NEWS UPDATES! Israel Begins Ground Invasion of Gaza At 10:45 PM local time (2:45 EDT), the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had ordered a ground incursion into Gaza. According to the announcement, the objective of the incursion was the destruction of tunnels used by Hamas fighters to attempt to infiltrate into Israel, as was attempted early this morning, to try to conduct attacks inside Israel. Whether the incursion will remain tied to such a limited objective or will spread deeper into Gaza remains to be seen. Less than an hour-and-half before the Israeli announcement, retired DIA officer Pat Lang posted on his blog: “Once again (as in Lebanon in 2006), Israel has initiated hostilities with an Arab group without any clear idea of the result to be rationally expected or of an ‘exit plan’ from the war itself. The ‘strategic thinking’ involved appears to have consisted of an unbounded hatred for the Palestinians and a desire to smash and humble them while using the worldwide resources of the Zionist cause to silence criticism. A humiliation like that which resulted from the Second Lebanon War now seems likely to emerge from a ‘permanent’ cease fire unless Israel decides to ‘double down’ in a large-scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.” The announcement of the incursion followed another failed cease fire effort, a temporary humanitarian truce of 6 hours requested by the UN, which the Israelis charged Hamas violated, and then the massacre of four Palestinian boys on a Gaza beach that was witnessed by dozens, including working journalists based at a nearby hotel. Negotiations resumed in Cairo yesterday, after the collapse of the earlier cease-fire effort, involving an Israeli delegation led by Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas representative Moussa Abu-Marzuk. Ominously, Tony Blair was also involved, but aside from a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel el Sisi on July 16 and his public calls for a cease fire, his role so far is not yet clear. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri announced, a few hours ago, that, aside from Marzuk, no Hamas delegation went to Cairo and that it is not yet possible to speak of any progress that might produce a cease-fire in the near future, reported Ha’aretz. Meanwhile, the deaths of the four Palestinian boys, ages 9-11, is the latest atrocity coming out of this war to make headlines. The attack that killed them was witnessed by Guardian correspondent Peter Beaumont (among others), who told Ha’aretz that there was more than one explosion, there was no warning, and it was obvious that they were kids. “The IDF Spokesperson unit had difficulty coming up with an explanation for the explosions which killed the four children and wounded others and it took a few hours for them to begin to respond,” reported Ha’aretz. “Toward 8 p.m. they began briefing reporters that the first explosion was most likely caused by an attack on a ‘legitimate’ Hamas target and the second the result of misidentification of the fleeing children as Hamas fighters.” According to a report issued this afternoon by the PLO’s Negotiation Affairs Department, 230 people have been killed and over 1,700 wounded in Gaza as a result of the Israeli bombing campaign. Of the dead, 47 of them were children between the ages of 17 months and 18 years. More than 22,600 people have been displaced, and 900,000 affected by the destruction of electricity, water, and waste water infrastructure. larouchepac/node/31346
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:38:50 +0000
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