What Can You Do In 270 Seconds?

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle An interesting question needless to say. 270 seconds = 4 minutes. You can boil an egg. You can kiss your spouse. You can give your children a big hug. If you are Israel, you can destroy 40 Tunnels that connect Gaza to Egypt.

The IAF destroyed 40 tunnels that connected the Egyptian and Gazan sides of Rafiah (Rafah) in a bombing sortie that lasted 270 seconds Sunday afternoon. Plumes of black smoke mushroomed into the air one after the other as the IAF cast bombs at the tunnels which line the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza. The Corridor is supposed to be guarded by Egyptian forces but these have proven unable or unwilling to prevent large-scale smuggling of weapons and other supplies into Gaza. A high ranking military source said that all of the tunnels which have been used by Hamas to smuggle weapons have been destroyed. Observers said the IAF may have used U.S.-supplied "bunker buster" bombs to destroy some the tunnels. As part of the psychological warfare against Gaza, hundreds of residents of Gaza received recorded telephone calls in which they were warned: "You are in danger. In order to save your life and that of your family you must leave this place. This is a message from the Israel Defense Force." The top source said that the IAF has carried out 213 sorties over Gaza since Operation Cast Lead began, 56 of them by combat helicopters. Most of the sorties were carried out Sunday. He said that some of the tunnels were buried deep in the ground and their demolition was made possible thanks to accurate information supplied by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). The source said that the fighting would go on for a long time and warned that we would see "difficult days" in the course of the operation.

Strange war this is. The enemy calls up the civilians in Gaza and tells them to take cover. When did Hamas ever do that for the people of Sderot. Day 2 of Operation Cast Lead is going well. Hamas still fires rockets into Israel, this time reaching as far as Ashdod, Israel is hitting military targets with precision and accuracy.

Gaza terrorists continued firing rockets at the western Negev Sunday afternoon, although the pace of the attacks had slowed by 4:00 p.m.

Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, suffered shrapnel wounds and several others suffered traumatic shock Sunday afternoon when the missiles bombarded the coastal city of Ashkelon at mid-day.

The terrorists are using 122-mm Grad-type Katyusha missiles, of the type that can reach a range of up to 40 kilometers. Several cars were also damaged after one of the missiles struck the southern end of the port city. The second missile landed in an unidentified location. Less than an hour later, two rockets exploded in the Eshkol region. No one was injured and no damage was reported.

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And the usual noise is coming out of Lebanon. Again the people of Lebanon will suffer for the actions of Hizbollah.

Hizbullah terrorists have vowed to open a second front against Israel in the north in retaliation for the IDF military operation against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Terrorist chief Hassan Nasrallah issued a statement on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television station Sunday, vowing that "northern Israel will burn as Gaza is burning." Nasrallah rarely appears in person; he speaks via a video hook-up from his hideout due to fears of assassination by Israeli agents, following the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Hizbullah officials were quoted in a number of Arabic-language publications on Saturday warning that they would not permit Israel to attack Gaza without retaliating. Last week seven Katyusha rockets were discovered primed and ready for launching in southern Lebanon, located near the northern border of Israel. All seven were aimed at targets in the Jewish State. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- anticipating such a reaction -- warned Hizbullah Saturday night in his speech informing the nation about the military operation in Gaza that any "others who may seek to take advantage of the situation would be wise not to."

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In 2006 the world saw the dead children but not the dead Hizbollah fighters. Reports say that Hizbollah was decimated with losses of over 60%. I believe those reports since Hassan Nasrallah ordered that no funeral for any fighter be shown on the news, only those for civilian casualties. Thus the world got an distorted view of the war.

This time it is different. This time the Israeli people are 100% behind this action. This time the media is showing more pictures of dead and wounded Hamas fighters (I will not give them the honorific of soldier). And this time Israel will prevail.

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY View at YouTube