Gaza reinvasion possible- Israeli Generals warn

[DaSangarTalib]

Following a U.S. decision to block a UN Security Council statement demanding Israel end attacks against Palestinians in the occupied territories, the Israeli government started hinting at the possibility of reinvading the Gaza Strip, from which it pulled out its forces and Jewish settlers last summer.

A wide ground invasion to the Gaza Strip could be carried out in the near future, Israeli military officials warned.

Last week witnessed intensive Israeli military operations and tank shelling, which resulted in the death of at least 18 Palestinians, including two children.

Riyadh Mansour, the Palestinian Observer at the United Nations, accused the United States on Friday of "shielding and protecting Israeli activities against the Palestinian people."

"It was obvious that many of their concerns were accommodated but yet they kept coming back and coming back for additional things”, Mansour stated, “It was obvious they did not want the Security Council to have a position”.

The U.S. Ambassador John Bolton claimed that the draft "was disproportionately critical of Israel”.

Moshe Kaplanski Israeli Deputy Chief of Staff and Major General Yitzhak Harel argued that even operation like reinvading the Gaza Strip would fail to stop the Palestinian fighters from firing homemade shells at Israeli towns.

However Kaplanski did not rule out the possibility of re-invading the region, stating that “when time comes, we will invade”, yet admitting wide operations carried by the Israeli occupation army previously had always failed to stop the firing of homemade shells.

”Unite against U.S.-Israeli coalition”

Secretary-General of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Naif Hawatmeh on Saturday urged all Palestinian groups to unite in order to be able to confront what he described as the U.S.-Israeli coalition against people of Palestine.

"Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and the Zionist regime of Israel made a coalition against the oppressed people of Palestine, the official told IRNA on the sidelines of the International Conference on Holy Qods and Support for Palestinian People, held in Iran and attended by some 16 parliament speakers from Islamic countries as well as many prominent Muslim scholars.

The only way to end the current pressure exerted by the U.S. and Israel against the Palestinian nation is to adopt a "united strategy and tactical plan against the occupying regime of Israel and its western allay (U.S.)," Hawatmeh added.

He, moreover, called on the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to try and form a united national assembly which would act as a protector of the Palestinians’ legitimate rights.