Israeli Incursion

Source: www.dailystar.com.lb --- 12 days ago
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Sunday that Israeli troops did not violate the Blue Line near Marjeyoun, as was widely reported in Lebanese media one day earlier. "There was no crossing of the [Israeli Army] through the Blue Line," deputy UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told The Daily Star. "It did not happen. ...

Source: www.cnn.com --- 23 days ago
-- By CNN's Paula Hancocks It starts with a phone call at 8:30pm as we are sitting down to dinner in Gaza City. The Popular Resistance Committees tells us to be at a certain place in half an hour - they are training. No further details. A phone call to our Jerusalem bureau chief to weigh up the risks, we all decide it is rare enough an opportunity not to be missed. We grab our equipment and jump in the armored car. Revered as freedom fighters by many here, reviled as terrorists in the West, the PRC, just one of the many Gaza based militant groups, has been involved in countless rocket attacks on Israel and the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit two years ago. The “training ground” is basic... a dead end road for marching drills, a wall with tires stacked up against it for target practice. Burning tires surround the area, giving off putrid thick black smoke… so nightly training is invisible to Israeli eyes in the sky. The gunmen say they are training for what they see as an imminent Israeli Incursion into Gaza. As a Western female journalist working in Gaza, I rarely have to wear a headscarf… but here I am told to cover my head, the militants cover their faces. One masked man brings me a chair and a heavily sugared tea so I can watch target and hostage-taking practice in comfort. It is horribly surreal. One fighter tells me he will never let his son fire a gun… he says he only fights to make a better future for his family. ...

Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com --- 6 days ago
The Shiite militant group Hezbollah handed over the suspect who allegedly shot at a Lebanese army helicopter Thursday, killing a pilot and forcing the chopper to make a crash landing, news agencies reported. The incident brings several issues to light in Lebanon. First, it points to Hezbollah's trigger-readiness. The group's fighters are geared up for some kind of Israeli attack. Rumors have swirled in Lebanon and Israel about Hezbollah taking control of key hilltops and mountain positions in preparation for any Israeli Incursion. It also shows how much Hezbollah values its mostly positive relations with the army. Hezbollah didn't beat around the bush or stonewall. it promptly handed over the suspect, as yet unnamed, in a speedy attempt at damage control. But it also has rekindled worries among Lebanon's Christians, Sunnis and Druze about Hezbollah's formidable arsenal of weapons. Hezbollah claims they are meant to deter or combat any Israeli attack on Lebanon. But the only targets of Hezbollah's weapons in recent months have been fellow Lebanese. — Borzou Daragahi in Beirut Photo: Relatives of dead Lebanese officer Samer Hanna mourn next to his coffin during his funeral. Hanna was killed Thursday by gunfire that hit his military helicopter in the area that is controlled by Hezbollah militia. Credit: Nabil Mounzer / European Pressphoto Agency ...

Source: firedoglake.com --- 57 days ago
Here's the metric. The Israeli military, which has roughly par equipment with the US military, could not shut down even 5% of Hezbollah's strategic missile capability after a month of air war, plus a partial ground Incursion. Why should Iran be different? ...

Source: tomgara.nomadlife.org --- 50 days ago
(updated at bottom) There is a big question in my head after reading about the Israel-Lebanon prisoner/body swap, and it comes from details like this: The bodies of nearly 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, returned as part of an exchange deal with Israel, are heading towards Beirut from southern Lebanon. The remains of the Arab fighters passed through the border town of Naqura on Thursday, a day after Israel exchanged them along with five prisoners for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah. My question: How did Israel come into posession of all those bodies? The war was fought entirely on Lebanese soil, save the Hizbollah Incursion that set things in motion. So does that mean the Israeli army collected the bodies of dead Hizbollah guys, loaded them into their jeeps and took them back to Israel? Is it just me, or it that incredibly spooky and weird? Maybe I'm not up to date on modern warfare techniques and collecting enemy bodies and taking them away with you is standard procedure... Or maybe the bodies were killed (or at least died) in Israel at some time other than the war? Can anybody shed some light on this? UPDATE: A guy in my office with a fair bit of experience with this stuff thinks - and he stressed that he thinks, not knows - that most of the bodies would be people who were killed, captured or kidnapped during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Sounds plausible. ...

