The Great Holy War has begun

[Gepetto 1,371]

http://news.yahoo.com/top-hamas-commander-killed-israeli-airstrike-143218204.html

 

 

Israel launches Gaza offensive, kills Hamas commander

 

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell".

 

The onslaught shattered hopes that a truce mediated on Tuesday by Egypt could pull the two sides back from the brink of war after five days of escalating Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli strikes at militant targets.

 

Operation "Pillar of Defence" began with a surgical strike on a car carrying the commander of the military wing of Hamas, the Iranian-armed Islamist movement which controls Gaza and dominates a score of smaller armed groups.

 

Within minutes of the death of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, big explosions were rocking Gaza, as the Israeli air force struck at selected targets just before sundown, blasting plumes of smoke and debris high above the crowded city.

 

Panicking civilians ran for cover and the death toll mounted quickly. Nine people including three children were killed, the health ministry said, and about 40 people were wounded.

 

Army tanks shelled border areas of Gaza in south and the Israeli navy shelled a Hamas security position from the sea.

 

Hamas stuck back, firing at least four Grad rockets at the southern city of Beersheva in what it called its initial response. Israel reported damage but no casualties.

 

The escalation in Gaza came in a week when Israel fired at Syrian artillery positions it said had fired into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights amid a civil war in Syria that has brought renewed instability to Lebanon.

 

Egypt, whose new Islamist government is still honoring the 1979 peace agreement with Israel, condemned the raids on Gaza as a threat to regional security and withdrew its ambassador from Israel. It also summoned the Israeli envoy to Cairo to deliver a protest and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

 

Russia called for an end to the raids.

 

A second Gaza war has loomed on the horizon for months as waves of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli strikes grew increasingly more intense and frequent.

 

Israel's Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009 began with a week of air attacks and shelling, followed by a land invasion of the blockaded coastal strip, sealed off at sea by the Israeli navy. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 13 Israelis died.

 

KILLED IN HIS CAR

 

Hamas said Jaabari, who ran the organization's armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam, died along with a Hamas photographer when their car was blown apart by an Israeli missile.

 

The charred wreckage of a car could be seen belching flames, as emergency crews picked up what appeared to be body parts.

 

Israel confirmed it had carried out the attack and announced there was more to come. Reuters witnesses saw Hamas security compounds and police stations blasted apart.

 

"Today we relayed a clear message to the Hamas organization and other terrorist organizations," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "And if there is a need, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is prepared to broaden the operation. We will continue to do everything in order to protect our citizens."

 

Immediate calls for revenge were broadcast over Hamas radio.

 

"The occupation has opened the gates of hell," Hamas's armed wing said. Smaller groups also vowed to strike back.

 

"Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences," Islamic Jihad said.

 

Southern Israeli communities within rocket range of Gaza were on full alert, and schools were ordered closed for Thursday. About one million Israelis live in range of Gaza's relatively primitive but lethal rockets, supplemented in recent months by longer-range, more accurate systems.

 

"The days we face in the south will, in my estimation, prove protracted," Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, Israel's chief military spokesman, told Channel 2 TV.

 

"The home front must brace itself resiliently."

 

Mordechai said Israel was both responding to a surge in Palestinian rocket salvoes earlier this week and trying to prevent Hamas and other Palestinian factions from building up their arsenals further.

 

Among the targets of Wednesday's air strikes were underground caches of longer-range Hamas rockets, he said.

 

Asked if Israel might send in ground forces, Mordechai said: "There are preparations, and if we are required to, the option of an entry by ground is available."

 

OBAMA BRIEFED

 

Israeli President Shimon Peres briefed U.S. President Barack Obama on the operation, Peres's office said in a statement. He told Obama that Jaabari was a "mass-murderer" and his killing was Israel's response to Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza.

 

"Israel is not interested in stoking the flames, but for the past five days there has been constant missile fire at Israel and mothers and children cannot sleep quietly at night," said Peres, who visited the border town of Sderot earlier.

 

In the flare-up that was prelude to Wednesday's offensive, more than 115 missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza and Israeli planes launched numerous strikes.

 

Seven Palestinians, three of them gunmen, were killed. Eight Israeli civilians were hurt by rocket fire and four soldiers wounded by an anti-tank missile.

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi to call an emergency meeting of the League's Council to denounce "dangerous Israeli escalation and brutal aggression on our people in the Gaza Strip".

 

The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Arab states, especially Egypt, to halt the assault.

 

Egypt's foreign ministry condemned the Israeli strikes, saying any further escalation "could have negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region".

 

Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet said Jaabari led Hamas' takeover of Gaza in 2007, when the militant Islamist group ousted fighters of the Fatah movement of its great rival, the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

 

It said he instigated the attack that led to the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit in a kidnap raid from Gaza in 2006. Jaabari was also the man who handed Shalit over to Israel in a prisoner exchange five years after his capture.

 

Israel holds a general election on January 22 and Netanyahu has pledged to retaliate harshly against Hamas. But Israel is also wary of the reaction from Mursi's Egypt, whose ruling Muslim Brotherhood is the spiritual mentor of Hamas.

 

Hamas has been emboldened by its rise to power, viewing Mursi as a "safety net" who will not permit a second Israeli thrashing of Gaza, home to 1.7 million Palestinians.

 

 

[BunnysBastatrds 2,447]

12-12-12

[kutulu 1,680]

Fellas, its been good to know ya.

[Recliner Pilot 61]

Hamas sends hundreds if rockets into Israel. For every one they fired off, I would send ten back at them. Each and every time until they stopped, or were all dead.

[ZeroTolerance 584]

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell".

