The Israel Gaza war, by the numbers

As Israel continues to fight Hamas and its deeply entangled terror factions in Gaza, I thought of writing an article about the 10,200 rockets that have been fired from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns since 2001. I thought of writing about the thousands of Israeli citizens who live their lives in 15-second bursts, waiting in fear for the next warning siren to alarm, at which time they have mere seconds to take cover inside a bomb shelter before a missile strikes. Surely these figures alone are enough to make anyone’s jaw drop.

Because of the sea of words and wave of articles that continue to flood the media regarding the war in Gaza, I decided to write something that would resonate with readers in a different way. Sometimes numbers speak louder than words.

To date, 396 truckloads of humanitarian aid were delivered to Gaza through Israeli crossings since Dec. 27, 2008. Too many, in fact, that the World Food Program informed Israel it would cease shipment of food to Gaza because supplies – enough to last two weeks – were overcrowding warehouses. There were 90,000 phone calls made by the IDF and 800,000 leaflets disseminated to families in Gaza warning them to evacuate their homes and stay away from terrorist and weapons storage sites.

One hundred percent of the Gaza Strip was evacuated by Israel and handed over to the Palestinians in 2005. Zero settlements remain. The 10,200 rockets fired into Israel have caused 28 deaths – 507 of these rockets were launched during the ceasefire alone. Thirty children in Israel would have been killed had they been present at the kindergarten in Ashdod that was struck by rockets from Gaza on Jan. 5.

Source: Israel Politik/New York Daily News

Filed under: Voice, Aid, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Sderot, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, Voice, War

The dilemma of UN SC Resolution 1860

The U.N. Security Council Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, has lost it’s purpose as parties involved in the conflict the Hamas and Israel rejected the resolution as either not conducive or not workable.

The text and even the method with which the resolution was passed shows the in ability of U.N. Security Council to deal with serious issues and let alone it’s effective implementation on ground and as ever the political divide within the U.N. security council triumphs once again.

The U.N Security Council Resolution 1860 will go into the archives without being able to achieve it’s goal, simply because the parties involved in the conflict more specifically hamas did not have any representative at the U.N. to voice their views and to guarantee a commitment to the Resolution.

The arab leaders who pushed for a resolution so hard seems to have done this, with not an aim to find a sustainable solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, but to ease the Arab public pressure built during the course of the conflict which was further fueled by the graphic broadcast of the conflict by Arab media

Hamas is not a member nor does it have a permanent representative at the U.N. reasonable enough as it is a banned terrorist organization, so there can be no effective political or economical sanction against Hamas for failing to implement the resolution. Then the question arises, does U.N. need to intervene in issues involving terrorist organization? Are we having the right definition for a Terrorist organization?

Source: The Terror Journal

Filed under: Analysis, Afghanistan, Aid, Analysis, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, India, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Katyusha Rockets, Middle East, News, Operation Cast Lead, Pakistan, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Sderot, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, War

Israeli rejection of Gaza deal may topple Abbas

At midnight Friday, according to Hamas’ interpretation of the Palestinian constitution, the tenure of Mahmoud Abbas as President of the Palestinian Authority comes to an end.

The confrontation in the Gaza Strip has granted Israel the opportunity to decide whether Abbas will lose his legitimacy before some of his nation, or will secure continued Fatah rule in the West Bank.

The decision to adopt the Egyptian-French-American compromise may bring an end to the fighting in the Strip and create the conditions for the resumption of the peace process. A decision to reject it may, instead of causing the collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza, bring about the crash of Abbas’ rule in the West Bank. And that will, by extension, destroy the road map.

The proposal is based mostly on the 2005 agreement on the crossings that Israel signed. It established that the Rafah crossing would be operated by the Palestinian Authority and a third party – in this case the European Union – would supervise its operation.

