Egyptians open fire on Palestinians

[Christopher]

Egyptian border guards have opened fire on Palestinians who breached the border to escape Israel's assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

An Egyptian security official said there were at least five breaches along the nine-mile border and hundreds of Palestinian residents were pouring in.

At least 300 Egyptian border guards have been rushed to the area to reseal the border, the official added on condition on anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

excerpt, link http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5grmpk18UVAYzqu4fu2F0eNh8QIgA

Gotta' love the way those Muslims stick together. With friends like these, who needs the Israelis?

[DrScreed]

I am so glad. I listened to a Palestinian leader today blame Israel for everything. Nothing was Hamaas's fault. Israel killed 150 kids and injured many more, Hamaas did not kill anyone.:mad:

Good lord

[twila]

Can I take a guess what channel you were watching? CNN? :rolleyes:

[DrScreed]

Can I take a guess what channel you were watching? CNN? :rolleyes:

Nope, blocked that channel with parental control!

[CallawayFT5]

Isreal is doing EXACTLY what it should be doing - bombing the hell out of them.

BUMP!!!!

The same thought process.


une 5, 2010 Israel intercepts Gaza bound aid ship

Anne Barrowclough



20 Comments (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7144619.ece#comment-have-your-say)

Recommend? (4) (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7144619.ece#none)




div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited { color:#06c; } Israeli naval boats are tailing an Irish-owned ship bound for Gaza, having intercepted the Rachel Corrie around 35 miles (55 km) off the Gaza coast early today.
Early reports that commandos had seized the ship were denied by the Israeli military and by passengers on board the Irish boat who said four naval boats had not stopped them but were shadowing them.
The activists, including a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had refused to divert the MV Rachel Corrie to the Israeli port of Ashdod for inspection but said they would not resist if Israeli soldiers tried to take over their vessel.
They also said in a statement they would let an international force, preferably United Nations inspectors, search the ship and certify the nature of its cargo before it proceeds to Gaza.
Related Links




Medal for Israeli soldier who shot six dead (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7144448.ece)



Author: Gaza flotilla attack ‘was piracy’ (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7144452.ece)




A spokesman for a Gaza based organisation liaising with the ship said Israeli warships had surrounded the vessel.
“The Rachel Corrie has been intercepted 35 miles off Gaza,” Amjad al-Shawa told the Agence France Presse.
“Several Israeli boats surrounded them between 30 and 35 miles off Gaza and prevented them from reaching Gaza,” said Mr Shawa.
“They try to take the boat maybe to Ashdod or maybe to another place,” he said.
Shamsul Akmal, an activist on board the ship told Sky News: “They have been flanking us for the last two hours or so. They have kept their distance, about eight miles abreast from us. They are not showing any signs that they are going to come nearer.
“We will not do anything, we just want to get to Gaza,” he added.
The 20 passengers on board the 1,200 tonne ship, named after an American student crushed to death by a bulldozer in 2003 while protesting Israeli house demolitions in Gaza had been expected in Gaza late this morning.
Israel’s treatement of the activists will be closely watched around the world after the disastrous Israeli Defence Force raid on a Gaza bound convoy on Monday which led to the deaths of nine people, mainly Turkish activists.
The commando who killed six of those on board the Mavi Marmara is expected to be given a medal of valour, a move certain to inflame the row with Turkey over the attack on the flotilla.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Thursday the Irish boat would not be allowed to reach Gaza.
However, he has reportedly instructed the military to avoid harming the passengers on board the ship.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said their policy had not changed
“We have made it clear to the Irish and others, no ship will reach Gaza without a security inspection,” he said.
Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan said the group would offer no resistance if Israeli forces boarded their ship.
“We will sit down,” she said. “They wll probably arrest us ... But there will be no resistance.”
Yossi Gal, the director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said that if the ship diverted to Ashdod, all cargo with the exception of weapons or weapons components would be transferred to Gaza.
Israel has “no desire to board the ship,” said Mr Gal.
However Ms Corrigan said the activists would “not be diverted anywhere else.
“We head to Gaza in order to deliver the humanitarian aid and to break the siege of gaza,” she said.
Greta Berlin, a co-founder of the Free Gaza movement which is sponsoring the Rachel Corrie, said the activists were not impressed by Mr Netanyahu’s statments to Tony Blair, the UN Middle East envoy, that Israel would increase the amount and variety of goods which could enter Gaza by land.
“We do not trust Israel any more,” said Ms Berlin.
The former UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Denis Halliday, said that trade unions and government officials had already inspected the ship’s cargo.
“We are 100 percent confident that there is nothing that is offensive or dangerous,” he told Israel’s Channel 2 TV.
Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michael Martin, who had agreed with Israel that the ship should be diverted to Israel, said the two countries had agreed that the ship’s entire cargo, including 550 tonnes of cemenet, would have been transported to Gaza, accompanied by two activists from the Rachel Corrie.
“In my view, such an arrangement would have offered a useful precedent for future humanitarian shipments, pending the complete lifting of the blockade,” he said.
He also called on Israel to refrain from using force on the activists.
“If, as is their stated intention, the Israeli government intercepts the Rachel Corrie, the (Irish) government demands that it demonstrate every restraint,” he said in a statement.”There can be no justification for the use of force against any person on board the Rachel Corrie.”
International condemnation of Monday’s raid continued on Friday, with protests in Syria, Greece, Mauritania, Bahrain and Malaysia, where some demonstrators burned Israeli flags and carried mock coffins. In Norway, the military cancelled a seminar scheduled for later this month because an Israeli army officer was to have lectured.
Israel claims activists ambushed the Israeli commandos as they rappelled on board the Mavi Marmara from helicopters, and the military and Turkish TV have released videotape showing soldiers under attack. Returning activists admitted fighting with the Israeli commandos but insisted they acted in self defence because the ships were being boarded in international waters by a military force.
On Friday, the Israeli military released what it said was an edited radio exchange with the flotilla, captured from its own communications equipment, in which unidentified male voices were heard making anti-Semitic and anti-American comments. It was impossible to independently authenticate the tape, which the military said pieced together segments of exchanges.
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Islamic militants have refused to accept any aid from the Israeli-intercepted flotilla. “We are not seeking to fill our (bellies), we are looking to break the Israeli siege on Gaza,” he said.

