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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel pounded rocket sites and tunnels Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas predicted a "waterfall of blood" unless all parties adhere to the U.N.'s call for a durable cease-fire. Hamas fighters kept up attacks on southern Israel, launching 15 rockets. And with neither side ready to step down, the death toll in two weeks of fighting rose to more than 800 Palestinians, according to Palestinian medical officials, and 13 Israelis. Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City amid heavy fighting. Diplomacy was not finished, but it...

Is Hamas falling apart? A senior IDF officer estimated Saturday that roughly 300 Hamas men have been killed since the army launched its ground incursion in the Gaza Strip. The military official said IDF troops were able to wipe out whole battalions belonging to the Gaza terror group. "Hundreds of people were killed in the various combat sectors," the officer said. "Some Hamas companies and battalions were simply wiped out. We also see cases of desertions and unauthorized leaves, while some terror activists are scared to undertake moves that would jeopardize them vis-à-vis IDF troops." Gaza Operation IDF warns Gaza...

In Toronto, anti-Israel demonstrators yell “You are the brothers of pigs!”, and a protestor complains to his interviewer that “Hitler didn’t do a good job.” In Fort Lauderdale, Palestinian supporters sneer at Jews, “You need a big oven, that’s what you need!” In Amsterdam, the crowd shouts, “Hamas, Hamas! Jews to the gas!” In Paris, the state-owned TV network France-2 broadcasts film of dozens of dead Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year’s Day. The channel subsequently admits that, in fact, the footage is not from January 1st 2009 but from 2005, and, while the corpses are...

CHAMAN: Thousands of people rallied against Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip near the Afghan border on Friday, cheering support for Al Qaeda's Osama Bin Laden, police said. The rally in Chaman was organised by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and was the biggest yet in Pakistan against the Israeli campaign in Gaza, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians. "Our estimate is that there were more than 3,000 people at the rally," local police station chief Abul Latif said. "Long live Osama Bin Laden," protesters chanted as they marched through the town, carrying placards that read: "Jihad is the only treatment for...

In Sderot, a correspondent summarized the concerns of residents that the government would agree to a cease-fire too soon, without definitively crippling the militant group Hamas' ability to fire rockets. The people of Sderot, he said, "would rather the [army] continue and finish this story once and for all." Israeli public opinion overwhelmingly supports the Gaza campaign, buttressed by frustration over years of rocket attacks on southern communities and by the widespread belief that Hamas has brought the bloodshed on its own people. Israeli media coverage has largely reflected that sentiment. "This is something we needed to do for a...

Hamas is and always has been a rabid Islamist terrorist organization whose principal goals are to completely destroy Israel and to kill all Jews in the Middle East. Its charter is a virulent document and should be reviewed by anyone interested in the situation. Hamas' sponsor, Iran, and its allies Hezbollah, Syria and Al-Qaeda share the goals of destroying Israel, effecting a radical Islamist takeover of the world from Gibraltar to India and inflicting as much harm as possible on America. There is no negotiating with Hamas. They do not share the now widely held view that Israel and a...

THE Israeli army has fired into northern Lebanon after rockets were fired at the Jewish state. "We carried out direct fire at the source of the rocket fire from Lebanon," an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The army fired five shells, a military source said without clarifying the type of ordnance used. Two people were slightly wounded, he said, adding that police sappers and bomb disposal units were working on the scene. The rockets fell around the area of the northern town of Nahariya, where residents were called to stay inside their homes, Israeli media reported. The rockets fell a day...

Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip has resumed after a three-hour truce to allow in humanitarian aid, with border tunnels apparently the main target. Israeli planes leafleted southern Gaza by day, warning of imminent attacks, and the sounds of war could be heard from the border by nightfall. Nearly 700 Palestinian and 11 Israeli lives are said to have been lost since the offensive began 12 days ago. Peace efforts move to Cairo shortly, with an Israeli envoy due in the city. But Israel is prepared to go even deeper into the Gaza Strip in the coming hours, BBC...

At a Hanukkah candle-lighting at the Shin Bet security services headquarters two weeks ago, Yuval Diskin spoke with former heads of departments about the organization's preparedness to confront Hamas. The head of the Shin Bet sounded quite cautious. Perhaps even he was surprised by the quality of the intelligence that he and his people had succeeded in providing the Israel Defense Forces during the months of planning that preceded Operation Cast Lead and in the days prior to its launch. Even those who object to the war in the Gaza Strip will find it hard not to agree that this...

