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April 17, 2008
Palestinians Fight Israelis in Gaza; Toll Exceeds 21
By ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — At least 18 Palestinians, many of them civilians, including children, and 3 Israeli soldiers were reported killed in heavy fighting in Gaza on Wednesday, one of the bloodiest days in weeks.

The Israeli military said that it had hit armed militants and that it was checking the reports of civilian casualties.

Amid the violence, Israel resumed the pumping of emergency fuel supplies into Gaza after a weeklong suspension. The flow stopped on April 9 after Palestinian militant groups attacked the sole fuel depot on Israel’s border with Gaza, killing two Israeli civilians who worked there.

The latest violence began Tuesday night with an army operation in northern Gaza aimed at keeping people suspected of being militants away from the border fence, the Israeli military said. During the ensuing clashes, Palestinians opened fire on Israeli soldiers from a mosque used to store explosives, the military said. A soldier and several Palestinian militants were wounded.

As that operation ended Wednesday morning, Israeli forces on the border spotted a group of Palestinian gunmen approaching the fence south of the fuel depot at Nahal Oz and rushed to confront them, the military said. Three members of the Israeli force and four militants from Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, were killed.

Hamas said its fighters had ambushed the Israelis. “Raiding our areas will never be a picnic,” Abu Obaidah, a spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, told reporters in Gaza.

Clashes and Israeli airstrikes extended into the afternoon. The deadliest occurred in central Gaza, where 14 Palestinians were killed, said Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, director of emergency medical services in Gaza. Dr. Hassanein said that all the dead were civilians, and that five were under 16 years old. Fadel Shana, 23, a cameraman for Reuters, was killed when a missile struck his clearly marked jeep in the area, Reuters’ Gaza bureau said.

Asked about the many civilian casualties, Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli Army spokeswoman, said the military had struck an armed group. “It could be that civilians were nearby; it would not be the first time,” she said.

Major Leibovich said that if a cameraman had been killed, “we apologize for that.”

“It was not intentional,” she said, adding that journalists took a risk by operating in fighting zones.

More than 10 rockets and 26 mortar bombs were fired from Gaza toward Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli Army said, but they caused no injury.

A Hamas delegation left Gaza for Cairo on Wednesday afternoon, apparently for talks with Egyptian officials. A Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the delegation would also meet there on Thursday with former President Jimmy Carter, who has already angered Israeli and American officials with his insistence on meeting representatives of the group while visiting the region. The United States, Israel and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

Egypt has been trying to broker understandings for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Israel has denied any contacts with Hamas, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently said rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza were “not a prescription for relaxation or compromise.”

David Baker, an Israeli spokesman, said Wednesday that Israel’s “defensive measures will continue unabated.”

The Israeli Defense Ministry had announced in advance that it would allow the resumption of essential fuel supplies to Gaza on Wednesday, but the violence delayed the delivery for a few hours. The Palestinians received fuel needed to run the Gaza power plant and cooking gas, but no gas for private cars.

Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting.

Israel closes off West Bank, Gaza for Passover MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 57 minutes ago



Israel closed off the West Bank and Gaza for the Jewish Passover holiday on Friday, a day after Gaza militants attacked a vital crossing, raising the possibility of a large-scale Israeli offensive within weeks.

The closure, which went into effect in the early morning, was to last until the end of the holiday on April 26, according to a statement from the military. Palestinians are banned from entering Israel, except for doctors and lawyers and in humanitarian cases, it said.

The military regards the holiday period "as a highly sensitive time, security wise," the statement said. The military "will increase its alertness ... while preserving, to the best of its ability, the daily life of the Palestinian population," it said.

In violence Friday, Israeli troops killed a militant leader during a raid on the West Bank city of Nablus, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group said. Another militant from the Islamic Jihad was seriously wounded, medics said.

Israel's army confirmed that a militant had been killed in an operation in Nablus, saying he fired at troops from a rooftop when they surrounded a house in an effort to arrest him.

The man killed was Hani Al-Kabi, a leader of Al Aqsa in the Balata refugee camp who fled a Palestinian jail with about a dozen militants three months ago. The militants accused Israel of reneging on an amnesty deal.

Kabi was wanted for several attacks that were thwarted, including a recent attempted poisoning at a restaurant, and for a shooting in which two soldiers were wounded, the army said. Al Aqsa denied Kabi was involved in the poisoning plot.

The Israeli operation in Nablus suggested an Israeli-Palestinian understanding on security in the militant stronghold was unraveling. Israel had earlier this year agreed to the deployment in the city of Palestinian security forces allied with moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. But Israeli troops have continued to operate there almost nightly.

Nablus is considered a test case for plans for further deployments of Palestinian forces around the West Bank — a key component of peace talks renewed last year and Abbas' effort to take charge of the territory in facing his rival, the Islamic Hamas group. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip since seizing control from Abbas-allied forces in June.

Israel's army promised, despite the closure of Gaza and the West Bank, to continue transferring vital goods through Gaza crossings.

But at the time the army statement was released late Thursday, two of the main crossings were closed: Kerem Shalom, through which Israel transports food and medicine, and the fuel depot at Nahal Oz — because of attacks by Palestinian militants.

Israeli troops fended off Palestinian gunmen who assaulted Kerem Shalom on Thursday, killing one, and then militants opened fire again at Nahal Oz.

The renewed violence followed a day of fighting between Israeli forces and Gaza militants that killed three Israeli soldiers and 21 Palestinians, including five children and a news cameraman.

Gazans are angry over a nearly yearlong blockade of their borders, causing shortages in almost all commodities in the seaside territory, and Israel generally halts all shipments after attacks like Thursday's.

With Egyptian efforts to mediate a Gaza cease-fire sputtering, Hamas has repeatedly threatened to violently break through the Israeli border. The group blew up the wall along Gaza's border with Egypt in January.

Israel has greatly restricted the flow of fuel and goods into Gaza because of repeated rocket attacks by Gaza militants on southern Israel. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group. Gaza militants consider the border crossings humiliating symbols of the economic blockade.

Israeli defense officials said it would likely be a few weeks before Israel carries out any broad operation in Gaza, because of next week's Passover holiday and the country's 60th anniversary celebrations next month.

And not a peep on CNN. No film, no mention, no nothing. Kikes suck.