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VIDEO Below……..
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Capt. Benjamin Rutland announces the entrance of IDF forces into Gaza with the objective of dealing a heavy blow to Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure and rocket-launching capability.
The IDF has a Blog caled IDF Spokesperson.
http://idfspokesperson.com/
IDF confirms at least 20 gunmen killed in ground offensive’
The Jerusalem Post
At least 30 Hamas gunmen were reported killed as IDF troops swept into the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday night, encountering fierce resistance from Hamas forces entrenched in fortifications just over the border.
IDF sources said that the goal was to conquer territory in northern Gaza, including rocket launch sites. Soldiers from the Armored Corps, Engineering Corps, and Paratroopers, Givati, Golani brigades were participating in the fighting, with at least four brigades’ worth of troops inside the Gaza Strip.
The sources said that a majority of the rockets fired into Beersheba and Ashdod were launched from the northern Gaza Strip.
One of the major aims of the operation was also to deliver a serious blow to the Hamas military wing, which the IDF estimated had not been severely weakened under the air campaign.
The IDF would not enter Gaza City or the refugee camps, defense officials said, and it was likely that on Monday – when French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives and the international pressure is expected to escalate – Israel would begin scaling back the operations.
“We know there will be dangers, difficulties and victims… It must be said that the ground operation entails dangers to the lives of soldiers,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. “We must end the hostile actions against Israel… We will not abandon our citizens.”
On Saturday, the air force bombed dozens of targets throughout the Strip, including several homes of senior Hamas terrorists as well as bridges and roads connecting northern and southern Gaza.
At least 40 Kassam and Katyusha rockets pounded the South, scoring direct hits on homes in Netivot and Ashdod, and striking Ashkelon, Yavne and Sderot.
“This will be a lengthy operation and there will likely be casualties on our side,” a senior defense official said. “But our mission is to defend the home front. The purpose is to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure and impair its ability to fire rockets into Israel.”
Before the ground incursion began, IDF artillery, for the first time in several years, began pounding open areas in northern Gaza to “soften up” the area and destroy land mines and Hamas fortifications.
Terrorists using civilians as human shields would bear full responsibility for their fate, the army warned.
“Anyone who hides a terrorist or weapons in his house is considered a terrorist,” but “the residents of Gaza are not the target of the operation,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said.
The army reiterated that the operation was in line with “decisions of the security cabinet,” saying that this new stage was “part of the IDF’s overall operational plan, and will continue on the basis of ongoing situational assessments by the IDF General Staff.”
The cabinet also approved the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists, mostly from combat units, but also from the Home Front Command. Already on Saturday night, several thousand emergency orders were issued.
Fighter jets, missile ships and artillery struck more than 40 Hamas targets on Saturday, including Hamas’s central intelligence headquarters in Sha’ati, weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders’ homes.
Israeli air strikes that had waned during the day gathered pace after dark. One bomb hit a mosque in Beit Lahiya, killing 14 people and wounding 33, seven critically, according to a Palestinian health official.
The IAF also hit the home of senior Hamas commander Abu Zacharia al-Jamal. A Hamas spokesman announced that Jamal was killed, which would make him the third senior operative of the group to be killed in three days.
In addition, Palestinians reported four dead from an IAF strike in the Rafah area.
On Saturday morning, the air force struck the homes of two Hamas operatives used to store weapons and plan attacks. Hamas outposts, training camps and rocket launching sites also were targeted, the army said.
The IDF also struck the American International School in Beit Lahiya, the most prestigious educational institution in Gaza. The school is not connected to the US government, but teaches an American curriculum in English. The IDF said the campus was used to fire rockets and was a legitimate target.
The air strike demolished the school’s main building and killed a night watchman. Two other Palestinians were killed in a separate air strike, while three others died of wounds sustained earlier, Gaza health officials said.
Earlier, the army dropped leaflets in downtown Gaza City ordering people off the streets. The warnings were followed by the air strikes.
Wild Thing’s comment…..
Pray for the IDF…. for strength and safety of the soldiers.
My page on Israel at my website.
….Thank you Mark for the article.
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Sounds like Israel ISN’T getting pushed into the sea, eh? God’s chosen ones had perfect timing this time, with W being a lame duck and Obamessiah not being sworn into office for three more weeks! Wished they’d elect Benjamin Netanyahu so they can end this islamofascism shiite once and for all…. GOD’S SPEED AND SHOOT STRAIGHT!!! PS: Don’t mess with the MOSSAD either!!