Source: fieryspiritedzionist.blogspot.com --- 18 days ago
Reporters Without Borders does not accept the findings of Israel's investigation into the death of Reuters reporter Fadel Shanaa. The IDF found that there was no malicious intent on the part of an Israeli tank crew who accidentally fired upon Shanaa. Israeli enquiry unsurprisingly decides not to punish soldiers who killed Palestinian cameraman Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the findings of an Israeli investigation into the death of Palestinian cameraman Fadel Shanaa, clearing the soldiers involved of any responsibility. The Israeli military advocate-general, Brig. Gen. Avihai Mendelblit, notified Shanaa’s employer, the British news agency Reuters, of the results of the probe in a letter today. Gen. Mendelblit said the Israeli tank crew that fired shells at Shanaa and soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed during an Incursion into the Gaza Strip on 16 April respected the rules of engagement and will therefore not face legal action. Mizyed sustained only minor injuries. “The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar or a television camera,” the letter said. “In light of the reasonable conclusion reached by the tank crew and its superiors that the characters were hostile and were carrying an object most likely to be a weapon, the decision to fire at the targets was sound.” Gen. Mendelblit claimed that the soldiers were too far away to see the “ ...

Source: christopherhitchenswatch.blogspot.com --- 19 days ago
This post is in response to a question addressed to me in a previous thread. Well, Russia's Incursion into Georgia came in direct response to Georgia's military attack on South Ossetia. So to answer the above question, we have to examine what Georgia's attack had to do with Israel. Without touching on the deep background, it is clear that Israeli advisers were deeply involved in the Georgian army’s preparations to attack and capture the capital of South Ossetia on the morning of August 8. On August 8, Debkafile, which is widely known as the unofficial Israeli intelligence website, publicized the Israeli involvement in Georgia's attack, citing the presence of possible Israeli boots on the ground and perhaps offering a motive in the very first paragraph: Georgian tanks and infantry, aided by Israeli military advisers, captured the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, early Friday, Aug. 8, bringing the Georgian-Russian conflict over the province to a military climax. …Jerusalem owns a strong interest in Caspian oil and gas pipelines reach the Turkish terminal port of Ceyhan, rather than the Russian network. Intense negotiations are afoot between Israel Turkey, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Azarbaijan for pipelines to reach Turkey and thence to Israel’s oil terminal at Ashkelon and on to its Red Sea port of Eilat…. Last year, the Georgian president commissioned from private Israeli security firms several hundred military advisers, e ...

Source: samnitegladiator.wordpress.com --- 48 days ago
Hamas is training, arming, and bracing itself for an Israeli Incursion. That comes as no suprise to me, but I did find this interesting. ”Hamas seen using new Russian weapons to break Israelis’ will following invasion” As you can see from the article, Hamas has learned from the tactical successes that Hizballah achieved in the 2006 [...] ...

Source: windowintopalestine.blogspot.com --- 26 days ago
Israel's military has attacked Press TV journalists covering an Incursion into Umm al-Nasser village in the northern Gaza Strip. A Press TV correspondent at the scene said that eight journalists came under the fire of Israeli tanks and Apache helicopter gunships. Israeli troops were also... Click on the headlines to read the full story! ...

Source: www.missionandjustice.org --- 21 days ago
Editorial; 15/8/08 There has been worldwide condemnation by journalists of yet another decision by an Israeli military tribunal to clear Israel troops of killing journalists. The death in April of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana while filming an Israeli tank during an Incursion into Gaza roused media protests that Israeli soldiers were deliberately targeting members of news [...] ...

Source: vwt.d2g.com:8081 --- 22 days ago
From Bridget Kendall of the BBC: Immediately following the Georgian attack on South Ossetia's capital overnight on Thursday, it seemed Moscow felt it was occupying the moral high ground, confident it could make a legal and humanitarian argument for its Incursion into what is, strictly speaking, Georgian territory. Both Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev insisted that Russia had the legal right to move in to protect Russian peacekeepers who had come under fire and suffered casualties Of course, the 'peacekeepers' were there because Russians had moved into South Ossetia (Georgia) ever since the USSR invaded and ended Georgia's independence in 1924. I suppose this means Russia is now squarely behind the most agressive of Israeli land policy ideas based on this reasoning, eh? Why do I doubt this? More, South Ossetia is no west bank, as Georgia never threatened and acted on a desire to annihilate the USSR. More funny...imagine Mexican troops as peacekeepers in the OC protecting their people, and then sending in the Mexican Air Force when their 'peacekeepers' are harmed by the US Army, or more likely, the LA Police. Worse still imagine southern CA, from LA south as a 'breakaway republic' as we strove to enforce our sovereignty, as Georgia did. The Russian explanations are preposterous. Mr Putin spoke of Russia's "historical role" to act as a "guarantor of security" in the Caucasus, which he said no-one should dispute. And both he a ...

Source: bill-o-reilly-mgd.blogspot.com --- 8 days ago
Legal Advocate for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Noura Erakat, debates Bill O'Reilly about the Israeli Incursion into Lebanon, occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the role of the United States in the conflict ...

