Israel – Hamas Conflict Escalates
Read Time:2 Minute, 29 Second
An Israeli missile from the “Iron Dome” defense system is fired Saturday to destroy a rocket fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv. Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
Things are hot in the Middle East with Egypt getting extremely nervous about a possible invasion of Gaza by some very angry Israelis. One can’t really blame the government of Israel for defending itself against the terrorist organization Hamas, hell bent on destroying the entire country. Here’s the latest:
Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET: Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas headquarters before dawn on Saturday, including the office of Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, as armed conflict in the region entered its fourth day.
Hamas later retaliated, firing a rocket at Israel’s biggest city Tel Aviv for the third straight day. Police said it was destroyed in mid-air by an Iron Dome anti-missile battery deployed hours earlier, and no one was injured.
And in the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.
In Gaza earlier, Israeli planes shattered Haniyeh’s office building — where he had met with Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil the day before — and struck the interior ministry.
Loud explosions regularly rocked the densely populated Palestinian territory, sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. The occasional hiss of outgoing rocket fire showed Islamist militants were pursuing their defiance of the assault.
As the crisis escalates, Israel’s military is considering waging a ground campaign. It started drafting 16,000 reserve troops on Friday, as Israel’s Cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists. Troops were massing on the border and witnesses said they could see Israeli ships off Gaza’s coast, NBC News’ Ayman Mohyeldin reported.
Despite the violence, Tunisia’s foreign minister arrived in the coastal enclave on Saturday in a show of solidarity, denouncing the Israeli attacks as illegitimate and unacceptable.
Officials in Gaza said 41 Palestinians, among them 20 civilians including eight children and a pregnant woman, had been killed in Gaza since Israel began operations four days ago. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.
Israel’s military said its air force had hit at least 180 targets since midnight, including a police headquarters, government buildings, rocket launching squads and a Hamas training facility in the impoverished territory.
Reporting from Gaza City, NBC’s Richard Engel posted a message on Twitter describing the buzz of drones over the city. “It sounds like everyone is out mowing their lawns in the dark,” he said.
A three-story house belonging to Hamas official Abu Hassan Salah was also hit and completely destroyed early on Saturday. Rescuers said at least 30 people were pulled from the rubble.
Read more at NBC News…..
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I’d love to see someone write a concise, easy to read back story on this conflict. Hint…hint…hint 🙂
This has been coming for a long time. One might think that, of all people, the Israelis would understand the desire for people to have a “homelend” and be permitted to rule it.
On the other hand, how good was the idea to locate your homeland in the middle of an area where everyone else there wants you dead? For what the USA has spent propping up Israel, they could have been given New Mexico or Arizona and been living safely and peacefully there.
For all the time I have spent studying the Mideast there is a lot that I, and probably a lot of other people, do not understand the mind of the Arabs nor the Zionists. Given the long standing (make that millennial) conflicts over that piece of land for religious reasons. While the Torah grants the land to the Hebrews the Koran grants it to the Muslims. Thus, there will never be an end to the conflict because no one wins in a argument over religious principles. One thing does seem apparent though, with the support of the United States Israel has sufficient military power to take on the Muslims and win on the battlefield. They have also learned how to deal with them. As Sean Connery said in “The Untouchables”, “If they kill one of yours, you kill two of theirs.” What amazes me is the behavior of of Hamas and the Palestinians. Well, at least the Palestinians. Hamas is nothing more than a terrorist group that hides among civilians for protection while it fires its rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Ultimately it is the civilians who pay the price of the conflict. So they just continue to kill each other with no end in sight.
Bill, you’re right on the mark again.
I think if the USA said, “We’ll no longer support this stupidity.” Solve your problems, relocate, or whatever. But we are not throwing another dollar or any American resources into your mutual insanity.
Too bad there isn’t a politician in the USA that could get elected on something that rational.
Egypt is getting pressure from its people to do more, but I think they’ve learned a lesson, having been throughly trounced in three wars with Israel, I doubt they want to try for a fourth.