[DrScreed]

Isreal is doing EXACTLY what it should be doing - bombing the hell out of them. Hopefully they're also clearly announcing the specific reason why they're doing it, because Hamas will NEVER let there be peace. The Israelis gave them the Gaza Strip, literally removed their own citizens from their homes and made them leave the area, just so there could be peace. SO what does Hamas do? They start launching rockets in appreciation.

The Israelis need to make it clear as day - TV, Radio, Internet - every way possible so that EVERYONE hears or sees it that every time Hamas hits them, that they're hitting back 100 times harder. EVERY TIME. Eventually the Palestinians will realize that they themselves need to get rid of Hamas if they expect to survive.

It's been known for a long time that the surrounding countries don't want the Palestinians on their land.


Exactly, well said and sing it from the rooftops!

Once again listen to some news on my two weeks of vacation, a Rep from Israel said we will continue until our citizens in the south are safe in their homes.

They said, we are doing what any other country would do to protect their people.

[Christopher]

They need to do this now while they have the unconditional support of the US Government. Who knows if Obama will support Israel? Who knows what this guy is going to do from moment to moment?

I heard Charles Krauthammer on FNC say that before the rocket attacks, someone calls all the Palestinians inside Israel where the rockets are targeted to warn them. Lovely. Palestinian civilians get a warning, Israeli civilians get bombed.

[DrScreed]

Defiant Hamas hits Israel with dozens of rockets

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writers Ibrahim Barzak And Jason Keyser, Associated Press Writers 54 mins ago
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Palestinian militants sent a deadly barrage of missiles flying deep into Israel on Monday, demonstrating that Hamas still had firepower three days into Israel's punishing air offensive in Gaza.
Four Israelis, including a soldier, were killed and eight wounded. Palestinian health officials put the three-day death toll in Gaza at 364; the U.N. said the total included at least 62 civilians.
In Monday's attacks, Israel focused its bombing on the houses of Hamas field operatives in a campaign meant to tear at the roots of the extremist group ruling Gaza. Israel's defense minister promised a "war to the bitter end against Hamas" and allied militants.
Early Tuesday, Israeli aircraft dropped at least 16 bombs on five Hamas government buildings in a Gaza City complex, destroying them, setting fires and sending rubble flying for hundreds of yards, witnesses said. Rescue workers said 40 people were injured.
Intensified rocket strikes by Gaza militants, which triggered the Israeli offensive, have revealed the expanding range of missiles that are making larger cities farther inside Israel vulnerable...


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians/print

Idiots

[travelinman]

To the point Christopher made, I think the timing of this is directly linked to the new administration taking power. By the time Obama is president, Israel will occupy Gaza.

[twila]

There were growing fears in Israel last night (01/01/2009) that Hamas missles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5430133.ece