Israeli tanks and infantry battalions swept up to the very edges of Gaza City today, battling die-hard Hamas fighters and sealing off the bomb-scarred capital city from the rest of the coastal territory.
With the civilian death toll rising by the hour and diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting making no headway, the head of the UN refugee agency called the situation a “catastrophe”.
But Israel made clear it was not about to heed calls for a swift ceasefire to “Operation Cast Lead”. It insisted that it had to smash Hamas and destroy its weapons stockpile in order to ensure a lasting peace not just for its citizens, who have endured years of Palestinian rocket fire, but for the people of Gaza themselves.
Christ said, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Hamas is an organization that, in words and symbols, is dedicated to the extermination of Israel. As lamentable as all these civilian deaths are, and anyone with a functioning conscience cannot help but grieve over the senseless waste of human life, both Hamas and the people who overwhelmingly voted to bring Hamas into power have no one to blame but themselves.
To paraphrase RSMcCain @ The Other McCain blogspot, “Hamas has vowed to fight (from their secure armed bunkers) to the last Palestinian civilian.
At least Israel warned the Palestinian civilians to get out of the way…hope they heeded the warning.
I wonder if this paragraph is based on the disinformation capmpaign using a video of a 2005 an accidental explosion of a truck full of Hamas rockets at a Palestinian rally. The video was posted at Muslim TV labeled ISRAEL CARNAGE CIVILIANS CHILDREN GAZA and at Reddit, but was caught as a fraud there.
[blockquote]In a separate attack, an Israeli shell hit the main vegetable market in the city. A Times reporter at Shifa hospital saw six ambulances and seven cars – there is a shortage of emergency vehicles – ferry in the wounded. Two were badly maimed children. Medics said five people were killed in the market bombing, and 40 wounded. Israel said it had no knowledge of a market being hit. [/blockquote]
Notice how the paragraph ends with Israel saying it dodn’t know of this market being hit. We know Israel is precise in targeting and fastidious in documenting.