Word: gaza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gaza, people may be celebrating this blow against Israel, but realists among the Palestinians know that this first suicide bombing after a year's hiatus will make it more difficult to argue the case with the Egyptians of keeping the Rafah border open - the only entry and exit point into Gaza. Egypt says it is prepared to keep the fence open - but only if Hamas and Fatah share responsibility for it. After the breakdown of three-way talks in Cairo last week, that seems unlikely. Hamas has agreed to help Egypt reseal most of the border fence, but even that...
...quick reactions no doubt saved lives in Israel's first suicide attack in over a year. But the bombing seemed to confirm fears by Israeli security chiefs that terrorists had joined thousands of Palestinians who streamed through the breach made last week in the security fence between Egypt and Gaza. The bombers' route probably took them into the Sinai, where Egypt's long and sporadically unpatrolled desert border is riddled with smugglers' trails used by Bedouin. For the right amount of money, these tribesmen are willing to bring anything into Israel - drugs, weapons, Russian prostitutes, even terrorists, say Israeli security...
...Gaza, militants passed out flowers and candy at street corners to celebrate what one militant leader described as "the heroic act" at Dimona. A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamic militant group, which controls the Palestinian enclave, said that the attack was "a natural reaction to months of killing" of Palestinians by the Israeli forces. Various organizations also rushed to lay claim for the bombing. Israeli authorities have not yet identified the bombers, but members of two groups - the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the al-Aqsa Brigades - jointly claimed credit for the suicide bombing and released...
...shopping spree may have lessened Gaza's crisis, but many say the long-term solution rests with Israel. Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which feeds as many as 850,000 impoverished Gazans, says, "A few holes in the wall don't relieve Israel of its obligations. We can't have a situation where Gaza continues to hover on the brink of catastrophe." Israel, for its part, continues to blame Hamas?and the constant threat of rocket attacks against Israeli civilians?for the blockade...
...Gaza friend Azmi Keshawi, though, the brief liberty meant two things: Cairo and chocolate. "I'm taking my wife and kids in the Jeep," he told me when the wall was breached, "and we're driving all the way to Cairo, maybe farther. Just because we can." Actually, Azmi was gone only overnight. He couldn't find any gas in el-Arish, so he turned back. El-Arish's shops had also been picked clean by Gaza's hordes, so Azmi could find no chocolate either, just four big bags of potato chips and a couple of Cokes. No regrets...