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Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Ttragedy_school_Jebaliya_6-Jan-2009.htm Behind the Headlines: The tragedy at the school in Jebaliya 6 Jan 2009 An initial inquiry by forces on operating in the area of the incident indicates that a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jebaliya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source. Preliminary Background Briefing Today, a reported 30 Palestinians were killed in a heartrending tragedy at a school in Jebaliya. Initial investigations indicate that Hamas terrorists fired mortar bombs from the area of the school...

Watch Former Ambassador Dore Gold's interview on the BBC about the Israeli ground operation in Gaza.

Three years after being evacuated from settlements in the Gaza Strip, some of the evacuees are now returning - in uniform. Aharon Cruz, a paratroops officer, lived in Netzarim for two years before the disengagement. On Sunday, he and his unit, to which he had been recalled a mere day after his wedding last Thursday, were back at the settlement's ruins in central Gaza. "On one hand, there's a feeling of 'what did we leave for?'" said his father, Rabbi Ze'ev Cruz. "On the other hand, there's joy that he is returning to a place he knows." The ground operation...

Israel did not seek approval from Washington before waging a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip ruled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday. "They didn't seek clearance or approval from us, certainly," the vice president said on CBS' Face The Nation on Sunday, his first public remark on Israel's military strikes targeted Hamas. Israel's ground troops, backed by gunships and tanks, on Saturday night launched an invasion into the Gaza Strip. Reports here quoted Palestinian security sources as saying that the troops have gained control of the eastern section of the northern...

Cheney stressed the US support for the Gaza operation, saying the rocket fire on Israel must stop.

Israel severs Gaza Strip into two below Gaza City. Two key Hamas guys dead. Syria squealing to Russia. US tells UN to stuff it. 238 updates so far.

"Summary of Overnight Events, 03 January 2009"

While much of the world engages in hand-wringing, placard-waving, teeth-gnashing, and rocket-launching over Israel’s “disproportionate” response to Hamas attacks from Gaza, it’s worth looking at what the doctrines of “proportionality” actually say. Making the rounds is a two-year old quote from Lionel Beehner’s paper for the Council on Foreign Relations in which he summarizes the principle of proportionality as laid out by the 1907 Hague Conventions. “According to the doctrine, a state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary,...

Israel launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after a week-long air campaign against Hamas militants firing rockets into the Jewish state. The Palestinian death toll, before tanks moved in, reached nearly 450. Gaza rocket attacks have killed four Israelis. Here are some questions and answers about the conflict: Q - Where do things stand now? A - Columns of Israeli tanks backed by helicopters crossed the boundary fence from at least four points into the Gaza Strip under darkness. Israeli military affairs commentators said troops were unlikely to move into Gaza City, the largest population centre...

Ground Operations are underway in the Gaza Strip.I wish the IDF the very best of luck and every success in this phase of Operation Solid Lead.This paragraph from the Jerusalem Post is key: The IDF warned that terrorists using civilians as human shields would bear full responsibility for their fate. The IDF spokesperson emphasized that "anyone who hides a terrorist or weapons in his house is considered a terrorist," adding that "the residents of Gaza are not the target of the operation." This is precisely what separates the "good guys" from the "bad guys." It is what distinguishes terrorists from...

UPDATE 207. GROUND OFFENSIVE HAS BEGUN. At one tank base along the border, the roar of tank engines and the rumble of their movements toward the border could be heard after dark, though none moved across the frontier. Hamas officials also reported tank movement toward the border near the northern Erez crossing point. / Defense officials said some 10,000 troops, including tank, artillery and special operations units, were massed on the Gaza border and prepared to invade. They said top commanders were split over whether to send in ground forces, in part because such an operation could lead to heavy...

One of Israeli's leading newspapers says only one one leader has shown genuine understanding of Israel's dilemma. The Jerusalem Post says George W. Bush's understanding has been steadfast during Israel's confrontation with Hamas. The newspaper said Bush's approach contrasted with that of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who initially said he understood Israel's stance, but then allowed the Foreign Office to join with Europe in calling for an immediate ceasefire. "In contrast, from Texas, where the president has been marking the holidays, his spokesman Gordon Johndroe placed the onus for the hostilities where it belongs: "Hamas's continued rocket attacks into...

ISRAEL has taken out its most senior Hamas scalp, Nizar Rayan, dispensing with efforts to avoid civilian casualties to kill him at home with family, as its bombardment of the Gaza Strip entered a seventh day. Israeli warplanes yesterday pounded about 20 targets, including a mosque in Gaza, as Hamas ordered a "day of wrath" against Israel over the killing of Rayan, who died with his four wives and 11 of his children. Officials warned Hamas had acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles, raising fears the nuclear warheads at Dimona, 30km east of Beersheba, had fallen within the Islamic militants'...

191 updates and counting. Friday's events so far (1800 hours local time as this is written): Hamas continues to lob rockets and missiles; Israel targeting Hamas leadership homes; lots of op-eds supporting Israel; PA's Abbas trashing Hamas; and West Bank getting cranky but under control.

"OPERATION CAST LEAD The IDF's Fight Against Terror in Gaza" # A blessed New Year to everyone here and abroad. Today's thread beginning January 1, 2009 (U.S.A. Time)

Cambridge, Mass. - Israel's decision to take military action against Hamas rocket attacks targeting its civilian population has been long in coming. I vividly recall a visit my wife and I took to the Israeli city of Sderot on March 20 of this year. Over the past four years, Palestinian terrorists – in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have fired more than 2,000 rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people. The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others...

December 30, 2008: Oh What a Day! I'm so glad that my father told me to buy a special notebook and to write everything down because that's exactly what I did. When we left from Cyprus, one reporter asked me "are you afraid?" And I had to respond that Malcolm X wasn't afraid; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't afraid. But little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be recollecting my life and mentally preparing myself for death. When we left Cyprus, the Mediterranean was beautiful. I remember the time when it might have been...

It's brutal, there's no sign of it ending any time soon and scores of innocent people have lost their lives in the spiral of violence that has erupted in the Gaza Strip. But for all the suffering on both sides of the border, there is nevertheless the distinct possibility that when the fighting has died down, the long-term prospects for peace in the region will have been considerably improved. No one can condone the loss of life, no matter how great the provocation, and the Israeli military has an unwelcome reputation for not taking sufficient care to avoid unnecessary civilian...

CAIRO, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Ezzat Abdel-Rahman says Palestinians are suffering "great injustice" at the hands of Israel but they should have followed Egypt's lead and long ago made peace with the Jewish state. He also says Egypt should not open its border with Gaza to let Palestinians flee the six-day Israeli assault, as demanded by Hamas militants and many Arabs. "This could get Egypt into trouble with Israel," said the 42-year-old, who runs a shop selling shoes in central Cairo. "Israel could accuse Egypt of smuggling weapons into Gaza and dump the problems of Gaza on Egypt." Despite the...

The NYT today features two articles about Israel’s war against Hamas that are rather revealing. One is Striking Deep Into Israel, Hamas Employs an Upgraded Rocket Arsenal, and the second is In Dense Gaza, Civilians Suffer They are revealing both for what they say and don’t say as well as their juxtaposition. In the first, the reporter describes the efforts Hamas has made to upgrade its arsenal to threaten (and attack) Israel. For Hamas, a group largely confined to a sliver of land along the Mediterranean Sea, attacking Israeli cities with a rocket barrage has proved an effective strategy to...