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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Warplanes bombed militant training camps and artillery rounds were fired within earshot of Gaza Strip Wednesday as Israel kept up the pressure on Palestinian militants to release a captured Israeli soldier.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government responded to the Israeli incursion by calling for a prisoner swap to solve the crisis.

Militant groups holding the Israeli soldier had proposed an exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, but it was the first time the government had made such a request.

It is "natural logic" to carry out an exchange, a statement released by the Information Ministry said.

"This has been exercised by previous Israeli governments with Hezbollah and the PLO, and this is what other countries do in conflict situations," the statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there will be no negotiations and called for the unconditional release of the soldier, 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Olmert said Israel did not intend to reoccupy Gaza but would not balk at "extreme action" to bring home Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid on Sunday.

But if Israelis do not negotiate a swap, Palestinian militants will conclude "that they should capture more soldiers," Hamas' representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told The Associated Press.


"The message for the resistance is to kill soldiers, even if they have the opportunity to capture them," he said.


Palestinians readied weapons and fortified positions in preparation for a major strike after Israel sent troops and tanks across the border just after midnight local time. No casualties have been reported since the offensive began.

Tension rose as Israel artillery units opened fire near Gaza City, causing loud explosions but no injuries or damage. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the units were test-firing the weapons and had not fired at a specific target.

Residents of northern Gaza, preparing for what they feared could be a long military operation, stocked up on food, candles and batteries for radios as a minister warned of a "humanitarian crisis."

The White House continued pressuring Hamas, saying it was the responsibility of the Palestinian government to "stop all acts of violence and terror." But the United States also urged Israel to show restraint.

"In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

It was Israel's first ground offensive since pulling its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza last summer.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity," and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against the Israeli troops.

Meanwhile, concerns about the fate of a missing West Bank settler grew after militants claiming to hold him displayed what they said was a copy of his identification card.

Also, a group affiliated with Abbas' Fatah party claimed to hold a third Israeli and threatened to attack an unspecified Israeli embassy within days.

Israeli Troops Enter Gaza With 'One Objective'

Israeli tanks and soldiers began taking up positions east of Rafah overnight under cover of tank shells, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman, said troops moved a mile inside the coastal strip.

He said the army was prepared for a long operation, and "everything is on the table."

Israeli warplanes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station, cutting electricity to 65 percent of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station said. The station's three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were engulfed in flames.

Wasfi Kabha, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, said the Israeli attacks were creating a "humanitarian crisis."

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"They hit the bridges, they hit the power station, so there will be a problem in water supply and health services," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

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Areas in northern Gaza that receive electricity from Israel still had power, and generators relieved darkness in other places.

The Israeli military said three bridges were attacked "to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier." Knocking down the bridges cut Gaza in two, Palestinian security officials said.

Witnesses reported heavy artillery shelling near the long-closed Gaza airport outside of Rafah. Warplanes flew low over the strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows.

Fighter jets repeatedly fired missiles at open fields in northern and southern Gaza in a show of force, the military said. Two missiles hit empty Hamas training camps, witnesses said. Separately, Israel attacked a rocket-making factory in the area.

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said. "All the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days.

"We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home."

Shalit was captured Sunday during an attack on a southern Israeli military post by militants affiliated with the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party. Israel believes the group's Syria-based leaders ordered the operation.

Hamas' Syria Political Chief Faces Reprisal; Warplanes Fly by President's Home

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Hamas' Syria-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, was "not immune" from Israeli reprisal.

"Khaled Mashaal, as someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target," Ramon told Army Radio. The station interpreted his comments as meaning Mashaal was a target for assassination.

Israel tried to kill Mashaal in a botched attempt in Jordan in 1997. Two Mossad agents injected Mashaal with poison but were caught. As Mashaal lay dying in a Jordanian hospital, King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote in return for releasing the Mossad agents.

Ramon told Israel Radio in a separate interview that he believed diplomacy had run its course.

Abbas deplored the Israeli invasion, calling it "collective punishment and a crime against humanity," and he urged the United States and other international negotiators to intervene, according to a statement.

An aide said Abbas called Syrian President Bashar Assad to ask him to persuade Mashaal to free the soldier. Assad promised to do so, the aide said on condition of anonymity because he was discussing private talks.

Israeli warplanes on Wednesday buzzed Assad's summer residence, military officials said, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of the captured Israeli soldier.

The officials said Assad was targeted because of the "direct link" between Syria and Hamas.

Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer of Hamas said his government, too, was trying to resolve the situation diplomatically.

"We call for an immediate halt to the invasion, and urge that the soldier's life be spared," Shaer said.

