Israel kills two in strikes on Gaza as truce falters

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes on Hamas security targets in Gaza killed two Palestinians and wounded 30 people on Saturday, medical officials in the Islamist-ruled territory said, while heavier rocket fire by militants wounded an Israeli man.

The escalating violence undermined a shaky truce brokered by Egypt on Wednesday, which sought to calm the latest flare-up in fighting that began on Monday when an Israeli man and two gunmen were killed in a raid launched from Egypt's Sinai desert.

One of the victims was a Palestinian man killed in an Israeli air strike which targeted a motorcycle near a building in Gaza City, Hamas medical officials said. Ten other people were wounded in that attack.

In an earlier strike, a Palestinian militant from a pro-al Qaeda Salafist group was killed in northern Gaza, the officials said. Israel confirmed both strikes, but denied a report a six-year-old Palestinian boy had died in a separate air strike.

The Israeli strikes followed the fiercest rocket attacks on its territory in six days of fighting. Shrapnel from a rocket fired into the Israeli town of Sderot wounded an Israeli man in the neck just as he was trying to enter a concrete shelter.

After a relatively calm period, more than 150 rockets have been fired into Israel in the past week, the military said.

At least 15 rockets were fired at Israel on Saturday, nearly three times as many as the previous day, and at least six others were intercepted by the Israeli missile defense system, the military said.

Israel's military chiefs scheduled urgent consultations to weigh a "course of action", a military spokeswoman said. Israeli authorities also urged the roughly one million Israelis who live in the south to stay indoors or close to fortified shelters.

"Israel cannot be silent in the face of the recent days' events," Civil Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said in remarks released by his office.

"We regard Hamas as fully responsible for everything that is happening in the Gaza area. Israel is acting, and will continue to act, with a strong hand against those terrorists who want to escalate the situation in the area," Vilnai said.

HAMAS VOWS TO 'SMASH' ISRAEL

Hamas's military wing, which had not claimed responsibility for any of the rocket fire in the past few days, said it was "ready to smash the Israeli arrogance in response to its aggression".

Hamas medical officials said a six-year-old Palestinian boy had been killed in an air strike and a that a baby had been hurt in a separate strike near the Egyptian border.

Israel denied involvement in hurting either of the children.

Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said on Twitter that the report of Israeli responsibility for the death of the six-year-old was the result of "false rumors" and that the boy had died due to an explosion of ordnance belonging to Palestinian militants.

Another Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no report of any air strikes in Rafah, where the baby was reported to have been hurt.

Israel confirmed its aircraft had struck three militant targets in Gaza in at least two predawn raids.

Nobody in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing rockets at Israel, but a security source said the missiles had been launched by members of the Salafi, two of whose militants were killed in Israeli raids on Friday.

Israel blamed the Salafis for Monday's cross-border raid from Egypt, after which Israel launched punitive air strikes on nearby Gaza, killing 11 Palestinians, many of them militants but also a 14-year-old boy.

Hamas militants had conditionally pledged to adhere to the truce brokered by Egypt if Israel also held fire. Israel never formally commented on the deal but its officials had pledged to respond to any rocket fire from Gaza.

Cairo has brokered such deals in the past and stepped in this time fearing the violence, which coincided with a keenly contested presidential race in Egypt, could spiral out of control.

What's New

They Have Been Doing That (Killing Palestinians) Since 1948

150 Rockets,and people shouldn't get pissed off!
WHAT a JOKE!

History not your strong Suit?

They some lousy shots.
They need them a Redneck ta' teach 'em how ta shoot straight.

Resistance Old Chap, Resistance

Resistance to WHAT??????????????

Occupation..Subjugation and a multitude of other ations

What Occupation???????????????????????????????

What Subjugation

What Humiliation

ETC ETC

WHAT Occupation?????????????????????????????


You all really need to get your Stories straight!

Hamas Says Gaza Not “Occupied”; U.N. Disagrees

World Body Out of Step with Palestinians

GENEVA, Jan. 3 - The UN’s continued labeling of the Gaza Strip as “occupied” was directly contradicted today by a top leader of Hamas, the vehemently anti-Israel Palestinian terror group that controls the territory.

Noting the Hamas statement reflects the reality since Israel's full withdrawal in 2005, the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch called on the UN to encourage Palestinians to take responsibility for areas they control, and to cease referring to Gaza, in reports and through officials and spokespeople, as “occupied territory.”

“The UN's traditional practice of absolving Palestinians of responsibility hasn't helped them one iota," said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director. "On the contrary, Palestinian citizens are the main losers when those that directly govern and police them are never seriously held accountable for their actions."

"Now that the Palestinians running Gaza publicly regognize that it's not occupied -- which has been the reality since Israel's disengagement removed every solider, civilian and setttlement in 2005 -- the UN's refusal to do the same will only hinder Palestinians from developing a healthy culture of self-rule," said Neuer.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar confirmed there was no Israeli occupation of the territory in comments reported today by the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency.

Zahhar was casting doubt on whether Hamas would organize anti-Israel marches in Gaza in conjunction with similar protests that the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority would organize in the West Bank.

"Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable,” Zahhar said, according to Ma'an.

The Hamas statement follows growing recognition among international lawyers that the UN's resistance to holding Palestinians responsible for territory they control is outdated.

In a recent article in the American University International Law Review, legal scholar Elizabeth Samson explains that under the Geneva Conventions and international judicial precedents, Gaza can no longer be considered occupied as Israel no longer exercises “effective control.”

The Israeli Supreme Court also ruled on January 30, 2008 that Israel had disengaged from the Gaza Strip and had “no effective control over what occurred there.”

Instead, Samson argues, Gaza's unique "intermediate" legal status should be recognized to allow the Palestinians to exercise complete autonomy, laying the groundwork for a Palestinian state existing peacefully beside Israel.

However, the UN's official policy has not changed since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Farhan Haq, declared in 2009 that "the U.N. defines Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory."

The UN terminology continues to appear. A September 22 report in the name of Mr. Ban speaks of a UN mission’s visit to the “occupied Palestinian territory, specifically the Gaza Strip.” InMay, Richard Falk, the UN's permanent investigator on alleged Israeli violations, referred to the "occupied Gaza Strip." A UN fact sheet on "the Occupied Palestinian Territory" includes Gaza.

http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1344171&ct=11584773&notoc=1


actually,Gaza is occupied by HAMAS,and sundry other Islamist-Factions!
Those are the ones detrimental to the People of Gaza!

Never argue with the UN!

Tell Israel to stay on their side of the border then. Tell Israel to stop bombing innocent people, and tearing down their homes.

What the hell do they expect?

Oh! Look, Gaza and The West Bank Have Separated

Palestine never existed!
You hear?
NEVER!

And peace can be accomplished if the Palestinians would just give up their puny weapons and bow to their masters.

Then they can have a burger king in their neighborhood too! Oh goody!!

Neither did Israel.


Ever.

maybe if those INNOCENTS would stop Suicide-Bombing,Terrorattacks and firing Rockets it would stop!