The Battle in Gaza Strip

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Kooper
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註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

The Battle in Gaza Strip

文章 Kooper »

Since the outbreak of war between Israeli and Palestinian militant group Hamas, the fighting keeps hitting the headlines over the past few days. It's time for us to pay more attention to the clashes and learn some war-related terms or expressions at the same time.
Here I quoted a 6 Jan 2009 BBC news.

Fighting flares outside Gaza City

Israeli troops have clashed with Palestinian militants on the edge of Gaza City on the third night of Israel's ground assault on Gaza.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups say fighters engaged Israeli soldiers with machine-guns and rocket fire.

Three Israeli soldiers were also killed by "friendly fire" in northern Gaza.

Some 540 Palestinians are thought to have been killed and 2,500 wounded in the 10 days since Israel moved to end rocket attacks from within Gaza.

Palestinian medical officials say at least 90 people have died since the ground assault began while Israel has lost four soldiers and four civilians over the 10 days.

Aid agencies in Gaza speak of appalling conditions for treating casualties of the continuing Israeli bombardments.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli tanks had for the first time moved into the southern city of Khan Younis.

Rejecting international appeals for a ceasefire, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that the operation would continue until it met its objective.

Foreign diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis have borne little fruit so far.

Single shell

An Israeli army spokesman said three soldiers from the elite Golani Brigade had been killed accidentally by a single tank shell, with a further four severely wounded and 20 suffering lighter injuries.

Israel says the operation will continue until it reaches its objectives

"In the fierce battle that was being waged between our Golani brigade soldiers against the Hamas... unfortunately one of our tanks actually exploded on to a building where our forces were located," Capt Guy Stiegelman told the BBC.

At nightfall on Monday, Israeli troops were reported to be battling Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the Shujaiya district of Gaza City.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters had engaged Israeli soldiers with machine-guns and rockets. Residents reported hearing loud explosions and heavy gunfire.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper, quoting Israeli army sources, reports that Hamas lobbed mortars at the soldiers.

Artillery and helicopter gunships were reportedly brought in to drive back the Palestinian fighters.

Describing fighters' tactics, an unnamed Hamas official told AFP news agency that fighters had lured Israeli forces into a trap.

"We have left a lot of explosives in their path," he added.

'Serious hunger'

Living conditions in Gaza are reported to be deteriorating sharply, with supplies of fuel, food, water and wheat running desperately low.

Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, one of two foreign doctors working at Gaza's biggest hospital, al-Shifa, said operating rooms were full and people were dying because of a lack of supplies.

Israel says it is not targeting civilians but Dr Gilbert said he had only seen two fighters among hundreds of casualties.

The UN says a million people in the territory are without electricity and many are facing "serious hunger" within days.

Dominic Nutt, of the aid agency Save The Children, told the BBC that workers in the territory were reporting rapidly deteriorating conditions:

"They don't have any water most of the day, there is no electricity, they are freezing cold, the windows have to be left open to stop them smashing when the bombs fall.

"Children are at risk from hypothermia, they are malnourished, there is not enough food, the situation is getting desperate."

Thousands of Gazans are reported to have fled their homes, despite the dangers of moving around outdoors in the territory.

Israel says it has allowed a convoy of 80 lorries carrying food and medicines through Gaza's southern border with Egypt.
Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: The Battle in Gaza Strip

文章 Kooper »

When Israel claimed that their military attack only targets militants and military site. The questions are how to distinguish a militant from a civilian and how to tell the difference between a military site and an ordinary building.

Gaza conflict: Who is a civilian?

The bloodied children are clearly civilians; men killed as they launch rockets are undisputedly not. But what about the 40 or so young Hamas police recruits on parade who died in the first wave of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza?

And weapons caches are clearly military sites – but what about the interior ministry, hit in a strike that killed two medical workers; or the money changer's office, destroyed last week injuring a boy living on the floor above?

As the death toll mounts in Gaza, the thorny question is arising of who and what can be considered a legitimate military target in a territory effectively governed by a group that many in the international community consider a terrorist organisation.

This is also the group that won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 and a year later consolidated its control by force.

So while it was behind a campaign of suicide attacks in Israel and fires rockets indiscriminately over the border, it is also in charge of schools, hospitals, sewage works and power plants in Gaza.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7811386.stm
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