Israel Launches Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza

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telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/9677782/Hamas-military-chief-killed-in-Gaza-air-strike.html

*Jabari is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago. He has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list, the Associated Press reported. His son was also reportedly killed in the targeted airstrike, according to Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, talking to Al Jazeera in Doha.

“We will respond [to the assassination], this I have to say clearly,” he said.

“The Israelis are working to target the local leaders and political leaders in Gaza. We are expecting acts and reactions from the Palestinians.” *
 
Surprised this hasn’t gotten more coverage. Pretty big deal, IMO.
 
Yes, I agree. I’ve just seen on Russia Times the following:
**
Hamas says now in ‘open war’ with Israel, promises ‘gates of hell’**

rt.com/news/hamas-open-war-israel-694/

*Hamas says that it is now in a state of “open war” indefinitely with Israel after the killing of the Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari by an Israeli airstrike.
FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES

The assassination has “opened the gates of hell,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were quoted by AFP as saying. They vowed to “continue the path of resistance.”

Mosques across Gaza were packed with mourners vowing revenge, as Hamas said no tactic would be left off of the table following the strike.

“The resistance’s options are now open and they include suicide attacks and quality attacks in Israel cities,” Ynet cites top Hammas commander Ismail al-Ashkar as saying.

Hamas spokesman Khalil Al Haya vowed its Zionist enemy would "pay a price for this cowardly assassination,” the Telegraph quotes him as saying.*
 
www.drudgereport.com as always is a prime source of news and what is a major news story, drudge has up…

Israel has hit 20 underground missile sites.

IDF ready for a ground operation (and this could be speculation)
 
meltzerboy said:
Most of the MSM can barely handle one news story at a time. Right now, we are preoccupied with the sexual exploits of Petraeus and other generals.
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The general’s love triangle, and the fact that politically the Israel-Palestine issue has been sitting on the backburner for quite a while. I don’t think it’s going to look like that in 2013.
 
Here is the New York Times story
The Israeli military carried out multiple airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday and blew up a car carrying the commander of the Hamas military wing, making him the most senior official of the group to be killed by the Israelis since their invasion of Gaza four years ago. Hamas announced that Israel would “pay a high price.”
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Mr. Jabari’s death signaled a further escalation in the renewed hostility between Israel and Hamas, the militant organization regarded by Israel as a terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction. The Israeli attacks could also further complicate Israel’s fragile relations with Egypt, where the new government has established closer ties with Hamas and had been acting as a mediator to restore calm between Israel and Gaza-based militant groups.
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Military officials in Israel, which announced responsibility for the death of Mr. Jabari, later said in a statement that their forces had carried out additional airstrikes in Gaza targeting what they described as “a significant number of long-range rocket sites” owned by Hamas that had stored rockets capable of reaching 25 miles into Israel. The statement said the airstrikes had dealt a “significant blow to the terror organization’s underground rocket-launching capabilities.”
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nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/middleeast/israeli-strike-in-gaza-kills-the-military-leader-of-hamas.html?ref=global-home
 
Some additional information from the Washington Post
Israeli jets and helicopters continued to fly over the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening.
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The announcement of the operation, which Israel dubbed Pillar of Defense, followed the latest spate of fighting between Israel and Gaza-based militants, who launched more than 150 rockets into Israel during the past week. That firing appeared to have died down by Tuesday, but the killing of the Hamas commander, Ahmed Jabari, is likely to renew the battles.
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Jabari, deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, is the most senior Hamas official to be assassinated since Israel’s devastating offensive against Gaza nearly four years ago. That offensive, too, was described by Israel as an attempt to stop rocket fire from the coastal strip.
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[Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman,] would provide no details about the projected length, scale or methods of the offensive. “This is the beginning of an operation,” she said. But the Israeli military later tweeted that “all options are on the table” and said it is “ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza” if necessary.
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washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/hamas-leader-in-gaza-killed-by-israeli-strike/2012/11/14/de2ea690-2e72-11e2-9ac2-1c61452669c3_story.html?hpid=z3
 
i have had FOX news on most of the morning waiting for Obama’s news conference and i haven’t seen anything about the Gaza air strike. i also would think this would be big breaking news. as another poster pointed out, Drudge Report had this as their main story this morning. very serious events over there.
 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an urgent meeting of the Arab League.

The
Jerusalem Post websitereports Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has declared a “special situation” covering all Israeli cities within a 40-km (25-mile) radius of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli President Simon Peres says Hamas has to make a choice: “The message is clear, no twilight. Make up your mind. You want peace there will be peace. If you want to kill you will be answered.”
 
7_Sorrows said:
i have had FOX news on most of the morning waiting for Obama’s news conference and i haven’t seen anything about the Gaza air strike. i also would think this would be big breaking news. as another poster pointed out, Drudge Report had this as their main story this morning. very serious events over there.
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I had Fox on some this morning, didn’t read the bottom ticker but the story is at the “World” section of Fox News.

foxnews.com/world/index.html

foxnews.com/world/2012/11/14/top-hamas-commander-reportedly-killed-in-israeli-airstrike/

But I mainly saw McCain, Benghazi and Petraeus discussed.
 
The IDF says the number of rockets it has so far intercepted stands at 13. Gaza has sent thousands of missiles into Israel the last few years.

Michael Oren in press release issued by Israeli Embassy in U.S.: We are sending an unequivocal message that our citizens will not be hostage to terrorist missile fire and cross-border attacks. The scope of the IDF’s defensive operation depends on Hamas and whether it takes the decision to cease firing missiles on our neighborhoods and homes.
 
Rocket fired toward Dimona for first time; another rocket fired toward Be’er Sheva; more rockets fired toward Eshkol Regional Council (Haaretz)
 
Dan Williams, Reuters correspondent in Jerusalem
tweets: Qatar, whose Emir was hosted by Hamas in Gaza last month, says Israel’s killing of Jabari “should not pass without punishment”.
 
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