Mideast crisis--Blog from Jerusalem
JERUSALEM--You can call it the 'Forgotten Front'.
A month ago today, the world watched without blinking as Israeli troops entered Gaza in an effort to retrieve a captured soldier and destroy Hamas's terror infrastructure used to build Kassam rockets, which were being lobbed on nearby Israeli cities. Then, two weeks ago, all eyes turned north toward Lebanon, where if things get out of hand they could snowball into a regional war.
But the fighting in the Gaza Strip did not stop. Israeli soldiers battling with Palestinian gunmen have occupied parts of northern and southern Gaza. On Wednesday, 22 Palestinians were killed, including three girls and 14 gunmen--more than on any other day since the fighting began in Gaza. Since the start of the military offensive, the Israeli military has conducted 202 air strikes and fired between 200 and 250 artillery shells into the strip every day. Palestinian militants have fired, on average, nine homemade rockets daily at Israel.
Of the 150 Palestinians that have been killed since the Israeli military incursion began in Gaza, approximately 31 of them have been reported to be children. About 100 families (703 people) in the southern Gaza Strip and 747 people from the northern Gaza Strip were forced to abandon their homes because of a rise in shelling by the Israeli Defense Forces. One soldier was killed in the initial invasion of the northern Gaza Strip.
The Egyptians have been trying hard to make a deal to get the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, freed. So far, they have failed to find an agreement acceptable to both sides. But Israeli military sources say that Hamas's military-wing (which is holding the soldier along with the Popular Resistance Committees) is more willing to compromise now because it can't hold the soldier forever in the strip without being discovered.
Meanwhile, both the Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza and the Palestinians suffering there are complaining. In an article in a local paper, Israeli soldiers said that despite all their work in reducing terror attacks on Israel, "we don't get any credit. Only the soldiers fighting Hezbollah do."
The Palestinians say that their situation is only getting worse and the international community is not paying much attention. After Israel bombed the Gaza power station, electricity is on for an average of only six to eight hours a day per house and water is running for two to three hours. "There is no fuel, little electricity, no energy at all. Things don't work and we have shortages," Abu Ziyad al-Ghol, a 61-year-old farmer and retired accountant from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip told U.S. News. "I have 33 grandchildren and they are suffering very badly psychologically. They have lost their childhood."
July 27
JERUSALEM--Nine on Wednesday, two on Monday, five on Saturday, two last Thursday, and two last Wednesday. These are the numbers of Israeli soldiers killed in battle since Israel began its ground invasion.
One of the most highly trained and best-equipped armies in the world is sustaining what, for this small country, amounts to high casualties from a group of guerrilla fighters who number only a few thousand. And the Israeli Army has just begun its advance into southern Lebanon.
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