seattle indymedia center

Fresh Israeli strikes kill 4 Gazans

author: PressTV
Jan 07, 2009 00:44

 http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=80944§ionid=351020202

Fresh Israeli strikes kill 4 Gazans
Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:22:08 GMT


Israeli strikes rage on in the Gaza Strip despite international diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed by the pursuit of a ceasefire.

Israeli forces struck the Gaza Strip with artillery shells and air missiles on Wednesday, killing at least four Palestinians.

 http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=80937§ionid=351020202



Israel may up attacks amid truce talks

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:47:58 GMT


Israeli officials are to discuss expanding the ground offensive in Gaza amid promises that they will take world calls for a truce seriously.

The Israeli political leadership will hold a meeting in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning on expanding the ground operations in the Gaza Strip, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported Wednesday.

The Israeli meeting comes ahead of a United Nations Security Council decision on whether to force an end to Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian government has unveiled a plan for an immediate ceasefire between the Israelis and Palestinians. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak presented the proposal while giving a brief statement after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The US allegedly supports the Egyptian proposal.

"We need urgently to conclude a ceasefire that can endure and that can bring real security," US Secretary of State Condoleezza said on Tuesday at a session called to discuss the 12-day Israeli offensive.

Asked after the UN meeting whether the United States would put pressure on Israel to accept a ceasefire offer, however, Rice declined to comment and said, "See you tomorrow."

So far all UN Security Council efforts to adopt a resolution to condemn the Israeli violence have been blocked by the United States.

A Hamas spokesman said Tuesday that Hamas would not accept a ceasefire with Israel unless all aggression against the Gaza Strip is halted and the 18-month blockade is lifted.

The revelation that intensified attacks on Gaza will be considered came after Israel's UN envoy said on Tuesday that Tel Aviv was taking the ceasefire proposal "very seriously".

Medics have confirmed that since Israel launched its onslaught on the Gaza Strip on December 27 over 660 Palestinians have been killed, 215 of whom are children and 98 are women. Nearly 3000 Gazans have been wounded.

The recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the latest of a series which began when world powers created Israel in 1948 under the Zionist slogan of a 'land without a people and a people without a land'.

The establishment of Israel in the Middle East was carried out in compensation for the hardships and suffering imposed on the Jews of Europe due to anti-Semitism in the continent.

Zionists benefited by gaining power over the native land of the Palestinians, but the establishment and the subsequent terror attacks against the Palestinian population gave rise to the philosophy of resistance and in recent years armed retaliation.

According to Tel Aviv, however, the war on Gaza is aimed at ending rocket attacks against Israeli settlers, toppling Hamas and preventing the resistance group from rearming.

Hamas, on the other hand, demands a cessation of Israeli attacks and the opening of the Gaza border -- which has been closed due to the 18-month blockade imposed on the strip by Tel Aviv.

add a comment on this article