How Israel, Hamas define victory in Gaza

Escalating a week-long assault against Hamas, Israel invaded Gaza over the weekend to stop the Islamist militants who continue to launch cross-border rocket attacks.

But what victory means for each side still remains vague. The Israeli military says the ground offensive is aimed at eliminating militant rocket-launching sites, destroying weapon caches, and pursuing fighters hiding in the crowded coastal strip.

Will it be satisfied if the militants stop firing rockets or if it destroys the hundreds of tunnels to Egypt that make up Hamas’s supply line? Some experts say Israel wants to force a more extensive cease-fire with Hamas, compel the creation of an international peacekeeping force in the coastal strip, or destroy the Islamist group altogether.

For Hamas, survival might be victory. It will be lauded across the Arab world if it can hold out against the region’s strongest military.

“One of the most important things in this conflict between state and nonstate actors is what is the meaning of victory?” says Eitan Azani, a former Israeli Defense Forces colonel and a deputy director at the Institute for Counter Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. “A lot of people from [Hamas] dying? A collapse? Or most of the operational capability destroyed? This is up for debate. We are in a very complicated situation.”

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Filed under: Analysis, Gaza, Gaza raids, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, Terrorism, The Terror Journal

Pakistan suicide bombing kills seven

Five police and two civilians have been killed in a suspected suicide attack in north-west Pakistan, police say.

The attack happened in the town of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, a frequent scene of suicide attacks.

No one was killed in the first blast, which happened at a cafe near a local college, the town’s mayor, Haji Abdul Rauf, said. Four residents and two police officers were killed and 20 others injured when the suicide bomber struck 10 minutes later, Rauf said.

The mayor said the attackers were targeting police by intentionally attracting a crowd with the first blast.

A local journalist said the two civilians killed were journalists that had arrived after the first explosion.

In November, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the midst funeral procession in Dera Ismail Khan, killing at least seven people and injuring 30 more, police said. Days earlier, a suicide bomber struck a mosque during evening prayers in the Bajaur region of North West Frontier Province, killing seven people.

The province is located near Pakistan’s tribal regions that border Afghanistan where Pakistani security forces have been battling Islamic militants.

Source: CNN/BBC News

Filed under: Asia, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal

FBI hands over Mumbai 26/11 evidence to Pak

Stating that evidence is growing to prove that the Mumbai strikes were orchestrated by militants based in Pakistan, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported that Zarar Shah, a communications specialist of Lashkar-e-Toiba, has admitted under interrogation in Pakistan that he advised the terrorists by phone as the attacks unfolded.

Controllers in Pakistan watched live television and warned the gunmen of the arrival of Indian commandos, the report said, citing evidence amassed by the FBI and handed over to the Pakistani government.

The FBI had decoded Skype calls over the internet that were made between the gunmen in two five-star hotels and a Jewish centre in Mumbai with their LeT controllers in Pakistan, identified as Shah, Abu Hamza and Abu Qafa, it said.

Talking in colloquial Punjabi, the controllers repeatedly told the attackers “Aag lagao” (“light the fire”), which has been interpreted in India as a way of maximising casualties, the paper said. During the conversation, the men were also instructed to kill all the Israelis held captive in the Jewish hostel, but to spare all the Muslims, it said.

Shah revealed that the 10 assailants were trained in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and then travelled by boat from Karachi to Mumbai. He implicated several other Lashkar men. According to the report, Islamabad rejected the alleged FBI evidence and dismissed India’s contention about close ties between LeT and ISI.

Source: NDTV

Filed under: Asia, FBI, India, Mumbai, Mumbai 26/11, Pakistan, The Terror Journal, U.S.A, UK

Why Israel needs a ground operation

Previous polls have shown that Israelis are apprehensive about the kind of ground operation in Gaza that has just begun. This is a direct reflection of Israelis dwindling confidence in the IDF’s ability to emerge  victorious from a ground war in this dense and treacherous territory. And this very skepticism is a key factor in Israeli leaders’ decision to go in on the ground last night.

If Israelis, traumatized by the 2006 Lebanon war, have a hard time believing they can win a ground war against Hamas, so do Israel’s neighbors. Hamas spokespersons were bragging last week that Israel would not dare invade Gaza, and promised that the Jewish state would pay a high price if it did. If the Gaza war ended without a ground operation, Hamas leaders would have crowed that Israel was deterred by Palestinian forces,  and this would have led to a further erosion of Israel’s reputation as a nation that cannot be intimidated. If Arab terrorists perceive Israel as a country wary of conflict, terrorist groups will only attack more in hopes of defeating the paper tiger.

Source: By Shmuel Rosner Jerusalem Post Blog

Filed under: Voice, Gaza, Gaza raids, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, The Terror Journal

Israel will not allow humanitarian crisis in Gaza: Olmert

Israel will not allow a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday as troops pushed deep into the Islamist Hamas-ruled enclave.

“Israel is not fighting against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Olmert said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting.

“They are not our enemies. They too are victims of the deadly violence and the deadly oppression of the same terror organisation,” he said, referring to the Hamas rulers of the enclave.

“We will not allow a humanitarian crisis to develop in the Gaza Strip. We will help supply food and medicine” for the territory, which Israel has kept virtually sealed off since Hamas took control in June 2007.

Olmert said the ground offensive Israel launched late on Saturday after a week-long aerial and naval bombing blitz of Hamas targets in Gaza was “unavoidable.”

“I draw a lot of encouragement from the position of US President (George W.) Bush, who told me we must ensure that Hamas not only stops rocket fire, but also that it will not be able to resume it in the future,” he said.

