Flashpoint: Gaza
Israel has widened its military actions in the wake of the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit. The Popular Resistance Committees which kidnapped Shalit, claims to have executed another kidnapped Israeli teenager, Eliahu Asheri, and the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade claims to have kidnapped a settler from near the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion.
The Palestinian Authority has asked for a prisoner swap for the return of Shalit, whom Hamas claims is 'safe'.
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Israel has buzzed Bashar Assad's seaside summer palace with four jets. Assad harbors Khaled Mashal, the supreme Hamas leader, in Damascus. Israeli leaders accuse Mashal of responsibility for Shalit's kidnapping.
Israeli troops arrested Palestinian Government Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, a member of Hamas, in the West Bank at a road block near Ramallah.
F-16 jets blew up three bridges on critical north-south routes through Gaza, and knocked out Gaza's140-megawatt power station destroying six new transformers. Half of Gaza's power came from this plant - the other half comes from Israel. Nearly 800,000 in Gaza are now without power. Gaza's economy is already in tatters - "roughly 40 percent of Gaza's residents live in poverty - defined by the World Bank as living on less than $2.20 a day - and unemployment is 55 percent." Water supply facilities in central Gaza were also destroyed.
Israeli artillery and naval gunboats shelled northern Gaza, attacking Kassam rocket sites and a rocket factory, and shelled the town of Beit Hanoun in preparation for a ground assault.
Israel has threatened even broader military action, and a possible thrust into Syria if Shalit is not returned.
Crossposted from WILLIsms.com
