HAMAS claims it hit IAF base 27km from Tel Aviv

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

Hamas claims it hit an Israel Air Force base 27km from Tel Aviv Hamas claimed on Friday that rockets it fired from the Gaza Strip struck the Israel Air Force base in Tel Nof.

Hamas' military wing published comments on its Web site and aired statements on its Al-Aqsa television station saying they succeeded in striking their furthest target yet - the base of Tel Nof. Tel Nof is located 27 kilometers from Tel Aviv, between Rehovot and Gdera, and serves as a squadron base for fighter jets and helicopters.

The Hamas report did not elaborate on the alleged attack

ISRAEL rejects UN truce resolution, continues GAZA operation

By Barak Ravid, Shlomo Shamir and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies

The diplomatic-security cabinet on Friday rejected a United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution and ordered the Israel Defense Forces to continue its current ground operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. In a communique released immediately after the cabinet session on Friday, the government stated it would not accept the UN resolution, declaring that "the IDF will continue to act in order to attain the objectives of the operation - to bring about a change in the security situation in the south of the country - this in accordance with the plans that have been approved upon embarking on the operation." "Efforts to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip will continue," the cabinet statement added.

As such, the cabinet also said Israel would continue to provide humanitarian relief to the local population in Gaza. The army will maintain its policy of declaring a temporary cease-fire so as to allow the supply of food and medicine to reach Gazans in need, the cabinet said.

The cabinet heard reports detailing the military advancement into Gaza as well as the latest on cease-fire talks with Egyptian officials. Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's diplomatic-security division, met with his Egyptian counterparts on Thursday.

The government said it would not accept any cease-fire and that the IDF would not withdraw from Gaza until the establishment of a mechanism that would ensure a halt to weapons-smuggling from Egypt into the Hamas-ruled territory.

The cabinet stated that the IDF operation would continue given that Hamas rocket fire has not ceased during the cease-fire deliberations at the Security Council. "Israel has a complete right of self-defense," the communique read.

Earlier Friday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as "unworkable" and, noting Palestinians fired rockets at Israel on Friday, said the army would go on defending Israelis.

In Israel's first official response to the resolution, Olmert's office said Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."

The military "will continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given," the statement read.

"The firing of rockets this morning only goes to show that the UN decision is unworkable and will not be adhered to by the murderous Palestinian organizations," he said in a statement.

Hours after the Security Council passed Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Israel's offensive in Gaza, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Friday that Israel would continue to act only in its interests and according to its own security needs.

"Israel has acted, is acting and will act only according to its considerations, the security needs of its citizens and its right to self-defense," a statement said. It made no direct reference to how Israel would treat the call for a ceasefire.

Livni, along with Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, convened in session on Friday to discusss the Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cessation of violence and their next moves in the conflict.

The UN resolution, drafted by Western powers, "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."

It also called for arrangements in Gaza to prevent arms smuggling to Palestinian militants and reopen border crossings, and for "unimpeded provision" and distribution of aid in Gaza, where more than 750 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed.

The resolution was passed by a majority vote of 14-0. The United States abstained, saying it was interested in looking at alternative drafts, but voiced support for the objectives of the resolution.

AIPAC slams UN truce resolution

AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr on Friday denounced the UN resolution, saying that, in passing it "the UN Security Council has, once again, shamelessly proven its genuine inability to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an unbiased manner."

"The Council has refused to acknowledge Israel's right to self-defense against an enemy, Hamas, which openly declares its goal as the complete destruction of the State of Israel - a member state of the world body," Kohr said.

America's pro-Israel lobby also expressed its disappointment with the U.S. administration "for succumbing to pressure exerted by Arab states and agreeing to bring this vote to the UN Security Council - a message contrary to the steadfast and overwhelming support expressed this week by the United States Congress and dozens of elected officials from across the country".

Rockets from Lebanon hit Israel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – At least three rockets fired from Lebanon exploded in northern Israel on Thursday, wounding two people, police and medics said, in an attack seen as linked to Israel's offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

Israel hit back with artillery shells in what an Israeli military spokesman described as "a pinpoint response at the source of fire."

It was not immediately clear whether Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas -- against whom Israel fought a 2006 war -- or Palestinians fired the rockets, presenting a new challenge to Israeli leaders who have waged attacks on Gaza for 13 days.

