Via JPost:

Egypt is currently building an underground metal wall that will reach a depth of 16 meters, as part of an effort to cut off smuggling tunnels used by Hamas to bring advanced weaponry into Gaza.

Israeli officials said they doubted the wall would be effective, since most of the smuggling tunnels were dug to depths reaching over 30 meters and sometimes even 50 meters.

While Egypt has slightly increased its counter-smuggling activity along the Gaza border, Israel believes Hamas is continuing to bring weapons into Gaza without difficulty.

A victory for factual and historical truth.  A knife in the gut of palestinianism, which is nothing less than a movement to ethnically cleanse Jews from their historical homeland.  Via Washington Post:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, in a 344-36 vote, passed a nonbinding resolution that urges President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton “to oppose unequivocally any endorsement” of a UN report that accuses Israeli forces of war crimes in Gaza last winter. Twenty-two representatives voted “present.”

More information via Rep. Berman’s Response to Goldstone on House Gaza War-Crimes Resolution:

* After Judge Richard Goldstone wrote to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) to say that a resolution denouncing Goldstone’s report was factually inaccurate, Berman prepared a reply discussing some factual inaccuracies in the Goldstone report:

* Goldstone: The “mandate clearly included rocket and mortar attacks on Israel.”

Berman: “The broadened mandate Justice Goldstone sought was discussed, but not voted on, at a UNHRC plenary session. It was then announced via a press release in an altered formulation, more restrictive than the formulation envisioned by Justice Goldstone. The UNHRC did not create a new mandate.”

* When summarizing the results of investigations into alleged Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians, the report states that “in none of the cases reviewed were there any grounds which could have reasonably induced the Israeli armed forces to assume that the civilians attacked were in fact taking a direct part in the hostilities.” The report does not take into account that Israeli soldiers were operating under fire, in an extremely volatile and dangerous environment, in which the enemy was hiding among a civilian population.

* The report uncritically attributes numerous statements to “Gaza Authorities” (meaning, Hamas), while often casting doubt on information derived from the international and Israeli press and from non-government-affiliated Israelis. Perhaps most tellingly, the report appears only to cite Israeli statements when it finds such statements a useful basis for criticizing Israel.

Via Ha’aretz:

Hamas has smuggled a new arsenal into Gaza that would upset the balance of power, Israel believes.

Muslims currently have 160 tunnels beneath the Sinai border that they are using to smuggle longer range rockets, anti-tank missiles and perhaps even anti-aircraft missiles, security sources say. Some of the tunnels are large enough to let small all-terrain vehicles pass.

With the help of Hizbullah, Hamas has drawn up a new strategy of engagement with the IDF based on anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.

In addition, Iranian technology has been used to increase the range of Kassam rockets Hamas is producing in Gaza to more than 20 km.
Israeli officials believe Egypt has not managed to reduce the flow of arms into Gaza.

Oopsy daisy.   Looks like a member of the “poorpalestinianpeople” tribe left some explosives on a boat off the coast of Gaza that were eventually going to be used to maim and kill Jews. Via Ha’aretz:

An unmanned Palestinian fishing boat laden with explosives blew up on Monday off the coast of Gaza near the Israeli border after Israel Navy soldiers opened fire on the boat. No one was wounded in the blast.

Via NY Times:

American officials said Israeli planes bombed a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January believed to be carrying arms to Gaza during the weeks it was fighting a war with Hamas there. Two American officials who are privy to classified intelligence assessments said Iran had been involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to Gaza and that an operative with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had gone to Sudan to coordinate the effort. One American military official said the strike was one of a series of Israeli attacks against arms shipments bound for Gaza.

Via BBC:

A large stockpile of unexploded weapons fired by the Israeli military during its recent offensive in Gaza has disappeared before UN experts were able to dispose of it safely.

UN officials said they were urgently trying to establish where the arms had gone and have called for their return.

Israel has accused Hamas of taking the stockpile, which was under Hamas guard.

The bitter Israel-Hamas conflict has touched off Arab-Arab conflicts almost as bitter. Leaders of the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Saudi Arabia has put the responsibility for current violence squarely on Hamas. Critics accused Hamas of megalomania saying it has behaved like a superpower.

