WarSclerotic

IDF resumes strikes in Gaza’s Shejaia area after Hamas breaks humanitarian cease-fire | JPost | Israel News.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, REUTERS

 LAST UPDATED: 07/20/2014 14:35

The IDF says its forces were shot at shortly after the two-hour truce, facilitated by the Red Cross, had begun at 1:30 pm; Palestinians say at least 50 killed in district, which IDF says is center of terror activity.

Hamas members on Sunday violated a humanitarian cease-fire in the Shejaia area of Gaza and fired on IDF soldiers with anti-tank missiles and automatic fire, the army said.

The air force has begun resuming strikes in Shejaia, firing on locations from which the army came under fire.  Hamas had no immediate comment on Israeli allegations it had breached the ceasefire.

The IDF had agreed to a Red Cross request for the two hour humanitarian cease-fire in the northeast Gaza district of Shejaia which has been the target of heavy Israeli artillery and air attacks throughout Sunday.

Prior to the cease-fire, the IDF had been carrying out wide-ranging attacks on Shejaia, which the army considers a main center of terror activity in the Gaza Strip.Gaza medical sources were reporting that at least 50 people had been killed and hundreds wounded in the IDF attacks.

The IDF called on residents of the area to take the opportunity of the cease-fire to vacate Shejaia and make their way to Gaza City.

The army warned that any attempt to take advantage of the cease-fire to launch attacks on Israel would be answered with fire.

The mass casualties in Shejaia appeared to be the heaviest since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the IDF’s intensified shelling in the area as “the new massacre committed by the Israeli government in Shejaia.”

Asked about the attack on Shejaia, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “Two days ago, residents of Shejaia received recorded messages to evacuate the area in order to protect their lives.”

Hamas, the dominant armed group in the Gaza Strip, had urged people across the territory not to heed the Israeli warnings and abandon their homes.

As the tank shells began to land, Shejaia residents called radio stations pleading for evacuation. An air strike on Shejaia home of Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, killed his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, hospital officials said.

Militants kept up their rocket fire on Israel, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough toward a ceasefire in sight. Sirens sounded in southern Israeli towns and in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. There were no reports of casualties.

Israel sent ground forces into the Gaza Strip on Thursday after 10 days of air, naval and artillery barrages failed to stop rocket fire.

Injured Golani Brigade commander: I need to get back to my men

Despite doctors’ orders, Col. Rassan Alian, who was injured overnight in Gaza, told his family he wants to return to be by his soldiers.

Something different than the hamas tigers in the luxury hotels in qatar

Ilana CurielPublished: 07.20.14, 12:29 / Israel News

via Injured Golani Brigade commander: I need to get back to my men – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Col. Rassan Alian, a Golani Brigade battalion commander, was injured overnight Saturday in light-to-moderate condition and was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. He talked with his family members on the phone, telling them he intended to return to his soldiers in the Gaza Strip.

Alian was injured by shrapnel, including in his eyes, but his vision was undamaged. He still needs to undergo an orthopedic examination, and his doctors have clarified to him that he must stay in the hospital and continue the tests, but he insisted.

He was initially in moderate condition but recovered during his stay in the hospital. “I have a lot of soldiers over there and I need to get back to them,” Alian said in the hospital.

The IDF’s ground incursion into Gaza has led to a rapid rise in the number of terrorists killed. Since the beginning of the ground operation, IDF soldiers have eliminated more than 130 terrorists, including more than 60 Saturday overnight.

During the overnight firefights, a Golani Brigade battalion commander, Colonel Rassan Alian, sustained light-to-moderate injuries.

Large infantry forces entered Gaza overnight, as the IDF expanded Operation Protective Edge on Sunday. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced that the ground forces joined the ongoing operations to destroy terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, which began with the ground incursion.

The escalation of the operation occurred after a difficult day in the Strip, during which four IDF soldiers were killed in a series of incidents.

IDF resumes strikes in Gaza’s Shejaia area after Hamas breaks humanitarian cease-fire

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, REUTERSLAST UPDATED: 07/20/2014 14:35

The IDF says its forces were shot at shortly after the two-hour truce, facilitated by the Red Cross, had begun at 1:30 pm; Palestinians say at least 50 killed in district, which IDF says is center of terror activity.

via IDF resumes strikes in Gaza’s Shejaia area after Hamas breaks humanitarian cease-fire | JPost | Israel News.

