1-Jan-12: Incoming mortar attack on residential areas of southern Israel; they include phosphorus

AFP reports that two more mortar shells were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip this morning (Sunday). 

They landed in the Eshkol region, causing neither damage nor injuries which was not, of course, the intention of the terrorists who did the firing. The Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees militant group claimed responsibility. 

Following police forensic tests it became clear this afternoon, according to Ynet, that both shells contained phosphorus, not for the first time. The phosphorus in mortar shells, when exposed to air, burns through anything with which it comes in contact. The phosphorus ignites on contact with oxygen and continues to burn as long as the ignition substance inside remains in contact with oxygen. 

Phosphorus shells are mostly used to hit exposed infantry, create smoke screens, and obstruct visibility for forces on the ground. Phosphorus causes extensive burns and damage to internal organs. Such shells are illegal under international law when fired at civilians.

4-Oct-06: Palestinians Say: Spilling Blood is Wrong; It's Prohibited by Islam!

It's not every day that a news report from a Palestinian source comes up with what seems a humanistic, rational, even meritorious declaration. Today appears to be the day. Listen to these words:

"Shedding blood is 'haram' ('prohibited')" it says. "And we call on all Palestinians to stop this act [meaning bloodshed] which is prohibited by our religion. We call on you, everyone, in the name of Allah, everyone who is carrying a weapon, to lay it down, to embrace peace, and to understand the challenges of painful compromise in the name of peaceful relations with people who are different from us but who are, nevertheless, human beings with their own rights, ambitions and beliefs."

Okay, so we lied. Here's the actual quotation, in full, from a Palestinian source.

Read the words of the well-publicized Palestinian PRC (Popular Resistance Committee) carefully, and think about the long, long, long, long road ahead of all of us before peace -- with its painful compromises -- becomes thinkable, let alone achievable.

Spilling Palestinian blood is prohibited by Islam, faction declaresDate: 02 / 10 / 2006 Time: 11:54 تكبير الخط تصغير الخط Gaza - Ma'an - Shedding Palestinian blood is 'haram' ('prohibited'), the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said in a statement issued in the Gaza Strip on Monday. The statement added, "We might be killed by the occupation and [for that] we can be patient and we can have sacrifices against the enemy, but to kill each other, that is unbearable." The PRC warned against the bloodshed while the Palestinian dream is being strangled. The statement asked why the world rejects the results of the elections and said, "Was there any fault committed by the Palestinian people when Palestinians voted freely in the elections and chose Hamas and the resistance to get rid of Oslo?" The statement called on all Palestinians to stop this act which is 'haram' (prohibited in Islam). "We call on you, everyone, in the name of Allah, everyone who is carrying a weapon, to aim it in the right direction, which is at the enemy," the statement said.

Think also of all the intermediaries, all the outside agencies, all the neighboring governments, all the "aid" agencies, all the compromised journalists and photographers, and all the agenda-laden analysts who are only too happy to assist in ensuring the weapons to which they refer are pointed in the right direction.

We're reserving a special space in our comments section (below) for Islamic clergy or individual adherents of the Islamic faith who are prepared to go public with a condemnation of this grotesque usurpation of their religion.

We plan to publish every single one that we receive.

25-Jun-06: The difference between terrorists and soldiers

This morning's assault on an Israeli position by three Gazan terror squads brought about the deaths of two IDF soldiers. A third soldier was snatched, alive and wounded, and dragged back to Gaza as a hostage via an 800-meter tunnel stretching into israel from Gaza. This tunnel represents weeks and possibly months of work, confounding headlines like that in Melbourne's Age newspaper that the sneak attack was somehow payback for civilian deaths in the past week.

For decades, Israel has had to deal with an enemy which kidnaps and holds to ransom any Israeli unlucky enough to fall into their clutches. No one seriously holds the terror gangs to any international standard like the Geneva Convention - though why this should be is not so clear to us. At any rate, the identity of the parties responsible is well-enough known to warrant a specific form of response.

This afternoon, the IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz reports to a deeply worried nation that, as far the army is aware, the kidnapped soldier is alive. Halutz tells a press conference:

Hamas is involved in this matter from head to foot, literally. The soldier is alive, and therefore they bear responsibility for his fate.

The so-called Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three terror gangs vying for credit for this morning's act of war, tell a Gaza radio station that the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shilat, has stomach wounds but is in stable condition.

May Hashem protect him from these barbarians, and bring his rescuers quickly and safely to his side.