Gaza Rockets Start Flying Again. Are They Hamas Or ISIS?

Rockets Fired from Gaza Late Wednesday; IAF Strikes Back

By Ahuva Balofsky June 4, 2015 , 10:15 am

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“For I will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.” (Isaiah 37:35)

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Iron Dome missile defense system being launched against an incoming terrorist rocket. (Photo: IDF)

Sirens sounded in southern Israel for the second time in eight days as rockets were fired from Gaza late Wednesday evening. At least two rockets were fired, with at least one landing in an open area in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, reported Ynet. No one was injured.

The rockets were fired from al-Shati in the northern Gaza strip, near Gaza City, in the area that was once the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Code Red sirens were heard ahead of the rockets in the Netivot, Ashkelon, Bnei Shimon Regional Council and Sdot Negev Regional Council areas.

Sdot Negev Regional Council head Tamir Idan told Ynet he was in contact with the IDF, “in order to see whether we should prepare for an escalation, or this was an isolated incident.”

Each escalation must be met with force,” Idan added. “I hope this time the IDF strikes in a way the other side understands this front cannot be opened. The residents hope for vacation time this summer, and not like last year.”

MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid), the former head of the Eshkol Regional Council, supported this position. “The rocket fire cannot continue,” he said.

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“Terror must be struck forcefully and we should not settle for bombing some sand dunes, otherwise we will face pointless wars every summer,” he continued.

Israel’s air force responded swiftly to the rocket fire. In the early hours of Thursday morning, the IDF reported, the IAF struck at least three Hamas targets in Gaza.

“The IDF views the incident gravely,” said the military in a statement. Referring to the ruling party of Gaza, the statement continued, “The Hamas terrorist organization is the address and the one on whom the responsibility falls.”

A radical Islamist Salafist group which considers Hamas too liberal has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, posting on Twitter that it was retaliating for the death of one of its leaders this week at the hands of Hamas. The group calling itself the Omar Brigades added, “We are continuing with our jihad against the Jews, the enemies of God, and no one will be able to deter us.”

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday morning that the source of the rocketfire was irrelevant. “Even if last night’s shooting at Israel was by errant global jihadist groups who wish to challenge Hamas by firing at us, we consider Hamas responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip and we will not tolerate attempts to harm our citizens,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yellin opined that the ultimate solution to the problem would be diplomatic, not military. “Operation Protective Edge ended without a diplomatic agreement – this is a strategic error which must be rectified. We must create a diplomatic mechanism including the US, the European Union and moderate Arab countries, which would set the condition that the Gaza reconstruction would not happen without the Strip first being demilitarized.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/42240/rockets-fired-from-gaza-late-wednesday-iaf-strikes-back-idf/#4vrFRZrvYFCY8yKv.99

Personal Letter Tells Horror Of Terror Tunnels In Gaza.

Purported letter from inside Gaza tells of tunnel toil, Hamas cruelty

By Paul Alster

Published August 16, 2014

FoxNews.com

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July 25, 2014: In this file photo, an Israeli army officer gives journalists a tour of a tunnel allegedly used by Palestinian militants for cross-border attacks, at the Israel-Gaza Border.AP

An emotional letter purportedly smuggled out of Gaza details one man’s harrowing participation in digging the tunnels that Israel blames for triggering the latest round of fighting and paints a bleak picture of life under Hamas control.

The 30-year-old Palestinian to whom the letter is attributed describes accepting a cryptic job offer, then being taken in a windowless truck with five others to a building where they were forced to dig tunnels for long, gruelling shifts in stretches that lasted 10 days.

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“We drove for an hour and finally they stopped and took us into a closed building. We didn’t know where we were,” reads the letter, the text of which has been released on the Internet. “They showed us a hole in the ground and told us to go down.

“We didn’t know where we’d been, or what tunnel we dug.”

- Purported letter smuggled out of Gaza City

“We walked for a few hundred meters, and when we got to the end, two Hamas members were waiting for us,” the letter continues. “They gave us working tools and explained to us what to do in order to make the tunnel longer.”

It goes on to describe back-breaking labor performed in unventilated shafts, with Hamas overseers screaming and even assaulting workers not deemed to be working hard enough. In the end, after the workers were taken back home and paid meager wages for their work, “We didn’t know where we’d been, or what tunnel we dug,” the letter said.

Earlier this week, The Times of Israel reported that Hamas killed dozens of tunnel diggers after their work was done to prevent leaks to Israel about the locations of the underground shafts. In addition to tunnelers purposely killed, The Journal of Palestine Studies in 2012 reported that Hamas leaders had admitted that, "at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels," reflecting the fact that many children are also used as forced labor to dig the terror tunnels.

