Israeli-Arab War

[American Patriot]

Has anyone been following the news in Israel and the Gaza Strip the last few days?

[American Patriot]

Israeli Forces Launch Attacks in Gaza

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By IBRAHIM BARZAK Associated Press Writer

June 28,2006 | RAFAH, Gaza Strip --

Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday after Israel sent in troops and tanks, and bombarded bridges and a power station to pressure militants to release a captured soldier.

[American Patriot]

Middle East

Times Online June 28, 2006

Analysis: hopes amid the Gaza turmoil



Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor of The Times, says that even as Israeli tanks rumble into Gaza, yesterday's deal between the Palestinian factions has improved the prospects of peace

Yesterday Hamas signed a document implicitly accepting a two state solution. So has Hamas recognised Israel now?

No. The document envisages the creation of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day war, i.e. the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Hamas insists that does not mean it recognises Israel. Nevertheless, by extension that is exactly what the agreement implies.

What will this mean for the Palestinian authority and all the funds being withheld?

If we were not embroiled in a major crisis it would be fantastic news and the first concrete evidence that Hamas is changing its position. It could unlock many doors, including the first step towards recognition of the Hamas government by the West and the freeing up of funds for the Palestinian Administration. But the agreement will be meaningless if the fate of the captured Israeli soldier Corporal Giland Shalit is not resolved peacefully. If he is killed by his captors all bets are off and there is every chance the situation will escalate seriously in the region.

How will the Israeli incursion into Gaza affect prospects of a deal?

The Israeli military operation will probably have the effect of uniting Fatah and Hamas against what they regard as a common foe. The point of the deal is to create a unity government between Hamas and Fatah. But if Israel attacks and targets Hamas leaders then the movement may be forced underground and any hopes of Hamas emerging as a responsible civilian government will be lost.

What is Israel's strategy with the incursion? How might events play out?

Israel's incursion has several aims. It hopes that the show of force will increase pressure on Hamas and by extension those holding the captured soldier and demonstrate what will happen if he is killed. The military presence is also intended to make it that much harder for the kidnappers to move their captive around and prevent them smuggling him out of Gaza in Egypt. The plan is to gradually step up this pressure while privately pursuing negotiations. The Israelis insist that they will not accept a prisoner swap. But there are many precedents for this. If Olmert can clinch a deal I am sure he will grab it. If that happens then there are real possibilities of any improved atmosphere in the Middle East. If the deal collapses and the soldier is killed, Israel will seek revenge.

[American Patriot]

Gilad Shalit Reproduction photo: Hagai Aharon



IDF commander: Hidden aspects in Gaza operation

Southern command chief refers to other operations aimed at freeing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit; 'unfortunately, our response may cause Gaza residents to suffer as well, but our operations are concrete against terror infrastructures,' he says
Hanan Greenberg


While the Israel Defense Forces' Operation Summer Rains continued, Southern Command Chief Major-General Yoav Galant said that other concealed operations are also being carried out as part of the effort to return kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.



"This operation has hidden and known aspects, which is characteristic of such events," Galant said upon arriving Wednesday afternoon at an area near Kibbutz Mefalsim, where the Israel Defense Forces gathered ahead of entering the Strip as part of the operation.



* Gaza kidnapping - full coverage (http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-4244,00.html)


"There are things that the media is not aware of. I can only promise that we will do everything it takes in order to return Gilad home. He is now inside the Gaza Strip. All the forces brought here were no brought for nothing," the commander said, adding that he cannot elaborate on new information regarding the abducted soldier.


Southern Command chief talks to reporters (Photo: Tzafrir Abayov)

The IDF operation in the Gaza Strip continued Wednesday. In the afternoon, Palestinians reported that the Israel Air Force struck a Hamas post in the southern Gaza Strip, near Rafah. There were also reports on a Hamas manufacturing lathe-shop which was hit in the area.



Since the forces entered the southern Strip, soldiers have also been searching for underground tunnels. Military sources reported that so far, gunmen in the area have not been resisting the operation, apart from an anti-tank missile being fired in the morning hours.



'Overall effort'


The forces north of the Strip are still waiting for a green light to enter Gaza.


Galant also referred to the entry of IDF soldiers into the Dahaniya area in the southern Gaza Strip Tuesday night, explaining that this place was not randomly chosen as the first point of entry, as it is close to the post from which Shalit was kidnapped.


