Palestinians Break the Siege of Gaza

[conspiracy analyst]

The West was only ever concerned about the Berlin war.
Days now the Palestinians are being forced into a death trap with the deadly siege of Gaza.

Having broken the wall which ridiculously cuts them off from Egypt they should declare UDI and seek to have open borders with Egypt.

This is what always frightened the zionist entity as the new border of Israel would not be with Gaza but with Egypt proper. They would then be forced to bomb Egypt provoking a new war with a massive neighbour which has spent the last 3 decades asleep...


http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/23/israel.gaza/index.html

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Thousands of people poured out of Gaza into Egypt Wednesday, yanking off coils of barbed wire and blowing holes in concrete walls in a rush to buy food and fuel.
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Palestinians on Wednesday break through a wall separating Egypt from Gaza.
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Egyptian guards did not intervene as wave after wave of men -- cheered on by children chanting "God is great" -- washed over fences along the border and into Egypt.

Food and other necessities have been in short supply in Gaza since an Israeli blockade left residents in the Hamas-run territory struggling with severe power cuts. The blockade has sparked concerns from aid agencies of a humanitarian crisis.

Israel closed all border crossings between Israel and Gaza on Friday to punish Hamas after days of rocket attacks on southern Israel.

The exodus began about 2 a.m. Wednesday, when residents reported hearing explosions near the border.

At least six spots on the border wall had been blown apart, CNN's Ben Wedeman said. In another stretch, a steel coil wall had been sheared off, he said.

By daybreak, lines of people waited restlessly as a frontloader tore chunks of concrete from a border wall. Hundreds of cars streamed toward Rafah -- on the Egyptian border -- unloading occupants who then jumped over.

Gaza has been closed to Egypt since 2005, when the militant group Hamas took over the territory.

Israel allowed fuel and medical supplies into Gaza on Tuesday morning, easing a blockade that sparked concerns from aid agencies of a humanitarian crisis.

Frustrations over the situation in Gaza erupted in a clash between Palestinian demonstrators and Egyptian security forces at the Gaza-Egypt border. Dozens of people were injured, Palestinian medical sources said.

Also Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States has urged Israel to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza by finding different ways to punish Hamas.

Rice spoke to reporters aboard her plane en route to Germany, where she will meet with her counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China to discuss a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

"We have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing humanitarian crisis to unfold there," Rice said. "They've said that they do not want a humanitarian crisis and that they understand the need to permit fuel and electricity in Gaza, so we will see."

Rice was responding to a question about a call she received from Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. He asked Rice to put pressure on Israel about the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Rice placed the blame squarely on Gaza's Hamas leadership for its defiance of the international community. Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.
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Rice said Israel was trying to respond to rockets from Gaza into Israel and the "terror and anxiety" that those attacks are placing on the Israeli population.

Israel's Ministry of Defense said it will consider whether to allow further shipments after Tuesday's delivery.

Rice said the Mideast Quartet -- composed of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia -- is examining a plan by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for the Palestinian Authority to take a greater role in monitoring border crossings between Gaza and Israel.

"I think people need to start to try to think creatively about how to deal with the situation in Gaza," she said.

The Israeli government sent in cooking gas, medical supplies and fuel for power plants and generators, said a spokesman for Israel's Coordination and Liaison Administration.

Rafiq Maliha, project manager at the Gaza Power Generating Co., said that the plant had received 360,000 liters of industrial diesel -- enough fuel to run the plant at two-thirds of capacity for about 24 hours. He said he needed 500,000 liters on a daily basis to run at full capacity.

"I cannot operate the plant intermittently for one, two or three days," Maliha said. "This is electricity."

The lack of fuel, food and medicine has led to long lines at bakeries and left hospitals without heat.

Aid agencies warned the situation is "very precarious" and called on Israel to end the blockade to avert a humanitarian disaster.

Gaza receives about 70 percent of its electricity from Israel, and the bulk of the remaining power comes from a generation plant in Gaza. That plant relies on fuel supplied by an Israeli company.

Frustrations in Gaza boiled over at the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, where clashes erupted Tuesday between Palestinian protesters and Egyptian security forces, eyewitnesses said. Video Watch as demonstrators rush the gate »

Several hundred female supporters of Hamas went to the border crossing -- the only one in Gaza that Israel doesn't run -- to demand that the gate be opened and that six Palestinians be allowed to cross for medical treatment.

Egyptian riot police stopped the people from going through the crossing and fired water cannons at the demonstrators, witnesses said.

After the demonstrators moved back on instructions from their organizers, young men headed toward the gate, and gunfire was exchanged.

When the Egyptian forces pulled back, some Palestinians were able to get through the gate.

The standoff eased after more than two hours.
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At least 60 people were injured, according to Palestinian medical sources, who said demonstrators were beaten with sticks, hit by gunfire and attacked by police dogs.

The Rafah Crossing essentially has been closed since June when the Hamas political movement seized control of Gaza. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

CNN's Shira Medding, Kevin Flower, Talal Abu-Rahmi and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

[Thermate911]

How easy it is to rewrite history - even if it's only a few months old. The Grauniad follows CNN like a little lost puppy:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2245407,00.html

[Thermate911]

Les Visible is somewhat more outspoken on this latest manipulation of peoples lives...and deaths:-

[Mark Gobell]

I couldn't believe my ears listening to Sky News reporting this tonight.

