Hezbollah captures 2 Israeli soldiers
BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Hezbollah militant group captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, triggering an Israeli assault with warplanes, tanks and gunboats against southern Lebanon as Israeli troops crossed the frontier to hunt for the captives.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the guerrilla attack “an act of war” and warned Hezbollah would pay a “heavy price” for its actions.
news.yahoo.com
As we tip into the chasm we must ask, who will ultimately benefit from all-out war in the Middle East? And that’s who is behind these ridiculously convenient incidents.
IDF Begins Incursion Into Central Gaza
…Columns of armored vehicles were poised to enter into Gaza earlier Tuesday. The incursion, officials said, would be an extension of Operation Summer Rains which began two weeks ago.
IDF sources said that the operation would include naval, infantry and air forces working jointly to destroy the infrastructure supporting the launching of Kassam rockets.
Ismail Haniyeh: Aggression Under False Pretenses
… The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to “reconsider” her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The “kidnapped” Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.
‘Gaza is starving in the darkness’
…”Israeli bulldozers demolished houses and uprooted trees. Israeli soldiers took people’s homes. The Israelis kept three families in one room for three days. They were used as human shields.
At least 34 people were killed in the incursion. Half were the resistance, but the other half were civilians.
At al-Awda hospital five children aged between 12 and 15 were brought in having been shot in the chest or abdomen.
The hospital is working at full capacity in difficult circumstances. Because of the economic sanctions there are no medical supplies.
We are facing a critical situation in the Gaza Strip. Israeli shelling killed a family in their home in the east of Gaza.
A mother and her two children were killed. It reminded us of the recent killing of a family on the beach.
People in Gaza feel that it is the right of the Israeli family to have their son back, but it is the right of Palestinian families to have the political prisoners back.
We are being treated like third class humans. We are treated like numbers. This is why there is a bitter feeling.
The world needs to listen. This is not a war. It is racist discrimination against us.
Despite our situation we are living with resolve. There is a steadfastness of people.
We are coping. People have nothing to lose. The community is helping people who have been displaced by giving blankets, mattresses and water. A whole nation is going through a collective punishment.”
Three Palestinian teens killed in IAF strike on Beit Hanun
…playing football.