"It also enables us to control the Rafah crossing and what is happening in it, as well as carry out other operations. This is only one dimension of our overall effort," he said.


IDF soldiers near southern Gaza Strip (Photo: Yaron Brenner)


Referring to the scenario according to which Palestinian civilians may be hurt during the IDF operation, Galant said: "The Palestinian
Authority, headed by the Hamas-led government, is a terror government with a very clear agenda of eliminating the State of Israel. Operations have begun recently in a bid to hurt civilians and IDF soldiers. Unfortunately, civilians in the Strip may also suffer, but our operations are concrete against operational terror infrastructures and are aimed at preventing the soldier's kidnappers from moving."


Upon the start of the operation in Gaza to release the abducted soldier, a possibility was raised that the operation would also be used to fight Qassam launching cells.


Referring to this possibility, the commander said: "The mission to return the soldier is the most important. Nonetheless, the IDF also has a duty to protect the residents and citizens of Israel. We will not accept a reality in which one side fires and hurts civilians and soldiers, and this issue has no price."


Galant noted that no negotiations are being held with the terror organizations holding the soldiers, demanding that those holding information provide it.


Asked what will happen when the soldier is returned to Israel, Galant answered: "Calm will be answered with calm, while an attack on us will be answered with an attack which will be 100 times worse against the other side."



(06.28.06, 17:07)

[American Patriot]

Here's one of the terrorists now....

[Sean Osborne]

Has anyone been following the news in Israel and the Gaza Strip the last few days?

Like a hawk, Rick, like a hawk. And since before Sgt. Gilad Shalit was abducted, long before. I have been watching the entire Sinai for well over a year.

They knew some specific terrorist action was imminent and that it would involve HAMAS and AQ in the very area where Sgt. Shalits abduction occured. They knew the airport was the launch point. Their security and force protection profile was obviously not what is should have been given the specific intelligence they had prior to this attack.

Unfortunately, Sgt. Shalit may not survive this ordeal.

Much more intense fighting is coming.

[American Patriot]

I think he's probably already been killed.... and when the attack occurred, I'm sure Hamas decided to kill him outright and run, rather than be caught with the gun in hand.

[Brykovian]

There is a live-blog of the events here:
http://www.vitalperspective.com

-Bryk

[Sean Osborne]

Israel warplanes overflew the Latakia home of Syrian President Bashar Assad today. This is a very significant development. Assad was in the house at the time. The message conveyed is crystal clear.

Israel now has the opportunity to annihilate HAMAS and AQ within the Gaza strip. Failure to do so could collapse the current Israeli government and PM Olmert's leadership of it.

So what else needs to be said?

What is the Hebrew equivilent of Git"R"Done ??

[Bastastic]

I hope Israel destroys HAMMAS and AQ and everything they stand for. Those coward bastards deserve everything the Israeli troops throw at them. The whole "Road Map for Peace" crap was a joke from the beginning and Condoleezza Rice's "Give diplomacy a chance” got even a bigger laugh from me. Its time for the extinction of the HAMMAS, AQ, and every other pathetic Islamic militants out there. Irsrael's action is long overdue, imo.

[American Patriot]

Reporter's Notebook: On the Ground in Gaza
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
By Mike Tobin


GAZA STRIP — For the first time since Israel pulled out of the Gaza strip and ended the 38-year occupation, troops are back. After the daily exchanges of Rocket fire and air strikes, gunmen in a joint operation led by Hamas managed to dig a tunnel, climb through to the Israeli side of the Gaza fence and kidnap Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli tank gunner.

Politically, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could not take a humiliation like this at the hands of Hamas. The pictures of Cpl. Shalit have been on the front page of every newspaper. The public outcry was so great no one — not even form the Israeli left — dared mention that Israel use the gentle touch attempting to win the release of this soldier.

Troops massed along the Gaza Border 3,000 strong. Under tremendous pressure from the world community to "show restraint," Olmert waited to see if there was a way to talk this corporal out.

CountryWatch: Israel

But time quickly expired.

I think somewhere around 10:00 p.m., I was in our Gaza office and I got a call from Eli Fastman, our bureau chief. His contacts told him, "It’s D-Day." Whatever was going to come from the anticipated Israeli offensive was coming.

