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Israeli soliders testify to killing civilians during Gaza fighting

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In the two months since Israel ended its military assault on Gaza, Palestinians and international rights groups have accused it of excessive force and wanton killing in that operation, but the Israeli military has said it followed high ethical standards and took great care to avoid civilian casualties. Now testimony is emerging from within the ranks of soldiers and officers alleging a permissive attitude toward the killing of civilians and reckless destruction of property that is sure to inflame the domestic and international debate about the army’s conduct in Gaza. On Thursday, the military’s chief advocate general ordered an investigation into a soldier’s account of a sniper killing a woman and her two children who walked too close to a designated no-go area by mistake, and another account of a sharpshooter who killed an elderly woman who came within 100 yards of a commandeered house. – From NY Times

Posted
March 19th, 2009

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Israel threatens retaliation

And we’re off again…

Israel has bombed several targets in the Gaza Strip, witnesses say, hours after the Israeli government vowed a “disproportionate response” to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory. An Israeli security official confirmed the attack, one of which was on an empty police station, on Sunday. – From Al Jazeera English

Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas security target in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Islamist group said. There were no casualties from the attack that came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed a “disproportionate” response to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that injured three Israelis. – From Reuters

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel warned Sunday of “sharp” and “disproportionate” retaliation for continuing rocket fire out of Gaza. “We will not warn the terrorist elements in advance as to how, where and when we will respond, but we will respond,” Olmert said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting. – International Herald Tribune

Posted
February 1st, 2009

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Israel admits to use of white phosphorus munitions

The Israeli military came close to acknowledging for the first time yesterday its use of white phosphorus munitions during the war in Gaza, but continued to insist that it did not breach international law. As fresh evidence emerged of Gazan civilians being burned by phosphorus, Avital Leibovich, the army spokeswoman, said its use was “legal according to international law…All the munitions we were using were legal, like the French, American and British armies. We used munitions according to international law. – From Times Online

Israel has admitted – after mounting pressure – that its troops may have used white phosphorus shells in contravention of international law, during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip. One of the places most seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus was the main UN compound in Gaza City, which was hit by three shells on 15 January. The same munition was used in a strike on the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City the same day. – From Guardian UK

Posted
January 21st, 2009

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Israel declares unilateral cease-fire in Gaza

Israel has begun a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, three weeks after launching a full-scale assault against Hamas. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had achieved its goals and Hamas – which has been firing rockets at Israel – had been defeated. But he said troops would remain in Gaza for now. Hamas said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza. – From BBC News

Israel has declared a unilateral cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza beginning at 2 a.m. Sunday (7 p.m. ET Saturday), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. “Hamas has been dealt a very serious blow,” Olmert said. “We can say that the conditions have been brought about that enable us to say that the aims that we laid down for the operation have been completely achieved.” Yet Israel is prepared to respond if Hamas militants continue fighting in the Palestinian territory, Olmert said. – From CNN

Israel ceased fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after declaring victory in its three-week offensive but Hamas guerrillas said the war that has cost 1,200 Palestinian lives would go on. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak invited European leaders to a hastily-called summit to try to bolster the unilateral truce although Israel had sidestepped Cairo’s efforts to achieve a negotiated end to the hostilities with Hamas. – From Reuters

Posted
January 17th, 2009

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Israel Continues Assault On Hamas Targets

AP: Israeli warplanes and gunboats blasted more than two dozen Hamas targets Saturday, including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders’ homes as Israel’s offensive against Gaza’s Islamic militant rulers entered a second week.

Posted
January 3rd, 2009

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Bush blames Hamas for Gaza conflict

U.S. President Bush laid the blame for recent fighting in Gaza squarely at the feet of Hamas, accusing militants of waging a campaign of violence against Israel with little regard for its people. “Since Hamas’ violent takeover in the summer of 2007, living conditions have worsened for Palestinians in Gaza,” Bush says in prepared remarks released Friday by the White House. “By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people.” – From cnn.com

President Bush issued a sharp condemnation of Hamas late today, accusing the Palestinian militant group of provoking Israeli military action with rocket attacks and increasing the death toll by secreting its arms within civilian populations. In his weekly radio address, to be broadcast Saturday morning, Bush also said he would not support “another one-way ceasefire,” and he called for a strict monitoring system to curtail weapons smuggling into Gaza. A transcript of the address was released a day ahead of broadcast. – From Washington Post

