Israeli ground troops clashed Sunday morning with Palestinian defence units in the Gaza Strip, and reportedly bisected the coastal area. Early Sunday, thirty Israel Defence Forces soldiers were wounded and five killed, in clashes with the defenders of Gaza.

Palestinian medics reported that shells fired by IDF troops exploded in the center of Gaza City's main shopping area, leaving five civilians dead and dozens wounded. Doctors and hospital officials also said that 23 Palestinians civilians have been killed in Israel's ground offensive since midnight.

Israel began its ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night following a week of murderous aerial attacks on the civilian population.

Rahm Emanuel has rushed to Israel to help kill some more civilians

Israeli terrorism didn't end with the death of war criminal and master terrorist Ariel Sharone. If anything Israeli terrorism has gotten worse.

I think the Israeli's are pretty far ahead on the scoreboard int erms of how many koranimals they've sent to Hell.

I do, however, wish the number of dead paleostinians was exponentially higher.

To see background information about the current situation in Gaza, see:

http://www.standwithus.org/ONLINE_BOOKLETS/?BID=12

Important Points:

1- Hamas has been attacking Israeli civilians over the last 8 years, since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000.

2- Despite this, Israel COMPLETELY withdrew from Gaza in 2005 to make peace with the Palestinians. This was an impossibly hard thing to do, as the flourishing communities that resided in Gaza were uprooted by their own soldiers. The communities of Gaza left their infrastructure perfectly in tact for the Palestinians to use and rebuild their lives. Then, the Palestinians came in and destroyed the greenhouses and buildings left alone for their benefit. This contributed much to the poverty they now suffer from.

3- The West Bank, ruled by Fatah, has acknowledged Israel's right to exist and opened up trade with it, and it now enjoys a flourishing economy. Israel still sends humanitarian aide into Gaza despite the constant rocket attacks Israel has suffered.

4- On every single day since the beginning of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas established on June 19, 2008, Hamas has sent Qassam rockets into homes, schools, synagogues - basically areas populated by civilians - in southern Israel. Deliberate violence against a civilian population is known as TERRORISM.

5- Israel is a DEMOCRACY, and as such, it has the right and the duty to defend its citizens as best as it possibly can.

6- Israel sent a plane over Gaza and rained down leaflets on the towns, and the Israeli government made thousands of telephone calls to the people in Gaza before the airstrikes began. The leaflets and telephone calls told the Palestinians that Israel would be bombing places where Hamas operatives lived and stored their weapons. The Israeli government gave up the element of SURPRISE (which, had their aim in the Gaza airstrikes been to kill as many people as possible, would have been counter-productive to ruin the surprise) in order to warn the civilians in Gaza to run.

7- Israel is targeting Hamas hideouts, operatives' homes, and weapon storage houses. All of these targets are THREATS to the security of Israeli civilians.

8- Hamas has admitted that it uses civilian shields, meaning that it cares about Palestinian lives even less than Israel does.

9- Hamas indoctrinates Palestinian children to hate Israel and become martyrs. It creates a hateful, dangerous society that leads to the death of Palestinians and Israelis.

10- Israel's goal in the Gaza airstrikes is to eradicate the terrorist group known as Hamas so that it can secure a peaceful future for both Israeli children and Palestinian children alike.

Useful Links:

Indoctrination of Palestinian Children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNS8QAIw43s

Palestinian Mickey Mouse Teaches Islamic Supremacy and Death to Israel and America:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY0zE64thJ4

Hamas Uses Civilian Shields:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTu-AUE9ycs





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It should also be noted by this author that:

A- Israel has attempted to achieve peace through diplomacy for more than a decade (Oslo Peace Accords, Camp David Accords, Withdrawal from Gaza 2005 . . .)

B- The loss of all human life is a tragedy. Israel mourns for each and every casualty on either side, and yet it cannot be expected to sit idly by while its people are being attacked by a terrorist organization.

It has a right to defend itself, and its efforts to help the Palestinian people such as warning them of incoming attacks and sending aide to them demonstrates its regard for human life.

C- Hamas is as much of a threat to Palestinian lives as it is to Israeli lives. With its indoctrination of children and use of civilian shields, it causes the deaths of so many of its own people. Even Mahmoud Abbas said that Hamas hit the dog with a stick to many times, and the deaths that would occur when Israel would bite back out of self-defense would be on Hamas's shoulders.

D- Many of the people killed in the Gaza airstrikes thus far have been Hamas operatives. Israel must do what it needs to defend itself and it cannot be blamed if Islamic fundementalists (whether they be adults or children) choose to shield Hamas with their own lives. Israel put out a warning in Gaza to publicize that those who did not leave were at risk. Israel did all it could to minimize civilian casualties while Hamas does all it can to maximize not only Israel's civilian casualties, but Palestinian civilian casualties (again, human shields).

Again, the purpose of the Gaza airstrikes and ground war are to eliminate Hamas so that there is hope for a better future in which Israelis and Palestinians can coexist peacefully.