Source: AFP

Filed under: MidEast, Ehud Olmert, Gaza, Gaza raids, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, The Terror Journal

Hamas has eased its demands for truce with Israel

According to a Military Intelligence assessment released Tuesday, Israel’s air offensive on Gaza has thus far destroyed one-third of the Hamas’ rocket arsenal.

Head of the Shin Bet General Security Services Yuval Diskin told a cabinet meeting Sunday that Hamas had eased its demands on a cease-fire with Israel, nine days after a IDF operation in Gaza began.

“There are signs that Hamas has softened their stance towards the conditions of a cease fire,” Diskin said.

Head of IDF Military Intelligence General Amos Yadlin also addressed the meeting and gave an assessment of the Gaza operation’s progress.

“The organization [Hamas] took a serious blow, we killed hundreds of terrorists and damaged their ability to build weaponry,” Yadlin said.

He also said that while Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus shows himself “smiling in his office in Damascus, the leaders in Gaza are dug into burrows.”

Yadlin also addressed the standing of Hamas in the Palestinian populace and throughout the world, saying that serious criticism of the organization is on the rise.

“Hamas has made itself an object of hatred in the world and the region, casting themselves amongst the lepers of the world, with Iran and Syria,” Yadlin said.

Source: Haretz

Filed under: MidEast, Gaza, Gaza raids, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, The Terror Journal

UN warns of serious humanitarian crisis in Gaza

Inhabitants in the Gaza Strip are facing a serious health and food crisis seven days into an Israeli bombing campaign, despite an increase in humanitarian shipments, U.N. officials said on Friday.

“There is a critical emergency right now in the Gaza Strip right now as we speak,” said Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinians Territories. “It is true supplies have been going into the strip, in fact possibly more than in previous weeks, but at the same time there are critical gaps.”

Power outages are lasting 16 hours at a time and running water is only available every five to seven days, according to the U.N.

Gaylard added that despite the entrance of medical supplies into the Gaza strip, hospitals and clinics are still seriously strained and infrastructure is breaking down under the strain of all the casualties.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni maintained there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the U.N.’s relief operation in the Gaza Strip, which employs nearly 10,000 people there, expressed confidence in the U.N.’s assessment of the humanitarian situation.

“We are very well placed to tell whether there is a humanitarian crisis or not,” he said.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Filed under: MidEast, Gaza, Gaza raids, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, Tzipi Livni

Suicide bomber kills 35 at Baghdad shrine

At least 35 Shia pilgrims have been killed by a female suicide bomber at a shrine in Baghdad, Iraqi officials say, it happened about 1100 (0800 GMT) as Shia pilgrims were preparing for the Ashura holiday to mourn the death of Imam Hussein in the seventh century.

At least 65 people were injured in the blast, in the Kadhimiya area of the Iraqi capital, where pilgrims were gathering for a religious ceremony. Most of the casualties were from neighbouring Iran. There are fears the death toll will rise, processions of Shia pilgrims across Iraq have been targeted by Sunni insurgents in the past.

“There were bodies everywhere, some of them missing legs and arms,” said eyewitness Said Qassim, who was distributing food and drinks to pilgrims nearby at the time of the blast.

“I saw three women’s bodies in bad shape and blood all over the place. This is a disaster.”

“I can’t understand how this suicide bomber reached this point. No one can get in here without going through seven checkpoints,” he said.

It was the second attack in the area in nine days, On Friday, at least 23 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a gathering of Sunni Muslim leaders south of Baghdad.

Source: Reuters/BBC News

Filed under: MidEast, Baghdad, Iran, Iraq, Shia, Suicide bomber, Sunni, The Terror Journal

Lots of spokesmen, lots of footage making a difference

American pro-Israel advocacy groups say the Israeli government has done a better job in reaching out and being responsive to the foreign press during the current Gaza fighting than in other recent conflicts.

With Israel’s attacks on Hamas featuring prominently on newspaper front pages and the 24-hour news cycle, the Foreign Ministry and its representatives in the US have made officials available for scores of interviews and briefings, as photographs and video clippings from the scene have been distributed. The government has also been trying to use new media to reach out to the American public, including Twitter and Youtube.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi of The Israel Project compared the current situation to that during the second Lebanon war in 2006, when the IDF delayed releasing photos of bombing sites that could have showed Israeli actions in a more positive light.

“You’ve got a lot of Israeli spokesmen, a lot of footage and photos [put out] in a systematic, organized way,” she said. “It’s making a very big difference.”

Source: By Hilary Leilea Krieger Jerusalem Post/Associated Press

Filed under: MidEast, Gaza, Gaza raids, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Terrorism, The Terror Journal

Key loss will test Tamil Tigers

The Sri Lankan army’s capture of the northern town of Kilinochchi marks a new phase in the fighting between the security forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

With its fall the rebels have now lost the biggest township they had under their control for more than a decade.

For the security forces, it will enable them to consolidate their domination of the key A9 highway, which links the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the country.

The Tamil Tigers until recently had their administrative headquarters in the town. They proudly showcased offices of their political, police and judicial divisions to visiting foreign dignitaries and media. In fact, it acted like their de-facto capital.

It also helped the rebels to convince their supporters inside the country and the Tamil diaspora that they were running a parallel administration, a de-facto state in northern Sri Lanka.

“So, politically, the capture of Kilinochchi is highly symbolic for the Sri Lankan government,” says Sri Lankan analyst DBS Jeyaraj.

Source: BBC News

Filed under: Analysis, LTTE, Sri Lanka, The Terror Journal, Velupillai Prabhakaran