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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The bloodless war

Here we are, over 24 hours into the "massive" Israeli push into Gaza, and what's missing?

That's right - not one confirmed report of any deaths that I could find.

Check out Islam Online's coverage of the "invasion":

Trying to escape the large-scale Israeli military operation in Gaza which started early Wednesday, fearful Palestinian men, women and children- entire families- decided to pack and leave their homes in Gaza, seeking a safer place, stated an article on News24.

Thousands of Palestinians fled to the nearby town of Rafah, near the Gaza-Israel-Egypt border.

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Israeli jets started firing missiles at the northern section of the city.

Armored personnel carriers were stationed outside northern Gaza to move in later in the day.

Challenging Israeli media reports, which claimed that the incursion into Gaza was met with weak resistance, Palestinian media reported that resistance fighters started building barricades and were preparing hideouts and ambush positions.

Palestinian television reported that the barbarous Israeli army was indiscriminately bombing the city.

In the north, Israeli warplanes hit a power station, sending clouds of black smoke into the sky. Correspondents reported that deafening explosions were heard as three bridges and a road were also targeted in a series of air raids carried out by the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces).

Earlier in the day, the IOF took control of the abandoned airport in Dahaniyeh, which represents a strategic control and observation point over the area of Rafah and the southern Gaza Strip, and the town of Shuka in southern Gaza, in a move aimed at strengthening its positions in areas east of Rafah.

Amidst the horrific sound of fire from combat helicopters, horse-drawn carts loaded with fearful Palestinians leaving East Gaza, veiled mothers carrying their children walked along roads dimly lit by streetlamps, heading for family and friends’ houses in safer areas.

Ali Mussa, the director of Rafah hospital, told AFP that the hospital started preparing to receive any casualties caused by the unjustified and barbarous Israeli raid.

"We brought extra quantities of medicines and drugs. We are fully stocked with blood thanks to people donating in the last two days since we heard that Israeli forces were going to attack," the doctor said.

"We have increased the workload for our emergency teams. We cancelled all elective surgery. Our operating room has been ready for two days now only for emergencies," Mussa added.

Palestinian resistance organisations are warning the Israelis of unrelenting battles using significantly more firepower than in the past.

“The Israelis will pay a huge price,” Abu al-Majed, a spokesperson for the Palestinian President’s Fatah faction, once the ruling party, was quoted as saying.

“They will be entering a hornet's nest if they come again.”

An entire article about how awful Israel is...and they can't find a single Palestinian Arab with even a scratch to make news out of.