[Propaganda Bonanza] Israel Insists On Killings, Hamas Ends 16-Month Truce

2006-06-10

[IMRA: To their credit, the Palestinians are playing this by the book: milking the incident for everything that it is worth while, at the same time, refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the incident - which could very well end up finding that Palestinian hands were behind the explosion. The question now is if the Olmert team, facing a scenario that anyone familiar with the area would give a 99.99% chance of taking place, went to the trouble to think through, in advance, how Israel could best handle such a challenge.]

US The Only Member Of "Quartet" To Refrain From Condemnation

Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official PA website]

www.palestine-pmc.com/ details.asp?cat=1&id=1154

The United States refrained from denouncing Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians on Friday, which President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned as "bloody genocide" and "war crimes" that claimed 15 Gazan lives, mostly children, hours after the Israeli "defense" minister, Amir Peretz, ordered his occupation army to step up extra-judicial execution of Palestinians, leading Hamas to end a 16-month unilateral truce.

Fifteen Palestinians, including 13 civilians and two anti-Israeli occupation activists, were killed and more than 50 others wounded, many of them critically and mostly children and women who were on picnic on a northern Gaza Strip beach.

This was the highest Palestinian death toll in a single day since December 2004, Palestinian officials said.

President Abbas ordered on Friday evening a three-day official mourning, with Palestinian flags at half-mast in the West Bank and Gaza.

He condemned the Israeli "bloody genocide" and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned the Israeli indiscriminate shelling as "war crimes."

The Israeli "Defense" Minister Amir Peretz on Thursday ordered the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to step up extra-judicial execution of Palestinians, allegedly to stop rocket attacks, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Target "anyone" behind the attacks, including Hamas officials, Peretz said, adding: "No terrorist from any of the organizations will be immune if they engage in anti-Israel terror activity."

"Qassam cells are the main reason for the escalation and the firing of artillery cells into Gaza. Israel has no intention of fighting the Palestinian people but of fighting terror and it will continue to do just that," Amir Peretz said.

The IOF held the PNA responsible.

"The Palestinian Authority is fully responsible for any attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip,'' the IOF said in an e- mailed statement Friday. "Unfortunately, it continues to take no action in order to prevent the daily attacks against Israeli civilians."

The military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" announced overnight Saturday firing home-made rockets at Israeli targets, ending for the first time a 16-month unilateral truce with the IOF.

Statements by the ruling Hamas political leaders confirmed that the truce was over.

"The earthquake in the Zionist towns will start again and the aggressors will have no choice but to prepare their coffins or their luggage," the Hamas military wing said in a leaflet. "The resistance groups ... will choose the proper place and time for the tough, strong and unique response."

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the attack showed that, "the Zionist occupation ... does not distinguish between civilian children and freedom fighters."

Abbas Phones Rice

President Abbas made a phone call to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice early Saturday after urging the world community and the Quartet of Middle East diplomatic mediators, comprising the US, the UN, the EU and Russia, to intervene and stop the Israeli atrocities.

The secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has called for a full investigation of the killing of seven Palestinians by Israeli artillery in Gaza, his spokesman said.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Friday: "The secretary general is deeply disturbed at the killing of civilians, including women and children, on a beach in Gaza earlier today."

France and Russia denounced the Israeli "excessive" and "disproportionate" use of force as "unacceptable."

However the fourth member of the Quartet refrained from denouncing, said Israel has a right to defend itself and weighed in on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to prevent "all acts of terrorism."

"We call on the Palestinian Authority to prevent all acts of terrorism including the firing of missiles and rockets from Gaza," White House spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement on Friday night.

He called for both sides to show restraint and avoid actions that could increase tensions.

Both Egypt and Jordan, which have peace treaties with Israel, condemned the Israeli attacks, Jordan as "escalation" and "crimes" and Egypt as an excessive use of force by Israel in densely populated areas that was against international law.

Witnesses said that seven of the 12 civilians killed at the seaside were from the same family, including children.

The Israeli barrage destroyed a tent and scattered body parts along the beach. A panicked crowd screamed and ran around in confusion as paramedics carried the bodies away.

One tearful man held the limp body of what appeared to be a girl or young woman. "Muslims, look at this," he cried.

Palestinian officials said that the hardest hit was the Ghalia family, which lost six members, among them the father, one of his two wives, an infant boy and an 18-month-old girl.

"This was his first day at the beach this summer. He was taking his kids to play. It's destiny," said Nasreen Ghalia, a sister-in-law of the dead father. She said one of the survivors was a 7-year-old girl, Hadeel, who had not been told she had lost her parents and siblings.

"Hadeel is now an orphan," she said.

Palestinian health minister, Bassem Naim, confirmed that a woman and two young children, six months old and 18 months old, were among the dead.

Israeli forces on Friday attacked the northern Gaza Strip with a series of air strikes, artillery and navy fire.

Conflicting Israeli Reports

Israeli initial official statements were conflicting.

An initial investigation ruled out earlier reports that the shells were fired from a navy ship and raised suspicions that the fire came from artillery batteries positioned near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza to target Qassam launch pads, Ynet said.

The IOF launched an investigation on Friday to determine the circumstances, which led to the death of 12 innocent Palestinians.

Gaza Division Commander Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi is heading the IOF investigation.

Earlier the IOF fired drones at two vehicles near the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, killing three Palestinian civilians and wounding five.

On Thursday the IOF extra-judicially killed in an F-16 air strike the leader of the Palestinian Interior Ministry's "Executive Force," Jamal Abu Samhadaneh, and three of his assistants at a training camp outside the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

He was also the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).

Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured onto the streets of Gaza to mourn the death of Abu Samhadana, the most prominent leader to be killed in Gaza since April 2004, when Israel assassinated top Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in a missile strike.

Abu Samhadana had been on Israel's most wanted list since the first Palestinian "Intifada" (uprising) in the late eighties of the last century.

Hamas spokesman and lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said that: "All options are open for the resistance groups to deliver a message to the enemy that must equal the magnitude of Abu Samhadana's loss."

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis