I haven't been following the news much lately. I've been more interested in working on The Bussard Fusion Reactor (BFR). So I missed the beginnings of happenings in Gaza. So for those of you as out of the loop as I am and for those interested in a recap and the latest news. Here goes.

Let us begin with how this latest dust up began. It seems Israel is tired of being rocketed by the Palestinians. Or more properly: former Egyptians living in Gaza. The Jewish Telegraph Agency reported on Friday, 29 Feb:

Rocket attacks enabled by Hamas have increased since Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza last month in a bid to stop the rocket attacks and have in recent days reached as far north as Ashkelon.

A college student in Sderot was killed on Wednesday and a home in Ashkelon was hit Thursday. On Friday, a rocket hit a Sderot home while a family was having lunch, slightly wounding a woman.

Top Israeli lawmakers called for massive military action in the Gaza Strip.

Tzachi Hanegbi, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and a member of the ruling Kadima Party, told Israel Radio on Friday that Israel should reoccupy parts of Gaza and topple the Hamas government.

Matan Vilnai, the deputy defense minister called for a "catastrophic" response, and Gideon Saar, a member of the opposition Likud Party, also advocated a raid, according to reports in Ha'aretz.

Ehud Barak, the defense minister, has said such action is possible, but not in the immediate future.

So it started with rockets. Which actually have been a problem for Israel for years. This report from February of this year is emblematic.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening fired eight Qassam rockets at the southern town of Sderot, one of which directly struck a home in the city leaving six people lightly wounded.

According to the city's senior security officer, most of the rockets hit open fields around the city, but the barrage caused a power outage in one of the city's neighborhoods.

The Jerusalem Post picks up the story.

As IDF troops entered the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, two soldiers and more than 50 Palestinians were killed, at least half of them gunmen, on the deadliest day in the territory since Hamas seized power there last June.

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired over 50 rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, in defiance of the IDF assault.

Six Israelis were wounded, all but one of them lightly, in rocket fire that reached as far north as Ashkelon, 17 km. from Gaza.

Hamas is improving its rocket technology, and will soon be able to hit "any target in Israel," Reuters quoted a senior member of the organization, Fathi Hamad, saying Friday at a rally in the Gaza Strip.
[Hamas Prime Minister Ismail...]

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh speaks after prayers at a mosque in Gaza City, Friday.
Photo: AP

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was recently reported to have "gone underground" out of fear he would be targeted for assassination by Israel, also spoke at the demonstration. Haniyeh addressed the possibility of a large-scale IDF incursion into Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also spoke about a possible IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, saying that Hamas was "in a war against the new Nazis."

Zuhri's comment came after Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i said Friday that "as long as the rocket attacks escalated, the Palestinians are bringing upon themselves a bigger Shoah [Holocaust]."

Feb 29, 2008 4:08 (Israel Time - ed.)
US sends 3 warships to Mediterranean as tensions mount
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

The US Navy is sending at least three ships, including at least one amphibious assault ship, to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in the volatile region.

"This is an area that is important to us, the eastern Med," he said when asked about news reports of the ship movements. "It's a group of ships that will operate in the vicinity there for a while," adding that "it isn't meant to send any stronger signals than that. But it does signal that we're engaged, we're going to be in the vicinity, and that's a very, very important part of the world."

Another military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because full details about the ship movements are not yet public, said a Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Cole, was headed for patrol in the eastern Mediterranean, and the USS Nassau, the amphibious warship, would be joining it shortly.

Another military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because full details about the ship movements are not yet public, said a Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Cole, was headed for patrol in the eastern Mediterranean and that it is accompanied by two refueling ships. The Cole is equipped to engage in a variety of offensive actions, including anti-aircraft and land attack missions.

What it does mean for sure is that operations will be sustained.

What about reaction? The Hamas head guy in Damascus Khaled Mashaal has some really strange things to say.

Damascus - Khaled Mashaal, the Damascus-based leader of the Palestinian militant movement Hamas, accused Palestinian authority leader Mahmoud Abbas Saturday of causing the Israeli offensive into Gaza Strip by saying Hamas supported the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

'I accuse the leader of the Palestinian authority of providing an excuse for this Israeli Holocaust, whether he meant it or not,' Mashaal told reporters during a press conference in Syria.

He added: 'Is it logical that a Palestinian leader accuses his people in Gaza and accuses them of supporting the al-Qaeda? Isn't it a chance for the Zionists and Americans to launch the attack?'

As if all this murder and mayhem wasn't bad enough there is some very, very, bad news.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian authority appear likely to be called off this week, after civilians were killed in heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials say at least 50 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.

Fighting in Gaza continued into a second night, as Israeli air and ground troops attacked Islamic militants in the strip.

But Palestinian medics say half of those killed since the offensive began on Friday night have been civilians and that has led to international calls for restraint.

How has the Arab world reacted to the rocket attacks?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be the first to admit he is powerless to halt the attacks on Israel from Gaza, and there's been minimal intervention from Egypt or any other Arab government to persuade Hamas to call off these attacks.

As the death toll in Israel Defense Forces raids against miltiants firing rockets from Gaza climbed to more than 60 on Saturday, Palestinian Information Minister Riad al-Malki responded by saying: "Hamas gave Israel an excuse to start a war in Gaza."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also responded along these lines by saying that the "operation in Gaza is not just a reaction to the rocket barrage." Both comments can be interpreted as Palestinian backing of the Israel Defense Forces ground incursion in the Strip.

Moreover, the very mild Egyptian reaction and the conspicuous absence of a convicting Arab voice also indicate that the IDF raid is perceived by the Arab world to be first and foremost a war against Hamas, not the "real Holocaust" of the Palestinian people - as Khaled Meshal claimed on Saturday.

The fact that Al Jazeera devoted a whole episode of a popular debate show to the question "Why are the Palestinians keeping silent about the situation in Gaza?" also serves to prove this point.

Instapundit also has more.

An interesting bit of news from Lebanon. It seems the Saudis expect the war to extend to there as well.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Saturday called on their citizens living in Lebanon to leave the country as soon as possible, a Lebanese television report said.

Future Television, privately owned by Saad Hariri who heads the majority anti-Syrian bloc in parliament, said Saudi Arabia had advised its nationals to leave Lebanon "as soon as possible."

There was no one available at the Saudi embassy to comment on the report.

A government source said that the Lebanese government was advised about the Saudi decision which called on their citizens to "leave Lebanon if they can and to be very careful in their movements inside the country."

Kuwaiti citizens living in Lebanon received urgent messages on their mobiles saying that "all Kuwaiti citizens are asked to evacuate
Lebanon as soon as possible."

What Hizballah is probably waiting for is for Israel to be fully engaged in Gaza before opening the Lebanese front.

Cross Posted at Power and Control