Lebanese security sources said they felt it was unlikely Hezbollah fired the salvoes. Hamas sources in Lebanon denied involvement.

Israeli forces have been on high alert in the north fearing that Hezbollah could fire rockets into northern Israel as it did in the 2006 conflict and lend support to Hamas and the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million inhabitants.

Israeli warplanes bombed targets across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and tanks advanced in the Hamas-ruled territory as U.S. backing for a truce proposal raised expectations of an end to the onslaught that has killed more than 600 Palestinians.

Shi'ite Hezbollah has not opened fire since Israel started bombarding the Gaza enclave nearly two weeks ago to the south of Israel with the declared aim of halting Hamas rocket attacks.
Palestinian groups in Lebanon have also been known to fire rockets and Israeli military affairs commentators said it was more likely they were responsible for the rockets that hit the Israeli resort town of Nahariya and three other locations.

One rocket punched a hole in the roof of a building in Nahariya that Israeli media said was a home for the elderly and was being evacuated.

"I have decided on two steps -- to send schoolchildren home and that people should remain in shelters," Nahariya Mayor Jackie Sabag said on Israel's Channel Two television.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two people in northern Israel were slightly wounded and several were treated for shock after what police said were at least three rocket strikes.

In June 2007, Palestinians in Lebanon fired two rockets that landed near the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

HEAVY BOMBARDMENT
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man who tried to set fire to a gas station at a Jewish settlement, an Israeli rescue service said. Police confirmed the shooting but not the man's condition.

Residents in Gaza described the overnight bombardment to the east of the city as among the heaviest in the offensive. In the south of the territory tanks advanced closer to the town of Khan Younis, witnesses said.

Although Israel pressed on with the offensive, it said it accepted the "principles" of a European-Egyptian ceasefire proposal. The United States urged Israel to study the plan.

Israel's assault resumed after a brief pause on Wednesday to help Gaza's inhabitants stock up on much-needed supplies.

Twenty Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, medics said, including three children in an air strike on a car. It took the total of Palestinian deaths since December 27 to at least 658 -- the bloodiest episode in decades of Israel-Palestinian conflict.

U.N. officials have said a quarter of the Palestinian dead were civilians, while other accounts put that proportion higher.

Ten Israelis have died in the past 13 days, seven of them soldiers, including four killed by "friendly" fire.

With both George W. Bush's outgoing administration and President-elect Barack Obama speaking out on the need for peace, officials said Israel would send an envoy to Cairo to discuss how the Egyptian plan might be implemented.

That may take several days. In the meantime, Israeli military commanders appear determined to keep up the pressure on the ground, even if a decision on whether to launch a new phase by targeting militants in Gaza's urban centres was put off.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed Israel's concerns that a deal must achieve its goal of stopping the Hamas Islamists who rule Gaza from hitting Israel with rockets.

"It has to be a ceasefire that will not allow a return to the status quo," she said.
Hamas said it was looking at the Egyptian plan, brokered by France, which addresses Israel's demand that the militant group be prevented from rearming through smuggling tunnels from Egypt. The proposal also addresses Hamas's call for an end to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Tuesday's killing by Israeli shells of 42 people, including women and children sheltering in a U.N.-run school in Jabalya refugee camp, intensified international pressure on Israel to call a halt. U.N. officials denied an Israeli army account that militants had been firing from the school.
Israel has said it will press on until Hamas can no longer hit its southern towns with rockets.
Israeli leaders face a parliamentary election in a month and will want to show the public that they have met that objective.

However, U.S. involvement of the kind that helped end the Lebanon war and which was perceived as absent in the first week of the Gaza fighting may indicate that, whatever the state of combat on the ground, a ceasefire could be on the cards.

Some Israeli analysts say Israel faces a deadline to wrap up its campaign by the time Obama is sworn in, or risk a strain in ties with Washington at the outset of the new administration.
European governments have proposed backing the Egyptian ceasefire proposal with an EU force along the Gaza-Egypt border that would prevent Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, from rearming through its many tunnels.

Hamas called off a six-month ceasefire late last month, accusing Israel of breaking an agreement to ease supplies.

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Israeli troops deepen push into Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces pressed closer and into cities in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday despite new international calls for a ceasefire in an 11-day-old conflict in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces moved into Khan Younis in southern Gaza as the army widened the ground assault it launched four days ago against Hamas militants after a week of air strikes failed to stamp out cross-border rocket fire.

