not good - Mideast Truce Threatened After Shelling...

'JERUSALEM, June 9 — Israeli shells hit a crowded beach in northern Gaza on today, killing at least seven Palestinians, including a family of five and two women, and wounding more than 30 others, according to Palestinian journalists and medical personnel.' http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/world/middleeast/09cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1149912000&en=6bbebfb17b035bd6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Where innocent civilians are having a picnic:shrug:

sad, ain't it?
we cannot Talk about this in the sunlight.

I'm confused, why were they shelling a beach? :shrug:

the truce is called off.

Not for those for whom it's a fundamental of belief that any evil must be Israeli in origin. But still, somebody had a reason for the actions that eventually caused the large 'boom' there that killed people.

What I'm also curious about was a snippet from the story on another thread (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x127173):

"Israeli forces today attacked the northern Gaza Strip with a series of air strikes and artillery fire, killing at least nine Palestinians, including six civilians who had been enjoying a family picnic at the beach."

So 6 of them were civilians. And the others were ... military? (But the PA has no military.) I doubt the 3 non-civilians, whatever that means, were targets.

I'll be curious to see what the IDF says.

not only is 'the handwriting on the wall', but beside the wall itself where there are panels of ancient, well time-worn buttons; i'm not trying to be too poetic here, but it is clear that factions from each side, indeed, from all sides, press those buttons to elicit a host of response'...and they do so somewhat routinely.

word was that Hamas sympathizers to say the least, were shelling Israel with rockets themselves from that general area. imo you simply cannot hide behind civilian flesh & blood to carry out certain activities- again imo. still...

they had to have known that Hamas would respond. and ya'know what? they did ~

in the vacuum created by the death of zarqarwi, i think that buttons long since dormant will be pushed anew. to flush out a host of new replies, if while, somehow, simultaneously ancient & predictable; it seems the nature OF the middle east