As Aparthied Israel's Savagery Intensifies, Palestinian Resistance Braces for a Fight
As Apartheid Israel's barbarous assault on Gaza continues with no end in sight, Palestinian casulaties mount. Almost 40 Palestinians have died since the escalation began less than a week ago under the admittedly phony pretext of halting rocket fire and freeing captured terrorist Gilad Shalit.
Ha'aretz reports that, in a good-faith effort to resove the crisis, Hamas has lowered its demands for freeing the POW. The paper reports that Hamas would agree to release the abducted soldier and stop firing Qassam rockets. In exchange, Hamas asks that Apartheid Israel to release all female Palestinian prisoners and about 30 prisoners who have been in Israeli jails for more than 20 years. Additionally, Hamas stipulated that Apartheid Israel must withdraw from the areas of Gaza that it invaded during the past week, release the Palestinian lawmakers it arrested, and end its policy of targeted assassinations.
These revisions appelealed to Noam Shalit, the captured soldier's father. He spoke to reporters on Thursday and the Jerusalem Post quoted some of what was said:
This naive belief, however, has proven itself as misguided as the Resistance resiliant. Not only has Hamas gained strength as a result of this campaign, but the assault has unified the Palestinian public and strengthened its committment to the Resistance.
On Thursday, the manifestation of this committment took a number of forms ranging from rhetoric to military resistance. Ma'an quoted Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) spokesman, Abu Abeer, who promised that Gaza would become a "cemetery for Israeli soldiers":
Confirming "that they will continue the resistance," the unified forces of the DFLP's National Resistance Brigades and Fatah's main military group, the Al Aqsa Brigades, "claimed responsibility for launching a homemade anti-tank projectile RPG towards an Israeli tank during the Israeli forces' penetration of the Al Atatrah region in the northern Gaza Strip." Hamas, too, has begun to attack occupier tanks.
Meanwhile, Ma'an reports that in spite of the Zionist incursion into Gaza, Hamas's military wing, the Izzeddin Al Qassam Brigades continued with rocket attacks on Apartheid Israel's Jim Crow settlements.
We learn from Ha'aretz that, "Nine Qassam rockets were fired at Israel yesterday - more than on the day before the Israel Defense Forces entered the northern Gaza Strip to end the launches." The paper added that these attacks gave "several" Zionist land-thieves "anxiety attacks." The Jerusalem Post adds that on Friday afternoon in the Jim Crow settlement of Sderot, "two Kassam rockets fell on Sderot on Friday afternoon. One of the Kassams fell in the city's central market, wounding seven. Three people were hit by shrapnel from the rocket, while four were in shock."
In spite of their obvious readiness to fight, we have no reason to expect that their resistance will end Apartheid Israel's savage and genocidal occupation of Palestine. In fact, for the time being, we must assume that the Zionist invaders will try to raise the stakes, escalating the conflict in an effort to provoke a wider, regional war involving Uncle Sam.
Friday's news offers a bevy of evidence of such escalation presented itself in countless ways. Middle East Online reports on the atrocities commited by the Zionist invaders on Thursday:
This political reality - the moral and political bankruptcy of the Apartheid government - explains why the tide has turned against the occupation of Palestine.
Ha'aretz reports that, in a good-faith effort to resove the crisis, Hamas has lowered its demands for freeing the POW. The paper reports that Hamas would agree to release the abducted soldier and stop firing Qassam rockets. In exchange, Hamas asks that Apartheid Israel to release all female Palestinian prisoners and about 30 prisoners who have been in Israeli jails for more than 20 years. Additionally, Hamas stipulated that Apartheid Israel must withdraw from the areas of Gaza that it invaded during the past week, release the Palestinian lawmakers it arrested, and end its policy of targeted assassinations.
These revisions appelealed to Noam Shalit, the captured soldier's father. He spoke to reporters on Thursday and the Jerusalem Post quoted some of what was said:
"I know that releasing prisoners was up for discussion as a gesture before the incident, so there's no reason it shouldn't be up for discussion after the incident as well for the sake of releasing a soldier who was sent to the battlefront by the state," [Shalit] said.Shalit refuses to consider - he cannot fathom - that his son is a pawn and that his abduction offered Apartheid Israel an excuse to launch its pre-planned attack on both the Hamas government and the Palestinian people who elected them. By making the Palestinians suffer even more, the thinking goes, Hamas will lose credibility and the Palestinians will capitulate even further.
Eventually, Israel would have to negotiate, he said. "Everything has a price. I don't think there would be any progress toward releasing Gilad without a price. That wouldn't suit the Middle East."
Asked by a reporter what Israel was waiting for, Shalit replied: "Good question."
This naive belief, however, has proven itself as misguided as the Resistance resiliant. Not only has Hamas gained strength as a result of this campaign, but the assault has unified the Palestinian public and strengthened its committment to the Resistance.
