Word: gaza
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...clashes in Gaza may escalate into the next quagmire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Before the current fighting started, Israeli officials privately scoffed that they could live with an occasional Hamas or Islamic Jihad rocket fired into their territory by the Palestinian militants in Gaza. But that changed last week when Hamas, angered at the loss of five senior commanders in an Israeli air strike, began targeting Ashkelon again, sending a dozen powerful Grad missiles into the Israeli port roughly five miles from Gaza's northern frontier. In retaliation, the Israelis stormed into northern Gaza...
Abbas had no choice, say Palestinians. Even though Gaza is ruled by Abbas' Hamas rivals, pro-Gaza demonstrations have spread throughout the West Bank towns and cities under Abbas' control, with Palestinians there clashing with Israeli riot police. Many of the slogans they shouted were against Abbas, who is seen by many Palestinians as too pro-Israeli...
...brunt of the fighting occurred on Saturday when Israelis, in an operation named "Warm Winter," stormed into northern Gaza with over a thousand troops backed by 30 tanks and helicopter gunships. They advanced to the edge of Jabaliya, a crowded refugee camp, and there took fire from gunmen hiding inside the buildings. After two Israeli soldiers were shot, eyewitnesses say, the Israelis retaliated with withering fire in all directions as they struggled to evacuate the wounded soldiers, who eventually died...
...Israeli attack on Gaza came after an Israeli student was killed in a rocket blast, and the port city of Ashkelon, with 120,000 residents, came under attack, showing Israelis for the first time that the militants of Hamas and Islamic Jihad had acquired a large arsenal of accurate, longer-range rockets. One Hamas commander told TIME by telephone: "It's true that we're losing lives but we'll prove to the Arab world that we have the power to stand up to Israel." The Israeli combat brigade withdrew from northern Gaza early Monday morning, even as another rocket...
There could be bigger battles to come. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert waved off calls of restraint from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon who equally condemned both Israel for "excessive and disproportionate" use of force in Gaza and the militants for their unending barrage of rockets into southern Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, "We are not happy about civilians being hurt in Gaza. Hamas and those who fire rockets at Israel are responsible and they will pay the price." If anything, the Israeli assault has steeled Gazans' support for Hamas. As one housewife in Jabalya watched...