Does the BBC (and UN, for that matter) ever stop shilling for terrorists?
The United Nations has made an unprecedented appeal for funds to help alleviate the deepening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories.... Officials say the problem is the result of sanctions against the new Hamas-led government, as well as Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Those Israelis! If only they would allow Palestinians to move, completely unfettered, throughout their country, then there would be no suffering.
The new Palestinian government has not paid its employees since March.
Around a million Palestinians, including policemen, teachers and doctors, are dependent upon the Palestinian Authority for their wages.
Some Palestinians have already begun selling their belongings to survive. Others are cutting back on what they eat.
Pretty sad isn't it? Then how do we reconcile that sad story with news accounts like this, involving the Palestinians' new-found enthusiasm for the exciting world of rocketry?
Palestinian militants fired a Katyusha rocket into Israel yesterday, militants and the Israeli army said, the latest sign that armed groups have improved their weaponry to place a large Israeli city into rocket range following Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip last year.
The attack, which caused no injuries, marked the third time a Katyusha has been fired into Israel from Gaza. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility, adding that it plans to fire improved homemade rockets into Israel in the coming days.
Although none of the Katyusha attacks have caused any injuries, the Soviet-designed weapons pack more explosives and have a longer range than the homemade Qassam rockets commonly fired from Gaza....
Militants in Gaza routinely launch Qassams, with a range of about 10 kilometers at Israel. Those rockets carry little explosives and are difficult to aim, but have been deadly in several instances.
Islamic Jihad, which has close ties with Iran, first launched a Katyusha at Israel at the end of March, stoking fears that militants were getting more sophisticated armaments for their fight against Israel.
Islamic Jihad says it has "many" Katyushas with a range of up to 30 kilometers, placing the southern city of Ashkelon and several strategic installations well into range. However, the recent Katyushas launched from Gaza only traveled three or four kilometers, Israeli military officials said.
How many rations of food can you buy with the time, material, and efforts needed to produce a medium-range missle? And imagine what could be achieved if only a fraction of that industriousness were channelled into productive behavior, like building a business.
Ahmed was all business. With cold professionalism, he explained in minute detail the entire process of how they make the rockets.
First we crowded into a small room with breeze-block walls and a corrugated tin roof. This was where aluminum was melted down then poured into molds for the nozzle of the rocket, the tip and the other parts.
We then went into a room where two men -- dressed in black overalls and, again, with black hoods over their heads -- sat hunched over a gas burner, stirring a white powder in a large stainless steel pot.
This was the rocket propellant. Ahmed would not tell me the ingredients because, in his words, "the enemy is always on the look out to stop us from getting the materials."
But he said almost all the inputs come from Israel. The only thing that's smuggled in is the TNT for the warhead, which comes through the network of tunnels dug under the border between Gaza and Egypt.
The two men took turns stirring the white power over the fire. If they stop stirring, Ahmed said, it will explode.
No mercy for school children
This group makes three kinds of rockets: The biggest is the so-called Aqsa 103 has a maximum range of 14 kilometers, or 8.5 miles, and carries 6 kilograms of TNT.
With one of his comrades, Ahmed showed us packets of iron shards they pack into rocket warheads for extra lethal effect.
One of these missiles recently slammed into a school classroom in the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, a frequent target of the militants. The students were in another room at prayer at the time and no one was injured. Their teacher, for good reason, called it a miracle.
Ahmed was proud -- not ashamed -- that his missile had hit the school. These are not men who agonize over the morality of violence. Every mention of Israeli civilian casualties triggers a response stressing Palestinian civilian casualties....
Since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, Palestinian groups have fired more than 5,000 rockets into Israel, or into Gaza settlements before the Jews left... [CNN]