ISRAEL HAS BEEN receiving considerable criticism around the nation and world for its recent attacks against Hamas forces in Gaza. Demonstrators in many places, including the Bay Area, have condemned Israel for its air strikes, which are designed to halt Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Anyone blaming Israel for the recent violence is grossly misinformed and plays into the hands of terrorists. After Israel abandoned Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and Hamas came to power, there have been relentless rocket and mortar attacks against the people of Israel. Since 2007, more than 5,500 rockets have been launched from...

Israel on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombing of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700. After a brief lull to allow Gaza's beleaguered population to hunt for food and fuel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak was given the green light by the security cabinet to order a deeper offensive into Gaza towns as part of the campaign to halt Hamas cross-border rocket attacks. But Barak has also decided to send an envoy to Cairo on Thursday to get details on an Egyptian ceasefire plan, which secured...

The current fighting between Israel and Gaza should be no surprise. The people of Gaza set this conflict in motion when they elected Hamas members as their political leaders. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist and is a terrorist organization. Being elected to a position of political power did nothing to dissuade Hamas from its murderous path. If anything, the legitimacy because of their election emboldened the Hamas leaders’ actions. They are now reaping the fruits of their labor. Naturally there are a number of people who have condemned Israel for attacking Gaza. Some people have condemned Israel...

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF reported that two well known Hamas terrorists were among the dead in the IDF strike on a school Tuesday which also killed over 40 civilians. According to the IDF, the terrorists were using the school to fire mortar shells at troops. The dead Hamas operatives were Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar. The IDF said, “We face a very delicate situation where the Hamas is using the citizens of Gaza as a protective vest.”

Dozens of American and Canadian Lutheran bishops arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday for their annual Academy, a meeting for theological discussion. Planned many months in advance, they gathered in the shadow of the war in Gaza. Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called for a cease-fire ahead of his visit, urging "officials of both parties to the conflict to... refrain from all violent acts, which only bring destruction and tragedy, and urge them instead to work to resolve their differences through peaceful and nonviolent means," the church said in a statement. The church believed...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's steamroller success in its Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign against Hamas has allowed it to begin setting out conditions for a new truce, including foreign supervision at the Egyptian border. The Saudi Gazette published a report from Reuters that "Israel has conditioned any halt to its Gaza Strip offensive on international backing for new fortifications and monitoring on the Egyptian border to prevent Hamas from rebuilding tunnels and rearming." The government is determined to prevent a repeat of the failed Gaza Disengagement agreement and the ceasefire that officially ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Hamas terrorists amassed a huge...

What's unfortunate about the world-wide condemnation of Israel for invading Gaza is that there was so little condemnation of Hamas during its years of firing rockets into Israel. Had international outrage been directed at Hamas provocations, it might have dissuaded Hamas from thinking it was invulnerable to Israel's displeasure. It was the thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately at civilian targets in Israel over the years -- intensified since mid-December when the Egyptian-brokered six month ceasefire was terminated by Hamas -- that led to the air attacks and now land invasion by Israel. Despite urgings by the Pope, the UN and...

The war in Gaza is the first chapter of a new era in the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli conflict is far from the region's dominant dispute. The Arab-Islamist conflict now overwhelms it - by a large margin. Increasingly, Arab regimes know Hamas isn't their friend and, though they won't say so publicly, don't see Israel as an enemy. No wonder: Israel is politically stable and economically prosperous. It doesn't threaten to take over their countries, overthrow their regimes and stand them in front of a firing squad. Radical Islamism, Iran-style, does. That's right. Arab nations' prime 21st century enemy is...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander is calling on Islamic countries to use oil as a weapon to end the fighting in Gaza. The Iranian suggestion this week echoed a similar call made last week by lawmakers in Bahrain. The demands are unlikely to lead to an immediate embargo. They don't come from the Persian Gulf nations' top rulers or carry the support of other major producers like Saudi Arabia.

Taken directly from the UK Guardian's Gaza Diary web page earlier today.-

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...