Strike Leaves Empty Streets; Dozens Seek Sanctuary

The normally bustling streets in southern Gaza, where the invasion was launched, were eerily deserted, with people taking refuge inside their homes. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt — Gaza's main link to the outside world — has been closed since Sunday.

Israeli troops, backed by tanks, took over the Gaza airport. Dozens of people living near the airport left their homes, seeking sanctuary in nearby Rafah.

A small grocery near the airport was open, but no one was inside except owner Allah Abu Jazr.

"We want the soldier to return home, just as we want our prisoners to come home," Abu Jazr, 45, said.

Militants said they fired rockets early Wednesday at several Israeli targets, including Nahal Oz, the Israeli forces' staging area.

Kidnappings Aggravate Tense Relations

Shalit's abduction has threatened to turn devastated relations between Israel and the Hamas-led government into all-out war. Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January and has been under international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Complicating matters was a new claim by the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out Sunday's assault, that it had also kidnapped a Jewish settler, 18-year-old Eliahu Asheri, in the West Bank.

Outside a Gaza City mosque, PRC militants displayed what they said was a copy of Asheri's ID card and reiterated threats to kill him if Israel did not end the invasion.

The group also warned that it had just begun its campaign to seize soldiers.

"The operation of kidnapping soldiers has started and is in a countdown," spokesman Mohammed Abdel Al said.

Separately, a statement obtained by the AP and signed by Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza, said the group was holding an unidentified 62-year-old Israeli from Rishon Lezion.

The statement said the man was kidnapped Monday and that more evidence would be released later.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police had a missing persons report concerning a man identified as Noah Moskovitch.

Palestinians Call for Prisoner-Swap, Laud Abductions

In a separate statement, Al Aqsa said it planned to attack an unspecified Israeli embassy soon.

Despite the ground and air assault, many Palestinians in Gaza said they saw the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier as a military action and expressed the feeling that he should not be released without major concessions from Israel.

"Even if they slaughter 100,000 Palestinians, this is a chance that can't be lost. It's the only way the prisoners will be able to get out," said Bassem al Khoudry, 35, owner of a fast food stand in Gaza City. "If they release him with nothing in return, they would betray their nation, their prisoners."

Abdel Fatah al-Aila, a 61-year old engineer in Gaza, called the abduction a "courageous" operation that followed Israeli attacks that killed Palestinian civilians. Israel has been shelling northern Gaza and carrying out airstrikes targeting militants in response to a wave of rocket attacks into Israel, and some civilians have been killed.

"This is not kidnapping, but a military operation against a military target," al-Aila said.

Palestinians said they were confused by Israel's refusal to negotiate an exchange.

Palestinian prisoners are no less "precious" than Lebanese prisoners, said Nihaya Armelad, a 31-year-old mother of five who lives in the southern town of Rafah, which would likely be the front line of any Israeli ground assault.

"They have to exchange him for [Palestinian] prisoners," Armelad said. "They haven't seen their children in years. We are [humans] just like the Israelis."

Since the abduction, prisoners' relatives have marched through Gaza's streets demanding their family members be released in exchange for his freedom.

Sanaa Hirz, 44, said she was willing to weather attacks from Israel if it would bring the release of her husband, a Fatah activist who has been in prison for 22 years.

"Gazans are used to missiles, assassinations, artillery. Every day there is death. Death is a natural thing," she said. "Let it come ... it is better with honor."

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zappaisgod said:
They're no longer miltants. They are now state approved and funded actors.

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xDuckYouSuckerx said:

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zappaisgod said:
They're no longer miltants. They are now state approved and funded actors.

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I'm sure we are all awaiting Israels proclaimation that these "people" are now considered enemy combatants and that the Geneva convention applies to them. Come on Israel, you can't have it both ways, can you?

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I'm saying that the Israelie's aren't either and that we should pull our support from them until they do, or ideally, until hell freezes over.

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xDuckYouSuckerx said:
So, what about the Israelies that killed the members of black september? Thats ok, right, since they are brown peoples/terrorists/dem durr muslam-types that ain't worship JEesssus? Fuck that shit. The Israelies and their media control have people so fucking blind it's almost funny.

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Scenario 1 - Jewish guys, using fake ID's and passports, steal a car, pull up to a hotel, go inside and machinegun the people inside. Earlier that month they put a LARGE truck bomb outside on a public street and had a FO set it off when a non-uniformed person drove by, killing a bunch of innocents. Thats "Retribution" and Spielberg (why does this not surprise us) and the rest of the world tell us how great that group is, how they are protecting the best place in the world, Democratic Lil Ally, Israel.