In addition it was agreed that the crossings would be operated on a continuous basis and would be described as international border crossings. Israel would allow the crossing of goods and people between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

A Hamas victory in the January 2006 election resulted in the shelving of the document governing the crossings and the Hamas takeover in the Strip, in June 2007, effectively killed it.

Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak would be glad to revive the agreement without offering Hamas an official role. But he also understands something that Israel finds difficult to comprehend – that Hamas is not going anywhere. The alternative to including it in the governance of the Gaza Strip does not translate into a new “security reality” but a new chaotic situation.

Source: By Akiva Eldar Haaretz

Filed under: Analysis, Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

Egypt-Syria row hampering Gaza truce efforts

Serious differences of opinion between Syria and Egypt are making the process of reaching a Gaza cease-fire agreement difficult. Syria has advised Hamas not to accept Egypt’s cease-fire proposal, arguing it is too vague, particularly regarding the issue of Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip.

In Syria’s opinion, which is coordinated with Iran, the Egyptian proposal may undermine Hamas’ position in the Gaza Strip and present Israel with an advantage.

Hamas is demanding a return to the terms of the cease-fire that were reached last June, which bar Israel from attacking the Gaza Strip and demand that the calm be applied in the West Bank after six months. By this, Hamas would show that Israel had not achieved any political gains through its Gaza operation.

The Egyptian initiative, on the other hand, calls for a cease-fire that would take effect within 48-72 hours and would open border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into the Strip.

During the cease-fire, Egypt would hold talks with Israel and Hamas to reach a long-term agreement, and at a later stage would resume the talks between Hamas and Fatah over forming a national unity government.

Hamas is opposed to this proposal because it believes it recognizes Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the Palestinian Authority. His term officially ends Friday.

Syria has urged Hamas to demand that the first stage of a deal include the opening of the Rafah border crossing, a demand that Egypt rejects.

The Egyptians are only willing to open the crossing on the basis of the terms of a 2005 agreement, which requires the presence of Palestinian Authority officials, European Union observers and Israeli cameras.

Source: By Zvi Bar’el Haaretz

Filed under: Analysis, Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

Hamas seeks Gaza war of attrition ending in IDF pullout

The moment of decision is nigh. In a few days’ time, at most, Israel’s political leadership will have to decide on the continuation of the ground offensive in Gaza.

On day 13 of Operation Cast Lead, which was Thursday, three Israel Defense Forces troops were killed in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip.

In the diplomatic arena, Hamas spurned the Egyptian mediation initiative, while the United Nations Security Council discussed the draft of a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Five days into the ground component of the operation, it is becoming apparent that Hamas has not been defeated. Its men, most of whom had disappeared from sight when the IDF troops entered, are beginning to emerge from their hideouts to plague the forces’ rear flanks.

The IDF is entering one of the offensive’s most dangerous phases. Staying on the ground without progressing creates targets for the enemy to hit. Hamas’ intransigence seems to stem at least in part from the hope that if they draw enough Israeli blood over the following days through a series of consecutive clashes, Israeli public opinion will turn and force the government to order the military to pull out without reaching an agreement.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who visited the headquarters of the regional division deployed along the border with Gaza, said Thursday that the operation has not yet achieved all the goals it was meant to achieve.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who also visited the division and continued down south to visit reservists training at Tze’elim army base, told army officers there that a cease-fire does not seem to be within reach.

Source: By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Haaretz

Filed under: Analysis, Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Katyusha Rockets, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

Gaza conflict: Who is a civilian?

The bloodied children are clearly civilians; men killed as they launch rockets are undisputedly not. But what about the 40 or so young Hamas police recruits on parade who died in the first wave of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza?

And weapons caches are clearly military sites – but what about the interior ministry, hit in a strike that killed two medical workers; or the money changer’s office, destroyed last week injuring a boy living on the floor above?

As the death toll mounts in Gaza, the thorny question is arising of who and what can be considered a legitimate military target in a territory effectively governed by a group that many in the international community consider a terrorist organisation.

