Both sides were preparing Saturday night, Aug. 23, for an impending battle on Gaza Strip soil, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. Heavy IDF ground forces were poised ready to enter the territory for the initial mission of reaching and demolishing the sources of Hamas’s short-range rocket and mortar attacks, which have disrupted the lives of neighboring Israeli communities and forced their mass evacuation.
Hamas has been firing those short-range weapons from 3-7 km inside the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian extremists escalated the barrage in the last 48 hours as a provocation, daring the IDF to send in the forces massed around its borders.
All the signs point to Israeli forces preparing for limited ground strikes in the first stage.
Hamas spent Saturday deploying its strength to waylay an Israeli incursion. Whole brigades were pushed underground into tunnels and placed on preparedness. Groups of suicide killers were hidden in orchards ready to ambush advancing Israeli troops.
The decision by Israel and Hamas to raise the stakes of the conflict to another ground engagement in the Gaza Strip was dictated by a string of new developments, which made a final clash of arms unavoidable.
1. At their meeting in Qatar, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas failed to talk Hamas political secretary Khaled Meshaal around to a compromise to enable a negotiated ceasefire with Israel.
2. Abbas notified Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi Saturday night in Cairo that hope had run out for a political accommodation to resolve the Gaza conflict, because Hamas was set fixedly on full-scale war with Israel. Abbas passed the same tidings to Washington.
3. Hamas rejected every draft accord incorporating a ceasefire, including the draft resolutions to be submitted to the UN Security Council.
4. Abbas informed Washington and Cairo that the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, had conned President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah, when he promised to soften Meshaal on the Gaza crisis, when it fact he proffered Hamas all possible assistance for continuing the war with Israel.
CuriousAmerican Said:
You mean (papa, son and Casper the friendly ghost) idols??
That’s the same as asking help from an Indian totem.
Aleynu–Jewish prayer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-irAG3q8TGU
@ Viiit:
You are quite right in telling CA to refrain from his theology. The catholic church has failed the Jews by
their false doctrine. The christian church has also failed the Jews by their false doctrine.
It’s only a matter of time and the truth will be revealed…
@ CuriousAmerican:
Your advertising your Christian faith and calling on “God’ son” is in bad taste.
Save it for Christian websites, please.
It’s truly criminal. Israel fights like it doesn’t have bombs – real bombs that can flatten Gaza in a day. Carpet bombing capacity. Hamas has terror tunnels and suicide bombers. They use all that they have and we fight on their terms with one hand tied behind our backs. And so our precious sons and daughters die. Death that could be prevented. If fact no one had to die to defeat Hamas. A total siege of Gaza would have done the trick as would carpet bombing with advance warning to clear out or die and retaking the sanitized territory until Hamas has no Gaza left if need be. Bibi and Boogie are responsible for these preventable deaths and should be held accountable!
@ Etzel:
Etzel: Amen. Make Hashem bless and protect our troops. Make them invisible to the enemy. Almighty G-d
protect Israel and all your children from her enemy. Bless her population. Amen.
They are walking into a trap. May God be with them – and because I am Christian – through His Son, Jesus Christ.
They will need a lot of protection. May they get it.
To the Brave Soldiers of the I.D.F..
May Ha-Shem guide you and protect you as you go into the fray. I pray your leaders allow you to finish the job this time, even if it requires the lives of all those who would raise a hand to harm you or the citizens of Israel, whom you so bravely protect.
May your aim be true, your hearts strong, and your government support you. I pray the end of this campaign be swift and complete, and you return to your loved ones safe and sound.
I ask Ha-Shem to go before you with His sword slaying all who are intent on your harm.
Go Brave Solder and watch your six!
In His Name
Etzel