Scenario 2 - A Palestinean guy is upset that he can't go to work in Israel without having some pale-faced, dark haired IDF Jews rough him up, "inspect" his wife for bombs and treat them like this. His land was taken from him by Israeli tanks and his family was killed when an IDF bomb took out a "target", plus 50-100 non-combatants. He is dirt poor and gullible, so he gets talked into blowing up that checkpoint and killing uniformed, armed, soldiers. Hes a terrorist.


I wonder why it happens like that...

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zappaisgod said:
International terrorist organization founded by Sabri al-Banna (a.k.a Abu Nidal). Split from PLO in 1974. Made up of various functional committees, including political, military, and financial. In November 2002, Abu Nidal died in Baghdad; the new leadership of the organization is unclear.

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Interesting scenarios. Too bad they're fictive.

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"The IDF confirmed early Thursday a report the Popular Resistance Committees issued from Gaza that it had executed Eliyahu Asheri, 18, of Itamar, who was kidnapped earlier this week in the West Bank. Asheri's family has been notified.

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Yep, the Jews control the world-wide propaganda machine. There's even some Jews who hate themselves as much as you hate them (see several NYTimes editorials about how much Israel should kiss troglodyte ass). Get over your Jew hating and buy a clue. Or just get therapy for your JDS (Jew Derangement Syndrome). There's probably a drug (no doubt invented by a JEW) that could help you.

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xDuckYouSuckerx said:

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zappaisgod said:
International terrorist organization founded by Sabri al-Banna (a.k.a Abu Nidal). Split from PLO in 1974. Made up of various functional committees, including political, military, and financial. In November 2002, Abu Nidal died in Baghdad; the new leadership of the organization is unclear.

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Nope, the Munich Olympic Game murderers. Not that I don't think that they should have been punished, by death, for their crimes, but I don't think that international law should be bent just because the victims were Jews and the killers (I'm talking Barak, here) were from Israel.

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Interesting scenarios. Too bad they're fictive.

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Study up on what happened to the habeebs that murdered the Israelie athletes, then tell me how 'fictive' those stories are. The first scenario is PRECISELY what happened.

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"The IDF confirmed early Thursday a report the Popular Resistance Committees issued from Gaza that it had executed Eliyahu Asheri, 18, of Itamar, who was kidnapped earlier this week in the West Bank. Asheri's family has been notified.

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Yes, I forgot, when the US/Jews/Israel take enemy combatants, we can hold them indefinatly and if some of them end up in Egypt so that they can be tortured 'legally', well, oy vey, terrorists don'tcha know! Any means necessary dontchaknow! But when THEY do it, oh gosh, hand wringing, maybe Speilberg gets to make a new movie about it! Nothing but Jews on the News!

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Yep, the Jews control the world-wide propaganda machine. There's even some Jews who hate themselves as much as you hate them (see several NYTimes editorials about how much Israel should kiss troglodyte ass). Get over your Jew hating and buy a clue. Or just get therapy for your JDS (Jew Derangement Syndrome). There's probably a drug (no doubt invented by a JEW) that could help you.

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Lets say that every Jew in the media, and no I'm not saying that they 'control the media', but lets say that every one of them were to die and be replaced with, say, members of the Saud royal family. I'm sure that the news would still be the same, right? The west (and jews!) versus the evil terrorists?

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zappaisgod said:
I went to a search for Black September, I gave it, you quoted part of it. So these were the Olympic murderers. Your quaint notion that there is international law that applies is positively Clintonian and Carteresque and well nuanced, i.e. useless.

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No, their assassination was a moral imperative. So sorry, they all die with extreme prejudice. Arrest them? No, I don't think so.

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Following the attack, the Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Golda Meir, ordered Mossad to hunt for those known to have been involved [2]. What was then known as Operation Bayonet was begun. By 1979, during what became known as Operation Wrath of God, at least one Mossad unit had assassinated eight PLO members. Among them was the leading figure of Ali Hassan Salameh, nicknamed the "Red Prince," the wealthy, flamboyant son of an upper-class family, and commander of Force 17, Yasser Arafat's personal security squad. Salameh was behind the 1972 hijacking of Sabena Flight 572 from Vienna to Lod. He was killed by a car bomb in Beirut on January 22, 1979. In Operation Spring of Youth, in April 1973, Israeli commandos killed three senior members of Black September (and at least nine others) in Beirut. In July 1973, in what became known as the Lillehammer affair, six Israeli operatives were arrested for the murder of Ahmed Bouchiki, an innocent Moroccan waiter who was mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh.

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Well then I breathlessly await your splendid linkage. Poor habeebs. What a shame they were shot before they could be taken in and given a fair execution, no doubt under the auspices of that tower of jello, the UN.