Catch it while you can.

[Linda]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/23/israel.gaza/index.html#c nnSTCVideo

Good Luck to them they sure do need it.

[Thermate911]

I think they need more than luck, Linda; I think they need full recognition as human beings in imminent danger by the rest of us, whatever our political leanings.

Meanwhile today it looks like some journalists are beginning to grasp the concept of truth in reporting. This from Rory McCarthy in Rafah:-

[festival of snickers]

supposedly the un created Israel in 1948 but i never voted for the un or to send anyone there or knew how they would go about it all

i meet jews for and against Zionism

the Jewish friend i have doesnt even mention this or whats going on

we all just go day to day and ignore it meanwhile i guess they just grow angrier i guess

the un probably declares this action illegal but they do nothing i guess
true?

[conspiracy analyst]

The pro-neocon Egyptian Quisling government is trying to do Israels dirty work again by attacking the stateless Palestinians.

Hamas has reopened the border after the Egyptian border guards tried to close it.

Its becoming clear that without the support of the Arab regimes Israel would have lost the control it had on Palestinians years ago.

I mean what next? Egyptian army being commissioned by the Israelis to police the Palestinians or transferring the electricity grid to Egypt so they can pull the plug on it?

---------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------

Hamas Commenst on "Opening" of Wall-Gates with Egypt

Mishaal: The mass entry of Gazans into Egypt a popular decision

[ 24/01/2008 - 12:08 PM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Khaled Mishaal, the head of the Hamas political bureau, stated in the opening meeting of the "Palestinian national conference" on Wednesday in Damascus that the mass entry of thousands of Palestinians into the Egyptian territories through the Rafah crossing was not a factional but a popular decision.

Mishaal stressed the need for holding more popular activities and events until the siege ends, calling on the Arab and Islamic peoples to continue their popular outrage in the face of the Zio-American siege.

The Hamas political leader called for agreeing on a new strategy based on five elements including resolving the controversy that the liberation comes first before the state and the land before the authority and to give priority to the resistance as the basis of this strategy.

The Hamas leader confirmed that the Arabs are capable of breaking the siege imposed on the Gaza people, recalling that Egypt is not bound by the agreement made in Europe on the Rafah crossing because it did not participate in that meeting.

The Hamas leader pointed out that an Arab ministerial meeting would be held on 27th of January in Cairo, urging the Arab leaders to table a concise draft resolution through their foreign ministers calling for lifting the siege on Gaza.

The Hamas leader also called on the Arab leaders to stand alongside Egypt, since it has borders with Gaza, to encourage it to open the Rafah crossing and to support it in the face of the Zio-American pressures in order to get the siege lifted.

The Hamas leader strongly rejected the allegations saying that the resistance rockets fired from the Gaza Strip are the reason behind the suffocating siege, stating: "The siege was before and after the firing of rockets; We stopped firing rockets many times, but the siege has not come to end; we ceased the resistance tactically for several months and times, but the aggression and occupation continued and our brave prisoners were not released from the Israeli jails."

In response to what was stated by the PA about its readiness to run Gaza crossings, the Hamas leader said that the Palestinian government headed by premier Ismail Haneyya are willing to discuss this issue with the PA leadership in Ramallah and with Egypt to agree on how to manage these crossings, underlining that Hamas wants to control nothing, but it seeks freedom and relief for the Palestinian people.

The opening meeting of the Palestinian national conference was attended by the leaders of majority of the Palestinian factions and Palestinian notables in the diaspora, in addition to official and semi-official representatives of many countries and a pack of Arab and Islamic journalists and intellectuals.

For his part, Dr. Talal Naji, the head of the preparatory committee for the conference stated that the conference aims to address the threats to the Palestinian national cause represented in the Zio-American conspiracy and the Israeli ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people as well as to warn against the schemes to be implemented in the coming period and to put all the Palestinian parties concerned and the Arab regimes before their historic responsibilities.

Dr. Naji added that the conference aims also to confirm the Palestinian people's adherence to their inalienable national rights including the Palestinian refugees' right of return and the Palestinian people's right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The conference called on the Arab countries not to succumb to the pressures and dictates of the American administration which call for normalizing relations with Israel, and to resist the Zio-American project aimed at imposing hegemony on the region.

The speeches delivered in the conference were unanimous on the need to work on restoring the Palestinian national unity and to uphold the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including the adherence to the option of resistance as a strategic choice to restore the usurped rights.

[TonyGosling]

Love the upbeat headline - anyway more today

Gazans form human chain against siege
Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:12:08
Palestinians protesting against an Israeli-led blockade have formed a human chain along roads in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of women and children, many holding Palestinian and Hamas flags, turned out for the start of what organizers said they hoped would be a peaceful protest involving some 50,000 people and draw international attention......
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=44663


Racism, as expected, from the Jerusalem Post
Gaza human chain a few links short

And this, just for a flash, from the BBC

[Thermate911]

'Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip' ? Hmm, I don't think so. This kind of facile sound bite masks reality most successfully.

Let's be quite clear that the US/UK/France-according-to-Sarkosy/Zionist-entity-backed IDF controls Gaza. Period.