As soon as I hung up the phone with Eli I could hear the wind-like sound of an F-16 over Gaza at high altitude. Within minutes jet engines roared, backed up by the sound of propellers from Israeli drones. The sound of the aircraft would fill the sky then fade away. The music from a wedding across the street stopped and the streets emptied. Hundreds of Hamas gunmen took up positions armed with rifles and RPG’s. They put homemade bombs into the ground and in a futile effort they hid behind sand berms, which they hoped would slow an Israeli advance. The silence between the over flights was eerie — like watching someone in a horror movie walk into the abandoned house. You knew something violent was going to happen. It was just a matter of time.

The first air strikes took out bridges on the main roads that connect the Gaza strip from the North to the South. Gaza city was disconnected from the rest of the strip. Israel said the reason for those strikes was to make it difficult for kidnappers to move the kidnapped corporal around.

Israeli missiles also went into the power plant erupting in a great ball of flames and plunging the Gaza strip into darkness. There is no real military gain from taking out the power plant but it reveals the clear focus of the Israeli strategy: to increase the misery index for all the people in Gaza and therefore put pressure on the Palestinian government to do something about the kidnapped soldier.

Sometime after 1:00 a.m. local time Israeli armor and troops crossed the border into the south of the Gaza Strip. Despite the gunmen we saw in the streets of Northern Gaza, Israeli forces encountered no resistance. Knowing any attack would be suicide, Palestinian gunmen elected to hide and fight another day.

Israeli forces took up position in the inoperable Gaza airport and surrounded the town of Rafah on the Southern border where it is suspected that the corporal is being held. Then they stopped.

If they can avoid it, Israel will choose not to go in to Rafah and fight in the crowded ghetto streets. The last time they picked a fight on tight streets was in the West Bank town of Jenin. The result was significant loss of life on both sides. Palestinians have the ability to set booby traps and take up position with a home field advantage in such an environment.

So it appears now Israel will wait for something from the Palestinians. They will wait for the kidnapers to show themselves. They will wait for the Palestinian government to take some action.

In the meantime they keep flying their jets over Gaza and creating ear splitting sonic booms. The booms are so powerful, a window next to me just shattered. The idea is to rattle nerves and make certain no one in the Gaza strip will be able to forget Israeli forces are there and no one will be able to relax until the corporal is returned.

Palestinians are aware of the strategy and defiantly they mock the intimidation campaign. One woman who works at the hotel I’m staying in sarcastically told me "I’m so scared, I forgot my own name."

Only a small portion of Israeli forces at the ready have entered Gaza. If last night’s action does not produce the soldier, they can take it up a notch and continue to do so until something gives.

Palestinian gunmen are also under pressure. For all their brave speech and parades with weapons on their shoulders, people will expect them to stand up to the Israeli forces. I don’t know what will be the next development, but I can safely assume it will be violent.

[Sean Osborne]

www.debka.com

Eliahu Asheri aged 18 from Itamar was kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian Fatah-Tanzim terrorists. His body was found Wednesday night buried in a field in a-Tira, Ramallah
June 29, 2006, 10:25 AM (GMT+02:00)

Security officials report that Eliahu Asheri was murdered Sunday, June 25, shortly after he was seized by Palestinian kidnappers at the French Hill junction in northern Jerusalem. The abduction took place hours after Hamas kidnapped Corp. Gilead Shalit outside Kerem Shalom opposite Gaza, in an apparent Fatah bid to match its rival terrorist group, Hamas.
Israeli soldiers were led to his body Wednesday, June 28, by the Fatah activist Israeli commandos detained in a raid on Fatah HQ in the Ramallah district of al Bireh, where Fatah leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, reside. One of the four houses raided was the villa of Muhammad Dahlan. A second Fatah terrorist was taken in for suspected complicity in the crime. The PRC threat Wednesday to kill him was issued when the 18-year old boy from Itamar was no longer alive.
Eliahu Asheri was a student at the Neve Tsuf pre-military academy.


Israel police report accumulating warnings of al Qaeda plans for mega-terror attacks

June 29, 2006, 8:27 AM (GMT+02:00)
Police operations officers’ preparedness for an al Qaeda-led mega-attack will be tested in “Exercise Burning Skies” set for mid-July. According to incoming intelligence, al Qaeda and Hamas are preparing joint operations, while dozens of al Qaeda suicide cells in Syria are standing by for attacks in Israel and other parts of the world. Israelis will be at high risk in international airports.

