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News: Israel opens "the gates of Hell", says Hamas
Member Since: 12/4/2010
Posts: 37,894
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Israel opens "the gates of Hell", says Hamas
Rockets, airstrikes reignite Mideast conflict
From Sara Sidner and Talal Abu Rahma, CNN
updated 4:57 PM EST, Wed November 14, 2012
Palestinian firefighters extinguish fire from the car of Ahmed al-Ja'abari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 14.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS- NEW: Israel says ground assault among its options
- NEW: Egypt recalls ambassador to Israel, officials in Israel say
- An Israeli spokesman calls the operation defensive after rocket attacks from Gaza
- Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the head of Hamas' military wing, was killed in the first strike
| (CNN) -- Israel launched a series of blistering air strikes Wednesday on what it says are terrorist targets in Gaza, killing the chief of Hamas' military wing and at least eight others, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Palestinian leaders immediately condemned the attacks as an escalation, with President Mahmoud Abbas calling for an emergency session of the Council of the League of Arab States to discuss what he called Israeli "aggression," the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
Hamas' military wing warned that Israelis had opened "the gates of hell on themselves" with the move.
A report on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website said Brig. Gen. Yoav Moredechai would not rule out a ground attack.
"Infantry brigades have been shifted in preparation for the operation," he said, according to the website.
Israeli military spokeswoman Lt. Colonel Avital Leibovich said: "There are some reserve |
units that are preparing but nothing more than that at this point."
There were at least 35 airstrikes in an eight-hour span, Hamas security sources said. As night fell, more air strikes could be heard, and Hamas security officials said four more attacks hit empty swaths of farmland in Gaza late Tuesday.
Israel's Iron Dome air defense system intercepted 17 rockets launched at Israel in the span of a few hours, the IDF said, and a rocket struck a shopping center in a major city in southern Israel. The IDF said at least 130 rockets had been fired from Gaza since Saturday.
Palestinian medical sources said nine people died in the Israeli air strikes, including a young girl, and 35 others were wounded, with 10 in serious condition. However, the health minister in Gaza, Mufid al-Mukhalalati, put the death toll at seven, including two young girls.
The dead included Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the popular and influential head of the Hamas military wing, and his son, the group said on its website.
The Israeli operation -- which the military calls "Operation Pillar of Defense" -- came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned this week of pending retaliation by Israel for increased rocket attacks from Gaza.
"I would ask you, I'd ask any person around the planet: What would you do if your population was targeted day after day?" Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN, later adding that "you have to see our operation as fundamentally defensive."
Egypt recalled its ambassador to Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.
The United States said Israel has the right to defend itself, according to a statement from the State Department.
"We strongly condemn the barrage of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel, and we regret the death and injury of innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians caused by the ensuing violence," the statement said. "There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel. We call on those responsible to stop these cowardly acts immediately."
A spokesman for Hamas, Osama Hamdan, claimed that Hamas has been defending itself from Israeli attacks.
"I think the ones who declared war was Israel, and I think the Palestinians are in the position of defending themselves and nothing more than this," he said. Hamas will resist as long as the Israeli offensive lasts, Hamdan said.
Israeli navy ships could be seen firing into Gaza from the Mediterranean. The navy struck "terror sites" there, the IDF said via Twitter.
The Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday it targeted "a significant number of long-range rockets sites" to deliver "a significant blow" to Hamas' underground rocket-launching capabilities and munitions warehouses.
Some of the munitions warehouses were in civilian residential buildings, which showed that Hamas uses a strategy of human shields, Israeli military sources said.
"The aim of targeting these sites is to hamper their rocket-launching weapons build up capabilities," the IDF statement said, adding that the Gaza strip had become "a frontal base for Iran firing rockets and carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens."
Angry crowds gathered at the heavily damaged vehicle that contained the bodies of al-Ja'abari and his bodyguard.
Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, condemned "in the strongest possible terms" what he called the Israeli assassination of al-Ja'abari.
In an interview with CNN, Erakat labeled the attack the beginning of a "major, major Israeli escalation," and he called on the international community to pressure Israel to halt its operation.
Al-Mukhalalati, the Gaza health minister, also called on "the free world to stop this massacre committed by Israel."
Asked about assassinating al-Ja'abari, Regev told CNN that the Hamas military leader headed a "terror military machine."
"This is the man with blood on his hands. This man is a known and wanted terrorist," he said. "In taking him out, Israel was acting legitimately."
The latest escalation in violence is part of a cycle of attacks between periods of relative stability between Israel and the Palestinians.
"This was both inevitable and predictable," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert and vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
There is no long-term basis for both sides to find a lasting peace, he said.
Israel and the Palestinians have "completely different political and strategic goals," Miller explained. The focus should be on how to bring security until a basis for long-term stability arises, he added.
SOURCE.
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Attempted to bold important parts.
Here's the video of al-Ja'abari's death:
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Member Since: 8/3/2010
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/31/2012
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Member Since: 11/16/2010
Posts: 11,962
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Member Since: 5/1/2012
Posts: 10,570
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Hopefully it won't turn in a global military combat. 
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Member Since: 8/29/2012
Posts: 22,883
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 The Middle East is what's gonna cause WW3.
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Member Since: 9/4/2012
Posts: 4,435
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Quote:
Originally posted by SupahBass05
The Middle East is what's gonna cause WW3. |
When that happens, the US better stay out of it or I'm moving to Switzerland.
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Member Since: 12/4/2010
Posts: 37,894
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Quote:
Originally posted by Quietly Trek
When that happens, the US better stay out of it or I'm moving to Switzerland. |
Not with that U.S.-Israeli alliance. 
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Member Since: 9/4/2012
Posts: 4,435
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Quote:
Originally posted by Doc
Not with that U.S.-Israeli alliance. |
I know  What has our world come to?
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Member Since: 12/31/2010
Posts: 26,257
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Well ****. 
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Member Since: 8/27/2012
Posts: 1,474
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Quote:
Originally posted by SupahBass05
The Middle East is what's gonna cause WW3. |
Israel started it tho, they RUINED Gaza.
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Member Since: 10/30/2011
Posts: 10,415
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Israel
Palestine too
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Member Since: 12/28/2010
Posts: 26,529
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Quote:
Originally posted by SupahBass05
The Middle East is what's gonna cause WW3. |
this
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Member Since: 2/20/2012
Posts: 14,955
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WW3 is coming. Goodbye everyone
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Member Since: 12/4/2010
Posts: 37,894
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Quote:
Originally posted by SupahBass05
The Middle East is what's gonna cause WW3. |
Definitely.
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Member Since: 9/22/2011
Posts: 9,178
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Member Since: 8/29/2012
Posts: 22,883
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Quote:
Originally posted by RyChandler
King Israel gonna eradicate those terrorists from the face of the earth.  |
To a good chunk of the world, the U.S is a terrorist. Israel isn't free of all blame either.
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Member Since: 7/3/2011
Posts: 10,425
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The US better not send more troops. **** the middle east and their self-induced problems of greed & entitlement.
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Member Since: 12/4/2009
Posts: 6,471
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Quote:
Originally posted by RyChandler
King Israel gonna eradicate those terrorists from the face of the earth. |
... bye.
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Member Since: 5/22/2010
Posts: 9,633
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Some of the **** that's being said here  I'm gonna' keep my ideas to myself.
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