The newz iz coming thick & fast out of the ME now, peoplez !!!
Kimbo, I think U r right about the prelude to World War III in July
2006 -- seems to be
heading that way, don't it ?!?!?
Still remains to be seen if this particular screenplay gets out of hand
soon, though !!
It could still go either way -- who knows for better or worse....
It'z all up to the behavior of the Israelis....
HOOROO
UNCLE WALLY
---0---'
www.washingtonpost.com/
Gunmen Claim to Kill West Bank Settler
Pressing Search for Kidnapped Soldier, Israelis Detain Palestinian
Officials
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 29, 2006; Page A20
GAZA CITY, June 29 -- Palestinian gunmen holding an 18-year-old Israeli
settler announced before dawn Thursday that they had carried out their
threat to kill him. Israeli military officials later said soldiers had
found a body matching the description of Eliyahu Asheri near the West
Bank city of Ramallah, although officials had yet to make a definitive
identification.
During a news conference here Wednesday, members of the Popular
Resistance Committees pledged to execute Asheri, from the northern West
Bank settlement of Itamar, unless Israel stopped a military operation
in Gaza that officials say is underway to free Cpl. Gilad Shalit, a
19-year-old Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian gunmen this week.
It was unclear, however, when the body believed to be Asheri's had been
killed.
At about the time the group announced Asheri's execution, Israeli
troops swept through the West Bank and arrested more than a dozen
political officials from Hamas, the radical Islamic movement
responsible for the operation of the Palestinian government.
Among those arrested during a raid on a compound near Ramallah were
Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, two other Cabinet ministers and
four lawmakers. Israeli soldiers had arrested Labor Minister Mohammed
Barghouti earlier in the operation, which in all swept up more than 30
Hamas officials across the West Bank. Hamas officials gave those
estimates. Israeli military officials said they could not comment on an
ongoing operation.
Asheri's apparent death and the Hamas arrests were certain to inflame
the confrontation surrounding Shalit's capture, which broadened early
Thursday to include airstrikes on what military officials described as
a weapons storage site in Khan Younis, roads in southern Gaza and an
open area in Gaza City.
The Popular Resistance Committees is one of three armed groups,
including Hamas's military wing, that are holding Shalit. It was not
clear, however, how the Hamas arrests were related to either Asheri's
or Shalit's case.
But the arrest operation followed a call from the Hamas-run government
Wednesday to exchange Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for
Shalit, bringing the movement's elected political leadership directly
into the dispute. Israel's Army Radio reported that the arrested Hamas
lawmakers would be offered for Shalit's release.
The arrests came after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's warning
Wednesday that Israel "will not hesitate to take extreme steps" to free
Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian gunmen during an attack Sunday
on an army post that left two soldiers dead.
Near midnight on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over
several towns in northern Gaza warning residents not to interfere with
military operations, suggesting that the start of one could be
imminent. Israeli artillery batteries, quiet for nearly three weeks,
had begun firing into open areas in the northern strip a few hours
earlier.
"The full responsibility for the situation we are in belongs to the
Palestinian-Hamas government and elements that are connected to it in
Syria," said Olmert, referring to the movement's political leadership
in exile that Israeli officials believe ordered the Sunday attack.
Israeli military jets later buzzed the Syrian coastal city of Latakia,
shaking President Bashar Assad's summer residence with a sonic boom.
"Any deterioration in the situation, and any worsening in the situation
of the population, will be in their direct responsibility," Olmert
said.
The Israeli military campaign here began before dawn Wednesday. An
Israel airstrike on a main power station left roughly 700,000 people in
Gaza -- about half the population -- without electricity. Engineers
estimated that it could take three months to repair.
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