Tuesday, 30 December 2008On the third day of war, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared possible ground offensive and stressed that, “We have an all-out war against Hamas and its kind”. "We will avoid as much as possible hitting civilians while the people of Hamas and other terrorists deliberately hide and operate within the civilian population," he told a parliamentary session. Israel land forces are settled in the border with war zone of Palestine and declared this place as “closed military zone”. He said that the aim of Israel for continuation offensive against Gaza is to stop cross-border rocket attack by Hamas after six month ceasefire. According to his speech, military action will continue till the end of the fear made by the Hamas against the population of the northern Israel.
Tsipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister, claimed that the target of Israeli army is terrorist militant, but unfortunately in a war sometimes civilians pay a price. She declared that our aim is not to invade Gaza Strip again; we intended just to protect our citizens from fear of terrorist groups and to end Hamas influence and terrorist action in Gaza against Israel.
However, so far in this war there are more than 360 killed, most of them are civilian, and almost 1,000 wounded people. Another thing is that, according to BBC, Israel naval forces do not let pro-Palestinian groups to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. Turkish humanitarian aid organizations such as ÝHH (Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief), Kýzýlay (the Red Crescent) and Deniz Feneri Derneđi (the Light House Association) also faced with the same problem and hit by Israeli forces.
The movement of demonstrations is still continued across the world against the Israel action in Gaza. Nearly 2000 people protested Israeli air strike in London and held demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy in England. This movement is also strong in the Turkey, where thousand of the people protested Israeli bloody action in Gaza, and demanded stopping all diplomatic action with Israel. Officials of Turkey also condemned Israel for its action. President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called stopping violent action against civil population. They also met with officials of Egypt and Iran regarding the situation in Gaza.
The UN Security Council again called for a halt to the violence. European Union Foreign Ministers also planned to meet in Paris to discuss the situation. On the other side, the United States, world leading country and best ally of Israel, condemned Hamas for this battle and did not force Israel to stop its bombing and violent actions against innocent people in Gaza.
Shamkhal Abilov |
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Journal of Turkish Weekly
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