Wednesday 31 December 2008

Hamas : 4 - Israel : 374

Israel's cabinet is meeting to discuss proposals for an immediate suspension of air operations against Gaza.
Calls have come from Middle East peace-brokers including the US and EU foreign ministers. But Israeli leaders are reported to be split on the issue.
A foreign ministry spokesman said a unilateral 48-hour halt was "unrealistic", as long as Hamas continued to fire at Israel.


Palestinian officials say about 374 Palestinians have died in Israeli air strikes since Saturday;
4 Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza. BBC:

In my opinion, the only reason a unilateral 48-hour halt is "unrealistic" is because it doesn't suit their intention to wipe out the Palestinian population. The Israeli air strikes began less than a week after the expiry of a six-month-long ceasefire deal with Hamas.... which says to me that the Israelis were just waiting for an excuse to start hostilities again - that may well be a very simplistic view of the situation but as far as I can see that is the Israeli's main objective.

If the Israeli's really wanted to rid themselves of the Hamas they could move troops in and weed them out instead of indiscriminately bombing.

But, while condemning the Israeli action I really think that the Hamas should also be criticized for carrying out their action from within Gaza: by using civilians as cover for their operations and putting them at risk from the inevitable military retaliation they are also showing a total disregard for their lives.

Israeli air strike kills five daughters from one family as Gaza death toll passes 300.
Six months of secret planning - then Israel moves against Hamas
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