The writer, who sources told FoxNews.com lives in Gaza City, had the handwritten, Arabic letter smuggled out by courier to Itzik Azar, a resident of central Israel and friend of the writer’s late father.

In the letter, the writer also claims his father’s metalwork shop was commandeered by the U.S.-designated terrorist group soon after it came to power in Gaza in 2006, and used from that point on to turn out rockets.

“They [Hamas] set the prices and [placed the orders] from the workshop,” he wrote. “From that day, every morning an armed Hamas member used to come to the shop and give us orders to make winged metal pipes. Straight away I understood that they were used to launch rockets. One day a pickup truck came and the Hamas members took my father from the shop. We never saw him again. Later I learned they killed him and threw his body into a pit.”

The death of his father and the seizure of the family shop drove the man to jump at the chance to earn money, he said. When the latest hostilities between Israel Defense Forces and Hamas broke out more than two months ago, he realized his own work had played a role.

“We heard about the tunnels that Hamas dug and I understood that I helped them,” read the letter. “We pray that the world will help to free us from the fearful and cruel Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. I pray for death to all Hamas members and that we will get freedom and a chance to live a normal life for our children in Gaza. Inshalla.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Follow him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his website: www.paulalster.com

The Final Nail In The Middle East Talks!

Hamas won't recognise Israel, accept Quartet terms

 

11 hours ago

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Mussa Abu Marzuk delivers a speech during a press conference in Gaza City on May 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Thomas Coex)

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Hamas will never recognise Israel and will not accept the conditions laid out by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, according to the Islamist movement's deputy leader.

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Speaking late on Saturday, Mussa Abu Marzuq said Hamas, which recently signed a reconciliation deal with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank, would never agree to recognise Israel.

"We will not recognise the Zionist entity," he said at a press conference in Gaza City.

Under terms of the deal, Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Palestine Liberation Organisation of president Mahmud Abbas are to work together to form a new unity government which will prepare for national elections.

But Israel reacted furiously, saying it would not negotiate with any government backed by Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, effectively putting the final nail in the coffin of the latest round of US-brokered peace talks.

Recognising Israel is one of the key conditions laid out in the 2003 peacemaking roadmap of the Middle East Quartet, which brings together the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

The other two key demands are a renunciation of violence and acceptance of all prior agreements with Israel.

Abbas, who is to head the new government, to consist of political independents, has insisted it will abide by all three principles.

But Abu Marzuq said Hamas would never accept the Quartet's conditions.

"Hamas rejects the Quartet's conditions because it denies some of our people’s rights," he told reporters.

"We will always refuse any conditions that deny our Palestinian rights."

He also said the question of disarming Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was "never mentioned" in talks with the PLO since the unity deal was inked on April 23.

"No one asked to discuss this," he said.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior member of Abbas's Fatah movement, which dominates the PLO, was to arrive in Gaza City on Sunday or Monday to begin consultations on forming the new government, he said.

"This will be a national consensus government that has nothing to do with politics and has specific tasks," he said of the preparations for long-overdue local, parliamentary and presidential elections.

Hamas would participate in both the municipal and legislative elections but has not yet decided whether it will run a presidential candidate.

Hamas won a landslide victory in the last parliamentary election, held in 2006, prompting a Western boycott of the Palestinian Authority.

How Does A Unified Government In Gaza And West Bank Effect Peace Talks. We Believe It Puts A Knife It Them!

PA, Hamas Announce Unity Government Against Israel

Posted by: Lea Speyer April 23, 2014 , 12:21 pm

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“For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together.” (Psalm 71:10)

Ismail Haniya (R), Hamas leader in Gaza, and Nabil Shaath, a senior member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party, at a meeting in Gaza City on February 4, 2010. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90)

Palestinian officials have confirmed that rival leaders from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have agreed to form a national unity government within the “next five weeks.”

Following talks in Gaza City on Tuesday evening between officials of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas, an agreement was reached to merge both governments. Talks are expected to continue throughout Wednesday.

A member of the PLO who wished to remain anonymous told AFP, “There has also been progress on the holding of future elections and the composition of the PLO.”

The announcement to form a unity government between the rival two Palestinian groups is not the first. In 2011, Fatah, the main faction in the PLO, signed a reconciliation treaty with Hamas in Cairo whose purpose was to end the political divide between Gaza and the West Bank. However, little has been done to implement the treaties.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Palestinian Authority official, led the Fatah team, who met with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeah and Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq.