There was intense fighting overnight on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, where residents huddled indoors in fear. Deaths recorded by Palestinian medics reached 564.

Most of several dozen deaths reported by hospitals in recent days have been civilians, apparently because dead militants remain on the battlefield. The Israeli military said it had killed 130 militants since Saturday -- an indication that the total Palestinian death toll since December 27 may be close to 700.

Israel's military said three soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded on Monday when an Israeli tank fired at a building in northern Gaza that they had occupied in fighting against the Islamist Hamas group, which seized control of Gaza in 2007.

The "friendly fire" incident caused the military's highest casualty toll since Israel launched its offensive. Eight Israelis, including four civilians hit in Palestinian rocket attacks, have been killed in the conflict.

Palestinian medics said 18 Palestinian civilians were killed on Tuesday, including 10 people who were hit by naval shells along the beach in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the assault could get harder for troops. Hamas, vowing to fight on in every street and alley, threatened to fire more rockets across into Israel.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace mission to the Middle East, and U.S. President George W. Bush, in his final weeks in the White House, both appealed for a ceasefire.

But disagreement on who should stop shooting first and on what terms made the chances of a quick truce seem remote.

Israel, whose leaders fight a parliamentary poll on February 10, made clear its priority was securing the safety of its citizens. Hamas demanded a lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza. Many of the enclave's 1.5 million people lack food, water or power.

The Jewish state launched the offensive after Hamas called off a six-month truce last month and stepped up cross-border rocket attacks in response to Israeli raids and the blockade.

SUICIDE BOMBERS

Israeli media reported that Hamas gunmen were maneuvering within a well-fortified tunnel system and that Israeli troops had encountered Palestinian suicide bombers.

Militants had been trying to lure Israeli soldiers into built-up areas, witnesses said.

An overnight Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza town of Rafah killed a Palestinian woman, medical officials said.

Barak told Israeli legislators on Monday Hamas had been dealt a heavy blow: "But we cannot say that its fighting capabilities have been harmed ... Difficult moments lie ahead in this operation and the main test could still be ahead," he said.

Hamas leaders, who have support from Iran and Syria but are viewed with suspicion by most Arab states, were defiant.

Thousands of fighters were waiting "in every street, every alley and at every house" to tackle the Israeli forces, Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a broadcast speech.

Hamas would increase its rocket strikes on Israel if the Jewish state kept on attacking Gaza, said Ubaida.
Hamas, which wants to reverse the events of 1948 that created the Jewish state and turned Palestinians into refugees, won a parliamentary election in 2006.

It routed rival forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, taking control of Gaza and creating a schism that has blighted Abbas's bid to found a Palestinian state through U.S.-brokered talks with Israel.

Israel pulled its troops and more than 8,000 settlers out of Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation in a move that many at the time hoped would lead to a breakthrough for relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

Gaza civilians left exposed in Israeli invasion

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – With booms from artillery and airstrikes keeping them awake, the 10 members of Lubna Karam's family spent the night huddled in the hallway of their Gaza City home.

Earlier strikes shattered the living room windows, letting cold air pour in. The Karams haven't had electricity for a week and have run out of cooking gas. The family, including three small children younger than four, eats cold, canned beans.

"It's war food," said Karam, 28. "What else can we do?"

As Israel's offensive against Hamas moves from pinpointed airstrikes to ground fighting and artillery shelling, Gaza's civilians are increasingly exposed. Some two dozen civilians were killed within hours after the start of Israel's ground invasion Saturday night.

Israel says eight days of aerial bombardment, followed by the ground invasion, seek to undermine Hamas' ability to fire rockets at the Jewish state. So far, more than 500 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed. Palestinian and U.N. officials say at least 100 Palestinian civilians are among the dead.

The ground offensives will put Israeli solders, Gaza militants and civilians in much closer quarters.

The guiding principle of Israel's ground invasion is to move in with full force and try to minimize Israeli casualties, Israeli military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronoth. "We'll pay the international price later for the collateral damage and the anticipated civilian casualties," Fishman said.

While Israeli said its airstrikes have targeted only Hamas installations and leaders, some of the bombs were so powerful that they destroyed or damaged adjacent houses.

