A candlelight vigil and mass protest was held at the Dearborn City Hall on January 2, 2009 in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are being massacred by the Israeli Defense Forces. Over 450 people have been killed. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
00:46 Mecca time, 21:46 GMT
Israel begins Gaza ground offensive
Israeli soldiers entered Gaza after seven days of bombing by warplanes
The Israeli army has entered the Gaza Strip as it escalated its offensive on the eighth day of operations.
A column of tanks entered the besieged territory through the Beit Hanoun crossing shortly after nightfall on Saturday, as the Israeli cabinet said it had called up about 9,000 reservists as part of its preparations.
Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera's correspondent on the Israeli-Gaza border, said that he had witnessed the movement of tanks and armoured vehicles in the area.
As the offensive entered its eighth day Palestinian medical sources said 464 Palestinians had died and more than 2,000 have been injured.
In the latest incident on Saturday an Israeli strike on a northern Gaza town killed at least 11 people, including one child, who were praying in a mosque.
Four Israelis have also been killed in rocket fire into southern Israel.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, said on Saturday that the operation was aimed at forcing Hamas "to stop its hostile activities against Israel and bring about significant change".
"We have carefully weighed all our options, we are not war hungry but we should not allow a situation where our towns are constantly targeted by Hamas," he said.
Zeina Awad, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said Israeli media was reporting that several Hamas fighters had been killed at the start of the ground offensive.
The Reuters news agency said a senior Hamas official had said that its fighters had killed a number of Israeli soldiers but there was no word from Israel on any casualties.
Hamas has vowed to defeat the Israeli army following the invasion.
Reservists mobilised
Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said: "Residents in the Beit Hanoun area say they have seen the movement of tanks into the territory.
"There is absolute fear and terror, it is pitch black, power lines have been cut throughout the strip, more than 250,000 people in northern Gaza are without electricity.
"The biggest concern is a ground invasion could result in urban warfare.
"Rockets are being fired from deeper and deeper within Gaza and if Israel's intention is to prevent such attacks how far into Gaza, an area densely populated with civilians, will they need to go?"
Speaking to Al Jazeera, James Denselow, a Middle East specialist from Kings College, London, said: "Hamas operates as an asymmetrial force. It knows its strength and knows indiscriminate rockets can cause alarm.
"This is why the Israeli army has used air strikes to 'soften' the ground followed by an assault at night when low-tech armies such as Hamas find it very hard to fight."
'Several days'
Israeli artillery had started firing shells into the Gaza Strip for the first time on Saturday, ahead of the ground offensive.
Ofir Gendelman, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said: "All we asking for is to create a normal life for people of Israel. We'll keep on targeting Hamas objectives until the situation on the ground there is transformed.
"They [Israeli ground forces] will be completing the mission of the air force, going for Hamas headquarters and weapons caches and giving a blow to their capability to launch attacks into Israel.
"It will take quite a number of days to get the job done."
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said: "Israel can claim in various stages that it has won this or that war against Arabs but it is obvious since the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that there is no military solution to Israel's secueity.
"It cannot bomb its way into peaceful co-existence. Israel is trying to do all it can to destroy Hamas but with more than 400 dead, there will be more than 400 more new recruits in Gaza.
"It has taken this path and will probably pay the price in the long term, short term it's the Palestinians who pay the price."
Hamas resistance
On Friday Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, warned that any Israeli ground offensive would lead to a "black destiny".
"You will soon find out that Gaza is the wrath of God," he said, speaking from the Syrian capital of Damascus on Friday, adding that Palestinians in Gaza were ready for any land offensive made by the Israelis.
"This battle was imposed on us and we are confident we will achieve victory because we have made our preparations.
"Our position is clear. We will not give in. Our resolve cannot be broken," he said.
"Our demand is also clear. The war must end, the siege lifted, and crossing points open without restriction."
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Sunday, January 04, 2009
01:08 Mecca time, 22:08 GMT
Deaths as Israel hits Gaza mosque
A Palestinian woman with her son who was wounded in Israel's attack on the mosque
At least 11 Palestinians, including one child, have been killed after Israeli forces struck a mosque during prayers in the town of Beit Lahiya, north of Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip.
More than 200 people were inside the the Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque praying when it was struck.
It is not clear yet whether the mosque was hit as part of the Israeli army's shelling, which started on Saturday afternoon.
At least 50 people were wounded, Hamas and medical officials said.
The Israeli military has destroyed several mosques during its week-long offensive in Gaza, saying Hamas uses the houses of worship to store weapons.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said: "As much as Israel wants to be surgical in its strikes at the end of the day it is civilians that are being hit. This is proof that civilians are caught up in these attacks."
