Hamas military chief killed in Gaza air strike

[American Patriot]

Hamas military chief killed in Gaza air strike

Hamas has said an Israeli air strike in Gaza killed Ahmed Jabari, the head of its military wing, in an attack on a vehicle on Wednesday.

You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue.

By Barney Henderson, and agencies

2:42PM GMT 14 Nov 2012



The military wing of Hamas said in a statement that the assassination "has opened the gates of hell".

Israel's military said the strike was the "start of targetting Gaza militants", according to AFP.

Witnesses say Jabari was travelling in his vehicle in Gaza City when his car exploded.

Jabari is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago. He has long topped Israel's most-wanted list, the Associated Press reported.

Israeli officials had said in recent days that they were considering assassinating top Hamas officials following a wave of heavy rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Related Articles

• Palestinian leadership defies Obama on bid
  12 Nov 2012
• Israel to take 'whatever action necessary' to stop Gaza rocket fire
  12 Nov 2012
• Israel 'may launch ground invasion into Gaza'
  11 Nov 2012

Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence service confirmed it had carried out the attack, saying it had killed Jaabri because of his "decade-long terrorist activity".
"One citizen was killed and another moderately injured in a Zionist strike on a car in Gaza City," spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official said they may try to topple President Mahmoud Abbas if he carries out a plan to ask the United Nations this month to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority.
The upgrade would give the Palestinians a place in the world body akin to that of the Vatican – short of full membership as a sovereign state but as close as they can get without the full recognition that Israel says can only come from a peace treaty.
A draft document from the office of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, seen by Reuters, said Israel must confront this challenge by means that could include "toppling (Abbas) and dismantling the Palestinian Authority".
Lieberman said in a speech at the settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank that if the Palestinian upgrade request was accepted by the UN General Assembly – as is widely predicted – it could force Israel to punish the Palestinians.
"If the ... proposal is adopted at the United Nations General Assembly, as far as we are concerned this would be a complete breaking of the rules and it will elicit an extreme response from us," Lieberman said on Wednesday.
Newspaper reports say Israel instructed its ambassadors to warn it may revoke all or part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which set up the Palestinian Authority under an interim peace agreement.

[Malsua]

Aw, how sad. Now the gates of hell are opened. What ever shall we do?

[Ryan Ruck]

This was supposedly called "Operation: Pillar of Cloud". We all know what the other pillar is...

[American Patriot]

hehehehe

[American Patriot]

Well..... it's getting warm over there.

Israel's 'Iron Dome' reportedly intercepts 13 rockets from Gaza in wake of airstrike on Hamas commander

Published November 14, 2012

Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel killed the commander of the Hamas military wing in one of some 20 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip Wednesday, the worst barrage on the Palestinian territory in four years in retaliation for renewed rocket fire on southern Israel. Gaza's health minister said 10 people were killed, two of them young children.


The Israeli military said it was the beginning of a major offensive and warned that it could escalate with a ground attack.


Israeli military says "Iron Dome" defense system intercepts 13 rockets fired from Gaza.


"All options are on the table. If necessary, the (Israeli military) is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza," it said.


The killing of Ahmad Jabari marked a dramatic resumption of Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian militant leaders. He was the most senior Hamas official to be killed since the last war in Gaza ended in early 2009. He has long topped Israel's most-wanted list, blamed for a string of deadly attacks, including the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006.


The offensive followed a weekend exchange of rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel and Israeli airstrikes. Seven Palestinians were killed and several Israelis were wounded.


The military said its aircraft targeted more than 20 facilities that served as storage or launching sites for rockets. Among the weapons destroyed were rockets that could hit as far as 40 kilometers (25 miles) into Israel.


Plumes of black smoke wafted into Gaza City's skies following at least five airstrikes there. Sirens blared as people ran in panic in the streets and militants fired angrily into the air. Hamas police cordoned off the area around a hospital where at least one body from the strike was taken. It was draped in a white sheet, with a burnt leg poking out.
Gaza Health Minister Dr. Mufeed Mkhallalati said a total of 10 people were killed, including Jabari, and 45 wounded, 10 of them in critical condition. Among the dead were three civilians, including an 11-month-old and a 6-year-old.


Palestinians called for harsh retaliation. Hamas, which rules Gaza, announced a state of emergency in the territory. It evacuated all its security buildings.


Outside the hospital where Jabari's body was taken, Hamas official Khalil al-Haya eulogized the commander and threatened Israel.


"The battle between us and the occupation is open and it will end only with the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem," he said.


Thousands of angry Gazans chanted "Retaliation" and "We want you to hit Tel Aviv tonight."


