ON Ground Updates: Israel/Palestinian Conflict, February 1, 2009

ON Ground Updates:

Israel/Palestinian Conflict
Olmert vowed Sunday to hit back at Hamas with “disproportionate” force

Sunday, February 01, 2009
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File photo by IAF

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* FT.com brings us this report this morning and it starts off like this... Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to hit back at Hamas with “disproportionate” force, amid growing signs that the fragile ceasefire that ended three weeks of conflict in the Gaza Strip was unraveling... The Israeli prime minister’s statement came after at least three rockets and 13 mortars fired by Gaza-based militants struck Israel. There was no claim of responsibility, but Israel holds the Islamist group responsible for all fire emanating from the territory...
Read the rest at link below...
Olmert threatens fierce response to rockets
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* YNETNews.com has this report and it starts off like this... Palestinian leader slams armed groups in Gaza for 'ending ceasefire due to interests and agendas that have nothing to do with the Palestinian people'... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the failure of the truce with Israel on the Palestinian factions in Gaza...
Read the full report at link below...
Abbas: Rockets give Israel excuse for escalation
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* IsraelNationalNews.com is reporting today... (IsraelNN.com) Residents of Rafiah and Khan Younis in Gaza reported Sunday evening that they received recorded phone messages from the IDF with warnings of the kind that often precede IDF attacks... "Any person who is located near a terror center or a weapons storage facility or a tunnel must leave the location immediately,” the warning said... Ynet reported that Hamas evacuated its personnel from all government offices Sunday. The evacuation was not announced formally so as not to alert the population to the danger...
Read the rest at link below...
IDF Phones Gazans, Warns of Coming Strike

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