Israel is facing a new and improved Hamas in the mold of Hezbollah’s successful battles with Israel in southern Lebanon in the war of 2006. Hamas has years of full support from Iran including sophisticated weapons and modern guerrilla tactical and strategic warfare. So, unless Israel is willing to do whatever is necessary including heavy civilian casualties and fighting until the job is done, it will face the same disaster that it had in Lebanon.
“The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.” George S. Patton
“Do we understand that when we use military force decisively, we are actually killing people and breaking up their equipment? Do we understand that? Do you understand that when you actually apply power, you don’t want a fair fight?” Barry McCaffrey
Report: Hamas Has Underground Launchers
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/158538
“(IsraelNN.com) Hamas has built a series of subterranean rocket launching posts like those used by Hizbullah, according to a year-end security report released this week. The posts are connected by a serious of tunnels that also lead to bunkers, weapons storehouses and training camps.”
“According to the report, Hamas built much of its system during a six-month ceasefire with Israel in the second half of the year. During the ceasefire it was reported that humanitarian shipments of cement were being used by Hamas to build underground tunnels.”
Hamas Uses ‘Humanitarian Cement’ to Prepare for War
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128127
“Hamas’s underground city copies the system used by Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War against Israel. IDF intelligence sources have told the Defense Ministry that an entire tunnel network has been built underneath major cities in Gaza to allow the Hamas terrorists army to move freely in the event of an Israeli invasion.”
“Many of the tunnels are filled with explosives that can be detonated by remote control devices and cause the collapse of roads over which IDF convoys might use.”
“Hundreds of Katyusha and Kassam rocket launchers also have been placed underground, safe from aerial attack, the Hebrew newspaper Ma’ariv reported.”
I heard today on Fox News that one reporter was shown a tunnel that went to Egypt, when they got through it more people were coming through when it collapsed. Maybe the Arabs should import some Mexicans, who know how to make decent tunnels.
But part of the tunnel system is an attempt to draw Egypt into to this. These tunnels have become a safe haven for the terrorists to run to Egypt. The Arabs have a real problem with courage. They talk a good game but when show time starts they are all mouth and no action.
Hopefully Israel will wipe them off the map this time or give them such a beating it will take a generation or two to re-group.
Darth, I agree, “mess with the MOSSAD either!!”
Israel has once again effectively deceived the world. It is killing people in the name of self defence.
Les, thank you for the links and information.
Great quotes too.
Mark, LOL “Maybe the Arabs should import some Mexicans, who know how to make decent tunnels”
“The Arabs have a real problem with courage.”….they sure do. Like you said they are a lot of talk, just like so many terrorists and those countless videos we keep getting from the al-quada. Threat after threat.
Bet that is why arbsa pick public busses and out door cafes so much in Israel to bomb, the people are sitting targets.
Maybe these 2 factions are destined for eternal struggle because of their pompous claims to the creator. (i.e: “Chosen people” – NOT)
There is only one real God and we are no closer or further from it (he/she/other)than the next person is.
Can you think of anything more ridiculous than claiming your (man made) ideology is any better than anyone elses?
Selfishness and ego are at the root of this idiotic back and forth that is millenia long.
The sadddest part is all of the innocents that are paying the price because of extremist retards.
Seth,…..“Israel has once again effectively deceived the world” shame on you for your lies, outright total lies.
“It is killing people in the name of self defence”….excuse me but according to you they are not allowed to defend themselves??? People like you are amazing that you live for such hate for Jews.Why don’t you go and join the Hamas that you obviously favor.
now if they don’t give in to world opinion and follow Bush’s example that wars are fought to be won we may yet have peace over there before Bush leaves office.
Gregory Erato,
Here are some of the reasons why the Jews are God’s chosen people . You can also look it up online.
Deuteronomy 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Deut 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
A more in depth answer would be because God made a Covenant with Abraham. But this needs to be explained and thus we have provided many Scriptures which explain.
God chose the Jews, (the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) to bring redemption to the world through Jesus Christ, the Savior. God made a Covenant with Abraham which establishes this very fact. God chose the Jews to be a people separated unto God. Through the Jews, God revealed Himself to mankind. The Jews were a people through whom the salvation (Messiah) would come to the whole world.