Witnesses said Jabari was traveling in a vehicle in Gaza City when the car exploded. Crowds of people and security personnel rushed to the scene of the strike, trying to put out the fire that had engulfed the car and left it a charred shell. The Israeli military released a grainy, black-and-white video of the airstrike. It shows a sedan moving slowly along a road before exploding in a powerful blast that sent a large piece of the car flying into the air.


Fearing a long war in Gaza, Palestinians rushed to buy fuel, bread and other food supplies.


"We are working under fire to protect our people and to back the resistance," said Islam Shahwan, a Hamas interior ministry spokesman. "We have a full emergency plan that we are adopting now."


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with his senior Security Cabinet after sundown, officials said.


The chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said "at this stage" there are no plans for a ground offensive. "We're focusing on an air operation," he said.


The military said the assassination was just the beginning of an operation codenamed "Pillar of Defense."


"After a couple of days on ongoing rocket attacks toward Israeli civilians, the (Israeli military) chief of staff has authorized to open an operation against terror targets in the Gaza Strip," military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitch said.


She said Jabari had "a lot of blood of his hands" and that the military chief "authorized different targets" as well.


Advocates say targeted killings are an effective deterrent without the complications associated with a ground operation, chiefly civilian and Israeli troop casualties. Proponents argue they also prevent future attacks by removing their masterminds.


Critics say the killings invite retaliation by militants and encourage them to try to assassinate Israeli leaders. They complain that the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
Dovish Israeli lawmaker Dov Hanin condemned the killing.


"Assassinating leaders is never the solution. In place of the leaders killed, other will grow, and we will only get another cycle of fire and blood," he said.
During a wave of suicide bombings against Israel a decade ago, the country employed the tactic to eliminate the upper echelon of Hamas leadership. During that period, Israeli aircraft assassinated the previous commander of Hamas' military wing, Salah Shehadeh, the movement's founder and spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and dozens of other Hamas military commanders.
That set off a wave of criticism from rights groups and foreign governments, particularly the strike that killed Shehadeh -- a one-ton bomb that killed 14 other people, most of them children.
Israeli opposition leader Shaul Mofaz, a former chief of staff who has supported targeted killings, welcomed the strike.
"We need to continue this policy, to find them in every place," he told Israel's Army Radio. "Israel needs to determine the agenda, not Jabari."
Mofaz warned that Israelis should expect an escalation of violence in the coming days following the assassination.
Jabari was known in Israel as the man who accompanied Schalit when the high-profile prisoner swap took place last October. Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid from Gaza that killed two other soldiers, was swapped for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including more than 300 convicted killers.
Jabari, nicknamed Abu Mohammed, was born in 1960 in the eastern Gaza neighborhood of Shejaiya. In 2006, he became the acting commander of the military wing of Hamas after his predecessor, Muhammad Deif, was seriously wounded in an Israeli attack.
Jabari began as a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, but switched his allegiance to Hamas after serving 13 years in an Israeli prison.
He survived four previous attempts by Israel to kill him. In one attempt in 2004 his eldest son, his brother and three other relatives were killed.
He was said to have led the bloody 2007 takeover of Gaza from Fatah forces, developing Hamas's military arsenal and its networks in Iran, Sudan and Lebanon and for his planning of the Schalit kidnapping. Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron grip since then, and repeated attempts to reconcile with Fatah have failed.
The assassination threatened to further damage Israel's relations with Egypt, which is governed by Hamas' ideological counterpart, the Muslim Brotherhood.
On its official Facebook page, the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, called the assassination a "crime that requires a quick Arab and international response to stem these massacres against the besieged Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."
It accused Israel of trying to "drag the region toward instability."
Israel and Egypt signed a peace accord in 1979. Relations, never warm, have deteriorated since longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising last year.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11...#ixzz2CE6EeGSd

[American Patriot]

Looks like this thing is kicking up some dust over there.... and not a small amount of pink mist...

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11...uthern-israel/

More deaths reported as Israeli military, Gaza militants trade fire

Published November 15, 2012
FoxNews.com



JERUSALEM – Israel moved closer to an all-out ground war with Hamas Thursday, as Israeli planes, tanks and gunboats pounded suspected militant positions in Gaza in retaliation for another day of Hamas rocket attacks that left at least three Israelis dead.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Thursday that Israel could no longer stand repeated attacks on its southern towns. He said that Israel has "made it clear" it won't tolerate continued rocket fire on its civilians.


Earlier, Netanyahu had declared, "If there is a need, the military is prepared to expand the operation. We will continue to do everything to protect our citizens."


The casualties were the first since Israel launched its operation on Wednesday with the assassination of Hamas' top military commander.


Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two Israeli men and a woman died after a rocket struck their four-story apartment building in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi. A 4-year-old boy was seriously wounded and two babies slightly injured in the strike.


Since the Israeli operation started, a total of 15 Palestinians, including four civilians, have been killed and more than 100 people wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials. Among the dead were two children.


