Shek

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091402169.html

Bad Start in Gaza

Thursday, September 15, 2005; Page A32

ONLY DAYS after the final withdrawal of Israeli forces, the Gaza Strip is on the verge of anarchy. Despite promises to impose law and order, the Palestinian Authority has allowed mobs of looters and armed extremists to rampage through former Jewish settlements, where they have burned or bulldozed synagogues left standing by Israel. Many of the valuable greenhouses that, with the generous help of international donors, were saved for use by the Palestinians have been stripped of equipment as police stood by and watched. Despite a formal agreement with Israel to maintain security, Egypt has allowed thousands of Palestinians to illegally cross its border, including rifle-brandishing militants. If it is not quickly checked, the disorder will destroy Palestinian hopes that the Gaza transfer will become a step toward statehood.

This week's events further undermine the claim of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he can impose democratic rule of law in Gaza without directly confronting armed extremist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Mr. Abbas keeps declaring that only Palestinian security forces will be allowed weapons and that "no one is above the law." But he also keeps shrinking from confronting the gunmen who have been parading through former Jewish settlements or punching holes in the border fence between Gaza and Egypt. "We are not going to tolerate chaos after today," Mr. Abbas declared on Tuesday. Yesterday, as the chaos continued, he instead canceled his appearance at a rally organized by his own administration.

Mr. Abbas's problem is in part one of weakness; it's not certain that the security forces loyal to him could impose order by force in Gaza even if he ordered them to. Egypt's failure is far harder to excuse. The government of Hosni Mubarak formally committed itself to send Egyptian troops to replace the Israeli army on the border between Gaza and Egypt and to maintain security. No agreement has yet been reached on opening a crossing, mainly because of Israel's legitimate security concerns. But Egyptian troops this week have allowed thousands of Palestinians to pass back and forth, urged on by Hamas fighters who have blown holes in the fence. Egypt announced that it would put a stop to the traffic by yesterday evening. According to news reports, the crossings continued.

The Gaza withdrawal should have been a step toward an Israeli-Palestinian settlement; instead, it could become a leap away from it. The big winner so far is Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence. In Israel, continuing disorder will give a boost to hard-line challengers to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the Gaza evacuation. As it is, Mr. Sharon probably will reiterate in an address to the United Nations today that Israel will consider no more territorial withdrawals or other concessions to the Palestinians until militant groups are dismantled. Unless Palestinian and Egyptian leaders take immediate steps to fulfill their commitments in Gaza, they will bear the responsibility for a new stalemate -- or worse -- in the Middle East.

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"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

dalem

What are the barbarians going to eat?

-dale

Lunatock

The first paragraph was all that need be read. God's chosen people made grass grow from the desert...and after moving out the new occupants are turning the grass back into desert.

giggs88

The world is now aware.

ZFBoxcar

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and scores injured in a blast during a parade by the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.

A truck carrying gunmen and home-made weapons blew up during the rally in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Israel has denied involvement, while the ruling Palestinian Fatah faction said it held Hamas responsible.

It is the deadliest incident in Gaza since Israel pulled its troops and settlers out earlier this month.

Hours earlier, Palestinians fired rockets into Israel from Gaza after Israel killed three militants in a raid in the West Bank town of Tulkarm.

The rockets did not cause any casualties.

People in pieces

Palestinian witnesses said a crowd, including many children, swarmed round the truck moments before the explosion.

Map showing northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabaliya
Video filmed during the rally showed a large cloud of white smoke rising into the sky, as hundreds of people ran from the scene of the blast.

The pictures also showed several badly injured bodies on the ground.

An unnamed witness was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying "I was thrown several metres, then I looked behind and I saw people dismembered and lying on the ground dead."

The Associated Press news agency quoted another man, who gave his name as Hussam, as saying he helped pull three men out of the truck, two dead and one alive but with a severed leg.

Hamas accused Israel of causing the blast and vowed revenge.

However Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction said it held Hamas "fully responsible for the victims of the military parade [that was held] among civilians".

Israel has denied any involvement in the blast.

Earlier, Islamic jihad militants fired a volley of rockets into Israel in what they said was retaliation after Israel killed three militants in Tulkarm.

Israel said the militants were killed after opening fire on troops who were trying to arrest them.

The BBC's James Reynolds in Jerusalem says the latest incidents are a sign of high tension in the Gaza Strip even after the Israeli withdrawal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4276458.stm

Leader

__________________

platinum786

these people are hilarious!

just sit by and watch....

