One Murdered, Several Wounded In Israel Massacre Attempt
By
Joel Leyden Tel Aviv ---November 15.....Hamas terror Kassam missiles fired from Gaza murdered a 58-year-old woman and wounded several other residents of an Israel town today. The barrage of terror missiles from Gaza were aimed at creating a massacre of civilians in Israel. In the early morning attack, Fatima Slutzker, 57, was murdered and an Israel security guard at the residence of Israel Defense Minister Amir Peretz was seriously injured after a Kassam rocket, fired by Palestine terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, landed near Peretz's home in Sderot. The two were taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel where Slutxker died of her wounds and the security guard Maor Peretz, 24, had both of his legs amputated after sustaining severe shrapnel wounds. In the evening, another barrage of Kassam rockets struck Sderot, injuring four, including one 17-year-old seriously. Four other rockets struck a neighborhood in the Israel city of Ashkelon. OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Gallant visited Sderot and told reporters that the army planned to continue its operations against the Kassam terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. "We will get those responsible for the attacks in the ways we know how," Galant said as he toured the scene of the early morning attack with Mayor Eli Moyal. The IDF promised a harsh response to a barrage of 13 Kassam rockets that pounded the western Negev throughout the day. Former New York City Mayor attacked the New York Times for their perverted description of the events in Gaza. "The New York Times reported, 'Israeli troops killed two Palestinian women and wounded some 10 others who were seeking to serve as human shields for Hamas militants holed up in a Gaza mosque … Hundreds of women, urged on by Palestinian radio, were flocking to the mosque to try to prevent an Israeli attack and to help an estimated 60 men escape … the gunmen inside the mosque escaped.' The people The Times refers to as “militants” in Gaza have been firing rockets daily from the Gaza town of Beit Hanun at nearby towns on the Israel side of the border, seeking to injure or kill Israeli civilians. Those who intentionally aim to kill civilians should be referred to as terrorists." Koch added: "Israel - located as it is in the heart of the Islamic world - is seen by the supporters of Islamic terror as the primary target. The Hamas government has repeatedly stated that it would not recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel, that it would continue to engage in violent acts against Israel and that it would not recognize any agreements that prior Palestinian governments had entered into with Israel. For Hamas, the two-state solution is not an option. The Times reported, “Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, angrily called for the international community to ‘come here and witness the daily massacres that are being carried out against the Palestinian nation.’” The obvious purpose of the confrontation between the women and the soldiers was to create Palestinian propaganda that could be used to discredit Israel."
Koch continued: "On my radio program I asked what the Israel soldiers are to do—stand there and be killed? Are the militants to be allowed to escape and engage in terrorist actions on another day, killing Israeli civilians and soldiers? Are Palestinian women to be allowed because of their gender to help the Palestinian terrorists with impunity? I think rational people will say no. I believe rational people will agree with an Israel spokesman quoted in The Times. “‘The fighting around the mosque is not something we wanted,’ said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry. ‘But international law is clear: when combatants take control of a religious site and begin firing, it becomes a legitimate target. They broke the sanctity of the site.’” Similarly, as The Times reported, “One marcher, Suhad el-Masri, 28, said she and several of her relatives had been carrying abayas and scarves to give to the men. ‘We took them so they could disguise themselves as women and escape,’ she said. Her sister, Hiba Rajab, 20, was shot in her legs and left arm; her wounds were considered serious.” The former Mayor stated that these women broke the commitment that women will not participate in acts of violence and thus not be fired upon. As recently as Nov. 7th, The Times reported that in Gaza, “Mervet Masoud, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman, blew herself up near several [Israeli] soldiers, killing herself and slightly wounding one soldier … [She] said in a video released by Islamic Jihad after her attack, ‘Consider me a martyr …’ There will undoubtedly be continuing efforts to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel by supporters of the Palestinians. "While some decent people decry the shooting of Palestinian women, they are silent in the face of the horrendous carnage inflicted by Islamic suicide bombers in Iraq who are killing and maiming innocent Iraqi civilians every day, many women shopping at local markets," Koch said. "I support the statement by U.S. State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, who is quoted in The Times. “The U.N. has a point of view,” McCormack said, commenting on another critical statement by Kofi Annan, adding, “Israel has the right to defend itself. The reason why all of this developed in the first place is because you have continuing attacks on Israel from Palestinian Authority areas.” Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz threatened the Palestinians with a massive widespread ground operation in the Gaza Strip to stop the Kassam rocket terror attacks. Also, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin told an Israel Knesset committee that the IDF must prepare for a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip. One option being considered by the defense establishment is the launching of a widespread operation on the scale of Operation Defensive Shield, launched in the West Bank in 2002 in an effort to curb a wave of suicide attacks inside Israel. If given the green light by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, such an operation would involve calling up several reserve divisions as well as reoccupying a large section of the densely-populated northern Gaza Strip. "There is no doubt that the terror is building up in the Gaza Strip," Halutz said. "We have not ruled out the possibility of a large-scale operation there." Peretz convened an emergency meeting of security officials Wednesday afternoon and said: ""We will take action against anyone involved in Kassam rocket attacks, from the terror chiefs until the last of the terror operatives. The terror organizations will pay a heavy price." Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the fatal Sderot attack, calling it retaliation for the deaths of 19 civilians last week in an IDF shelling in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. "The occupation hasn't stopped attacking Palestinians before or after Beit Hanoun, so we say resistance is a right of Palestinians," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said called on the political echelon to order the IDF to stop the Kassam fire by any means necessary - artillery, aerial, or ground operations - even at the risk of endangering soldiers. The Islamic Jihad terror group said it had launched two rockets. "The Zionist enemy has admitted a Zionist was killed as a result of the Qassam Brigades bombardment of Sderot," the Hamas armed wing said in a statement. A Hamas movement spokesman defended the rocket attack. Israel medical officials said a security guard who worked at Peretz's house was seriously wounded while on patrol in the area. The Israeli army said a youth was seriously wounded in the second strike. Several other people were slightly hurt. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is on a US tour, said after telephone consultations with Peretz that Israel would press its anti-terrorist campaign in Gaza. "We will decide on additional steps as required in order to continue fighting the unceasing, murderous terror in the Gaza Strip," Olmert told American Jewish fund-raisers in Los Angeles. "We are going to continue to reach out everywhere, every place, every corner, until we find them and, yes, kill them." Sderot, a town of 20,000, is a frequent target of Palestine rocket squads because it lies so close to Gaza - five kilometres away. Rockets also hit a nearby village but wounded no one. Today's missile attacks were the most intensive in months. The rockets used, while homemade, had been fitted with improved warheads, Hamas sources and Israel military officials said. Israel may soon authorize 1500 armed Palestinian soldiers based in Jordan to move into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel sees the move as a way to counterbalance the growing power of Hamas. The US, which is behind the initiative, hopes that the arrival of the troops, trained and equipped to relatively high standards by the Jordanian armed forces, will restore badly needed order in the occupied territories. Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security service,told the Isael Knesset that unless moderates from Fatah became more powerful in the occupied territories, Israel would have to stage widescale incursions to neutralise the growing strength of Hamas and its militant supporters. "Israel must prepare for a wide military confrontation in the Gaza Strip, if moderate sources in the Palestinian Authority do not get stronger," he said. "Israel has no good options in Gaza. There are only bad options and we need to choose the least bad of all." He claimed to have evidence of a massive build-up of Palestinian weapons. He said 30 tonnes of arms, ammunition and explosives had been stockpiled in Gaza.
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, which has censured only one country - Israel - during its six-month existence, voted today to send a fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun and to condemn the Israel artillery barrage and other "human rights violations" in the Palestinian territories. Israel Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the special session was yet another gross and transparent example of the council's lack of objectivity. Palestine
terrorists have fired around 300 rockets into southern Israel since the start
of the year.
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