The operation, launched after days of rocket fire from the coastal territory, was Israel's most intense attack on Gaza since its full-scale war there four years ago.


The Israeli military said the some 20 airstrikes were part of a major offensive dubbed "Operation Pillar of Defense," according to a Reuters report.


Israeli officials said Wednesday that a ground invasion was a strong possibility in the coming days if Hamas didn't rein in the rocket fire. Mid-morning Thursday, there was no sign such an invasion might be beginning. But the Israeli military was cleared to call up special reserve units -- a sign the operation might broaden.


"The military will continue acting to establish deterrence against Hamas and to return the calm," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during a tour of southern Israel. He praised citizens for coping with the "tough moments to come."


Gaza schools were ordered closed until the operation ends, and most of the territory's 1.6 million people hunkered down close to home, venturing out only to buy food, fuel and other basic supplies.


Hamas announced a state of emergency in Gaza, evacuating all its security buildings and deploying its troops away from their locations.


Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on several locations in Gaza early Thursday, warning Gazans to stay away from Hamas, other militants and their facilities.


The Israeli military said Hamas fighters and other militant factions, undeterred by the air attacks, bombarded southern Israel with with at least 150 rockets after the operation began. Israel's newly deployed Iron Dome missile defense system, developed as a response to the short-range rockets from Gaza, intercepted two dozen of them, military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said.


Israel declared a state of emergency in the country's south, where more than 1 million Israelis live within rocket range, instructing people to remain close to fortified areas.


People living in areas along the frontier were ordered to stay home from work, save for essential services, and shopping centers were closed. Israeli police stepped up patrols around the country, fearing Hamas could retaliate with bombing attacks far from the reaches of Gaza.


Batya Katar, a resident of Sderot, a community that has been a frequent target of rocket fire, said streets were empty there.


"People won't be outside. The minute they assassinated the Hamas military chief we knew an offensive had begun. We were waiting for it, and it's about time they did it. We have the right to live like other countries in the world."


Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas cut short a trip to Europe to deal with the crisis surrounding Israel's military operation, according to Saeb Erekat, an aide to Abbas.
Erekat harshly condemned Israel's military operation, saying the Palestinians "hold Israel fully responsible for the consequences of this act of aggression."


Few in the Palestinian territory's largest urban area, Gaza City, came out following the call for dawn prayers on Thursday, and the only vehicles plying the streets were ambulances and media cars.


About 400 angry mourners braved the streets, however, to bury Hamas mastermind Ahmed Jabari, whose body was draped in the green flag of the Islamic militant Hamas movement. Some fired guns in the air and chanted, "God is Great, the revenge is coming."


When the body was brought into a mosque for funeral prayers, some tried to touch or kiss it. Others cried. Jabari was the most senior Hamas official to be killed since the last war in Gaza ended in early 2009. He has long topped Israel's most-wanted list, blamed for a string of deadly attacks, including the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006.


The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted more than 20 facilities that served as storage or launching sites for rockets. Among the weapons destroyed were rockets that could hit as far as 25 miles into Israel.


The conflict has deepened the instability gripping the Middle East. Cairo recalled its ambassador in response to the military operation, which began just days after Israel was drawn into Syria's civil war for the first time.


In a statement read on state TV late Wednesday, spokesman Yasser Ali said that President Mohammed Morsi recalled the ambassador and asked the Arab League's Secretary General to convene an emergency ministerial meeting in the wake of the Gaza violence.


Israel and Egypt signed a peace accord in 1979. Relations, never warm, have deteriorated since longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising last year.


Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton late Wednesday, asking for "immediate U.S. intervention to stop the Israeli aggression," the ministry said in a statement.


Amr told Clinton that if Israel's offensive does not stop, "matters will escalate out of control" and asked the U.S. "to use what contacts it has with Israel."


In Washington, the United States lined up behind Israel. "We support Israel's right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.


Spokesman Jay Carney says there is "no justification" for the violence perpetrated by Hamas and other terrorist organizations. And he called on those responsible to immediately stop the "cowardly acts."


President Obama spoke with Netanyahu and the two men agreed Hamas needs to stop its attacks on Israel to allow tensions to ease, the White House said.


Obama spoke separately to Morsi, given Egypt's central role in preserving regional security, the White House said. The two men agreed on the need to de-escalate the conflict as quickly as possible.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for calm and urged both sides to respect international humanitarian law.


On Wednesday night, the U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors to consider an Egyptian request for an emergency meeting on Israel's military action in Gaza. The Palestinians asked the council to act to stop the operation.


For the past four years, Israel and Hamas have largely observed an informal truce. But in recent weeks, the calm has unraveled in a bout of rocket attacks from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes. From Israel's perspective, Hamas escalated the situation with two specific attacks in recent days: an explosion in a tunnel along the Israeli border and a missile attack on an Israeli military jeep that seriously wounded four soldiers.


Outside the hospital where Jabari's body was taken, Hamas official Khalil al-Haya eulogized the commander and threatened Israel.


"The battle between us and the occupation is open and it will end only with the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem," he said.


Thousands of angry Gazans chanted "Retaliation" and "We want you to hit Tel Aviv tonight."


Witnesses said Jabari was traveling in a vehicle in Gaza City when the car exploded. Crowds of people and security personnel rushed to the scene of the strike, trying to put out the fire that had engulfed the car and left it a charred shell. The Israeli military released a grainy, black-and-white video of the airstrike. It shows a sedan moving slowly along a road before exploding in a powerful blast that sent a large piece of the car flying into the air.


Dovish Israeli lawmaker Dov Hanin condemned the killing.


"Assassinating leaders is never the solution. In place of the leaders killed, others will grow, and we will only get another cycle of fire and blood," he said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11...#ixzz2CJMsAHik

[Ryan Ruck]

I forgot to mention yesterday... When watching the video of the baddie's car get blown up, I laughed. I love watching bad guys blow up.

[American Patriot]

Hahahaha

[American Patriot]

KT McFarland is saying "Within a year" Israel will be at war with someone....

[American Patriot]

CBS/AP/ November 15, 2012, 12:45 PM
Explosion heard in Tel Aviv as Gaza clashes mount

JERUSALEMPalestinian militants barraged Israel with nearly 150 rockets on Thursday, killing three people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant targets across the Gaza Strip. Three rockets struck the densely populated Tel Aviv area, and air raid sirens blared in the city as night fell.

The fighting, which has also killed 15 Palestinians in two days, showed no signs of slowing after dark. The attacks in the Tel Aviv area, some of the deepest rocket strikes on record, raised the likelihood of an even tougher Israeli response. Gaza militants launched the rocket barrage in retaliation for Israel's killing of the Hamas military chief in an airstrike on Gaza Wednesday.

• 3 Israelis killed in rocket fire from Gaza

Israeli Channel 2 TV showed panicked Tel Aviv residents running for cover and lying down on the ground after the air-raid sirens began sounding. The military said two rockets had been fired at the city, and residents heard an explosion. But there was no word on where they landed or reports of injuries.
An Israeli Army spokesman says nothing landed on the ground, raising the possibility it fell in the sea, CBS Radio News' Robert Berger reports from Jerusalem.

Earlier in the day, a third rocket landed in an open area of Rishon Lezion, a city on Tel Aviv's southern outskirts, but there were no casualties.

Any attempt to disrupt life in Israel's business and cultural capital would mark a significant escalation by Gaza militants.
Defense officials say Israel is prepared to launch a ground invasion into Gaza if necessary. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army was prepared for a "significant widening" of its Gaza offensive.

"No government would tolerate a situation where nearly a fifth of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire, and Israel will not tolerate this situation," he said. "This is why my government has instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to conduct surgical strikes against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. And this is why Israel will continue to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people."

The fighting, the heaviest in four years, has brought life to a standstill on both sides of the border, with schools canceled and people huddled indoors.

24 Photos
Israel, Palestinians in deadly clashes

Play Video
New airstrikes kill at least three in Gaza

Play Video
Watch: Israeli Defense Forces pinpoint strike on Hamas leader


Israel and Hamas have largely observed an informal truce for the past four years. But in recent weeks, the calm unraveled in a bout of rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.

From Israel's perspective, Hamas escalated tit-for-tat fighting in recent days with a pair of attacks: an explosion in a tunnel along the Israeli border and a missile attack on an Israeli military jeep that seriously wounded four soldiers.

Israeli officials say they have not yet decided on whether to launch a ground invasion in Gaza, and it's not clear what would trigger it. But a strike on Tel Aviv itself, Israel's commercial and cultural capital, would mark a significant escalation.

While southern Israeli areas near Gaza have long coped with rocket fire, the attacks on the Tel Aviv area illustrated the significant capabilities that Hamas militants have developed. Gaza militants had previously hit Rishon Lezion before but never reached Tel Aviv, roughly 70 kilometers, or 50 miles, north of the strip.

Israel launched the offensive on Wednesday, killing the head of Hamas' militant wing and destroying dozens of rocket launchers. Israel has made special efforts to destroy launchers for Hamas' Iranian-made "Fajr" rockets, which are believed capable of flying even deeper into Israel.

Israel's military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said the air operation has delivered a "strong blow" to militants' launching sites.

In all, 15 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 200 wounded in fighting on Wednesday and Thursday. Three Israelis were killed earlier Thursday when a rocket struck an apartment building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi. The Israeli military says three soldiers were wounded in a separate rocket attack.

