Israel unleashes new war upon Gaza ghetto

[joeblow]

Israel unleashes new war upon Gaza ghetto

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Wed, 20 May 2009 03:24:47 GMT



As Gazan survivors of the latest Israeli onslaught piece together what is left of their lives, Israeli warplanes return to the skies of the territory to unleash fresh air strikes.

In the most intensive attacks in recent weeks, Israeli jets carried out at least four bombing runs on the Gaza-Egypt border on Tuesday night, medics and witnesses said.

The planes also hit a metal workshop and a police post in Gaza City and another workshop in central Gaza. The buildings were severely damaged but no injuries have been reported as of yet.

Another raid targeted a Gaza government outpost near a border fence with Israel, marking the first attack on a government position since the January 18 ceasefire ended three weeks of Israeli aggression against the territory.

Witnesses said that one of the missiles fired by the Israeli air squadron struck a moving car in Yafa Street in northern Gaza City.

Medical teams arrived at the scene and carried one casualty to Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military has declined to comment on the matter.

The nearly seven bombing missions carried out in the impoverished ghetto on Tuesday injured at least 5 Palestinians and damaged several houses. The full extent of the damage, however, is yet unknown.

The new attacks come as the United Nations has demanded that Tel Aviv end its sixty years of US-advocated oppression against the Palestinians and allow the creation of a viable Palestinian state.

The Israeli government claims that the bombings were in response to alleged Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip several hours before the attacks.

Resistance fighters in Gaza have been using rocket fire as a retaliatory measure against Tel Aviv for its hostilities against the Palestinian nation -- which is native to the land.

The Gaza Strip has been under a blockade from land, sea and air by Israel and Egypt for nearly two years. Critics have described the territory as the word's largest open-air prison camp in which nearly 1.5 million people struggle to survive on a daily basis.

The last carnage wrought on the strip in January and December killed around 1,350 Palestinians and injured nearly 5,450 people -- mostly civilians.

In addition to the lost lives, the onslaught cost the Palestinian economy at least $1.6 billion, destroying some 4,000 residential buildings and damaging 16,000 other houses.

Israel is also under pressure for its use of the flesh-eating white phosphorous weapons against civilians and UN positions in densely populated areas of Gaza during the war.

Hamas security forces on Tuesday began carrying out maneuvers for what they predicted to be a new war on the territory. Speculation that military operations against Gaza would take a new face emerged when hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gained control over Tel Aviv affairs.

While Netanyahu sat down with President Barack Obama on Monday for the first time since taking office to settle the differences between the two administrations, the American leader voiced opposition to the Israeli policies against Palestinians.

The new government in Tel Aviv has nevertheless sparked controversy with its contentions that the administration of US President Barack Obama would under-no-circumstance show opposition to Israeli policies.

"Believe me, America accepts all our decisions," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a centerpiece in the controversy, said in April in his first interview on foreign policy.

FTP/ZAP/AA
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