Mohyeldin said doctors in the Gaza Strip were being overwhelmed by the number of casualties being brought in as a result of the Israeli offensive and that hospitals were near a state of collapse due to a lack of medicines and blood.
Source: Agencies
Saturday, January 03, 2009
22:52 Mecca time, 19:52 GMT
Worldwide protests denounce Israel
Palestinians demonstrated in the Israeli town of Sakhnin
Angry protests against Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip have continued throughout the world, with two of the largest demonstrations taking place in London and in Sakhnin in northern Israel.
Other large demonstrations were staged in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, Lebanon, Turkey and the West Bank.
Protesters in Kabul pumped their fists into the air and shouted slogans against Israel and the United States, while in Srinagar activists burned an effigy of Ehud Olmert, Israel's outgoing prime minister.
In Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinians seeking national unity marched through streets and there were clashes with Israeli riot police.
Israel protests
In the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin up to 150,000 Israeli-Palestinians have protested against Israel's offensive.
Crowds waving Palestinian flags and brandishing pro-Palestinian placards chanted "Gaza will not surrender to the tanks and bulldozers!" and "Don't fear, Gaza, we are with you!"
Thousands of police were deployed on the outskirts of the town and across northern Israel following a number of violent protests against the Gaza operation in recent days.
Following a minute's silence, Mazem Ghanaim, Sakhnin's mayor, called for an immediate halt to the Gaza offensive.
Ghanaim said: "The Israeli occupation forces is conducting crimes in Gaza before the eyes of the international community. We call for an immediate stop to the Gaza offensive."
He also said Gaza fighters should halt their rocket fire against southern Israel.
Mohammed Barakeh, an Israeli-Palestinian politician, said the Sakhnin demonstration was "our answer to the Israeli threats against the Palestinian people in Gaza".
"We are determined to stand alongside our brothers in Gaza to stop the bloodshed and massacre," he said.
Mubarak 'coward'
Israeli-Palestinians have staged several big demonstrations since Israeli warplanes launched air assaults on Gaza.
Some protesters in Sakhnin called Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, a "coward" and accused him of "collaborating with the Americans".
In Europe, demonstrators have taken place across Britain with the biggest rally in London.
Tens of thousands of protesters including singer Annie Lennox, human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger and Ken Livingstone, the city's former mayor, marched through the capital.
Marchers on the event organised by the Stop the War Coalition were to leave old shoes for Gordon Brown, the country's prime minister, at his Downing Street residence, in the spirit of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush, the US president.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alexei Sayle, a British writer and entertainer, said: "I think we should withdraw our ambassador from Tel Aviv, we should call an immediate halt to European Union-Israel trade negotiations, we should start looking at a boycott of Israeli products and a boycott of Israel's financial services."
Protests were also held in Manchester, in northwest England, and in Glasgow in Scotland.
The march caps a week of demonstrations in London, including a rally outside Egypt's embassy on Friday, urging Cairo to open its crossing with Gaza to allow refugees through.
'Killer Israel'
Hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian activists and schoolchildren protested in front of the United Nations building in Beirut.
One protester said he hoped the Lebanon-Israel borders would be opened so that he could go to fight alongside Palestinians.
Murad, a Palestinian refugee, said: "We want to at least be able to go and fight. We want Sayyed Hassan [Nasrallah, the Hezbollah secretary-general] to do anything to open the borders so we can go and fight and, God willing, we will be victorious."
In Ankara, Turkey's capital, about 5,000 people shouted "killer Israel" during an anti-Israeli rally as anger mounted in a country traditionally considered an ally of Israel.
The demonstration is the second largest in Turkey in as many days.
The protesters, who turned out in freezing weather, shouted "resist and win freedom" in support of Hamas.
Many waved Palestinian flags and wore headbands with Arabic scripts.
The fighting has troubled Turkey's efforts to help broker peace between Israel and its Arab opponents, forcing Turkey to suspend its mediation between Israel and Syria and leading to resignations by some of Turkey's politicians from a Turkish-Israeli friendship group.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Saturday, January 03, 2009
15:14 Mecca time, 12:14 GMT
FOCUS: WAR ON GAZA
'War amongst the people'
By Paul Beaver
Israel's niche technology may be of little use in a ground offensive in Gaza
Israel is a highly developed technological society. Its defence equipment industry supplies the major industrial and new industrial nations with niche technology that is second-to-none.