The military said its air campaign has hit 230 targets across Gaza, and its "Iron Dome" rocket defense system has intercepted some 90 incoming rockets.

Still, Palestinian militants continued to launch rockets into Israel throughout the day.

[American Patriot]

Gaza conflict: rockets hit Tel Aviv

Palestinian militants have barraged Israel with nearly 150 rockets, with three striking the densely populated Tel Aviv area for the first time.

A smoke trail is seen as a rocket is launched from the northern Gaza Strip Photo: REUTERS/Nir Elias









6:34PM GMT 15 Nov 2012


The fighting, which has also killed 15 Palestinians in two days, showed no signs of slowing after dark. The attacks in the Tel Aviv area, some of the deepest rocket strikes on record, raised the likelihood of an even tougher Israeli response.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, said that militants would be made to pay for firing rockets towards the city.

"This escalation will exact a price that the other side will have to pay," Mr Barak said.

An Israeli security source said one rocket, which triggered air raid sirens in Tel Aviv, landed in the sea. The military said another rocket fired at central Israel struck an uninhabited area in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion.

Gaza militants launched the rocket barrage in retaliation for Israel's killing of the Hamas military chief in an air strike on Gaza Wednesday.

Related Articles

• Israeli airstrikes on Gaza: latest
  15 Nov 2012
• Israelis and Palestinians in first Twitter war
  15 Nov 2012
• Gaza: Children and militants are buried as conflict grows
  15 Nov 2012
• Iron Dome shield restricts Israeli casualties
  15 Nov 2012
• Baby son of BBC worker killed in Gaza strike
  15 Nov 2012
• Gaza toll rises as UN calls for end to the bloodshed
  15 Nov 2012

Israeli Channel 2 TV showed panicked Tel Aviv residents running for cover and lying down on the ground after the air-raid sirens began sounding.
Any attempt to disrupt life in Israel's business and cultural capital would mark a significant escalation by Gaza militants.
Defence officials say Israel is prepared to launch a ground invasion into Gaza if necessary. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army was prepared for a "significant widening" of its Gaza offensive.
"No government would tolerate a situation where nearly a fifth of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire, and Israel will not tolerate this situation," he said. "This is why my government has instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to conduct surgical strikes against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. And this is why Israel will continue to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people."
The fighting, the heaviest in four years, has brought life to a standstill on both sides of the border, with schools cancelled and people huddled indoors.
Israel and Hamas have largely observed an informal truce for the past four years. But in recent weeks, the calm unravelled in a bout of rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli air strikes.
From Israel's perspective, Hamas escalated tit-for-tat fighting in recent days with a pair of attacks: an explosion in a tunnel along the Israeli border and a missile attack on an Israeli military jeep that seriously wounded four soldiers.
Israeli officials say they have not yet decided on whether to launch a ground invasion in Gaza, and it's not clear what would trigger it. But a strike on Tel Aviv itself, Israel's commercial and cultural capital, would mark a significant escalation.
While southern Israeli areas near Gaza have long coped with rocket fire, the attacks on the Tel Aviv area illustrated the significant capabilities that Hamas militants have developed. Gaza militants had previously hit Rishon Lezion before but never reached Tel Aviv, roughly 50 miles north of the strip.
Israel launched the offensive on Wednesday, killing the head of Hamas' militant wing and destroying dozens of rocket launchers. Israel has made special efforts to destroy launchers for Hamas' Iranian-made "Fajr" rockets, which are believed capable of flying even deeper into Israel.
Israel's military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said the air operation has delivered a "strong blow" to militants' launching sites.
In all, 15 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 200 wounded in fighting on Wednesday and Thursday. Three Israelis were killed earlier Thursday when a rocket struck an apartment building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi. The Israeli military says three soldiers were wounded in a separate rocket attack.
The military said its air campaign has hit 230 targets across Gaza, and its "Iron Dome" rocket defence system has intercepted some 90 incoming rockets.
Still, Palestinian militants continued to launch rockets into Israel throughout the day.

[Ryan Ruck]

Just heard on Rush's show that the okay has been given for the call-up of 30k Israeli reservists.

[American Patriot]

All I can say is "incoming!"


It's going to kick up in the next few hours, if at all.

[vector7]

'Gates of hell' threat as Israel strikes

1:43 PM Thursday Nov 15, 2012

Israel carried out a blistering offensive of more than 50 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip today, assassinating Hamas' military commander and targeting the armed group's training facilities and rocket launchers in Israel's most intense attack on the territory in nearly four years.