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Once again I eagerly await your linkage to anything Israel or the US has done that remotely resembles this. I'm sure your selection will be quite telling.

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In the aftermath of the Lillehammer affair, six members of the Mossad assassination team were caught by Norwegian authorities. Harari escaped to Israel, and it is possible that others were able to evade capture with him. An article in Time Magazine immediately after the killing put the number at 15.[6]

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The first assassination occurred on October 16, 1972, when Palestinian Abdel Wael Zwaiter was shot 12 times in his apartment building in Rome. Two Israeli agents had been waiting for him to return from dinner, and after the shooting, were spirited away to a safe house. At the time Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad, deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against terrorism.[8]

The second target of the Mossad was Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari, who was the PLO representative in France. Using an agent posing as a journalist, the Mossad lured him from his apartment in Paris to allow a demolition team to enter and install a bomb underneath a desk telephone. On December 8, 1972, the "journalist" called Hamshari, and once it was confirmed that he had picked up the phone, a detonation signal was sent through the telephone to detonate the bomb. Hamshari was not immediately killed by the blast, but died from the injuries he sustained within a month. Israel chose him as a target because it was believed that he was the leader of Black September in France.[9]

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The Mossad began its surveillance of Salameh's movements in Beirut during late fall of 1978. A Mossad agent calling herself Erika Mary Chambers and traveling under a 1975 British passport entered Lebanon and rented an apartment on the Rue Verdun, a street Salameh frequently used. Several other officers arrived under pseudonyms, including Peter Scriver and Roland Kolberg, traveling with British and Canadian passports respectively. After their arrival a Volkswagen was packed with plastic explosives and parked along Rue Verdun within view of Chamber's apartment. At 3:35 pm on January 22, 1979, Salameh drove down the street in a Chevrolet station wagon with four body guards. The Volkswagen was detonated from the apartment with a radio device, and finally, after 5 previously failed attempts,[16] Salameh was killed by the Mossad along with everyone else in the car. Four innocent bystanders were also killed in the explosion, including an English student and German nun. In addition, 18 others in the vicinity received injuries. Immediately after the operation the three identified Mossad officers vanished, as well as up to 14 other agents believed to have been involved.[17]

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zappaisgod said:
I have no problem with assassinating with extreme prejudice these scumbags. I note that you have made no assertion that the wrong people were targeted. Perhaps every battlefield enemy should be given a trial. No, I don't think so. I suppose you take issue with the JOOOOOOOOs bombing Saddam's nuke plant, too.

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Find a nice Jew hating rock. Embrace that Jew hating rock. Crawl under that Jew hating rock. Stay there until you are called to come back out from under it. Hopefully never. Most extreme Jooooooo hater since, well, never. Even Ziddy had enough integrity to realize there were no rules in total wars of annihilation

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One has to abide by the convention in order to be protected. I have a friend that used to be a sniper in the USMC. There were times that he was ordered to violate the Geneva convention. He was told that if he got caught by the enemy, that he would not be protected by the convention because he was not following it himself.

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Scenario 1 - Jewish guys, using fake ID's and passports, steal a car, pull up to a hotel, go inside and machinegun the people inside. Earlier that month they put a LARGE truck bomb outside on a public street and had a FO set it off when a non-uniformed person drove by, killing a bunch of innocents. Thats "Retribution" and Spielberg (why does this not surprise us) and the rest of the world tell us how great that group is, how they are protecting the best place in the world, Democratic Lil Ally, Israel.

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Interesting scenarios. Too bad they're fictive.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wrath_of_God />

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GabbaDj said:
He said that it was his curse because once he signed up for specialized training they began to feed him all that bull shit. He said that part of his training was to shoot through children if the target were using them as shields and all sorts of other crap like they wouldnt even be told the name of the target or why they had to kill them.

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Do me a favor and voluntarily remove yourself from PA&L for 24 hours anyway, ok?

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You are the greatest, Phred. I swear to God.

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Well, you do have to shoot through things to get to the bad guys. If they didn't, heh, all the badguys would bring some kids to the war and win. ALso, it's not "crap" that you aren't told the name or why you have to kill them, the Army isn't a democratic party where everyone gets to have their thoughts heard over warm tea and crumpets, just before the group hug.

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Believe me, this guy has horror stories.  He shot up people like a good little soldier whenever told too.  Only to find out later that often times intelligence had everything wrong.  He did kill one child, not because he was being used as a shield but because more intelligence could be gained somehow from this childs death

Our military is fucked up.  It often runs its self from within its self and with little consequence.  We might as well send all the rednecks from Tennessee around the world with guns and let them try to figure out how to make the world a more peaceful place.

Wait.  Thats what were doing now.