In the last 60 years, Israel has fought several full-scale industrial age wars against its neighbours and been involved in a number of counter-insurgency conflicts typical of the many fought by the Western powers during the 19th and 20th centuries. It has never lost a conflict. But this is the age of 'war amongst the people' and just now the jury is out.
Lebanon war
The changing mode of conflict in this sub-region became clear in August 2006.
Believing that the lessons which Nato learned during the Kosovo conflict were that air power alone could win a war without the use of ground troops - negating all the risks physical, political and economic attached to sending in the tanks - appealed to the Israeli army and its political masters.
Israel did not fully appreciate the lessons and misread the situation in southern Lebanon, the capabilities of Hezbollah, including the amount of Iranian support, and the fact that the nature of conflict had changed. It nearly lost a conflict.
For example, precision weapons, world class though they may be, could not destroy the small, remotely-controlled rocket launchers before munitions had been launched - only after the damage had been done.
Certainly, the main heavy and medium rocket launchers were put out of action before Hezbollah could bring them into operation.
However, it was the small systems, often home-made, nestling on the balconies of apartment blocks, in orchards, partially protected by top cover and above all devoid of people who might show up on the infra-red scanning technology carried by Israeli drones - unmanned aerial vehicles like Heron and Skylite - that caused the greatest damage.
Hezbollah also dug in Vietcong-style with tunnels and underground facilities, developed over many years.
Damage to Israel's reputation in the eyes of the domestic audience and that of the media was unusually high. And because Hezbollah is so much better at using the media than Israel, many firmly believe Israel lost the conflict. It did not but facts rarely have a place in a 'war amongst the people'.
Changing balance
During the two years since the southern Lebanon conflict, which, from the Israeli point of view, ended in stalemate at best, there has been a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas has not been slow in building up its capability during this period. These preparations have included developing its military capability, probably with the support of Iran and Hezbollah, and careful preparation of the international media for information operations - a vital part of the 'war amongst the people'.
Hamas has also been working hard on deception operations in the classic 'camouflage' sense, taking leaves from the Hezbollah book and hiding its capability in domestic and public sector accommodation - homes, apartments, schools, refugee camps.
It has also become expert at masking its routine by screening out the sensors of Israeli drones, masking its radio communications and making use of non-combatants in the traditional sense. In a 'war amongst the people' the line between combatant and non-combatant is thin and changes by the hour, if not the minute.
So today in Gaza, the Israelis have found - just as the Americans found in Iraq and Afghanistan - that the balance is shifting away from industrial age conflict to something different.
The war in Gaza is not an industrial age conflict but a true 'war amongst the people', with non-state actors, albeit elected as a government, calling the shots on one side and a democratic cabinet in the Western model on the other.
The use of media footage, exaggerated claims, weapons like unguided rockets and now for first time, a global threat of attack on Israeli nuclear facilities has changed the balance and the room for manoeuvre.
Strategic, tactical, operational
Even a 'war amongst the people' can be divided into the three logical spheres of interest: strategic, tactical and operational.
The perception is that Israel has never cared about the first in terms of world opinion as it has been shielded by its close relationship with the US - and a strongly held belief that it is right.
There is little doubt, however, that the hiatus in Washington, with a lame-duck president and a president-elect who has yet to take the reins of power, is significant in terms of timing on a strategic level and has given Israel the edge.
It has been interesting to note how the tone of Israeli government spokesmen has been modified as circumstances change, creating the perception that Israel too is learning about 'Info Ops' and how these perceptions play in the Western media in particular.
On a tactical level, Israel is well equipped for both industrial and counter-insurgency conflicts - and there is now evidence that it is rapidly picking up the lessons of 'war amongst the people' at a tactical level. It can strike with precision by day or night.
Operationally, the critical matter for Israel is whether Hamas can get inside the 'decision cycle' of the commanders on the scene - the Israeli army rules of engagement are not made public but may include the need to revert to Tel Aviv on key engagements.
The rules have been influenced by public opinion and the media - but Hamas has none of these concerns and has seen how the Taliban has run rings around the Nato forces in Afghanistan, not to mention the Kabul administration, in recent months.
Gaza is critical. Whatever happens, there will be casualties on both sides, international repercussions across the globe and there is always the risk of intervention by Syria, Iran or another state.
'War amongst the people' will then develop into industrial age, state-on-state conflict and who knows where that might go.
'War amongst the people' might be a new paradigm but is not the only one.
Paul Beaver is an independent defence analyst, a former Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, TV war reporter and media commentator. His views reflect 30 years of covering major and minor conflicts, including those in the Middle East.
The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Al Jazeera.
Source: Al Jazeera
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