Another Day in Occupied Palestine

The political and military officials in Apartheid Israel continue to feel the heat from the Zionists' failed invasion of Lebanon. Amidst the ongoing dispensation of Uncle Sam's Welfare Checks to cover the costs of the sustained assault of Palestine and Lebanon by cluster-bombing Zionist Blitzkriegers, the economic news throughout Occupied Palestine reveals the hidden vulnerabilities and weaknesses of an Apartheid state totally dependent on the theft of land, labor, and resources for its sustenance. "Between a fifth and a third of residents (it varies by HMO) were displeased with service availability during the war," reported Ha'aretz.

Pro-Apartheid Ha'aretz reports on Thursday that "Israel Defense Forces troops killed eight Palestinians yesterday, including a 14-year-old, in Gaza City." Yet even as money is spent to support the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, Ruth Sinai reports in Ha'aretz that more and more of those living under the boot of Zionist control are impoverished:

Nearly 100,000 Israelis joined the ranks of the poor in the past year. More than half of them, 55,000, were children. This brings the number of children living under the poverty line to 35.2 percent of all Israeli children, a record for the developed world.

The number of Israelis under the poverty line reached 1,630,500 in 2005, 24.7 percent of the total population. Children comprised 768,000 of this number, rising from 33.2 percent of all Israeli children in 2004 to 35.2 percent in 2005.

Meanwhile, amidst a call by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine for a unified Palestinian Resistance, Zionist Land-Grabbers have once again retreated from northern Gaza after another failed campaign to stop rocket attacks from Palestinian Resistance groups. During the Zionist invasion, masked operatives acting in the interest of Apartheid Israel did murder a Resistance leader.

So, unable to pacify Gaza, the Land-Grabbers have turned their attention to the Occupied West Bank - specifically the town of Nablus. Fatah's Secretary-General in the West Bank and Zionist political prisoner - Marwan Barghouti - was moved from the outskirts of Tel Aviv into a Zionist Dungeon in the desert while a regional commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades died in the old city during heavy fighting there on Thursday, which Ma'an described:

After fierce clashes between the Israeli army and armed Palestinians in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the Israeli forces assassinated the local leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades on Thursday morning. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Israeli army also suffered casualties in the clashes.

Fadi Qafaishah, 32, the local leader of the main military wing of Fatah, was killed in the centre of the Old City of Nablus after many hours of fierce fighting. The Al Aqsa Brigades have vowed revenge for the assassination of Qafaishah, both against Isareli targets inside the occupied Palestinian territories and inside Israel.

Six other Palestinians were injured, two seriously, and the Israeli forces are also reported to have sustained injuries....

Eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces raided the city from many directions. With the help of drones, the Israeli soldiers surrounded a group of Al Aqsa Brigades' fighters in the Old City of Nablus. A fierce battle, lasting for several hours, took place between the fighters and the Israeli forces, ending with the killing of Qafaishah and the injury of six other Palestinians.

The witnesses said that the operation started after the Palestinian fighters detonated a roadside bomb when an Israeli jeep passed through the area. They say that the jeep was destroyed with many soldiers in it. They added that pieces of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers were found in the area after the battle ended. In addition, Israeli military uniforms were found in the area covered with blood. Medical equipment was also discovered suggesting that the Israeli soldiers were treated on site.

In the same area, confrontations broke out between the Israeli soldiers and dozens of angry Palestinian youths who threw stones and empty bottles at the Israeli soldiers while the Israeli soldiers responded with live bullets, gas and sound bombs to disperse them. A number of Palestinians were injured in the clashes.

Apartheid Israel was soundly defeated in Lebanon largly because the vaunted Zionist Land-Grabbers have become nothing more than glorified Pigs who harrass women at checkpoints, fire indiscriminately at rock-throwing kids, and shell civilian homes. These tactics may work, in the short term, to quell the Palestinian Intifada. But in the long run, they only make for a weaker military.

And the racist brutality of the savagery undertaken by the Zionist occupiers in Palestine will have dire consequences that make the recent defeat against the Lebanese Resistance appear tame by comparison.