Israel says it has sent ground troops to Gaza

[Bob Of Burleson]

By KARIN LAUB and ARON HELLER

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces on Thursday launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, the military said.

The operation came after 10 days of intense fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas, in which Israel hit more than 2,000 targets in Gaza and Hamas launched nearly 1,500 rockets at Israel.

The army said the offensive is meant to strike a "significant blow to Hamas' terror infrastructure."

It did not say how many troops were involved or provide other details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he instructed the army to go ahead after Hamas rejected an Egyptian cease-fire plan earlier in the week and after Hamas militants tried to infiltrate into Israel through a tunnel from Gaza earlier Thursday.

"In light of the despicable and relentless aggression by Hamas and the dangerous infiltration into Israel, Israel is obliged to protect its citizens," the statement said.

[Bob Of Burleson]

The Israeli view

Analysis:
From a distance,
Mashaal vetoes Gaza
cease-fire proposal

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
The Jerusalem Post

Hamas’s political bureau chief, Khaled Mashaal, has ordered his organization in Gaza to reject Israel’s truce offer, according to the latest evaluations in the Israeli defense establishment.

Mashaal, who is comfortably based in Qatar, far from the fighting, as well as two Hamas leaders in Gaza – Muhammad Deif, head of Izzadin Kassam, Hamas’s military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, who heads Hamas’s political wing – are the triangle of decision-makers who plot the organization’s next moves.

According to assessments in Israel, Mashaal was the voice that ensured that Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israeli cities.

This despite the fact that Hamas has lost some 100 members, including senior field commanders, and that its rocket- firing capabilities have sustained a serious blow in nine days of Israel Air Force strikes, each based on quality intelligence data.

Hamas lost many of its rocket-production facilities, more than a third of its rocket arsenal, and a series of command and control bases hidden in the homes of its battalion and brigade commanders.

Yet the organization is keen on proving to Israel that it has retained its offensive capabilities and has not lost its will to use them to terrorize Israeli civilians. It has rejected the terms offered to it by Egypt, which, in Hamas’s view, failed to address its financial concerns (which go to the heart of Hamas’s ability to maintain power) and its need to pay its members in Gaza $20 million a month.

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[GFB]

Pull the troops..send in the nukes.

[BigTex]

I hear it's nice in Martha's Vineyard this time of year.

[grace]

I hear it's nice in Martha's Vineyard this time of year.

yes, wish we could all go there...

[planosteve]

The airliner shootdown was timed to cover up Bibi's war crimes in Gaza.