While Israeli forces are massing in the north and south of the Gaza strip, Palestinians are preparing for the coming invasion.
Negotiations failed early in the process, after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refused to negotiate for the release of around 400 women and children (under the age of 18) prisoners. While diplomatic efforts have been made by , the , and among others the Israeli military buildup has been continuous and the people in Gaza have begun preparations for an invasion that could leave the city completely devastated.
Palestinian tractors and bulldozers have blocked major roads into Gaza with dirt mounds and large rocks in an attempt to slow Israeli military vehicles.
radio (Voice of Israel, Jerusalem, in Hebrew 27 Jun 06) said: “Large forces of tanks, APCs (armoured personnel carriers) and infantry troops are deployed in the Nahal Oz area. A full naval and ground blockade has been imposed on the Gaza Strip and the IDF plans to trisect the Gaza Strip in order to exert pressure to return kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.”
Sources in Al Aqsa and Al Qassam brigades, the armed resistance wings of Fateh and Hamas respectively, report that factions are working together to dig trenches and collect weapons.
The Palestinian Health Ministry built a new surgery room in anticipation of the invasion.
Residents of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in Gaza near the border with Isreael are reported to be leaving their homes and finding safe locations for children prior to the invasion.
Gazans also face a potential blockade of basic goods. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Tuesday that if IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is not released, will prevent the entry of fuel and food into Gaza. The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported that will cut off the electricity and water from the Gaza Strip as well.
Two thousand five-hundred Egyptian police are currently guarding the Rafah crossing, which is also indefinitely closed. [Source
I am still wondering why did they kidnap the soldier? I doubt that it was part of the "plan"! There's no way that Israel will get on its knees and negotiate an exchange of prisoners with Palestinians when they know that they don't have to. If the soldier gets killed; he is a hero, the Israeli public will demand retaliation (and it's not like we're short on daily deaths) and Palestinians will only get to mourn their beloved ones and their reputation as terrorists will preceed them in miles and miles.
If they release him, Israel retains its power and the people's trust, I think they should in this case send a "Thank you" letter to the abductors. Palestinians will lose not just dignity but also trust in their government as well as in the resistance, especially if that the longer they keep the soldier the longer Palestinians suffer. They will ofcourse continue to look bad; they are terrorists who scared a little soldier and kidnapped him instead of killing him because they were hoping that that will create some pressure on the Israeli government enough to make it release around 400 women and children who are under the age of 18.
So what exactly were they thinking? did the soldier beg them not to kill him? sounds funny but makes more sense to me!
Gazans are preparing for the expected invasion by the IOF and I'm trying to imagine what it's like to anticipate funerals and destruction. Where to stay after they demolish my home? whom to send my sons and daughters to live permenantly with if I get killed? How many days can an infant live underground and what if we ran out of milk? Nevermind the smaller questions which no one will dare to ask when death is near.
But what never ceases to amaze me; is the absurdity and brutality of the Israeli rightists:
Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the extreme right wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, called on Monday for a massive military invasion into the Gaza Strip and for the abduction of the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya in retaliation for Sunday's attack at the Kerem Shalom Israeli crossing.
Talking to the Army Radio, Lieberman also called for the dismissal of Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz and described his conducts as “spineless course of action”.
Lieberman stated that Israel needs to tell Haniyya and all leaders of Hamas that it will turn their homes into “soccer fields” [Source]
If his captors are smart, they will realize that this guy will be free and the most they could wish for out of his capture is to make a good clear message. That message can be made if they deliver this Israeli person to the Palestinian authorities and file a claim against him saying that he trespassed on Palestinian land in the past and participated in illegal occupation activities in the Palestinian side of the borders.
Then, the Palestinian authorities can either succumb to the pressure of Israel and let him go, or they can try as much as they can to play along with the same game by holding him in detention for a while until they can put him in court and have the prosecutor present evidence against him.
This really will not result in a trial or anything. It will simply result in a story exchanged by the press that the Palestinians are trying to pursue Israeli occupation soldiers in Palestinian courts, something that is definitely a first, but that will definitely be hushed by all the media here in the US as it doesn’t help to present palestinians in a more civilized manner than that which they usually managed to present themselves with in the past (random militancy).
However, forgetting the media, this gives Palestinian negotiators one more thing to talk about the next time they sit down with Israelies. It gives them the opportunity to tell the Israelies “ok, you take whatever prisoners you want who infiltrate Israel, but we also need to be able to take prisoners who infiltrate our land too.”
Israelies might not like that and might try to go around it in negotiations. Or they might commit the mistake of saying “ok” thinking that they have the upper hand in that Palestinians will never be able to capture the heavily armed Israeli occupation soldiers. But that still will give Palestinians an advantage over what they have today because in that case Palestinians can say in the future “well you are harboring criminals that are currently wanted in Palestinian courts and your soldiers helped them escape, your security forces are not helping us cooperate”.
These things are examples of the million of small things that Palestinians should be saying and doing to slowly change the ryhthem with which this conflict moves forward.
Take it from me as I’ve learnt this from working here in a company that has nothing to do with real politics. The politics at work say that even if you think you’re not gonna get what you want, you have to say it, and pursue it, just to establish that demand and add it to the list of requirements that you have so that you can make it harder in the future for the other side to give you less. The more you demand and the more they ignore, the harder they can ignore more stuff in the future.
Hamzeh, from my job experience, I think that we have too many inside conflicts to focus on the enemy and do what you’ve suggested! Prisident Abbas seems to care less about what Palestinians really want, but rather he’s concerned about getting the whole thing over ASAP!
It doesn’t really matter what he thinks. Even inside Palestine if the captors do that they can use it in the future against Abbas and the like by saying “we gave you the criminals in the past to prosecute them in palestinian courts and you didn’t even care to entertain that thought and instead just released them back while you know the other side won’t do the same”. Of course the answer from the other side then is going to be “it wouldn’t have happened anyway, they would have forced them free”, but that is also irrelevant because the real advantage is in setting the precident and the mood in future negotiations that Palestinians do have to deal with Israeli criminals participating in illegal occupation activities and that just as Israel can arrest palestinians who do illegal stuff in Israel, Israelies who do illegal stuff in Palestine aren’t exempt from detention either.
The kidnapped soldier should infact be released.