On Tuesday, Haniyeh stated that solidifying and uniting Palestinian leaders was “in order to form one government, one political system and one national program.”

Al-Ahmad added, “I am happy that the time has come to end divisions.”

The news of the latest alliance comes at a time when US brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians face total collapse. With the deadline for the latest round of negotiations fast approaching, mediators on all sides are working around the clock to meet some sort of middle ground to extend talks.

Abbas, who threatened this week that he would dissolve the PA government and its security apparatus, laid out new demands for continuing talks with Israel. The Palestinian leader said that Israel must release the fourth batch of Palestinian terrorists, including Israeli-Arabs; freeze all construction in Judea and Samaria; and that within the first three months of extended talks, the issue of borders of a future Palestinian state will be discussed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the latest alliance during a meeting Wednesday with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz. “Every time we get to that point, Abbas stacks on an additional condition which he knows that Israel cannot give,” the prime minister said. “So instead of moving toward peace with Israel, he’s moving toward peace with Hamas.”

“He has to choose,” Netanyahu said. “Does he want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel? You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace, but so far he hasn’t done so.”

Hamas is a vocal opponent of the peace process and has publicly stated it would never make peace with Israel.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/14064/pa-hamas-announce-unity-government-israel/#6El7AKzCuQBDwF5s.99

Getting Palestinians To Sign And Keep An Agreement Is Going To Be Nearly Impossible. Unless Israel Is Totally Decimated.

Palestinians Dream of Destroying Israel, Peace Treaty or Not

Posted by: Khaled Abu Toameh March 26, 2014 , 9:20 am

 

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U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry may be able to force Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, under threats and pressure, to sign a “framework agreement” with Israel. But as this week’s rally of hatred in the Gaza Strip shows, even after the signing of a Palestinian-Israeli “peace” treaty, a large number of Palestinians will not abandon there dream of destroying Israel.

“Jihad in Palestine is not terrorism. Jihad in Palestine is a sacred duty.” — Yusef Rizka, representative of Hamas

A mass rally held in the Gaza Strip on March 23 showed that Hamas continues to enjoy popular support among Palestinians. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to attend the rally commemorating the 10^th anniversary of the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Hamas officials claim that nearly one million Palestinians attended the rally in the center of Gaza City.

This means that Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, remains as strong as ever in the Gaza Strip, despite Egypt’s undeclared war against the Palestinian Islamist movement.

The Egyptian war has indeed hurt Hamas, especially in wake of the destruction of hundreds of smuggling tunnels along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians, however, as shown by the mass rally, evidently remains unaffected.

Addressing the crowd, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh admitted that the Egyptian war has harmed his movement. “Hamas is going through difficult times,” he said. “We are also facing harsh challenges.”

Haniyeh added that despite Egyptian security measures against his movement and the Gaza Strip, Hamas was not in a state of panic.

At the rally, defiant Hamas leaders repeated threats to pursue terror attacks against Israel. One Hamas official, Fathi Hammad, even expressed optimism that his movement and other Palestinian terror groups would be able to destroy the “Zionist entity in a few years.”

Hamas seems to be hoping, however, that the rally will send a message not only to Israel, but also to the Palestinian Authority and Egypt. The message that Hamas is seeking to relay to Egypt is that, despite the ongoing Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip, the movement is not showing any sign of weakness.

As Hamas representative Yusef Rizka explained, “This is a message to those who are trying to undermine Hamas and damage its reputation. We do not meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries.”

Addressing the Egyptians, who have accused Hamas of involvement in terrorist attacks inside Egypt, Rizka said, “Jihad in Palestine is not terrorism. Jihad in Palestine is a scared duty.”

Still, the strongest message coming out of the rally was directed toward the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas has good reason to be worried in the aftermath of the latest show of force by Hamas. When tens of thousands of Palestinians take to the streets of the Gaza Strip to call for the destruction of Israel and an end to the peace talks between the PA and Israel, it is clear that a large segment of Palestinian society remains opposed to any compromise with Israel.

The pro-Hamas rally is also aimed at sending a message to the U.S. Administration that Mahmoud Abbas does not have a mandate to sign any document that declares an end to the conflict with Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry may be able to force Abbas, under threats and pressure, to sign a “framework agreement” with Israel. But as this week’s rally of hatred in the Gaza Strip shows, even after the signing of an Israeli-Palestinian “peace” treaty, a large number of Palestinians will not abandon their dream of destroying Israel.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Gatestone Institute