Hamas truce to end, after Israeli shelling of beach

[shamrock_uk]

Link.

Hamas militants vow to end truce The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, has said it will no longer respect a self-imposed truce. In a statement on its website, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade said Israeli "massacres" had spurred the decision. Seven people, including three children, died on Friday when Israeli shells hit a beach in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials say. There was no immediate comment from Hamas's political wing, which runs the Palestinian Authority. Hamas's armed wing posted a message on its website and distributed leaflets declaring the end of a ceasefire that had held since February 2005. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle and that means the earthquake in the Zionist cities will resume and the herds of occupiers have no choice but to prepare the coffins or the departing luggage," the statement read. The BBC's Simon Wilson, in Jerusalem, says there have been threats of a response to previous attacks, but the official nature of this response appears significant. Death on the beach The statement came hours after the seven reported deaths on a beach near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. At least 30 people were wounded. The Israeli military said it had halted all shelling of Gaza and launched an inquiry into whether ground-based artillery could have been involved. quote: The shelling has caused outrage among Palestinians

Four other people were also killed in separate Israeli air strike in northern Gaza on Friday, Palestinians said.

The incidents come a day after senior Palestinian official Jamal Abu Samhadana was killed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah, the southern Gaza.

It was a horrible scene, unbelievable. I'm not going to enjoy the summer on that shore for the rest of my life Sami Gaza

Samhadana - the founder of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) - was buried in Rafah on Friday, with thousands of mourners pledging to avenge his death.

Samhadana was one of Israel's most wanted men in Gaza, and his group has been blamed for a series of missile attacks on Israel.

Speaking before the Hamas statement, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli strikes in Gaza.

"What the Israeli occupation forces are doing in the Gaza Strip constitutes a war of extermination and bloody massacres against our people," Mr Abbas said in a statement carried by the Palestinian official Wafa news agency.

The foreign ministers of Russia and the UK also condemned the strike.

Devastation

Palestinian officials say the seven people killed on the Gaza Strip beach included two women as well as the three children.

The first television pictures revealed a terrible scene, the BBC's Alan Johnston says.


At least four figures lay unconscious on the ground, possibly dead, our correspondent says.

A little further away, a man was lying on a sand dune, perhaps fatally injured, while a child stood looking on in utter horror, our correspondent says.

He says around the casualties were tables and chairs, and it looks very much as if this was a family enjoying their Friday afternoon off on the beach when disaster struck.

TV pictures suggest a family was on a picnic when the disaster struck

An Israeli army spokesman said Chief of Staff Dan Halutz had ordered an immediate stop to all artillery shelling of Gaza while an investigation was carried out into the beach shelling.

For many months, the Israelis have regularly shelled open areas such as fields and orchards in an effort to prevent Palestinian militants using them to fire their home-made missile into crudely made missiles into nearby Israeli territory.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...st/5065982.stm

Published: 2006/06/09 19:48:16 GMT

© BBC MMVI[/QUOTE]

[Arvon]

What truce?

[johnny]

What he said

[Black Baron]

Arvon: there was that sort of truce when Hamas did not shoot at us directly, but helped others to do it. Bloody good truce too, excuse the punch.

[Arvon]

Originally posted by Black Baron: Arvon: there was that sort of truce when Hamas did not shoot at us directly, but helped others to do it. Bloody good truce too, excuse the punch.

Some how suicide bombers in market places and on buses, rocket attacks and occasional gun fire doesn't seem like much of a truce. It may have been better than before, but still not much of a truce. Those people have to learn to live like civilized people or be exterminated. Sorry end of rant.

[Timber Loftis]

Agreed. Both the Palestinians and the Jews need to learn to live like civilized people or be exterminated.

[Zaleukos]

Jihadi schmucks. If Hamas go through with this they've had their chance and chosen to not take it. They should just take the chance to save face that Abbas offer with that referendum, and avoid violence. It's not like they stand to win anything either for the palestinian people (if they care about their voters at all), or for themselves (Israel was pretty good at eliminating Hamas seniors prior to the truce). And so ends another spell of brilliant Palestinian leadership, in the great tradition of the Nazi grand mufti and the crooked Saddam hugging goon Arafat...

