Breaking: Israeli Troops Enter Gaza

Israeli troops have entered Gaza after dark Saturday night (Jerusalem time is GMT+2.  For us on the Left Coast of the US at -8 it's always fun trying to deal with news from the Middle East which seems to be happening many hours in in the future. ). The action is called a limited invasion to take over land from which militants fire rockets according to an AP report.  (But wait, haven't they been saying that militants have been firing rockets from within cities where the people live, you know "using human shields"?  In fact three children were killed after they took out the trash to the city dump because, as the IDF claimed, rockets were being fired next to that location.  So, if the bad guys are shooting rockets from within the cities, um where does Israel stop?  Or do they stop.

But to continue, the military (I presume Israeli) says c. 10,000 troops have been sent into Gaza, first raining a heavy barrage to clear mines and "explosive devises".  (Again from where since they have been claiming that the rockets shooters work from within the people of Gaza.)

Available without registration at Google while they keep it up (Google sometimes dumps AP reports rapidly). See "Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation ".

Blogger is reporting the use of cluster bombs by the Israeli military.

A copy of that report at the Washington Post (free registration may be required) is at "Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation " .  The Post often places updated AP reports in the same place as they original, and may end up with a Post report covering even more than the AP.  So, if you want refreshing information try the Post, but you may need to register.

Homegrown reporting from Gaza at Gaza Strip, The Untold Story .

A BBC reporter analyzed that Israel would be out of Gaza by the beginning of the workweek when p.

eople would start paying attention to news again.  (Um, I think a few people are awake, and I don't see how just leaving in two days will fix everything.) (From audio report, podcast "Global News")  But analyses are often wrong.

Another AP report (hosted at ABC News) "Hamas Resilient Despite Israeli Onslaught " assumes that Israel will not be able to drive Hamas from power without a long term occupation which they do not want to have.  But, even a former Hamas activist, said that the massive destruction may spur the current leaders of Gaza to make a deal to share power with Fatah (which was driven out of the Strip in June 2007 because of corruption in their police units which were charged with keeping the peace in the enclave).

In fact power sharing with Fatah is one of the demands from Israel.  Just forget that Hamas won the 2006 elections.  That's what democracies do, according to Cheney and Bush and I guess their friends, if a nation elects a government you don't like, just go in and kill a lot of people and do regime change.

A new version of AP report "Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation " simply reports on a statement by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack.  The authors write:

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says the campaign against Gaza's Hamas rulers "won't be short" or easy.

He spoke shortly after Israeli tanks and infantry rolled into Gaza after nightfall, launching a ground invasion that escalated the week-old offensive against the Islamic militants.

The campaign "won't be easy and it won't be short," Barak said.

Flames rose in the night sky from a Gaza target hit by an Israeli missile strike as the ground invasion got under way.

So no short invasin according to the man who is considered to be directing the operations.

I checked and the Google News version of the same named article by the same journalists has so far kept it's original reporting.

tags: israel  gaza  gaza invasion  

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