Hamas members on Sunday violated a humanitarian cease-fire in the Shejaia area of Gaza and fired on IDF soldiers with anti-tank missiles and automatic fire, the army said.

The air force has begun resuming strikes in Shejaia, firing on locations from which the army came under fire. Hamas had no immediate comment on Israeli allegations it had breached the ceasefire.

The IDF had agreed to a Red Cross request for the two hour humanitarian cease-fire in the northeast Gaza district of Shejaia which has been the target of heavy Israeli artillery and air attacks throughout Sunday.

Prior to the cease-fire, the IDF had been carrying out wide-ranging attacks on Shejaia, which the army considers a main center of terror activity in the Gaza Strip.

Rising anti-Semitism and dwindling numbers are raising questions about the future of the Jewish community in Turkey.

By: Hana Levi JulianPublished: July 20th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Are Turkey’s Jews in Trouble?.

Are the Jews of Turkey – Israel’s former ally in the region — in danger?

On Friday, the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed alarm at the increasingly hostile environment towards Israel in Turkey that has extended itself towards that country’s Jews.

The ADL called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reject the targeting of Turkish Jews over Israel’s counter terrorist Operation Protective Edge — launched to silence the rocket fire aimed by Hamas at Israeli civilians – and to publicly assert that the Jewish community has the full support and protection of the state.

Instead, Erdogan issued an additional condemnation of Israel the next day, telling supporters in a speech at the Black Sea resort city of Ordu, “[Israelis] have no conscience, no honor, no pride. Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism.” According to the Reuters news service, the Turkish leader repeatedly likened Israel to the Nazi murderers over the Jewish State’s current counter terrorist Operation Protective Edge against the Hamas rulers of Gaza.

But Erdogan was apparently persuaded by senior members of his Islamic AKP party to lower the heat against the Jews in his own country, if only a trifle. “I don’t approve of any [bad} attitude towards our Jewish citizens in Turkey despite all this. Why? They are the citizens of this country,” he said.

Approximately 17,000 Jews remain in the country. But the rising anti-Semitism combined with increasing difficulty for young Jews in finding a spouse is prompting families to emigrate at a much faster rate than they have in past years. Istanbul’s Sephardic synagogue, the magnificent Neve Shalom, has been attacked by Palestinian Arab terrorists three times since 1986 — most recently in 2003.

As recently as June 2013, in order to enter the building, a visitor had find the small nonedescript entrance alley off to the side, then surrender one’s passport, walk through a metal detector and undergo a search carried out by grim Turkish security personnel. Some visitors were not allowed in anyway, depending upon the whim of the security guards.

The Sephardic Jewish Center was also well hidden, away on a side street in the center of Istanbul in a posh neighborhood filled with upscale restaurants. One would not know it was there, unless you knew what to look for. Even then, the entrance is hidden.

To find it, one enters a building and is greeting immediately by a friendly security man at the door who asks your business. An upscale shop is located on the ground floor, across the from desk.

If you know what to ask, and where you are going, you are passed through to the location of a small elevator, well protected with metal grating and heavy steel bars and locks. Several other security measures later, all with heavy reinforcements, and eventually one emerges into the offices of the Jewish news weekly, the Salom Gazette, housed in the Sephardic Jewish Center, the nerve center of Turkish Jewry. The Istanbul-based Center, which is struggling for resources — and survival — at this point, produces the only Ladino newspaper in the world. It is probably the only spot in the country where Jews can find materials in Hebrew, Ladino, and other languages about Israel and Judaism.

On Friday Israel’s Foreign Ministry meanwhile ordered the withdrawal of all non-essential personnel from the country due to the rising danger they faced. A day later, the Israeli government issued a travel warning, telling citizens to avoid “non-essential visits” to Turkey, and telling those who had to be there to be “especially vigilant” and stay away from anti-Israel demonstrations.

Carefully orchestrated, vicious pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the capital city of Ankara flashed into anti-Israel riots Thursday night, continuing into Friday and then again on Saturday. Rioters hurled rocks and yelled anti-Semitic and anti-Israel epithets outside Israeli diplomatic offices. They attacked the residence of the Israeli ambassador, smashing the windows and causing other damage. Turkish police stood by and did nothing. In Istanbul, a similar mob attacked the Israeli Consulate. But in that city — once known as Constantinople — police repelled the rioters with tear gas and water cannons.

Erdogan himself fanned the flames – having not-so-subtly incited them himself over the past several years and certainly last week.