Israel said the airstrikes, launched in response to days of rocket fire out of Hamas-ruled Gaza, were the beginning of a broader operation against the Islamic militants codenamed "Pillar of Defense." Israeli defense officials said a ground operation was a strong possibility in the coming days though they stressed no decisions had been made and much would depend on Hamas' reaction. There were no immediate signs of extraordinary troop deployments along the border.


The attack came at a time when Israel seems to be under fire from all directions. Relations have been deteriorating with Egypt's new Islamist government, Egypt's lawless Sinai desert has become a staging ground for militant attacks on Israel, and the Syrian civil war has begun to spill over Israel's northern border. Earlier this week, Israel fired back at Syria - for the first time in nearly 40 years - after stray mortar fire landed in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

With at least 10 Palestinians dead, including two young children, Wednesday's (local time) offensive was certain to set off a new round of heavy fighting with Gaza militants, who have built up a formidable arsenal of rockets and missiles.
It also threatened to upset Israel's relations with neighboring Egypt and shake up the campaign for Israeli elections in January. In a preliminary response, Egypt recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest.

In a nationwide address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel could no longer stand repeated attacks on its southern towns. Days of rocket fire have heavily disrupted life for some 1 million people in the region, canceling school and forcing residents to remain indoors.

"If there is a need, the military is prepared to expand the operation. We will continue to do everything to protect our citizens," Netanyahu declared.

The Israeli military said it was ready, if necessary, to send ground troops into Gaza. The defense officials who said a ground operation was likely in the coming days spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive military plans.

"We are at the beginning of the event, and not the end," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, in a joint appearance with the prime minister. "In the long run I believe the operation will help strengthen the power of deterrence and to return quiet to the south." In a sign that the operation was expected to broaden, the military was cleared to call up reserve units.

Residents in both Israel and Gaza braced for prolonged violence. Gazans rushed to stock up on food and fuel. After nightfall, streets were empty as the sounds of Israeli warplanes and explosions of airstrikes could be heard in the distance.

Israel declared a state of emergency in its south and canceled school across the area for Thursday. Calling it a "special situation," Barak sought permission to call up special reserve units for the operations. Israeli police stepped up patrols around the country, fearing that Hamas could retaliate with bombing attacks far from the reaches of Gaza.

Hamas has in the past staged dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis and while its capabilities to do so today have been curtailed by Israeli and Palestinian crackdowns, it still has a network in the West Bank.

More than 65 rockets landed in southern Israel late Wednesday. One projectile struck a shopping mall in the southern city of Beersheba, causing heavy damage but no casualties, police said.

The Israeli military said 25 rockets were intercepted by the "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system. Israeli media said the rockets had been headed toward Beersheba. Israeli aircraft continued to pound Gaza into the night with some 50 airstrikes, with no reports of casualties.

The deadly attack on Hamas mastermind Ahmed Jabari marked the resumption of Israel's policy of "targeted killings," or assassinations of senior Hamas men. Israel has refrained from such attacks, which have drawn international condemnations, since a fierce three-week offensive in Gaza that ended in January 2009.

The earlier Gaza offensive killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians. Israel has blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian casualties, accusing the group of using schools and residential neighborhoods as cover.

Nonetheless, Israel was harshly criticized internationally for the heavy civilian death toll.

Jabari was the most senior Hamas official to be killed since that war. He had long topped Israel's most-wanted list, blamed for masterminding a string of deadly attacks that including a bold, cross-border kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in 2006. He also was believed to be a key player in Hamas' takeover of Gaza in 2007 from a rival Palestinian faction, the Western-backed Fatah movement.

"I would call him the No. 1 terrorist in the Gaza Strip, whose hands are stained with blood," said Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, Israel's chief military spokesman.

Israel and Hamas have largely observed an informal truce for the past four years.

But in recent weeks, the calm has unraveled in a bout of rocket attacks out of Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.

From Israel's perspective, Hamas escalated tit-for-tat fighting in recent days with a pair of attacks: an explosion in a tunnel along the Israeli border and a missile attack on an Israeli military jeep that seriously wounded four soldiers.

Israeli defense officials warned earlier this week that they were considering resuming the assassination policy.

Even so, the Jabari killing, carried out in broad daylight, was shocking. Hamas officials had brushed off the Israeli threats, illustrated by Jabari's decision to drive in public. Hamas leaders typically go into hiding at times of rising tensions. Over the past two days, the fighting had shown signs of petering out as Egyptian mediators tried to broker a truce.

The Israeli military released a black-and-white video of the airstrike, showing a sedan moving slowly along a road before going up in flames in an explosion so powerful that a large chunk of the vehicle flew high into the air.

Crowds of people and security personnel rushed to the scene of the strike, trying to put out the fire that had engulfed the car and left it a charred shell. Plumes of black smoke wafted into Gaza City's skies following other airstrikes. Ambulance sirens blared as people ran in panic in the streets and militants fired angrily into the air.

