Woke up this morning to some bad news. Funny, I heard it first from people close to the event, both on our side in the IDF, and from a friend I made on MePeace that sent out a message that simply read:
“Seven palestinians were killed as truce ended between palestinians and israelies.”
A single line that made my heart sink.
It’s such a shame. I hope both sides will have enough sense in them to prevent further escalation.
Some more background, by Haaretz:
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034284.html
This was a military clash, and the Palestinians who were killed were, according to Hamas themselves, military personnel engaged in creating a tunnel into Israel through which they planned to kidnap another soldier. Six of them were killed when the tunnel exploded. It exploded and didn’t just collapse, because it had been booby-trapped from the inside, in preparation for the IDF discovering it.
I hope the Hamas has enough sense to see their own part in this. This wasn’t some wild attack on civilians. And, as with all stupid wars, “revenge” has been delivered in the form of 30 qassam rockets fired over the night.
Don’t get me wrong – I think it was a stupid move on the part of Israel, to shake this fragile truce. Just like it was a stupid move to build those tunnels filled with explosives to begin with. I just hope that with the new president in the White House, who knows, maybe some change will come to the Middle East as well.
We sure do need change here, more than “here we go again” lines…
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 3:27 am
“here we go again”,
Change in ourselves and in the Palestinians.
We are doing it to ourselves.
unfortunately I think that Israel will now focus of weakening the Hamas so they will work agreement with (under) the Fatah. These “stratigic” thinking relates to the Israel comming elections as Ehud would like to be seen as a person who know how to use force,
In parallel in the recent weeks a conflict with the settlers become more clear as there is an effort to signal them that they are going to be evacuated.
from Israel “political” internal perspective it sound reasonable – but the cost of life of young solders from both sides is painful to any human who care.
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 10:30 am
We in the USA have just made a powerful statement for change with the election of Barack Osama Obama. This change will inevitably reverberate throughout the world….and I believe the energy will be positive.
Perhaps this will herald major positive influences in Israel/Palestine.
So I hope and pray.
JAY
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 11:02 am
……sorry that I re-named Obama…….should be Hussein, of course!
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Yes the same friend that is yours told me last night.. Now I know what had happen .. I don’t understand why the hamass group wanted to try to use do this and why?
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Yeah, Wafa was kind enough to alert quite a few of us at MePeace. He’s a great guy, and I want to write about him and his point of view soon.
According to the press, and to Palestinian sources, actually, the plan was to dig a tunnel all the way to the Israeli side, then pop out, kidnap a soldier and drag him back into Gaza. It’s not a long distance to go either – we’re talking about hundreds of yards all in all.
I still don’t understand why the IDF can’t find some way to locate the exit hole of a tunnel and wait for them there, on the Israeli side. I guess there are some technical issues with that, but I really don’t know. It just makes more sense to me, not to break the truce, but rather wait for Hamas to emerge on your side instead. Go figure.
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I want to re-emphasize what Jay says. I realize the US is remote to Israeli activities, yet I can hope it sparks something wider. OK, now that’s absurdly idealistic, I realize, but his message is “hope” – and that could always use a wider view. In the mess of Israeli and Gazan/Palestinian politics, the notion of compassion and reaching out will have to occur in order for anything to get done. There are far too many tragedies from such small mindedness on both sides as the people die from their leaders’ inability to imagine. Someone needs their butts kicked and it is not the small folks.
on Nov 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
May be if some one asked Obama to help this he might play a different roll …it could help