On Wednesday, the pro-government, Erdogan-linked daily Yeni Akit newspaper published an open letter written by Faruk Kose to the Turkish chief rabbi, demanding an apology from Turkish Jewry for Israel’s actions in Gaza. “ You came here after being banished from Spain. You have lived comfortably among us for 500 years and gotten rich at our expense. Is this your gratitude – killing Muslims? Erdogan, demand that the community leader apologize!”

An editorial in the same newspaper highlighted the victims in Gaza, according to the ADL, and suggested that Turkey’s Jews condemn Israel’s actions. “While all this is happening, the journal of the Jewish community in Turkey, ‘Salom,’ is referring to the murder of children in Gaza as ‘taking care of terrorists,’ “ the paper wrote. The Jewish weekly, the ‘Salom Gazete’ has spent years, however, trying to pick its way between the raindrops to maintain positive ties with its neighbors, as a rising tide of anti-Semitism continues to grow with the increasing popularity of the Islamist AKP government.

In the past several years, Turkey has also strengthened and warmed its ties with Iran — which has declared its intent to “wipe the Zionist state from the world map.” Moreover, Turkey has begun to play host to an array of terrorist leaders who are basing satellite offices in the up-and-coming radical Islamist nation that once prided itself on its balanced, moderate stance.

“Since [Israel’s re-creation in] 1948 we have been witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every day and every month . . . But above all we are witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every Ramadan,” Erdogan ranted in a speech on Thursday.”

It was the same day that Hamas terrorists broke an Egyptian-brokered humanitarian cease fire aimed at allowing Gaza residents time to move around freely and safely to repair their homes and infrastructure, and obtain food and other necessities. Hamas took advance of Israel refusing to return fire in order to launch mortar shells at Jewish communities along the Gaza border. The attacks, which came about two hours into the five-hour cease fire, were dishonorable and proved again that the word of an Islamist terrorist could not be trusted.

One minute before the cease fire was to officially end, Hamas launched a massive barrage of rocket and missile fire that was aimed at a wide array of targets across the central and southern regions of the country.

That action, plus the fact that 13 operatives had emerged from a tunnel nearly in the midst of a kibbutz in an attempted terror attack earlier in the day — and were stopped only because an IDF patrol jeep was deployed nearby – made it clear that a ground operation was necessary. By nightfall, the decision was made and Israel launched the ground incursion into Gaza – which further enraged the Turkish leader.

Erdogan has never hesitated to publicly express his hatred of Israel’s decisions on how to handle its internal national security problems with Islamist terrorism from Gaza, Judea and Samaria. It has never occurred to the Turkish prime minister that the actions of the PKK and other terrorists in his own country precisely mirror those of Hamas and others in Israel.

No Turkish leader would ever have tolerated the antics of Hamas on Anatolian soil. But that has never stopped Erdogan’s endless claims that Israel is the aggressor in any conflict with Hamas, founded by the Muslim Brotherhood with which Islamist Erdogan has a close bond.

General: IDF Taking Down Hamas’ Underground City – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

The IDF has discovered an “underground city” in Gaza filled with explosives, IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Moti Almoz said Sunday.

He spoke to Channel 10 following the discovery of at least 36 terror tunnels in Gaza. Many of the tunnels were filled with rockets, explosives and other weapons.

“Hamas planned these tunnels for years, and planned to use them to kidnap soldiers. [Now] they see the tunnels collapsing one after the other,” Almoz declared.

Hamas “built an underground city full of bombs, meant to evade the IDF and to use in serious terrorist attacks,” he added.

Almoz said that the IDF has reached “significant achievements” in Operation Protective Edge, the defensive operation that began after Hamas launched amajor rocket assault on Israeli cities.

The operation expanded on Saturday night, he said. “We are continuing to work deep in the territory, with the goal of destroying Hamas’ capabilities,” he stated.

While the operation has been successful to date, “it’s impossible to hit 100% of the tunnels and to prevent 100% of the rocket fire,” he warned.

The rocket assault from Gaza has grown significantly weaker since the operation began, he noted. However, he called to “not talk about the bottom line yet.”

“We need to wait a few days to see if this is a trend. Only when the operation is over can we confirm success in destroying tunnels and frustrating Hamas – two strategic goals that we are making major progress on,” Almoz concluded.

Israel faces perilous, protracted war as IDF expands its operation into Hamas’ urban strongholds.