ZFBoxcar

By LARA SUKHTIAN
Associated Press Writer

September 24, 2005, 9:41 AM EDT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel killed four Hamas militants in a missile strike Saturday and moved artillery cannons to the Gaza border, launching what it vowed would be a "crushing" response to a Hamas rocket barrage on Israeli towns.

Israel also sealed the West Bank and Gaza, barring all Palestinians from its territory, within hours of the Hamas attack -- the group's first major violence since Israel withdrew from the Mediterranean coastal strip two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called his Security Cabinet for a meeting later Saturday to approve the military action, expected to last several days. A large-scale operation appeared unlikely but the timing of the meeting suggested a sense of urgency.

The Cabinet session comes as Sharon faces a major leadership challenge in his Likud Party over the Gaza withdrawal, completed two weeks ago. Sharon's challenger, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned the pullout will endanger Israel, and the barrage of 39 rockets, with five Israelis wounded, could boost his agenda.

The escalation followed an explosion Friday at a Hamas rally at a crowded Palestinian refugee camp that killed at least 15 Palestinians. Witnesses said the blast went off near a pickup truck carrying masked militants and homemade rockets.

Hamas blamed Israel and said it fired rockets on Israeli border towns in retaliation. But the Palestinian Authority said the blast was an accident resulting from militants mishandling explosives. It renewed demands that armed groups stop flaunting their weapons.

In its struggle to bring order to Gaza, the Palestinian Authority won agreement from militant groups for a ban on displaying weapons starting late Saturday. Hassan Yousef, a Hamas leader, said the group would abide by the ban. "There will be no military parades in the streets and Hamas weapons will go into the shadows," he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met Saturday with the army chief and the head of the Shin Bet security service to formulate Israel's response. "We have to make it clear to the Palestinians that Israel will not let the recent events pass without a response," Mofaz said in a statement. "The response needs to be crushing."

Mofaz ordered large numbers of ground forces to deploy near northern Gaza, from where most rockets have been launched. Security officials said thousands of soldiers have been called up.

On Saturday afternoon, Israeli aircraft fired five missiles at two cars in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing four Hamas militants, according to medics, witnesses and Palestinian radio reports. Nine people were wounded.

Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath denounced the strike as an "act of criminal aggression" and accused Israel of trying to destroy a truce that largely has held since February.

In an unprecedented step, Israel also set up five artillery cannons on the Gaza border, guarded by seven armored personnel carriers. Soldiers appeared to be settling in, building a command post and rolling out barbed wire.

Israel in the past retaliated for Palestinian rocket fire with airstrikes or ground incursions. Artillery fire is less precise, however, and artillery shells fired into densely populated Gaza could cause many casualties. Israel appeared to be signaling it is determined to stop the rocket fire at any price.

At another border staging area, four armored personnel carriers, five tanks and four huge D-9 bulldozers joined a fleet of about 30 armored vehicles that are regularly deployed there.

Friday's explosion brought a terrifying end to what became the last militant victory celebration of Israel's Gaza pullout before the weapons ban takes effect. Abbas' ruling Fatah movement canceled a final rally planned for Saturday.

The exact number of casualties from the Jabaliya camp remained unclear Saturday. Doctors at two Gaza hospitals counted 15 dead and 83 wounded, but the Palestinian health ministry put the toll at 17 dead and 140 wounded, possibly due to duplicate hospital registration during the initial chaos.

About 10,000 mourners attended prayers for 10 of the dead at a Jebaliya mosque Saturday. After the ceremony, the crowd split into three processions, with Hamas holding a separate march for four of its dead. Gunmen shot in the air, and women watching from balconies threw rice into the crowd.

The deadly rally appeared to put Hamas on the defensive for the first time since the Israeli withdrawal; it also gave Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas greater leverage to enforce the weapons ban.

Islamic militants took center-stage after Israel's withdrawal, holding military-style victory parades, and many Palestinians endorsed the militants' claim that they had driven Israel out by force.

Now, Israel's reprisals have caused new hardships for Palestinian civilians, who might blame Hamas.

Israel's indefinite closure of the West Bank and Gaza, imposed Saturday, means thousands of Palestinian laborers won't be able to reach jobs in Israel. Many Gazans also had hoped for a return to calm after Israel's pullout and might not be willing to tolerate a new era of airstrikes.

Abbas, meanwhile, is under growing pressure to stop the rocket fire, with Israel demanding he deploy his troops in northern Gaza, the favored rocket launching ground. This could force Abbas into confrontations with Hamas that he has been trying to avoid.
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I think I win this time Leader...even though you weren't actually online to post the article...w/e