Karam said she always felt under threat. She said her family didn't sleep. "We keep hearing the sounds of airplanes and we don't know if we'll live until tomorrow, or not," she said.

Anas Mansour, 21, a resident of the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, said he and his family may try to leave the area later Sunday. Mansour said he was sleeping in his clothes, with his identification cards in his pocket in case he had to flee quickly.

He said he could see his neighbor loading a donkey cart with mattresses and blankets to leave, but hadn't yet decided if he'd do the same. "Where can we go? It's all the same," Mansour said.
Deprivation is nothing new in Gaza, but the Israeli-led blockade of the territory has grown increasingly tighter over the past two months, making cooking gas and many foods scare.

Adding to that, last week's bombings damaged the strip's sanitary and electrical infrastructure, leaving many residents without power and water, and most shops are now shuttered.

"When there was a siege, we kept taking about a catastrophe," said Hatem Shurrab, 24, of Gaza City. "But then the airstrikes started, and now we don't even know what word to use. There's no word in the dictionary that can describe the situation we are in."
___
Hubbard reported from Ramallah.

Israeli ground troops invade Gaza to halt rockets

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Thousands of Israeli troops backed by columns of tanks and helicopter gunships launched a ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday night, with officials saying they expected a lengthy fight in the densely populated territory after eight days of punishing airstrikes failed to halt militant rocket attacks on Israel.

The incursion set off fierce clashes with Palestinian militants and Gaza's Hamas rulers vowed the coastal strip would be a "graveyard" for Israelis forces.

"This will not be easy and it will not be short," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on national television about two hours after ground troops moved in.

Army ambulances were seen bringing Israeli wounded to a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The military said a total of 30 soldiers were injured in the opening hours of the offensive along with "dozens" of militants.

The night sky over Gaza was lit by the flash of bullets and balls of fire from tank shells. Sounds of explosions were heard across Gaza City, the territory's biggest city, and high-rise buildings shook from the bigger booms.

Troops with camouflage face paint marching single file. As the ground troops moved in, Israel kept pounding Gaza with airstrikes. F-16 warplanes hit three targets within a few minutes, including a main Hamas security compound.

Gaza residents said troops were seen before dawn Sunday in the town of Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, and the sound of intense fighting could be heard just east of the city, toward the border with Israel.

In the city itself, the Hamas-run Al Aqsa radio station was in flames from a missile strike. Staff had evacuated the building about a week earlier, at the start of the Israeli offensive, and continued broadcasting from another location.

"We have many, many targets," Israeli army spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN. "To my estimation, it will be a lengthy operation."

Israeli leaders said the operation, known as Cast Lead, was meant to quell militant rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel. They said it would not end quickly but that the objective was not to reoccupy Gaza or topple Hamas. The depth and intensity will depend in part on parallel diplomatic efforts that so far haven't yielded a truce proposal acceptable to Israel, the officials said.

In the airborne phase of Israel's onslaught, militants were not deterred from bombarding southern Israel with more than 400 rockets — including dozens that extended deeper into Israel than ever before. They fired six rockets into Israel in the first few hours after the ground push began, the military said.

One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the southern city of Ashkelon earlier Saturday and another struck a bomb shelter there, leaving its above-ground entrance scarred by shrapnel and blasting a parked bus.

"I don't want to disillusion anybody and residents of the south will go through difficult days," Barak said. "We do not seek war but we will not abandon our citizens to the ongoing Hamas attacks."

Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists and the country's north was on high alert in the event Palestinian militants in the West Bank or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon decide to exploit the broad offensive in Gaza to launch attacks against Israel on other fronts. Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said U.S. officials have been in regular contact with the Israelis as well as officials from countries in the region and Europe.

"We continue to make clear to them our concerns for civilians, as well as the humanitarian situation," Johndroe said.

The U.N. Security Council held emergency consultations on the escalation in Gaza. But late Saturday, the United States blocked approval of a council statement demanded by Arab nations that calls for an immediate cease-fire.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call to end the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council."

Israel's bruising air campaign against Gaza over the past eight days began days after a six-month truce expired. Gaza health officials say the air war has killed more than 480 Palestinians in an attempt to halt Hamas rocket attacks that were reaching farther into Israel than ever before. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets.

Israel is taking a risk by wading into intense urban warfare in densely populated Gaza that could exact a much higher toll on both sides and among civilians.