On Thursday, the manifestation of this committment took a number of forms ranging from rhetoric to military resistance. Ma'an quoted Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) spokesman, Abu Abeer, who promised that Gaza would become a "cemetery for Israeli soldiers":
"The countdown to a huge defeat for the Israeli forces has started. The Palestinian resistance is ready to retaliate and confront powerfully and steadily the Israeli campaign; all options are considered to retaliate for the Israeli crimes which are committed on a daily basis..."Elsewhere, calling "on all Palestinian security and military services to participate in the moral, national and religious duty to defend our people ... and to confront this incursion and cowardly Zionist aggression," Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam ordered the government's security forces take arms and fight the occupier army.
[Abeer] confirmed that the "military solution" which the Israeli government started "will not make the Palestinian resistance retreat... The last period has turned the resistance men into an army and they are able to strike using all methods."
[The spokesman] threatened that all options are being considered in order to retaliate for the "crimes against the civilians which the Israelis are conducting". He said, "There are many surprises and these will make the Israeli occupation lose their minds," warning that a "painful retaliation will be carried out in the Israeli cities."
Confirming "that they will continue the resistance," the unified forces of the DFLP's National Resistance Brigades and Fatah's main military group, the Al Aqsa Brigades, "claimed responsibility for launching a homemade anti-tank projectile RPG towards an Israeli tank during the Israeli forces' penetration of the Al Atatrah region in the northern Gaza Strip." Hamas, too, has begun to attack occupier tanks.
Meanwhile, Ma'an reports that in spite of the Zionist incursion into Gaza, Hamas's military wing, the Izzeddin Al Qassam Brigades continued with rocket attacks on Apartheid Israel's Jim Crow settlements.
We learn from Ha'aretz that, "Nine Qassam rockets were fired at Israel yesterday - more than on the day before the Israel Defense Forces entered the northern Gaza Strip to end the launches." The paper added that these attacks gave "several" Zionist land-thieves "anxiety attacks." The Jerusalem Post adds that on Friday afternoon in the Jim Crow settlement of Sderot, "two Kassam rockets fell on Sderot on Friday afternoon. One of the Kassams fell in the city's central market, wounding seven. Three people were hit by shrapnel from the rocket, while four were in shock."
In spite of their obvious readiness to fight, we have no reason to expect that their resistance will end Apartheid Israel's savage and genocidal occupation of Palestine. In fact, for the time being, we must assume that the Zionist invaders will try to raise the stakes, escalating the conflict in an effort to provoke a wider, regional war involving Uncle Sam.
Friday's news offers a bevy of evidence of such escalation presented itself in countless ways. Middle East Online reports on the atrocities commited by the Zionist invaders on Thursday:
In the worst single incident, 11 Palestinians were killed, including two fighters loyal to Hamas, in an Israeli bombardment on Beit Lahiya, one of a series of deadly attacks throughout the day, medics said.The Palestine News Network concretely details the effects of these Apartheid Israel's attacks:
Bloodstained bodies could be seen huddled together as the wounded frantically carried other victims caked in blood through the streets.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces launched an incursion into a refugee camp in the northern city of Jenin, killing a 16-year-old Palestinian and wounding several more people, including militants, medics said....
The massive pre-dawn land and air assault on Gaza Thursday sent terrified residents scurrying from their homes. Women clutching babies and a few belongings scurried away on foot towards a line of waiting taxis amid the boom of gunfire.
Palestinian medical sources reported that Israeli forces killed another five Palestinians, one in a moving civilian car by an air strike....The Zionist blitzkrieg continued into Friday. Ha'aretz reports that in addition to ongoing abductions and incursions into refugee camps inhabited by Palestinians whose lands Apartheid Israel has already stolen:
Thursday evening in a separate air raid on the northern Strip, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians and injured four. Area residents report that Israeli forces attacked Beit Lahia with an air-to-surface missile from a military reconnaissance plane....
Palestinian medical and security sources confirmed eyewitness accounts that in a single hour in the northern Strip yesterday, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians.
Security sources said that an Israeli military reconnaissance aircraft launched a single missile on a group of citizens in the northern Strip, killing seven Palestinians in a single moment while tens arrived at the hospital with injuries.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported Friday that in yesterday’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed 24 Palestinians and injured 82. However, a Khan Younis resident died of sustained injuries, bringing the death toll to 25 people in a single day.
The Israel Air Force renewed air strikes at armed Palestinians in northern Gaza on Friday morning, hours after the heaviest day of fighting in the Gaza Strip in the past four years. An IDF soldier and at least 23 Palestinians, including some civilians, have been killed since Thursday....From these attacks, we see yet again that Apartheid Israel will continue to punish innocent Palestinians. The difference today is that Hamas and the rest of Palestine's Resistance stand prepared and united, ready to defend themselves against the anticipated collective punishment and massacres the occupier's will unleash. After all, they have decades of practice. Meanwhile, Apartheid Israel (and Uncle Sam) stands isolated politically and unable to justify its actions.
A Friday morning air strike killed one Palestinian and wounded three others in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. The IDF said an aircraft had opened fire on a group of four gunmen.
This political reality - the moral and political bankruptcy of the Apartheid government - explains why the tide has turned against the occupation of Palestine.
posted by John Brown at 7.7.06
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