[shamrock_uk]

They should just take the chance to save face that Abbas offer with that referendum, and avoid violence.

Violence had never left them, as they were being constantly shelled for the last few months. I think they've been rather restrained until now.

Expecting anything other than a retalation for the beach shelling is being naive - just as no-one expects the Israeli leadership to not retaliate at a rocket attack, you can hardly expect Hamas to sit by and do nothing. Their position would be untenable if they let this latest one slide.

If Hamas go through with this they've had their chance and chosen to not take it.

Hamas never had a chance - Ehud Olmert is, as I type, in the UK pressing for a unilateral settlement (after doing tours round the world with the same proposal) with Tony Blair for borders of Israel's choosing - Israel has no intention of coming to any kind of bipartide solution to this that would compromise its land grab. Arguably, it never has.


For those who like to say Hamas has been supporting the other groups carrying out attacks, I would merely point you towards the ongoing confrontations between Hamas and other groups in Gaza that have been occurring for some months now - until the beach incident, they've been more interested in killing each other than uniting to kill Israeli's.

Edit: Look at it this way if you believe Hamas' actions are so inexcusable. How many innocent people does Israel have to kill before a retaliation becomes justified?

The rockets fired into Israel are crude at best, are lucky if they injure someone and the fatality rate (considering the amount fired) is really small - six people have been killed by them in two years according to the Wikipedia page on Notable Qassam Attacks.

For those who discount Wikipedia, the Israeli Ministry of Information lists only four deaths from Qassam rockets - shamefully omitting the two Israeli-Arabs who were also victims.

If six deaths from Qassam rockets in two years (going with the larger figure) is enough to warrant Israel's continual bombardment of Gaza and the killing of many innocents, isn't the slaughter of a family of seven Palestinians on a beach, against a background of continual shelling enough to warrant retaliation?

[ 06-12-2006, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Zaleukos]

You are right that Qassam rockets dont pose much of a threat, but suicide bombers do. You also forget that the reason for the decrease in Israeli civilian losses is that Israel has shut the borders, including the one between Gazah and Egypt, tight. This hurts the Palestinian economy a lot and is in many ways a tragedy for the Palestinian people, but it is a very understandable measure from the Israeli side.

A comparison of the civilian/combatant loss ratio between the two sides will not look good for the palestinians. You cant even compare the nature of the two, as Israel targets combatatants/bombmakers with civilian deaths a BYPRODUCT of this, while Palestinian attacks generally target hard military installations like BUSES or DISCOTHEQUES. That Israel admittedly uses heavy-handed tactics at times doesnt change the fact that their approach is qualitatively different. Israel is also investigating and likely punishing (if mildly) incidents like the recent attack, while the reaction from Hamas on a bombing inside Israel is quite different...

I was actually fairly optimistic after the elections, as Fatah had failed pretty badly and Hamas was in a ceasefire that more or less was respected both by them and the Isrealis. It is true that Israel havent been helping the situation, but what do you suggest they do to deal with a part that doesnt acknowledge the right of them to be in the region at all? I know it would have been hard for Hamas to change their program out of the blue, but the proposed referendum would have given an opportunity to retreat from an obsolete position without losing face.

At the end of the day I wonder if the near civil war between Hamas and Fatah isnt more of a problem for the Palestinians than anything Israel does.

[Chewbacca]

I'd be all for the haters on all sides killing each other off if I didn't know that they were also teaching their kids to kill- thus maintianing a problem rather than solving it.

Greed for power, money, and land; zest for revenge, religious egotism, and simple bigotry cannot be killed by bombs or guns and cause many problems which lack obvious solution. Lack of obvious solution makes it easier to simply blame one-side or the other, rather than get to the guts of these issues.

It is easier to blame, rather than take responsiblity or compromise, easier to yell rather than sit and reason. Easier to strike back, than recognize the futility of your oppenent's attack in the first place.

Shit's not gonna change til people do.