[American Patriot]

what's the source for that last thing Sean?

[American Patriot]

Disregard my last post. I found it, thanks Sean.

[Sean Osborne]

The Times

June 29, 2006

A family photograph of Gilad Shalit. He volunteered to be a combat soldier (AP)

Shy boy whose fate could change history By Richard Beeston and Ian MacKinnon http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...248285,00.html

UNTIL he was captured by Palestinian militants last Sunday there was little to distinguish Gilad Shalit from the thousands of other teenagers doing military service in the Israeli army. He was raised, the middle of three siblings in a small community in the rolling hills of northern Galilee, near Israel’s border with Lebanon. His father, Noam, is a manager at the Iscar machine tools company; his mother, Aviva, works at the Society for the Protection of Nature. His brother is a college student and his sister is at high school. Friends describe Gilad as studious, good at physics and a little shy. But they say he is quite determined in his own quiet way, and that when he was called up a year ago he volunteered to join a combat unit. His elder brother, Yoel, 21, is a student at a polytechnic in the northern Israeli port of Haifa. He has a younger sister at high school. Today the future of the Middle East could hang on the fate of this otherwise unremarkable 19-year-old. What happens to Corporal Shalit will almost certainly determine whether the region is plunged into a new cycle of violence, or whether the Middle East peace process can somehow be revived. If Corporal Shalit is killed while in the hands of militants linked to Hamas, any prospect of a rapprochement between Israel and a Hamas-led Palestinian Government will vanish for years to come, perhaps for ever. Israel will seek revenge against those it holds responsible — not only on the Hamas leadership in Gaza but also against the group’s more militant exiled leaders in Beirut and Damascus. But should Israel’s military pressure — or a deal to swap Palestinian prisoners for the soldier — persuade Hamas to release Corporal Shalit, surprising possibilities could open up. Largely obscured by the kidnap drama, Hamas made a potentially historic concession on Tuesday by implicitly recognising Israel in a deal with the mainstream Fatah movement that could lead to a government of national unity. Even as it was publicly squaring up to Israel over the captured soldier, Hamas was opening a back door to peace talks with Israel. Last night the omens were not good. Somewhere in Gaza’s refugee camps, probably in a makeshift underground cell, the missing soldier was being held under tight guard. Ehud Olmert — a Prime Minister without the distinguished military past of his predecessors Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak, Binyamin Netanyahu and Yitzhak Rabin — cannot afford to show even the slightest sign of weakness in his dealings with people his Government regards as terrorists. Corporal Shalit may be an unremarkable young man, but as a soldier his wellbeing matters hugely to his countrymen. The military plays a huge role in every Israeli life, for a small country with a large conscript army. Everyone has a close relative or friend serving in the armed forces. That is why no Israeli can fail to be moved by the smiling face on the front pages of their newspapers, and by the ordeal of his family. It is also why it is axiomatic that every Israeli Government must do all in its power to secure the safe release of captured soldiers and repatriate the bodies of the dead. “Bring Gilad Back,” said the headline in the Yediot Ahronot daily, echoing the prayers of his family, whose modest home in northern Israel has been besieged by television crews. The magnitude of the crisis is being felt at the highest levels. Corporal Shalit’s kidnapping was raised yesterday by the White House and European Union. Since the second intifada erupted almost six years ago, nearly 4,000 Palestinians and more than 1,000 Israelis have been killed in a vicious cycle of suicide bombs and military retaliation. The identities of most of the dead have long been forgotten by the outside world, but Corporal Shalit — whatever his fate — is destined to be remembered for a long time to come.

[American Patriot]

This is what I like to call a "Pivot Point in History"....

There are many, well documented cases of "Pivot Points" where countries have gone beyond the norm and wound up at war, or even destroyed.

The US put in it's word today as well. "Release the Captive". That came from the White House. Directly from.

All signs are pointing to a quick release, or a long, drawn out war.

Let's see where the coin lands, because my predictions are generally 180 degrees out. I'm gonna wait and see on this one.

[Ace]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060629/...l_palestinians
Israeli troops round up Hamas officials
By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer



GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops rounded up dozens of ministers and lawmakers from the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party Thursday while forging ahead with a military campaign in Gaza meant to win the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas gunmen.

