astralis

so much for not fearing death and martyrs for the cause, eh wot. altho i'm sure m21 can think of some more choice epithets than i...

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15542376/

Gaza gunmen flee behind human shield protest
Israeli forces fire on crowd outside mosque; woman killed, 10 wounded

MSNBC
Updated: 1 hour, 37 minutes ago

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces fired Friday at a group of women who streamed to a Gaza mosque to serve as human shields for gunmen holed up there, killing one and wounding 10, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The dead woman was one of several hundred who had heeded a call by Hamas militants to ring the mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Their presence allowed the gunmen inside to escape, some reportedly wearing robes supplied by the women, ending their 19-hour standoff with soldiers parked outside in tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Troops seized Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in their fiercest bid in months to halt Palestinian rocket fire on nearby Israeli communities. More than 20 Palestinians, most gunmen, have been killed since the offensive began, including a 22-year-old man killed Friday.
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Focal point
The mosque became the focus of the fighting in the town after dozens of gunmen sought refuge from troops there Thursday. Most were thought to belong to the military wing of the ruling Hamas party.

Armored vehicles quickly surrounded the building, and the two sides began exchanging fire that lasted throughout the night, the military and Palestinian security officials said.

Israeli soldiers trying to pressure the gunmen to surrender also threw stun and smoke grenades, and knocked down an outer wall of the mosque with a bulldozer, causing the ceiling to collapse.

With sporadic shooting persisting Friday morning, Hamas radio broadcast a call to women to go to Beit Hanoun to shield the militants. Dozens of women left their homes to a hurry to the mosque, and en route, came under Israeli fire, witnesses and officials said.

One woman, about 40, was shot and killed, and 10 others were wounded, they said.

Army says gunmen hiding among crowd
The army said troops spotted two militants hiding in the crowd of women and opened fire, hitting the two.

By midmorning Friday, veiled women protesters had gathered outside the mosque, where troops were positioned in tanks and armored personnel carriers. The army said the gunmen in the mosque took advantage of the demonstration to escape because there were not enough soldiers to block the protesters from approaching the building, and troops did not want to shoot into the crowd.

But live ammunition was fired in the course of the demonstration, wounding a Palestinian cameraman and an unidentified woman.

Loudspeakers across Gaza called on people to come to demonstrations after Friday prayers to express solidarity with Beit Hanoun. By late morning, two rallies were already in progress in Beit Hanoun, and militants in the crowds were firing at soldiers, the army said.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas “saluted the women of Palestine ... who led the protest to break the siege of Beit Hanoun.” Haniyeh urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to witness firsthand “the massacres of the Palestinian people,” and appealed to the Arab world to “stop the ongoing bloodshed.”

A spokesman for Hamas militants said 32 gunmen who had taken cover in the mosque escaped with the help of the women. The spokesman, Abu Obeida, denied reports that the men disguised themselves as women to escape, but one woman said she handed women’s clothing to some of the gunmen.

Dozens of protesters took sanctuary in a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, fearing retribution by troops, said Imad Okal, an official with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

Elsewhere in Beit Hanoun, Israeli troops lowered their visibility, after two days of fierce fighting.

No airstrikes were reported, and residents said infantrymen had stopped patrolling the streets. Tanks and armored personnel vehicles were in sight, however, and snipers were positioned on about two dozen rooftops.

No wider Israeli offensive
The army said it targeted Beit Hanoun because it was a major staging ground for rocket attacks. But Israeli officials have said the takeover of the town did not signal the start of a wider-scale military offensive in Gaza.

Militants have been undeterred, however, and have continued firing rockets, including two that landed in southern Israel on Friday, slightly wounding two people.

Separately, tens of thousands of mourners accompanying the coffins of four militants killed in Israeli airstrikes Thursday filed through a main Gaza City street, some hoisting the flags of Hamas’ military wing and the Islamic Jihad militant group.

The violence coincides with efforts by the moderate President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new government with Hamas. A top Abbas aide said Thursday the Palestinian president would seek new elections if talks do not produce results in about two weeks.

Abbas has been trying to end a punishing aid cutoff by setting up a government acceptable to the West, either in a power-sharing arrangement between Hamas and his Fatah movement, or by appointing independent professionals agreeable to the ruling party. Hamas has balked at demands that it recognize Israel, however, and no solution to the deadlock has emerged.

Mustafa Barghouti, an independent legislator who has been shuttling between the two sides, said Thursday an agreement on a new government was close, but he would not disclose details. “We have made good progress. We are almost there,” Barghouti said after meeting with Haniyeh.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

__________________
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Tronic

huh? Didn't the Israelis have the place surrounded??? How the heck did those women get inside the stand-off area???

__________________
Nabha Sparasham Deeptam
-Touch The Sky With Glory

YellowFever

I was thinking the same thing......

Umm..maybe they were in there already when the conflict started?

Only logical explanation I could think of....

__________________
...If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!

Ironduke

Why is Israel still operating in Gaza? They control the borders, they can regulate inflow and outflow of people. I don't really see the need for them to be involved in military operations inside the Gaza Strip anymore.

ZFBoxcar

Rockets.

gunnut

Women should be treated as equals of men. They are as dangerous, ruthless, heartless, and more crazy than men. Remember the feminazi motto: women can do everything men can, if not better.

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"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

Bluesman

SERIOUSLY?!? You can't see the need?

Dude, it's called 'perspective'. Yours needs an upgrade.

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Tronic

still?

Bluesman

Always. It never stops, cease-fire or no.

Stan187

Lol yeah there are still rockets, come on guys, even commie news outlets like the Guardian and Independent acknowledge this.

It ain't gonna stop in a civil manner. Its not surprise they are still shooting rockets even tho no Israelis are in Gaza. People always make this plea to go back to 1967 borders as if thats the end all be all to peace. There were fedayeen raids into Israel before the Six Day War. It shouldn't surprise anyone. Though now, because Al Jazeera is launching a news network in English, the media bias situation is going to get even worse.

Funny how stupid people are always for the "underdog" no matter who is more right or wrong. Same people that yap how hard it is to be Palestinian nowadays woulda probably heralded Israel's triumph in 1967 as a good thing, since they were perceived as the oppressed underdog back then.

Logic logic logic, where are you hiding?

Tronic

damn... Nuke the Middle East...