The New Dark Age

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Israeli defense minister says Gaza operation will widen as necessary…Israeli air attacks continue as night falls in Gaza…. Palestinian medical sources say Gaza toll has reached 205 people, including many women & children.

1. Scores dead in Israeli raid on Gaza
2. Analysis: Israel’s Gaza assault

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/200812279451509662.html

Scores dead in Israeli raid on Gaza

At least 195 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed in an Israeli aerial bombardment on Hamas security installations.

Israel launched air attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, threatening that further operations would be carried out.

Emergency services said that at least 300 people had been wounded.

Witnesses reported heavy damage as at least 30 missiles were fired.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, said that the operation would not be short.

“The operaton will go on and be intensified as long as necessary,” he said on Saturday.

An Israeli military spokesman added that any “Hamas target is a target”.

As dusk fell, Israel continued to bomb the strip, firing on a metal foundry in the south.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, condemned the attack and demanded an immediate cessation.

Hours after the Israeli assault, Gaza fighters fired home-made rockets into southern Israel, heeding calls by Hamas and other affiliated Palestinian groups to avenge the attacks, unprecedented in their scale.

One Israeli was killed in the rocket fire, medics said.

Taher al-Noono, a Hamas spokesman, described Israel’s operation as a “massacre”, adding: “However, our resolve cannot be dented and cannot be shaken. We will continue our struggle with absolute strength and steadfastness.”

Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said a police graduation ceremony in Gaza City was struck by Israel. Among those killed was Tawfiq Jabber, the Gaza chief of police.

The Hamas-run interior ministry said all security compounds in the Strip had been destroyed.

Gaza is densely populated. Its 1.5 million residents area already experiencing shortages in medicine, power and basic supplies due to 18 months of an Israeli blockade.

‘War crimes’

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, condemned the “aggression” in Gaza.

Mousa Abu Morzouz, the deputy leader of Hamas, told Al Jazeera: “Until now the aggression didn’t stop … they are targeting all the police headquarters and offices.

“We will defend our people, we will retaliate against this aggression … our military will retaliate.”

Morzouz called on the world’s most powerful nations to condemn the attacks: “Nobody in this world can accept what happened and the Israeli aggression … [we expect] the international community to stand against this and say that it is not acceptable.”

Mustafa Barghouthi, the former Palestinian information minister, said: “This is not an attack on the Hamas. It is an attack on the whole population and the free will of the people of Gaza.”

He accused Israel of committing “war crimes” and demanded that Abbas and his government stop all relations with Israel.

‘Only just beginning’

The Israel army released a statement saying “terrorist installations” were hit and that all Israeli pilots returned unharmed.

The operation against the Hamas is “only just beginning,” Avi Benayahu, an Israeli military spokesman said.

The air raids follow the decision by the Israeli security cabinet to increase reprisals for cross-border rocket attacks against Israel, and the breakdown of a six-month-old Israel-Hamas truce earlier this month.

The ceasefire expired on December 19, with Hamas arguing that Israel had violated the truce by preventing vital food and medical supplies into the Strip.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, said: “A series of explosions were heard over Gaza City.

“From where we are, there are at least seven different clouds of smoke from the strikes. We are seeing some casualties being evacuated in cars.”

Egypt has opened the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip to receive injured people, Egyptian officials said. Ambulances have been sent to the crossing and two Egyptian hospitals emptied to take in the wounded.

Weakened security services

Mohyeldin said that Hamas, which rule the Gaza Strip, was being held responsible by Israel for any attacks from the territory into Israel, even if they are undertaken by other Palestinian factions.

”]Palestinian officials called on the international community to condemn the raids [AFP]

However, officials of the deposed government in Gaza which maintains law and order, while being Hamas member in the main, are separate from the group’s military wing and other factions responsible for attacks into Israel.

“There is within Gaza a functioning ministry of interior that has security services, traffic control, emergency medical services,” Mohyeldin reported.

“Those workers are seen as employees of the government in Gaza. So now that many of these installations have been targeted, it will have an immediate impact in terms of the law and order structure here in Gaza.”

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Jerusalem, said that Israel’s decision to strike at this moment was down to Hamas withdrawing from the ceasefire and the intensified rocket fire coming from the Gaza Strip in recent days.

“In one day [in the past week] we saw 80 rockets … which is a huge upsurge,” she said.

Hamas won control of the Palestinian Legislative Council in elections in January 2005. The international community refused to accept a Hamas-led government, demanding that the faction recognise Israel and renounce violence. Economic sanctions by the EU and US followed.

Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after bloody street battles against its rival, the Fatah movement.

Analysis: Israel’s Gaza assault

Osama Hamdan, Hamas representative in Lebanon

“I believe what happened today is a continuity of the Israeli collective crime against the Palestinians.

What happened in the last three years, the Palestinians were suffering under the siege.

“The Israelis expected that the people will react against the resistance and against Hamas which didn’t happen in the past three years. That means they have to start very tough actions against Hamas.

“They attack 32 positions in Gaza, we expect the casualties will … reach 200 killings.

“There is a clear reaction of the Palestinians in Gaza. They are calling for revenge. They are asking for the Palestinian resistance to react against the occupation.

“I believe Israel is not learning the lesson. They don’t know that this kind of aggressive attack against the Palestinians creates a new cycle of violence inside Palestine. It will not defeat the Palestinian resistance.

“We are talking about six decades of occupation and, until now, the Palestinian people are resisting. What has happened today in Gaza will not stop the resistance, will not defeat the Palestinian people. They will find themselves under a reaction from the resistance.

“The peace process has completely failed, so we have to talk about a new process in the region which is supposed to start from the restoring of Palestinian rights and the commitment towards those rights.

“No one will accept now any talk about a peace process, because everyone knows that the Palestinian people are fed up with 17 years of negotiation without any result.

“The second thing which I believe is happening every morning is that Palestinians believe that there is no solution unless there is a resistance.”

Azzam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought

“If you remember what Tzipi Livni said in Egypt after her meeting with President Hosni Mubarak and the foreign minister, she made a clear warning, not just about a tit-for-tat attitude, but about a change in Gaza.

“That’s why I suspect that the operation is not only intended to be limited, but aimed at toppling the regime in Gaza altogether, otherwise why would Israel target the police force?

“They are not the ones firing missiles in Israel – the police force keeps the order in Gaza. This is an operation that will create disorder and I suspect that Egypt and Ramallah are colluding in this.
“Israel would never have carried out such a massive attack had it not been for a green light from people that matter – for instance the United States, some of the European powers and also from Egypt and Ramallah.

“Hamas did not say it wanted the truce to be renewed, it wanted to renegotiate new terms for the truce. Hamas wanted a truce with the Israelis that would bring about the end to the siege.

“Unfortunately, because the Egyptian broker was a dishonest broker, siding by Israel and siding by Ramallah, the truce did not bring the most important dividend which was ending the siege.

“So Hamas said ‘if you want to renew the truce, let’s end the siege and open the crossings.’ The Egyptians would not agree to this. The Israelis would not agree to this.

“The Israelis were not interested in renewing a truce. Cairo was determined to give Hamas a fatal blow and they gave the green light to Israel I suspect.”