Israel Says Army Ready to Invade Gaza, Kill All the Scuzzy Muzzies

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/israel_palestinians/2007/12/05/54632.html

Israel Says Army Ready for Gaza Invasion

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

JERUSALEM -- Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the

Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action, the

military chief said Wednesday, shortly after two Palestinian militants were

killed by Israeli tank fire in the coastal area.

Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said that until he receives the go-ahead for a broad

operation, Israel will continue with its policy of airstrikes and brief

ground incursions to halt Palestinian rocket attacks.

"If it is necessary, we are prepared for the possibility of action,"

Ashkenazi told Army Radio. "Until then I think it is our duty to exhaust all

other avenues and to operate every day and night in order to provide

security."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has repeatedly said that the time for a

widespread ground invasion of Gaza is drawing closer. But as recently as

Tuesday, he said it was not yet necessary to launch a broad operation, which

would likely result in heavy casualties to Israeli soldiers and Palestinian

civilians in Gaza's crowded urban landscape.

On Wednesday, Israeli tanks fired shells toward a group of Hamas militants

on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip after

dawn, Palestinian doctors and residents said. Two of the Palestinians were

killed and four wounded, one critically, the doctors said.

The army confirmed the strike, saying the militants were preparing to fire

mortar shells toward southern Israel.

The attack brings to about 30 the number of militants that Israel has killed

in the past 10 days.

Despite frequent cross-border attacks and air strikes on Gaza militants, the

Israeli army has been unable to stop the rocket fire from the

Hamas-controlled territory.

This year, Gazan militants have fired 2,000 rockets and mortars, the army

said. The rockets have killed a total of 12 people in recent years and cause

widespread panic in southern Israeli border towns.

Israel blames Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, for

allowing the attacks, even though the group has not been directly involved

in most of the rocket launchings.

In addition to military action, Israel has sealed Gaza's borders since Hamas

took control of the territory last June, allowing only food and humanitarian

supplies into the area. Israel considers Hamas, which has killed more than

200 Israelis in suicide bombings, a terrorist group and refuses to have

contact with it.

Following Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fired

the Islamic group from the government and installed a rival Western-backed

administration in the West Bank. Israel formally launched peace talks with

Abbas at a summit in the U.S. last week.

The White House announced Tuesday that President Bush will visit the Middle

East in early January as he presses the Israelis and Palestinians to push

forward with talks meant to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian

state. Israeli media reported that the visit would include a stop in Israel.

U.S. diplomats could not confirm or deny the reports.

In a move that could hamper the U.S. peace push, Israel on Tuesday announced

plans to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem

neighborhood. Palestinians warned that the move will undermine the newly

revived peace talks.

The new housing would expand Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of about 4,000

residents in an area Palestinians claim as capital of a future state.

Palestinian officials appealed to the U.S. to block the project.

The announcement focused attention on one of the most difficult issues

facing Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in peace talks that are supposed

to resume this month _ the future of Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has indicated willingness to withdraw

from some Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after

the 1967 Mideast war. But in principle, he backs the long-standing Israeli

policy that the whole city is the capital of Israel.

Palestinians object to Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, pointing to

the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, which is the basis of

renewed negotiations agreed on at the Mideast summit.

According to the plan, Israel is supposed to cease all settlement

construction. Israel does not consider construction in east Jerusalem to be

settlement activity.