Read it here.

Hamas killing Israeli children is an old Muslim tactic.  But isn’t this particular act of Islamism …. how shall I say it …. disproportionate?  h/t JihadWatch:

Making good on its promise to try and “kill Jewish children anywhere.”

“Grad Rocket Strikes Ashdod Kindergarten Schoolyard,” by Hana Levi Julian for Israel National News, January 5

Hey, Jew-haters and arabist rats – think you know everything about the side you’re rooting for?  Try these on for size, you deficient sub-human muzbots:

• Israel’s Policy Is Perfectly ‘Proportionate’, Alan Dershowitz, Wall Street Journal

• Israel’s Gaza Defense, Wall Street Journal

• Hamas’s Military Force in the Gaza Strip, The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

• The Six Months of the Lull Arrangement, The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

• The Gaza rules, Victor Davis Hanson, San Francisco Chronicle

• Video: Scenes during and after a Hamas missile strike on an Israeli town.

• Video: The Israel Experience – See what it’s like to meet a missile up close.

• Video: Finding hope beyond the Gaza conflict – Amidst the violence and confrontation in southern Israel and Gaza, Israeli and Palestinian doctors work together to save a Palestinian baby’s life.

• Flickr photos from Israel’s towns and cities under fire.

Hamas continues to strike out at southern Israel firing 6 Kassam rockets and 1 Katyusha rocket into the western Negev. One exploded south of Ashkelon and others in the Eshkol region and south of Ofakim. Baruch Hashem, there are no injuries or reports of damage.

The el-Arabia news network reports heavy fighting between IDF soldiers and Hamas terrorists in the Zeitoun area of Gaza. El-Jazeera English news reports IDF tanks heading towards the former community of Netzarim where the force is dividing Gaza from Gaza City, the center from the southern areas.

IDF artillery is also hitting the Beit Hanoun area. El-Jazeera also reports IDF soldiers are operating in urban areas, conducting house-to-house searchers, arresting suspects. The report adds soldiers have taken up position in the south, in the Rafiach area between Gaza and Egypt.

30 soldiers have been wounded to date, including an officer and a soldier who were listed in serious condition but Soroka Hospital officials earlier on Sunday reported that following emergency surgery, they are now improving; the remainder of the wounded is in moderate and light condition.

Hamas TV reports the air force hit a Rafiach building and there are fatalities. Hamas reports directing anti-aircraft fire at the IDF over the el-Bureij Refugee Camp. It is not the first time that Hamas reports they are firing anti-aircraft fire but Israeli sources believe they are actually firing heavy machineguns since the
terrorists do not have anti-aircraft weaponry.

At the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert explained the decision to send the infantry forces into Gaza was made on Friday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, acting upon the recommendation of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. He explained that we decided to send in the sons to protect the parents, brothers and sisters who remain at home.

The decision was not a lighthearted one, but one that followed months of seeking an alternate solution, giving terrorists ample time to comply with a ceasefire… I can look at every parent and say we did everything to avoid sending our boys into Gaza.

The cabinet is hearing briefings from the defense minister along with the heads of various defense, security and intelligence agencies.

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu explains the operation in Gaza is not intended to eliminate Hamas’ ability to shoot, but rather to deliver a hard blow to deter Hamas from doing so in the future. Speaking to Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), the spokesman stated that the program is moving ahead as planned.

Saudi Arabia is pledging $30 million in aid for Gaza residents.

Over 3,000 people in Melbourne Australia protested Israels military operation, calling on their government to decry the Israeli action.

In Sydney, some 2,000 people took part in an anti-Israel rally. Australia’s acting prime minister has condemned the Hamas shelling into Israel.

Hundreds protested outside the Israeli Embassy in Istanbul, throwing rocks at the diplomatic compound. A similar protest was held near Israel’s diplomatic facilities in Ankara.

AS WE GO TO PRINT: Two soldiers were lightly injured by mortar fire in the Nachal Oz area. (Yechiel Spira YWN Israel)

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