Monday, November 20, 2006

Land of the brave...

From Ha'aretz

The IDF canceled a planned air strike on the home of a militant in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday after several hundred Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an IDF spokesman and witnesses said. Palestinian sources said the protest against the planned IAF strike was first of its kind to have in effect prevented an air strike. An IDF spokesman said the strike had been called off so to avoid inflicting civilian casualties. Hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield around the home of the militant in Beit Lahia late Saturday to prevent an Israel Air Force air strike on the building, residents said. "The attack plan was canceled because of the people there," the spokesman said. "We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists," he added. The spokesman vowed Israel would continue its strikes against militants, and accused gunmen of using the civilians in the camp as human shields. People flocked to the home of Mohammed al-Baroud after he received a warning from the army late Saturday giving him 30 minutes to leave the house. Barhoud is a commander in the Popular Resistance Committees in the town who is in charge of firing homemade rockets at Israel. Crowds of people stood on the rooftop and in the yard of the home. Israel routinely orders occupants out of homes ahead of air strikes on suspected weapons-storage facilities, saying it wants to avoid casualties. The incident in Beit Lahia was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent such an airstrike.The crowd chanted anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and people said they were prepared to give their lives to protect the home. "Yes to martyrdom. No to surrender," the crowd chanted."We came here to protect this fighter, to protect his house and to prove that we are capable of defeating this Zionist policy," said Nizar Rayan, a local Hamas leader who joined the protest...

4 comments:

oyzz said...

nice one palestine !

but israel has such a way of twisting events to thier own benefit eh !

Aisha said...

you know what's sad about this? that people from the west would actually use it AGAINST us! they say we shouldn't be defending the terrorist!
im still shocked by that. the more i discuss politics with non-arabs the more surprised i get. i can't believe they actually view hamas as terrorists!
lol i find it kind of wierd to hear them say it knowing that my dad's cousin is a hamas minister!
i feel like im stuck between the 2 worlds..

Aisha said...

oh... maybe i shouldn't have spread that. oh well, "qol lan yuseebana illa ma kataba Allahu lana"..

Jester said...

Palo, Your secret's safe with me!