This sort of urban warfare has not gone well in past campaigns where Israel sent ground forces into Arab population centers in the Palestinian territories or in Lebanon wars in 1982 and 2006. Israeli forces have either gotten bogged down or sustained heavy casualties, without quelling violent groups or halting attacks for good.

The decision to expand the operation, while continuing to batter Gaza from the air and sea, was taken after Hamas refused to stop attacking Israel, government officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions leading up to wartime decisions are confidential.

Before the ground incursion began, heavy Israeli artillery fire hit east of Gaza City, in locations where the military said Hamas fighters were deployed. The artillery shells were apparently intended to detonate Hamas explosive devices and mines planted along the border area before troops marched in.

Hamas has long prepared for Israel's invasion, digging tunnels and rigging some areas with explosives. The group remained defiant as the ground war began.

"You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV, broadcast shortly after the start of the invasion. "Your entry to Gaza won't be easy. Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing," he said.

"Gaza will not be paved with flowers for you. It will be paved with fire and hell," Hamas warned Israeli forces.

A text message sent by Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, said "the Zionists started approaching the trap which our fighters prepared for them." Hamas said it also broadcast a Hebrew message on Israeli military radio frequencies promising to kill and kidnap the Israeli soldiers.

"Be prepared for a unique surprise, you will be either killed or kidnapped and will suffer mental illness from the horrors we will show you," the message said.

Hamas has also threatened to resume suicide attacks inside Israel.

Before the ground invasion, defense officials said about 10,000 Israeli soldiers had massed along the border in recent days.

Israel initially held off on a ground offensive, apparently in part because of concern about casualties among Israeli troops and because of fears of getting bogged down in Gaza.

An inner Cabinet of top ministers met with leading security officials for four hours Saturday before deciding to authorize the ground invasion.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the meeting that Israel's objective was to bring quiet to southern Israel but "we don't want to topple Hamas," a government official quoted the prime minister as saying. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to share the information.

The immediate aim of the ground operations was to take control of sites militants use as rocket-launching pads, the military said. It said large numbers of troops were taking part but did not give specifics.

Israeli airstrikes intensified just as the ground operation was getting under way, and 28 Palestinians were killed. Palestinian health officials said civilians were among the dead, including a woman, her son and her father who died after a shell hit their house.

One raid hit a mosque in Beit Lahiya, killing 13 people and wounding 33, according to a Palestinian health official. It was not immediately clear why the mosque was hit, but Israel has hit other mosques in its air campaign and said they were used for storing weapons.

Israeli artillery joined the battle for the first time earlier on Saturday. Artillery fire is less accurate than attacks from the air using precision-guided munitions, raising the possibility of a higher number of civilian casualties.

An artillery shell hit a house in Beit Lahiya, killing two people and wounding five, said members of the family living there. Ambulances could not immediately reach them because of a resulting fire, they said.

Resident Abed al-Ghoul said the Israeli army called by phone to tell them to leave the house within 15 minutes.

The ground operation sidelined intense international diplomacy to try to reach a truce. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to visit the region next week, and President George W. Bush favors an internationally monitored truce.

Israel has already said it wants international monitors. It is unclear whether Hamas would agree to such supervision, which could limit its control of Gaza.

In Hamas' first reaction to the proposal for international monitors, government spokesman Taher Nunu said early Saturday that the group would not allow Israel or the international community to impose any arrangement, though he left the door open to a negotiated solution.

"Anyone who thinks that the change in the Palestinian arena can be achieved through jet fighters' bombs and tanks and without dialogue is mistaken," he said.

Hamas began to emerge as Gaza's main power broker when it won Palestinian parliamentary elections three years ago. It has ruled the impoverished territory of 1.4 million people since seizing control from the rival Fatah forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.

Israel occupied Gaza for 38 years before pulling out thousands of soldiers in settlers in late 2005. Israel still controls Gaza border crossings.

Mujahidin MILF Sambut "Tahun Baru" Dengan Pertempuran di Provinsi Lanao

Hanin Mazaya - Jum'at 02 Januari 2009

LANAO (Arrahmah.com) – Saat sebagian besar penduduk dunia menyambut tahun baru masehi denga penuh suka cita, dengan warna-warni kembang api dan mercon, Mujahidin MILF melakukan hal yang sangat bertolak belakang. Tepat pukul 12 tengah malam, mereka menyerang angkatan perang Philipina di Provinsi Lanao (Lanao del Sur dan Lanao del Norte) dengan serangan gerilya.