 

Hey, when you open the gates of hell could you bring back my football, I accidentally kicked it over the fence of hell last week.

[Blitzen 0]

I'm willing to bet a tactical nuke would close the Gates of Hell right up.

[DankNuggs 305]

"Egypt, whose new Islamist government is still honoring the 1979 peace agreement with Israel, condemned the raids on Gaza as a threat to regional security and withdrew its ambassador from Israel. It also summoned the Israeli envoy to Cairo to deliver a protest and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council."

 

 

The glory of the arab spring.... Kumbaya.

 

 

Also, if we are to believe that Hamas and islam are misunderstood, peaceful people, why do they claim to hold the key to the gates of hell? Odd imagery.

 

 

Good thing our commander and chief has our foreign policy team in shambles right now... But its ok cause he wasn't aware his team was in shambles for months...

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

I've really begun to hope that the Mayans are right. Dead serious.

[Blitzen 0]

All non Middle-East countries need to call a meeting where they inform the Middle-East that the nonsense has to stop. Just shut the fock up and give up the oil. From now on, any fock up will instantly bring about a curtain of rockets laced with bacon.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

Our foreign policy is working exactly as expected.

[Blitzen 0]

Our foreign policy is working exactly as expected.

 

No foreign policy can "work" in that region. Not for long anyway.

[NewbieJr 541]

God help us all. Or, whomever

[NewbieJr 541]

No foreign policy can "work" in that region. Not for long anyway.

Shush. Let Timmy blame Obama. It's what makes him hard.

[Vikings4ever 550]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi to call an emergency meeting of the League's Council to denounce "dangerous Israeli escalation and brutal aggression on our people in the Gaza Strip"

 

I swear, Palestinians are like 5 year olds who yell "He hit me back!"

[Frank M 181]

I gotta say, from the bottom of my heart, fock 'em. Rat's ass. We'll be energy sufficient within ten years, anyways.

 

No need to stop the pansy-ass crying, though, boys. Go right ahead with it.

[5-Points 3,564]

Fellas, its been good to know ya.

Not so fast. Get back in that galley and make me a sammich!

[Blitzen 0]

Honestly...what possible resolution can there be, short of one side completely taking over the other?

 

That region is nuts.

[Recliner Pilot 61]

I gotta say, from the bottom of my heart, fock 'em. Rat's ass. We'll be energy sufficient within ten years, anyways.

 

 

 

Pssst......Solyndra went belly up.

[kutulu 1,680]

Not so fast. Get back in that galley and make me a sammich!

You get a shitte sammich and like it.

[5-Points 3,564]

You get a shitte sammich and like it.

Can I get some feces pieces with that?

[MedStudent 56]

This crap has been going on for some time. I don't think I have ever heard of a us president being blamed for it until Obama came along.

[kutulu 1,680]

Obama orchestrated the whole thing to take the focus off of Petraeua and Benghazi.

[Voltaire 5,317]

Hamas fires rockets at the Israelis regularly. The launch sites are always schools and residential buildings to prevent/cry about retaliation.

[Recliner Pilot 61]

This crap has been going on for some time. I don't think I have ever heard of a us president being blamed for it until Obama came along.

 

Let's go back about a month and see what Bill Clinton had to say while campaigning for your Hero:

 

ZAKARIA: Is Mitt Romney right that the only thing you can do with the Israeli-Palestinian issue is kick the can down the road?

 

CLINTON: No, it is accurate that the United States cannot make peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. They have to do that. What we need to do is maximize the attractiveness of doing it and minimize the risks of doing it. We can do that.

And if you look at it, President Bush, when he took office, the second President Bush, I’ll never forget he said, “You know the names of every street in the old city and look what it got you. I’m not going to fool with this now.”

 

And immediately the death rate went up among Israelis and Palestinians because there was nothing going on.

 

Thanks for playing, Medstoopid.

 

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/09/24/bill-clintons-disgraceful-comments-about-george-w-bush/

[Gepetto 1,371]

Palestinian security forces wheel into a hospital the body of Ahmaed Jaabari - picture: http://rt.com/files/news/gaza-israel-hamas-attack-687/forces-hospital-body-head.jpg

 

And a website with information about what went on over there today: http://rt.com/news/gaza-israel-hamas-attack-687/

[Voltaire 5,317]

It never ends. Palesinians goad the Israelis by sending missles into Israel, the Isrealis blow them up. I'm surprised they showed as much restraint as they did this tiem, the Palestinians have been shelling them for a while.

 

We can all be glad this guy is dead ... until Saturday when the next frothing at the mouth lunatic takes his place who is just as bad.

[SUXBNME 1,512]

Let's go back about a month and see what Bill Clinton had to say while campaigning for your Hero:

 

 

 

Thanks for playing, Medstoopid.

 

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/09/24/bill-clintons-disgraceful-comments-about-george-w-bush/

[Vikings4ever 550]

It never ends. Palesinians goad the Israelis by sending missles into Israel, the Isrealis blow them up. I'm surprised they showed as much restraint as they did this tiem, the Palestinians have been shelling them for a while.

 

We can all be glad this guy is dead ... until Saturday when the next frothing at the mouth lunatic takes his place who is just as bad.

That was just shot one.

 

Israel hammering Palestine

[tikigods 76]

Maybe Iran has their bomb ready and can use it on Israel.

 

:popcorn:

[RLLD 4,247]

A bunch of middle eastern idiots killing each other over who gets a small stretch of desert...... :popcorn:

[phillybear 366]

Didn't BYU and Utah already play earlier this season?

[Recliner Pilot 61]

I didn't have to go back very far to hand Med his ass on that one, did I?