Morning Coffee -- News Update 12-29-08

By David Hinz - Posted on December 29th, 2008

A quick look at news from around the world for Monday, December 29, 2008

Israeli airstrikes retaliate against months of rocket attacks -- some civilians injured

For months Hamas militants have lobbed rockets into Israel, targeting civilian areas, while Israel threatened retaliation. That retaliation came this weekend in the form of more than 300 precision airstrikes against Hamas rocket targets previously identified by the Israeli military.

An official Israeli Defense Forces statement read in part:

"Our aviation intervened massively against Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip to stop the terrorist attacks of the past several weeks against Israeli civilian installations.

"Our operations will continue and will be expanded if necessary."

Unfortunately, many of the rocket launchers had been placed by Hamas in civilian areas of their own, creating a human shield, and maximizing civilian death and injury to the international media.

Thus far, 290 deaths have been reported, most of them Hamas militants, but some 20 children have been among the dead as well. In all more than 1000 injured have been reported.

In addition to the rocket positions, Israeli airplanes struck more than 40 smuggling tunnels to the South, connecting Gaza with Egypt. These tunnels have been used to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza to be used by the terrorists against the state of Israel.

The response from Hamas has been to call for suicide attacks against Israel, a further escalation of the fighting. On Al Jazeera television, Khaled Meshaal called for retaliation. "We have called for a military intifada against the enemy. Resistance will continue through suicide missions."

Israeli Defense Minister and former Prime Minister Ehud Barack did not rule out the possibility of Israeli ground attacks against the militant strongholds in Gaza. "The operation will go on and be intensified as long as necessary. It won't be easy and it won't be short. There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight."

Predictably the Israeli action has sparked protests around the world and calls for condemnation from Arab nations within the United Nations. The streets of London were flooded with more than 1500 violent protesters who tried to force their way into the Israeli Embassy in that town.

More than 20,000 protesters were organized for demonstrations in Egypt, while protesters in Jordan and Lebanon burned Israeli and American flags.