The body of a kidnapped 18-year-old Jewish settler was found in the West Bank, Israeli security officials said. He had been shot in the head. Palestinian militants said they killed Eliahu Asheri, whose body was found buried near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli aircraft hit a car carrying Palestinian militants in Gaza City, the Israeli military said. One person was wounded, hospital officials said.

On Wednesday, Israeli warplanes also buzzed the summer home of Syria's president, Bashar Assad, who harbors the hard-line Hamas leaders who Israel says ordered the kidnapping.

Sunday's capture of the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit by Hamas' military wing and two affiliated groups, and Israel's subsequent military incursion into Gaza threatened to bring the two sides to the brink of all-out war.

Hamas, which took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January, has resisted international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

An Israeli military official said a total of 64 Hamas officials were arrested in the early morning roundup. Of those, Palestinian officials said seven are ministers in Hamas' 23-member Cabinet and 20 others are lawmakers in the 72-seat parliament.

Palestinian parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik and Religious Affairs Minister Nayef Rajoub, brother of former West Bank strongman Jibril Rajoub of the rival Fatah party, were among those rounded up. There were conflicting reports about whether Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, who has called for Shalit's release, was arrested.

Officials will be questioned and eventually indicted, the Israeli army and government officials said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the ministers and lawmakers were not taken as bargaining chips for Shalit's release, but because Israel holds Hamas responsible for attacks against it.

"The arrests of these Hamas officials ... is part of a campaign against a terrorist organization that has escalated its war of terror against Israeli civilians," Regev said.

Israel has said it would not negotiate Shalit's release with the militants and has rejected demands to free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about the captured soldier.

Palestinians were outraged by the arrests.

"We have no government, we have nothing. They have all been taken," said Saeb Erekat, an ally of the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. "This is absolutely unacceptable and we demand their release immediately."

Although the Israeli action was touched off by the soldier's capture, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government has also been alarmed by a surge in the firing of homemade rockets on Israeli communities bordering Gaza.

A militant offshoot of Abbas' Fatah party said it had fired a homemade rocket with a chemical warhead at the southern Israeli town of Sderot late Wednesday, the first such claim. The Israeli military said it did not detect a rocket fired then, and there was no way to verify the claim.

Israeli warplanes, tanks and thousands of troops began moving into Gaza overnight Tuesday. They knocked out Gaza's only power station, made main roads impassable and took over Gaza's long-closed airport. Aircraft bombed empty Hamas training camps, witnesses said, and flew low over the coastal strip in an apparent attempt to intimidate.

Airstrikes against the training camps continued Thursday, with two coming against camps in southern Gaza used by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Fatah offshoot. No deaths or injuries have been reported in any of the attacks.

But the disabling of Gaza's electric power plant raised the specter of a humanitarian crisis. The Hamas-led government warned of "epidemics and health disasters" because of damaged water pipes to central Gaza and the lack of power to pump water.

The incursion has focused so far on southern Gaza, where the military thinks Shalit is being held. But the military signaled the prospect of a new front being opened in the northern part of the strip when it dropped leaflets late Wednesday into the area, urging residents to avoid moving in the area because of impending military activity. Security officials said it could take days before a second front was opened.

Israeli army bulldozers moved in Thursday to clear agricultural lands in northern Gaza, witnesses said, apparently so Palestinians couldn't hide there. A small number of tanks entered a buffer zone between southern Israel and Gaza, as they have done in recent weeks.

Olmert has threatened harsher action to free the soldier, though he said there was no plan to reoccupy Gaza. Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity."

Abbas and Egyptian dignitaries tried to persuade Syria's Assad to use his influence with Hamas' Damascus-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, to free the soldier. Assad agreed, but without results, said a senior Abbas aide.

In a clear warning to the Syrian president, Israeli airplanes flew over his seaside home near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria, military officials confirmed, citing the "direct link" between his government and Hamas. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved in the low-altitude flight, and that Assad was there at the time.

Syria confirmed Israeli warplanes entered its airspace, but said its air defenses forced the Israeli aircraft to flee.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Wednesday that the hard-line Mashaal, who appears to be increasingly at odds with more moderate Hamas politicians in Gaza, is an Israeli assassination target. Israel tried to kill Mashaal in a botched assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997.

The Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza, which has strong links to Hamas, said it executed Asheri, kidnapped in the West Bank. An Israeli military official said he was shot in the head shortly after he was abducted Sunday. The PRC had said it would execute the hostage if Israel did not halt its invasion of Gaza.

Government spokesman Asaf Shariv said Asheri's killers would be arrested, and Israel would try to bring them to trial.

"Their days as free people are numbered," Shariv said.



Just shoot one of those 64 Hamas bastards a day until you guys get the body back.

[falcon]

Israel Threatens to Hit Damascus
By Hakan Isayev, Cihan News Agency, Cairo
Published: Friday, June 30, 2006
zaman.com

Israel holds Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas' Syrian branch, responsible for the abduction of two Israeli soldiers and wants Syria to expel Palestinian leaders from the country.


Israel threatened to kill Hamas militants based in Damascus.
Al-Jazeera television said Public Security Minister Avi Dichter claimed they knew the locations of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad leaders in Syria and will not hesitate to kill them.


Justice Minister Chaim Ramon said, “The leader of Al Qaeda, Meshal is a terrorist of the worst kind, and the international community must exert pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to expel Meshal from Syria.”


Ramon claimed Meshaal gave the order for abduction and is now a target for assassination.


Syrian security forces said they tightened the security measures to protect the HAMAS leader.


Israeli army said yesterday they carried out a low-altitude flight over the palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Latakia, in northwestern Syria.


Syrian sources reported that they fired at two Israeli planes flying over Syrian air space.




http://zaman.com/?bl=international&a...60701&hn=34399

[Aplomb]

Ooooohhh...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-601%2C00.html
Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies
Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov
July 01, 2006

ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.

The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit.

It came as Israeli military officials readied a second invasion force for a huge offensive into Gaza.

Hamas's Gaza-based political leaders, including Mr Haniyeh, had already gone into hiding.

But last night's direct threat to kill Mr Haniyeh, a democratically elected head of state, sharply raised the stakes.

The bid to free Corporal Shalit was brokered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who last night warned Hamas it faced severe consequences if it did not curb its "extreme stance" and described the growing conflict as a lightning rod for Palestinian vengeance.

Jerusalem has made no official comment, but Egyptian state media said Israel had found the offer unacceptable. Israel has not spelt out the terms demanded by Hamas, but earlier this week it refused to buy into talk of a prisoner swap.

Thousands of Hamas supporters protested in Gaza City late on Thursday over the arrest by Israeli forces of up to 32 Hamas MPs on the West Bank that day.

A Hamas spokesman said the group would never recognise Israel, in spite of a deal its leaders signed this week offering implicit recognition of the Jewish state in return for easing an economic blockade.

Israeli fighter jets bombed 20 targets in Gaza, including the Interior Ministry, which it said had been used by militants to stage meetings, while artillery hit the northern strip with 500 shells in the 24 hours until yesterday morning.

Jewish settler Eliyahu Asheri, who was murdered by militants this week, was buried on Thursday as leaders of the Popular Resistance Committees pledged to seize more hostages in the West Bank. No further word has emerged about another suspected Jewish hostage, Noach Moskowitz, who Israeli police said was found dead hours after Mr Asheri's remains were found.

Much of Gaza, including two main hospitals, was without power and running water as a UN aid chief warned that the 1.4 million residents of the strip were three days away from a humanitarian crisis.

"They are heading for the abyss unless they get electricity and fuel restored," said emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland, who urged militants to free Corporal Shalit and stop firing rockets into Israel.

Residents complain that sonic booms caused by Israeli jets traumatise children and that shelling confines families to their homes.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has vowed the military will do all it can to avoid civilian deaths if a full-scale assault is launched.

Mr Olmert said the decision to invade northern Gaza had already been delayed to allow Mr Mubarak's negotiations to continue.

The arrested Hamas legislators have been sent to security prisons and many will stand trial on terrorism offences. The detentions have hurt Hamas's already limited ability to govern and are likely to force a regime change.

Israel claims it has intelligence about the area where Corporal Shalit is held, but has been unable to pinpoint the exact location. Mr Olmert said the military would leave the strip if he was unconditionally and safely returned.

Egypt and the neighbouring Arab states of Jordan and Lebanon fear a war between Israel and the Palestinians could lead to uprisings within their own borders, which house many Palestinian refugees.

[American Patriot]

Ouch.