gaza-Egyptian border to stop cross-border smuggling thorough underground tunnels. Hamas also opposes the deployment of international forces inside the Palestinian territories. Besides, it rejects the presence of Palestinian Authority observers along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
As Israel continued its air raids, Iran’s Press TV said its office in Gaza has been attacked. It said two persons were wounded in the air strike on a media building which also targeted the office of Iran’s Arabic language television station, Al Alam.
Gaza civilians continue to suffer the horrors of war as the conflict entered its fifteenth day. Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Friday called for an investigation into possible war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. She specifically referred to the killing of 30 Palestinian civilians in a home in central Gaza that was shelled by Israeli forces.
“I am concerned with violations of international law. Incidents such as this must be investigated because they display elements of what could constitute war crimes,” she said.
Why don’t we investigate war crimes by the U.N.? Storing weapons and launching missles against unarmed civilians is a war crime, and the UNRWA allowed it—kick their asses out and put them in jail.
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