Pada pukul 00.30 tengah malam, mujahidin MILF melakukan gerilya menyerang secara besar-besaran,. Markas Polisi Nasional Philipina (PNP) di Barangay Kawit, Lanao del Norte. Beberapa jam setelahnya, sekitar pukul 5.20 pagi, MILF menyerang tentara Philipina (AFP) di wilayah Barangay Bansayan dan Odalo di Piagapo, Lanao del Sur. Pada pukul 6.40, MILF juga menyerang AFP di wilayah Barangay Talao.

Dilaporkan, 5 PNP dan 9 AFP tewas dalam pertempuran. Seorang mujahidin MILF mengalami luka-luka.Helikopter-helikopter militer saat itu sibuk merayakan Tahun Baru hingga kesulitan mengangkut tentara-tentara yang mengalami kecelakaan ke rumah sakit terdekat.1 Januari membawa keuntungan bagi mujahidin MILF, karena saat itu, tentara Philipina tengah merayakan tahun baru yang umumnya disertai pesta minum-minuman alkohol.

(Hanin Mazaya/arrahmah.com)

Arabs demand UN call for immediate cease-fire

UNITED NATIONS – Arab nations demanded Saturday that the United Nations Security Council call for an immediate cease-fire following Israel's launch of a ground offensive in Gaza, a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Libya circulated a draft statement to council members before emergency council consultations began expressing "serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza" following Israel's ground assault and calling on Israel and Hamas "to stop immediately all military activities."

The 15-member council then met behind closed doors to discuss a proposed presidential statement that would also call for all parties to address the humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza, including by opening border crossings.

Council diplomats said the United States opposed the presidential statement because it was similar to a press statement issued by members after Israeli warplanes launched the offensive a week ago that was not heeded. Presidential statements become part of the council's official record but press statements are weaker and do not.

The five permanent council members — the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China — along with Libya, the only Arab nation on the council, then met privately to discuss possibly issuing another press statement.

"We need to have from the Security Council reaction tonight to bring this latest addition of aggression against our people in Gaza to an immediate halt," Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer told reporters.

The statement, if approved, would become part of the council's official record but would not have the weight of a Security Council resolution, which is legally binding.

Mansour said 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and injured since Israeli warplanes starting bombing Gaza a week ago. More than 480 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and four killed in Israel.

International criticism of the offensive has increased steadily, but Israel maintains the offensive is aimed at stopping the rocket attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza that have traumatized southern Israel.

Before the council met Saturday night, Ban telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and said he was disappointed that Israel launched a ground offensive and "alarmed that this escalation will inevitably increase the already heavy suffering" of Palestinian civilians, the U.N. spokesman's office said in a statement.

"He called for an immediate end to the ground operation, and asked that Israel do all possible to ensure the protection of civilians and that humanitarian assistance is able to reach those in need," the statement said.

Ban reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire and urged regional and international partners "to exert all possible influence to bring about an immediate end to the bloodshed and suffering," the statement said.

The secretary-general said the Israeli ground operation is complicating efforts by the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia — to end the violence.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert echoed Ban.
"We think it's time for both parties to stop fighting and go back to the political track," said Ripert. He said he was speaking as French ambassador not as Security Council president, a job he took over on Jan. 1.

Several Arab foreign ministers are expected at U.N. headquarters on Monday to urge the Security Council to adopt a resolution ending the Israeli offensive. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delayed his arrival until Tuesday so he can meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the West Bank.

Finkelstein: Israel Seeking Arab Obeisance

By Press TVJanuary 02, 2009

"Press TV -- -The following is a full-length exclusive text interview with lecturer, author and renowned Palestine-Israel scholar Gary Norman Finkelstein in New York."

Press TV: Nearly a week of violence in Gaza. What do you make of the situation there?