Source: lataan.blogspot.com --- 58 days ago
It seems the Israelis are ratcheting up the ante for more conflict which they, no doubt, hope will ultimately trigger the final confrontation with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today (Wednesday) will meet with his cabinet to discuss what he claims is the collapse of UN Resolution 1701 which put an end to Israel’s attack against the Lebanese people in 2006. Olmert claims that Hezbollah are being re-armed by Syria. The ‘Jerusalem Post’ report quotes an unidentified Israeli official as saying: “Syria is rearming Hizbullah at a rapid pace and this is proof that 1701 has completely failed." While claiming that this was proof of 1701s failure, the official failed to provide any actual proof that Syria is, indeed, rearming Hezbollah. The official also failed to mention that Israel itself, meanwhile, was being rearmed by the US; the same kind of arms that Israel used to attack Lebanon in the first place. The Lebanese people have every right to arm themselves against Israeli aggression. In 2006 Israel launched a massive bombing campaign against the Lebanese people followed by an invasion of south Lebanon on the pretext that two of their conscripts had been captured by Hezbollah fighters. Israel claimed that they had been ‘kidnapped’ during a cross border Incursion into Israel by Hezbollah fighters. Initial reports saying that the Israeli soldiers had been captured inside Lebanon were quickly changed to match Israeli claims that they ...

Source: nukespook.blogspot.com --- 47 days ago
Hamas seen using new Russian weapons to break Israelis' will following invasion Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Hamas seen using new Russian weapons to break Israelis' will following invasion TEL AVIV — Hamas has been training on a range of new Russian-origin weapons meant to incur heavy civilian casualties in any war with Israel. A leading Israeli analyst said Hamas has been preparing its forces for an expected Israeli Incursion into the Gaza Strip. Jonathan Spyer, a senior researcher at the Global Research in International Affairs Center, said Hamas was adopting Hizbullah's strategy of asymmetrical warfare meant to significantly improve its combat abilities. "Hamas believes Israel's will can be broken through attrition and a steady toll of unexpectedly high numbers of both military and civilian casualties," Spyer said. Spyer said Hamas would deploy anti-tank missiles and improvised explosive devices in a bid to maintain an Israeli casualty rate of up to 10 soldiers and civilians a day in any military invasion of the Gaza Strip. He said such a casualty rate could force Israel to agree to a ceasefire. As a result, Hamas has procured and trained on a range of missiles. Spyer cited the Russian-origin AT-3 Sagger, AT-4 Spigot, AT-5 Spandrel and AT-14 Spriggan. Hamas was also said to have smuggled a large number of advanced RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade systems. The RPG-29 Vampir, with a range of 500 meters, could penetrate reactive armor on Isra ...

Source: 4thpartagainstzionistapartheid.blogspot.com --- 64 days ago
AL MEZAN, GAZA Reference: 51/2008 Date: 28 April 2008 Press Release More Children Murdered in Gaza: Al Mezan Condemns IOF's Crimes; Calls for International Intervention The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed four children and their mother when it shelled their home in Ezbet Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip today. Another man was killed in the attack which occurred under an IOF Incursion different parts of the town of Beit Hanoun. The findings of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights' monitoring shows that the IOF stepped up its aggression on Gaza. In April 2008 alone, the IOF killed 66 Palestinians; 20 of whom were children and one was a woman. 139 others were injured, including 18 children. IOF launched 29 incursions into the Gaza Strip during the same period. According to Al Mezan Center's field investigations, at approximately 8.15am on 28 April 2008, IOF scouting drones fired two rockets that landed in front of the house of Ahmed Eid Abu Me'teq, which is located near Abdullah Azzam mosque in Ezbet Beit Hanoun. As a result, four children and their mother were killed, and their sister was wounded. One man was also killed. Those who were killed were identified as: - Five-year-old Saleh Abu Me'teq; - Four-year-old Rodina Abu Me'teq; - Three-year-old Hana' Abu Me'teq; - one-year-old Mos'ad Abu Me'teq; - Their mother, 40-year-old Myassar Abu Me'teq; and - 40- year-old Ibrahim Hajouj. Eleven other people were also injured including four c ...