The Israeli military also released footage of its strikes against weapons depots and rocket-launching grounds. Barak said these airstrikes hit "terror infrastructure" and launchers used to fire Iranian-made Fajr rockets. The rockets, capable of reaching Tel Aviv, are among Hamas' most powerful weapons.

The military said it hit dozens of medium-range rocket launch sites, many of which are located in residential buildings, military officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation. The military also said the navy was striking Hamas targets located by the shore. Hamas denied that any of its weapons stores were hit.

Hamas announced a state of emergency in Gaza. It evacuated all its security buildings and deployed its troops away from their locations.

Outside the hospital where Jabari's body was taken, thousands of Gazans chanted "Retaliation!" and "We want you to hit Tel Aviv tonight!"

"I was sitting on my bed with my grandson when suddenly the wall collapsed on both of our heads," said Mahmoud Bana, a 62-year-old man who was slightly wounded along with his 11-year-old grandson. "We don't know what happened but we know it is going to be a few hard days ahead."

In a statement, Hamas' prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, eulogized Jabari and vowed revenge.

"We mourn our late leader who walked the path of jihad while he knew the end, either victory or martyrdom," Haniyeh said. "There is no fear among our people and our resistance, and we will face this vicious attack."

The airstrike bore many similarities to the start of Israel's previous offensive in December 2008. That operation also began with an air raid on Hamas buildings, and also took place in between American presidential elections and Israeli parliamentary elections.

Hamas accused Netanyahu of launching Wednesday's operation to win votes in the Jan. 22 parliamentary election. But major Israeli parties, including the dovish opposition, all lined up behind Netanyahu.

Still, the region has changed greatly over the past four years. Most critically for Israel, Egypt is now governed by Hamas' ideological counterpart, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace accord in 1979. Relations, never warm, have deteriorated since longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising last year. The assassination threatened to further damage those fraying ties.

On its official Facebook page, the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, called Jabari's assassination a "crime that requires a quick Arab and international response to stem these massacres against the besieged Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."

It accused Israel of trying to "drag the region toward instability."

In Washington, the United States lined up behind Israel. "We support Israel's right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. He denounced Hamas rocket attacks.
Netanyahu spoke to Obama and thanked him for the support, said a statement from his office.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for calm and urged both sides to respect international humanitarian law.
On Wednesday night (local time), the U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors to consider an Egyptian request for an emergency meeting on Israel's military action in Gaza.

Israel's use of targeted killings is one of the most contentious policies used against militants.

Advocates say targeted killings are an effective deterrent without the complications associated with a ground operation, chiefly civilian and Israeli troop casualties. Proponents argue they also prevent future attacks by removing their masterminds.

Critics say the killings invite retaliation by militants and encourage them to try to assassinate Israeli leaders. They complain that the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.

During a wave of suicide bombings against Israel a decade ago, the country employed the tactic to eliminate the upper echelon of Hamas leadership.

During that period, Israeli aircraft assassinated the previous commander of Hamas' military wing, Salah Shehadeh, the movement's founder and spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and dozens of other Hamas military commanders.

The practice set off a wave of criticism from rights groups and foreign governments, particularly the strike that killed Shehadeh - a one-ton bomb that killed 14 other people, most of them children.

Pro-Palestinian groups have attempted, unsuccessfully, to arrest Israeli officials involved in the Shehadeh killing on war crimes charges. While charges have never been filed, fears of arrest have forced a number of Israeli officials to cancel travel to Europe over the years.

- AP

[vector7]

This could be the spark to ignite many things.

[vector7]

Obama Quietly Removes HAMAS Terrorist Muhammad Salah From Terrorist List; May Get $1.4 Million in HAMAS/Qaeda Funds

While Israel is forced, today, to defend its innocent civilians against hundreds of rockets in the non-stop war perpetrated by HAMAS, another HAMAS war is being won in America with the help of Barack Obama. On November 5th, the day before Election Day, Obama quietly removed HAMAS terrorist and Chicago resident Muhammad Salah from the Treasury Department Terrorist List. Salah was the conduit for Al-Qaeda financing of HAMAS. Salah sued the Department of Treasury in September, and when the answer to the lawsuit was due, the Obama administration chose to remove Salah from the terrorist list, rather than fight for what’s right. You cannot say much better for the Bush administration, which protected Salah every step of the way.

Federal agents and the lawyer for the Boim family, whose son was murdered by HAMAS, didn’t know this was being done. And they are all outraged that this Islamic terrorist–who shouldn’t be walking free on American streets–is not only free, but now is no longer designated as an Islamic terrorist, which means he’s free to go about his business. Muslims are gloating.