Posted
January 2nd, 2009

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Hamas leader killed in air strike

A senior Hamas leader has been killed by an Israeli air strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials say. Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since 2004, had urged suicide attacks against Israel. News of the strike came on the sixth day of Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. – From BBC News

Israel killed a senior Hamas leader in an air attack on his home on Thursday, striking its first deadly blow against the top ranks of the Islamist group in a Gaza offensive that has claimed more than 400 Palestinian lives. Nizar Rayyan, a cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas’s most hardline political leaders, had called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. Medical officials, confirming his death, said two of his four wives and seven of his children were killed in the bombing, in Jabalya refugee camp. – From Reuters

Posted
January 1st, 2009

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Israel Says Gaza Assault ‘War to the Bitter End’

Israel obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defense minister described Monday as a ‘war to the bitter end,’ striking next to the Hamas premier’s home, and devastating a security compound and a university building.

Posted
December 30th, 2008

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Israel in ‘all-out war’ with Hamas

Israel is in “all-out war” with Hamas, the nation’s defense minister said Monday as Israeli jets continued to hammer targets in Gaza and the Palestinian death toll reportedly topped 300. “We have stretched our hand in peace many times to the Palestinian people. We have nothing against the people of Gaza,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. “But this is an all-out war against Hamas and its branches.” Barak’s remarks to parliament came as Israeli warplanes carried out a third day of strikes against the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The Palestinian death toll from the campaign has topped 300, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Monday. The attacks also have wounded about 650 people, the sources said. – From cnn.com

Israeli air raids have pounded the Gaza Strip for a third day, hitting key sites linked to militant group Hamas. Gaza’s interior ministry and Islamic University were the latest targets. Hamas says 300 Palestinians have died since Saturday, while the UN says 56 civilians are dead. In Israel, a second person was killed by a militant rocket. Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was not fighting the people of Gaza but was in “a war to the bitter end” with Hamas, which has ruled it since 2007. Israel has massed forces along the border and has declared the area around the narrow coastal strip a “closed military zone”. – From BBC News

In a third straight day of deadly air strikes against the emblems and institutions of Hamas on Monday, Israeli warplanes pounded targets in Gaza including the Interior Ministry while the Israeli army declared areas around the beleaguered enclave a “closed military zone.” – From NY Times

Posted
December 29th, 2008

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Israel kills 208 in air assault on Gaza Strip

Israeli warplanes and helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 205 people in the bloodiest one-day death toll in 60 years of conflict with the Palestinians. Militants in the Gaza Strip, who have launched dozens of rocket attacks against Israel since a truce expired just over a week ago, fired more salvoes that killed one Israeli man and wounded several others. Both sides said they were ready to stage wider assaults, threatening to plunge the region into a crisis that could leave stalled talks over Palestinian statehood in tatters. – From Reuters

Waves of Israeli aircraft swooped over the Gaza Strip on Saturday, firing missiles at Hamas’s security headquarters and killing more than 200 people, bringing the highest death toll in Gaza in years in a crushing response to rocket fire by Hamas against Israeli towns. After the initial airstrikes, which also wounded about 600 Palestinians, dozens of rockets struck southern Israel. Thousands of Israelis hurried into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets, including some longer-range models that reached farther north than ever before. One Israeli man was killed in the town of Netivot and four were wounded, one seriously. – From NY Times

Israeli airstrikes pounded Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 205 people, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the military aimed to inflict a “major blow” on militants in Gaza because of escalating rocket attacks against Israel. “In the last few weeks … ground missiles and mortars have been directed at our community in the south of our country. We have no intention of allowing these attacks to continue,” Barak said at a news conference. The Israeli attacks would continue through the night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Hamas vowed to retaliate. – From cnn.com

Posted
December 27th, 2008

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Israel ‘will not avoid Gaza war’

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned militants in Gaza that while his government would not rush to go to war, it would not evade such a decision. Mr Olmert was speaking at a meeting of the Israeli cabinet, just days after a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which runs Gaza, came to an end. – From BBC news

Israel will respond to ongoing rocket attacks, the country’s prime minister said Sunday, hours after 10 rockets and mortars were lobbed into Israel from Gaza. “Israel will know when to respond correctly and with the necessary responsibility,” outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the beginning of his weekly Cabinet meeting. In the past few weeks, an estimated 200 rockets have fallen inside Israel. – From CNN.com

Posted
December 21st, 2008

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