This is also the group that won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 and a year later consolidated its control by force.

So while it was behind a campaign of suicide attacks in Israel and fires rockets indiscriminately over the border, it is also in charge of schools, hospitals, sewage works and power plants in Gaza.

International law

Israel says it is operating totally within humanitarian law, but human rights groups fear it is stretching the boundaries.

And as ground forces clash in the heavily-populated Gaza Strip, the questions will become more pressing.

International law’s rules on keeping civilian casualties to a minimum are based on the distinction between “combatants” and “non-combatants”.

As Israel launched the first air strikes, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: “You – the citizens of Gaza – are not our enemies. Hamas, Jihad and the other terrorist organisations are your enemies, as they are our enemies.”

But when an Israeli military spokesman also says things like “anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target,” things get complicated.

Source: By Heather Sharp BBC News

Filed under: Analysis, Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

Israelis back Gaza action – for now

Rachel Schwartz, 48, cannot keep away from the television, and jumps whenever the phone rings.

Her son Yoni, 21, is a paramedic in an elite unit in the Israeli military. His usual daily phone calls stopped the day after the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza began.

All she has heard from him since is an SMS message, on Tuesday, that read: “Don’t worry, I’m fine. I love you.”

Yoni is not allowed to say where he is. She assumes he is in Gaza.

Her other son, Michael, 24, was called up as a reservist at 2330 on Saturday night, and gone by 0500 the next morning.

“I’m not doing so well,” she says, when asked how she is coping. “As a mother I wish it stopped yesterday, but I know that there’s a job that needs to be done.”

‘Heavily-supported war’

Like the majority of Israelis, according to opinion polls, Ms Schwartz fully supports Israel’s operation in Gaza.

Six Israeli soldiers and, according to Palestinian medics, more than 650 Palestinians, have died in the fighting, in which Israel is attempting to vastly reduce the Palestinian militant group’s capacity to fire rockets into southern Israel.

“This is one of the few wars that I think is unanimous – I’ve never seen the people come together, the right-wing and the left, in this way and agree that this had to be done,” she says.

Professor Asher Arian, a veteran Israeli pollster, says it is a “text book case” of a “heavily-supported war”.

But, he points out, support was also soaring at the start of the 2006 war in Lebanon, which ended with intense recriminations and plummeting poll ratings for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Source: By Heather Sharp BBC News

Filed under: Analysis, Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

UN Security Council calls for Gaza truce but fighting continues

Israel pushed ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday, ignoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire to the 14-day-old conflict.

Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, residents said. Elsewhere, Palestinian medics said tanks shelled a house in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip, killing six Palestinians from the same family.

In New York, the Security Council passed a resolution urging an “immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire,” and for Israel to withdraw from Gaza after its two-week air-and-ground offensive. The United States abstained.

There was no immediate reaction from Israeli officials to the vote, but Israel opposed the idea of a binding resolution. Israel’s military commanders appeared keen to pursue the ground offensive to try to secure more gains.

For its part, Gaza’s Hamas rulers did not recognize the resolution as it had not been consulted on it, said a spokesman for the Islamist group.

The resolution, pressed for by Arab countries in the face of efforts by Britain, France and the United States for a more muted statement, called for arrangements to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza and for its borders to be opened.

It said there should be “unimpeded provision” and distribution of aid to the territory, home to 1.5 million people, many of whom are dependent on food assistance.

On Thursday, ambulance workers ventured onto the battlefield to gather decomposing bodies from the rubble. Hamas officials said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 773, of whom more than a third were children.

While the United States abstained from the U.N. resolution, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington backed the text and had abstained only because it wanted to see the results of an Egyptian mediation effort.

“The United States thought it important to see the outcome of the Egyptian mediation efforts in order to see what this resolution might have been supporting,” she said.

Source: Reuters

Filed under: MidEast, Aid, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, War