GAZA - Death Toll

GAZA

DEATH TOLL:   above 300

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon - seeking to broker truce.

Obama has supported Israel's right to defend itself against Gaza rocket fire

ISRAEL - land, sea, air and ground offensive

HAMAS - [Palestinian Islamist de facto government in Gaza (following landslide parliamentary election win)]

HAMAS - Remains defiant "as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas travelled to Egypt and Turkey for truce talks". [Mahmud Abbas - PLO Chairman & President of State of Palestine [wikipedia]]

Total death toll to 307 Palestinians and 2 Israelis.
2,250 Palestinians and several Israelis have been injured.

U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA ... to shelter those fleeing.

• 47,000 Gazans seeking sanctuary with the agency.
• 20,000 displaced people received World Food Programme emergency food rations and food vouchers to more than
• 85,000 people estimated to require emergency assistance, as result of Israel ground offensive.

70% Gaza power outage (electricity lines from Israel were damaged)...
 

• Ground operation:  

Israel aim to "destroy Hamas network of tunnels which are used for cross-border attacks on southern Israel".

• Netanyahu (Israel) ...  admitted there was "no guarantee of 100 percent success."

"French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Abbas had urged Paris to ask Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting a ceasefire."

"Hamas has rejected Egyptian proposals for a truce:

1. demanding an easing of a harsh Gaza blockade imposed by Israel in 2006; and
2. the release of Palestinian prisoners."

BLOGGER SUMMARY and QUOTE SOURCE - 

Gaza Toll Passes 300 as U.N.'s Ban Heads to Region
by Naharnet Newsdesk  - 
Lebanon - here.

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OTHER

HAMAS - is a 'Palestinian Sunni Islamic organisation'  

Declared terrorist organisation by Israel, Jordan, US, EU & US western allies, Japan

COUNTRIES OPPOSED to terrorist designation:  

• Iran
• Russia
• Turkey
• China; and 
• 'many Arab nations' 

2006-onwards - Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip

HAMAS -

 'won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes.'

FATAH - largest faction of PLO multi-party confederation.

INTERESTING ASIDE:

'Fatah wanted US Secretary of State John Kerry prosecuted before the International Criminal Court for allegedly having threatened the life of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.' [wikipedia]

US Secretary of State John Kerry recently threatened PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he would meet the same fate as his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, if he turned down Washington’s proposals for peace with Israel, a Palestinian source was quoted Sunday as saying.  [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

According to Jerusalem Post's source, Kerry's proposals for the region were met with 'shock and rejection' and the proposals allegedly involved:

creating large settlement blocs where 80% of the settlers would be gathered under Israeli sovereignty. [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

John Kerry's brother, politician Cameron Kerry (US Democrats...US Secretary of Commerce), described the US Secretary of State's position as follows:

Today, his determined work on Middle East peace is informed by an abiding sense of the need to secure Israel as a home for the Jewish people. For years since that first visit, he has engaged passionately with a wide variety of leaders in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and across the region to understand the way to peace. He also maintained a 100-percent pro-Israel voting record during his nearly three decades in the US senate.

It is this deep involvement that has led to the conviction that Israel's long-term security requires a two-state solution – ... Israel cannot sustain occupation of the West Bank and remain both democratic and Jewish. ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Lieberman, and Ambassador Dermer were courageous in their defense of my brother’s motives. We can all debate the effectiveness of security measures, the delineation of borders, arrangements for East Jerusalem, and other real issues among the parties, but there is no truth and no good that can come by calling into question John Kerry's good faith toward his own heritage. Israel and the Jewish people deserve better than that.  [YNet News - here.]

HAMAS, if I understand correctly, look to Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkish government, as a model government.

Religious and secular balance sought ... but unknown if this aim is universal or if it will prevail.

Alleged that Saudi Arabia has been an early financial supporter of HAMAS.

HAMAS

• 540-million-dollar government budget for 2010 

• 90% coming from "undisclosed" foreign aid

said to include funding from -

• Iran; and 
• Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

 'Due to the Gaza blockade, Hamas still faces a financial crisis." [wikipedia] 



Criticisms of HAMAS - wikipedia - here.



[source - wikipedia - where not otherwise stated]
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COMMENT

Spent a while checking out the info regarding this region and I'm still not really all that clear.