The IDF tried to mitigate the bad news from Hamas warfront by releasing it in sections over Saturday and Sunday, July 19-20. Four soldiers were killed and a score were wounded. Maj. Amotz Greenberg, 45, from Hod Hashorn and Sgt. Adar Bresani, 20, from Nahariya, were shot dead Saturday when their jeep was attacked by Hamas infiltrators bursting out of a tunnel.

On the Gaza battlefield, Paratrooper Staff Sgt. Bana Roval, 20, from Holon, was shot dead by a terrorist from another tunnel, and 2nd Lt, Bar Rahav, 21, from Ramat Yishai, was killed by a missile defense system in a nearby tank.
Hamas is not only bringing its deadly tunnels into play, but also planting small commando units heavily armed with anti-tank rockets across the paths of advancing Israeli armored forces.
Saturday, those commandos fired 10 anti-tank rockets. Without their Windbreaker armor, many tanks would have been destroyed and the casualty toll much higher.

However, most of all, Hamas is fighting to save its tunnel system from systematic destruction by IDF demolition teams. This system was designed to be the Palestinian Islamists’ highest strategic asset, comparable in importance to the IDF’s chain of fortifications along the Syrian border.
Around 16,000 men, around 15 percent of Hamas’ fighting strength, were assigned to the tunnel project in the last five years and substantial funds. The IDF will not be permitted to demolish this flagship project without a savage fight.

The most important conclusion for Israel’s war planners, from the first days of the ground phase of Israel’s Operation Defensive Edge, is that Hamas is standing firm and not cracking, even under the relentless pounding of their military infrastructure by Israeli artillery and air might, and appears determined to fight on.

Its commanders believe they can keep going for another 4 to 6 weeks, while also maintaining a steady hail of rockets against the Israeli population.

This estimate has spurred a major buildup of Israeli military strength for the Gaza operation. Another 50,000 reservists were called up Saturday night and a large number of infantry brigades started moving into the Gaza Strip overnight and will continue to arrive Sunday. The extra forces have made it possible to embark on the second, urban stage of the IDF operation, the breaching of the densely-populated towns.

A different type of combat lies ahead from the project for destroying tunnels. It is tougher and more perilous. But there is no other way to reach Hamas’ command centers and its longest-range rockets.

With this mission still unaccomplished, talk of a ceasefire sounds as though it comes from another planet. Hamas feels strong and confident enough to spurn the Egyptian-Israeli ceasefire proposal, which is firmly backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Every attempt to sway its political leader Khaled Meshaal, when he was buttonholed in Kuwait, ran into a blank wall. He summarily rejected invitations from Egypt and the Arab League to travel to Cairo and discuss the cessation of hostilities.

The various international mediation efforts have therefore nowhere to go.

As far as Hamas is concerned, no incentive has been offered tempting enough to persuade its leaders to give up their predestined war on Israel.
US Secretary of State John Kerry changed his mind about visiting the region for the second time this month, when the Obama administration decided to stay out of it and let Egypt handle the crisis. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who scheduled a visit for Saturday, postponed it indefinitely.

Israel has accordingly won a rare opportunity to deal with Hamas without being stopped short and the enemy saved by international intervention. But although it has wide popular support, this opportunity confronts Israelis with one of the cruelest, costly and drawn-out conflicts in their embattled history.

UNRWA Gives Rockets to Hamas – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Rockets found in UN school are reportedly handed over to terrorist group.

UNRWA in Refugee Camp

Flash 90

The UN agency for Palestinian Arab “refugees,” UNRWA, has caused outrage by apparently giving rockets to Hamas.

On Thursday, UNRWA confirmed that 20 rockets had been found in one of its vacant schools in Gaza.

UNRWA staff said last week that they had “informed the relevant parties and successfully took all necessary measures for the removal of the objects.”

However, Channel 2 reports Sunday that – rather than destroying the rockets – UNRWA workers called Hamas to come remove them.

Hamas has fired over 1,500 rockets at Israeli population centers over the past two weeks. Any new rockets would presumably be used in similar attacks.

UNRWA Refuses to Provide Pictures

While UNRWA confirmed the existence of rockets in one of its schools last week, the organization refused an Israeli request to provide a picture of the weapons. A picture could have helped Israel show that Hamas uses civilian institutions to store weapons and launch attacks.

Hamas has openly used human shields in its latest conflict with Israel. The terrorist group issued a statement Thursday urging Gaza residents to ignore IDF warnings to evacuate their homes.

Earlier, Hamas gathered civilians to stand on the roof of a senior terrorist’s home in order to deter an IDF strike.