Finkelstein: It is hard to make any definite judgments about the military situation. The goals of the Israeli government it seems to me are pretty clear. Number one Israel wants to reestablish what it calls its deterrence capacity. That is a technical term that the Israelis use. It basically means to restore the fear of Israel among the Arab states in the region.After the defeat inflicted by Hezbollah and the inability of Israel to launch an attack on Iran it was almost inevitable that they would attack Hamas, because Hamas is defying the Israeli will. According to the Israeli papers, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was planning the attack before the last ceasefire and they were just waiting for a provocation from the Palestinians.On November 4, the Israelis broke the ceasefire with Hamas knowing full well--and if you review the Israeli papers, they say so knowing full well that when they killed six militants in Gaza the Palestinians would retaliate and then Israel would have the pretext to invade. Therefore, the first goal was to restore the fear of Israel among Arabs by inflicting a bloodbath in Gaza.

Press TV: Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that Israel has affected almost what it called the infrastructure of terrorism presumably meaning Hamas. This while apparently heavy civilian casualties have been incurred inside Gaza. How do you see the imbalance in the loss of life in Gaza? How successful do you think that Israel has been in wiping out Hamas or the resistance if you will?

Finkelstein: Well the purpose was to inflict massive casualties immediately. The Israelis, after their attack on Lebanon in 2006, realized that their error was that they did not unleash the full might of their air force in the first few days. In in the first two days of Lebanon war, they killed about 55 Lebanese and then they targeted the Dahia suburb of Beirut. After the war, they began talking about the Dahia strategy which meant to obliterate anything which went against their rule. And what you saw in the first couple of days in Gaza was the application of the Dahia strategy to commit a bloodbath and slaughter of such huge dimensions that they thought it would deter the Arabs in the future from defying Israeli rule.

Press TV: Speaking of deterrence, Hamas said that it would retaliate. How great a response do you think Hamas can give Israel? Could one expect something like the one Israel received from Hezbollah in 2006?

Finkelstein: I think it is impossible to predict those things. But, it is clear that Israel is faced with a dilemma. In the case of Lebanon during the first few days they apparently destroyed (Hezbollah's) long-range and medium-range missiles, but they couldn't destroy the short-range rockets being used against the Israel unless they invaded. They tried to invade, but they couldn't and the rocket attacks continued. And now they have the same problem in Gaza.In order to end the rocket attacks they have to invade and clear all the areas where the rocket launchers are located one by one. But, if they invade there is the possibility of them being caught in a guerrilla war which they plainly cannot win in Gaza. So they are not sure at this moment how to proceed.

Press TV: Israeli foreign minister (Tzipi Livni) also says that Israel wants to negotiate peace with what she calls moderate Palestinians. On the other hand, we see Mahmoud Abbas saying that peace talks are meaningless under the current situation wherein Israel is targeting all Palestinians, so where does that leave Israel?

Finkelstein: Well we have to be clear what Israel means by moderate Palestinians. The Hamas leadership in recent years has signaled that it is willing to negotiate a two-state settlement according to the June 1967 border and also the resolution of the refugee question. That means that Hamas has signaled to do what the international community has wanted Israel to do over the past 30 years.Israel rejects such a two-state settlement because it wants to continue its control of the West Bank. So for Israel a moderate Palestinian means the one who rejects all the terms proposed by the international community, a Palestinian who rejects the position of Hamas. For Israel a moderate Palestinian is a Palestinian who is willing to do whatever Israel wants: is a Palestinian who is willing follow Israeli orders.

Press TV: Observers say that a ceasefire is the best Israel can achieve from this. How is the war affecting Israel?

Finkelstein: It is hard to say that whether Israel is in a position for a ceasefire. If Israel accepts the ceasefire I don't think Hamas would accept it if the Gaza blockage continues. It was due to the continuation of the Gaza blockade that Hamas rejected renewal of the truce with Israel. If the blockade is not lifted it is just a slow death for the Palestinians. If Israel agrees to lift this blockade along with a ceasefire then it will in effect have given in to the conditions that it refused last week. So it's really unclear that Israel would propose a ceasefire that Hamas would accept and vice versa.

Press TV: Israel says that its war is with Hamas, but it has prevented the flow of international aid into Gaza and prevented journalists from covering what is going on there. There is a saying Persian if you cannot help then don't prevent help from others.

Finkelstein: Well we have to be clear that Israel's war is not with Hamas but with the international community, including Iran. Israel is defying the international community, including Iran on the two-state settlement.

Posted By Outreacher to Gaza at 1/03/2009 09:30:00 AM