Salah was convicted of funding HAMAS in Israel in 1993, after Israeli authorities found $95,000, which he admitted he was transporting to HAMAS, in his Jerusalem hotel room. He pleaded guilty and then spent four-and-a-half years in an Israeli prison, and America’s Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control put Salah on its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). This should have meant that Salah was not allowed back into the U.S. or that he served time in our prisons, as well. But it only meant that Salah would have difficulty getting a mortgage, opening a bank account, or getting a job without the government’s permission (permission that they rarely withheld). And HAMAS terrorist Salah walked America’s streets–the streets of Chicago, in his case–freely. Later, Salah was convicted of lying under oath in a lawsuit filed against him, the Holy Land Foundation, and other HAMAS terrorists and financiers. The lawsuit was filed by the family of David Boim, a 17-year-old American murdered by HAMAS. The Boims won a $156 million judgment against several of the parties, and at least one of the parties was founded by HAMAS CAIR chief, Nihad Awad.

While Salah was sentenced to 21 days in prison for his perjury and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and do 100 hours of community service, in the end, he got away with his HAMAS terrorist-financing activity. Idiotic Federal Judge Amy St. Eve even allowed him to vacation at Disney World. I spoke with the Boim family’s attorney, Nat Lewin, today. He did not know that Salah was taken off the terrorist list. I asked him about $1.4 million the government had also seized from Salah–money that came from Al-Qaeda and was earmarked for HAMAS (more on that, below)–and whether that money was taken from him to pay the judgment the Boims obtained. Lewin told me no and that Judge Richard Posner had somehow excused Salah from responsibility in the case.

I wrote about Salah back in 2004 in the New York Post (a longer version of which appears here), when I wrote about the FBI’s persecution and attempted firing of FBI agent Robert Wright, who had investigated Salah in the 1990s as part of a network of HAMAS and Al-Qaeda financiers, most of them in the United States. The operation was known as “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.”

Wright and former FBI agent John Vincent appeared on ABC News to discuss their outrage, after 9/11, that designated Islamic terrorists like Salah were still walking free in America, and the Bush administration refused to do anything about it. Salah was actually working as a college professor in the Chicago area, despite the fact that Wright and Vincent had gotten the government to seize $1.4 million from Salah which was given to him by major Al-Qaeda banker Yassin Al-Qadi (he’s also a designated terrorist), apparently to give to HAMAS.

Because Wright spoke out, he was endlessly harassed and persecuted by FBI brass, who tried to fire him. He begged for Operation Vulgar Betrayal to be re-opened because it involved Al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists in America, just as America was attacked and 3,000 Americans were murdered by Al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. Wright’s investigations documented not only the terrorist money-laundering activities of Hamas political director Musa Abu Marzook and the Holy Land Foundation, now shut down for financing Hamas terrorism, but also the fact that Al-Qaeda was financing all of this. By investigating US companies like BMI, Wright uncovered the financial links between Hamas funding and Al Qaeda banker Yassin Al-Qadi, now a U.S. “Designated Terrorist”. Wright’s efforts resulted in the “global terrorist” designation of Muhammad Salah. But Wright’s investigations would “embarrass the Saudis” he was told by FBI brass who laughed at him, as I noted back in 2004. He was told to let sleeping dogs lie.

Justice Dept. officials tried to return $1.4 million Wright had seized and return it to Salah. Hamas political director Marzook was indicted on December 18, 2002 — only after the FBI learned Agent Wright would appear the next night on ABC’s “PrimeTime” to complain about Marzook and Salah. The Bush administration deported Marzook to safety in the Middle East, despite Wright’s insistence on keeping him in custody for prosecution. Marzook still lives freely in terror-host Syria, evading extradition. In retribution for Bob Wright’s public outcry about this, the FBI began an investigation of Bob Wright, and they instructed FBI Internal Affairs Unit Chief John Roberts to lie about it and create trumped-up allegations of misconduct, according to a letter Roberts wrote. In it, Roberts said that FBI Director Robert Mueller was in on the whole thing.

Because the FBI refused to reopen the Operation Vulgar Betrayal, the US Attorney’s office had no choice but to negotiate the return of the terror funds back to the terrorist–the $1.4 million back to Muhammad Salah. However, following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago held on to the money. If the 9/11 attacks had not happened, the $1.4 million was going to be returned to Salah during October 2001 because of the FBI’s refusal to reopen the Vulgar Betrayal case. The FBI would not work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to continue with the forfeiture process of the terror funds. Even after 9/11, the FBI refused to reopen the Salah case and only did so after Bob Wright went public in 2002.

The Boims should have received that money. And no one knows what has happened to it.

Now that Barack Obama has officially removed Muhammad Salah from the terrorist list, look for him to try to get back the illicit Al-Qaeda/HAMAS funds. Now there is nothing to stop him.

Thanks, Barack.