Source: thisongoingwar.blogspot.com --- 62 days ago
Though we've been too distracted with life and personal issues to report on it before now, a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas Gaza regime came into effect in Gaza a week ago, at six in the morning of Thursday 19th June. To the surprise of no one with brains and a sense of what goes on here, there has been a steady stream of civilian-seeking rocket attacks on Israel since that time. Even the voices of Israel's left have expressed a fairly consistent degree of doubt whether ceasing fire while your house, farms, towns and cities remain under active attack makes any sense. Yoel Marcus puts it this way in his Haaretz column : this ceasefire may lead to further problems for everyone in the region by letting Hamas regroup, which they're doing right now. And a large-scale police-style Incursion into Gaza might yet be needed, given the history and proclivity of the thugs running things across Israel's southern border. It makes Marcus and those for whom he speaks feel better knowing Israel has done whatever it can to avoid the lengthy stay and multiple Israeli and Palestinian Arab casualties that will follow. He sees (they see) a ceasefire with all its risks as bringing on the chance of calm and a respite from death and destruction. As he writes: " Hamas will take advantage of it to stockpile arms, but it is doing that anyway. It already has tens of thousands of missiles. " This is plainly true. Marcus writes that " an imperfect calm is bet ...

Source: lasseschmidt.blogspot.com --- 58 days ago
When the documentary "Jenin, Jenin!" came out in 2002, it was screened only three times before it became the first film in 15 years to be banned in Israel. The film is a portrait of the Jenin refugee camp only a few days after the devastating Incursion in April 2002. In banning it, Israel's film rating board argued that it was a "propaganda film" that would upset the Israeli public and might lead Israelis "to mistakenly think that IDF soldiers are systematically and intentionally carrying out war crimes." A year later, in November 2003, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the banning was in conflict with freedom of expression, and the ban was ruled illegal. During the two-week-long Incursion, the Israeli military and the armed Palestinian resistance were fighting heavily. In order to make room for Israeli tanks and other military vehicles, the whole center of the camp was demolished by bulldozers. 3000 to 4000 Palestinians were rendered homeless, as 200 buildings were demolished. Approximately 70 Palestinians died during the Incursion -- several of them in their bulldozed houses as the walls came tumbling down on them. "It exposes Israel's war crimes," says the Israeli-Palestinian director Mohamed Bakri about his film, which has won two international prizes in the categories of Best Film and Best Documentary Filmmaking and Reporting. "Jenin, Jenin!" will be screened Monday, May 3rd, 2004, at 7 PM, at School for International Training (SIT ...

Source: arisfreedomswitch.blogspot.com --- 27 days ago
What did Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak discuss with Vice President Dick Cheney when they visited the week of July 14 and again a mere two weeks later? Mr. Barak provided some insight into the possible content of their meetings in his comments to an Italian daily : A nuclear Iran would be "dangerous to world order." "Either way, we need to keep every option open. If they provoke us, or they attack us, our army is prepared to attack and to succeed uncompromisingly, " he asserted, adding that " it's up to us to find the best way to get the best result with minimum damage." "Iran confirmed its message when it stood against the whole world: To deceive and to reject. Their aim is to obtain an atomic bomb ." Cheney seems to be doing his part with the mobilization of two additional aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf. Ehud Barak claims Israel is ready, but no Kuwaiti spilled the beans on his specific plans. Barak lamented Israel's poor outcome from the Amir Peretz led 2006 Lebanon Incursion, but the Defense Minister cited things would be different under his charge. "Two years ago, we saw the price that's paid for a lack of an experienced leadership. Nevertheless, today we're equipped with a good understanding to prevent this happening again." "The State of Israel," Barak went on, "is in need of unity." Oh no! Barak's using the old "unify the people via war" trick. We fall for it every time (other than a handful of peaceniks and academic ...

Source: righttofacts.blogspot.com --- 56 days ago
Though a Reuters video clearly showed only women involved in a protest against the Israeli Incursion into Gaza, CNN reported the discredited Israeli statement that the women fired on and killed by soldiers were mingling with male militants. Here is a portion of CNN's story and a link to the Reuters video and the full story. Judge for yourself. Palestinian militants who had been in a firefight with Israeli soldiers escaped Friday, many of them slipping away in a crowd of women who had come to join what had begun as a standoff. Israeli troops fired into the crowd, and there were reports of civilian casualties. The gunmen had sought cover at a northern Gaza mosque for hours, mingling with a crowd of Palestinian women who had formed a human shield outside, the Israel Defense Forces said. Palestinian sources said some of the militants had put on women's clothes. The number and identities of those killed and wounded remained unclear Friday amid conflicting reports. (Watch women flee the gunfire and one fall dead -- 1:54 Video) An IDF spokesman said the troops fired on the women because two of the militants were hiding among the group. He said both men were killed. U.N. officials, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, called the "already-grave situation" a result of "the continuing escalation of violence and rising death toll caused by the Israeli military operation in northern Gaza." "Military operations in populated areas inevitably cause ...