Through Abraham, God established for Himself a people who would worship the One True and Living God in the midst of universal polytheism. The Jews were to be a witness and a light for Him in the earth. God performed many wonderful miracles in their midst. The whole world heard about the Jews and were afraid of “their God.” God not only enabled them to win battle after battle over their enemies but the LORD fought the battles for them. Unfortunately, time and time again, they turned to other gods and worshipped idols and forgot the Lord of Heaven and by their disobedience came warnings of judgment and then after
time, the judgment … but God did not forget His covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God was still faithful to His people and would forgive those who came back to Him. He sent prophets to the Israelites warning them of impending judgment. It was only in the midst of tribulation and adversity that they remembered the LORD. When their enemies were storming down the gates, then they remembered the LORD. God always keeps His promises and thus the Jewish people remain a testimony on this earth of God’s mercy and kindness and that God keeps His Covenants. No other group of people has been so persecuted, so dispersed to the far corners of the globe and yet remain so true to their heritage. The fact that Israel even exists at all is a testimony to God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people. (So many other peoples and nations have come and gone.) The Lord promised that He would regather His people, the Jews, in the Last Days and that Israel will never be conquered again and will remain forever. The Jewish people will remain in that land forever.
OK…………. now one of the other things you said….
“Can you think of anything more ridiculous than claiming your (man made) ideology is any better than anyone elses?”
God is the God of the Jews and the Christians. the same God. Unlike the man made god Allah of Islam. So yessss you darn well better believe a person can very well say their GOD is real and another so called god is a bunch of baloney.
The moon-god was called “Allah.” hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess in their beliefs.LOL NO way is Allah anywhere close to being God.
Wild Thing:
You are acting very defensive like somebody kicked your puppy.
I went to your website and you come off like a vain horses ass who has more $$$ than she deserves.
I happen to personally respect Christ and his legacy, the most important part of which was his mantra of “do unto others”.
Pretty simple huh? Imagine if everyone on this planet (especially leaders) could implement that?
But people like you who use anal retentive, bi-polar rants with bible quotes would rather see idiotic war continue forever with your Israeli bias.
You are so wrong and I do not even claim to be right – just a lot smarter than you.
BTW, I come from a US Air Force family (father,brother,uncle), so don’t give me any of your patriotic “rah-rah” crap either.
Why don’t you just stay pretty and stay silent like Sarah Palin needs to do?
wonder what airforce he served in??
sure don’t sound like ours!
Erato. The Jews don’t kill each other in the name of God like the muslims do. When Israel turned Gaza over to the Palestinians, they immediately fought among themselves for control, trashing Gaza in the process. islam is different from all the worlds’ religions. islam is hate, terror and murder. islam is a cult.
Your family was Air Force? What about you?
You must think that most of the commenters here are vain horses asses. Actually, most of us are veterans. Many are actual combat vets. If the internet was not so anonymous, if we were debating in person, I doubt you would be talking so tough to a lady.
Tomr,
I got yer back side Bro.
Gregory Erato, ” anal retentive, bi-polar rants “ I have no clue what bi-polar is but since when are Bible verses being defensive, I guess I did not know that Bible verses effect people like that.
“I went to your website and you come off like a vain horses ass who has more $$$ than she deserves.”
Oh my riches? haha you have got to be kidding me. My website has pages for various things if you are talking about the page about myself I say nothing about riches and if mentioning my careers I have had what was I supposed to do lie and say I did careers I did not do?
“You are so wrong and I do not even claim to be right – just a lot smarter than you.”
You might be I do not claim to be smarter then anyone else, and I have learned a lot having a blog, I learn a lot from my friends that come here and share with me.
“BTW, I come from a US Air Force family (father,brother,uncle), so don’t give me any of your patriotic “rah-rah” crap either.”
You do… is that suppose to intimidate anybody, The Air Farce and a family to boot. So what do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on ?
But obviously you are nothing but a jive ass punk who can’t get out of his own way. As Tom says, if it wasn’t for the safety of the internet, you’d be carried home by now .
Maybe if you weren’t such a candy-ass you’d be able to see the value of taking out scum like Hamas. But like your hero the Annointed One, you have no idea of what you are talking about.
You can take this to the bank, dickhead, Israel will not be intimidated.