‘CAST LEAD’ DIARY
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 1 – On Saturday 12/27/2008 at about 11:30, Israeli Air Force caught the Hamas by surprise and launched a massive air strike on over 100 military and Hamas targets in Gaza Strip.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 2 – Israel continued, on 12/28/2008, its bombardment, which was concentrated on the border of Gaza Strip with Egypt, in order to destroy Rafah tunnels, the main supply artery to Gaza.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 3 – The Hamas managed, on 12/29/2008, to partially recover. The organization tripled the number of rockets, over 70, fired at Israel.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 4 – The word of day for operation Cast Lead, on 12/30/2008, is ‘slow down’. The Hamas shelled Israel only with about 30 missiles.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 5 – In response to a French cease fire offer, on Tuesday 12/31/2008, Hamas increased and broadened the missile barrage on Israeli villages.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 6 – Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, 52, no. 3 in Hamas political leadership in Gaza, the military commander of Northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza Town, and a cleric, was killed along with 11 members of his family members and 3 aids, on Thursday 01/01/2009.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 7 – Friday is always a sensitive day in the Muslim World. Friday 01/02/2009 was a crucial test for Hamas in which he failed.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 8 – After yet another day of IAF bombardment and a counter shelling of rockets on Israeli villages and towns around Gaza, Israeli ground troops entered Gaza Strip , on 01/03/2009 at 19:00.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 9 – Israeli military tightened, on Sunday 01/04/2009, its grip on Gaza Town and imposed an effective siege on the town from all around.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 10 – The 10th day of operation Cast Lead, the 01/05/2009, witnessed intensified counter attacks of Palestinian fighters from the besieged Gaza Town on Israeli forces on the outskirts.
* ’CAST LEAD’ – DAY 11 – Tuesday 01/06/2009, witnessed a growing debate about the Humanitarian situation in Gaza. The Hams uses, regularly, as he did many times before, hospitals, UN installations and children as a protective shield to its operatives.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 12 – Wednesday 01/07/2009 was characterized by a total confusion over the so-called French-Egyptian initiative.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 13 – On Thursday 01/08/2009 the operation in Gaza spilled over to Northern Israel when 4 Katiusha rockets were fired to Nahariya and Shlomi, wounding two residents of an elderly citizens’ home.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 14 – On Friday 01/09/2009, at about 04:30 Middle East time, the UN Security Council passed resolution 1860 to cease fire immediately, in the fighting in Gaza Strip, regardless of the situation on the ground.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 15 – All initiatives and mediations about any possible cease fire totally collapsed, on Saturday 01/10/2009. Egypt rejected the idea of any international deployment on its side of the border with Gaza Strip.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 16 – The controversy between Hamas Leadership in Gaza and Hamas leadership in Damascus became, on Sunday 01/11/2009, public.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 17 – Hamas leader in Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech, delivered on Monday 01/12/2009, that his movement would cooperate with any initiative aimed at ending the Israeli aggression.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 18 – Israel is pushing, slowly, into Gaza City hoping to pressure the Hamas leadership to an unconditional cease fire. The numbers of missiles launched toward Israel decreased significantly from over 60 a day, in the beginning, to about 13 on Tuesday 01/13/2009.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 19 – On Wednesday 01/14/2009 at 20:00, in a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Salah al-Bardawil, one of the three Hamas delegation members from Gaza, said Hamas accepts the guide lines of the Egyptian initiative.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 20 – Hamas’s interior minister, Said Siam, was killed, on Thursday 01/15/2009, along with his brother Iad Siam and his son, as well as another senior Hamas man in an IAF strike on a house in the Jabaliya, Gaza City.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 21 – An Arab Summit of some of the Arab countries, with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an observer, gathered in Doha, Qatar, on Friday 01/16/2009, to discuss the Gaza crisis and to show support for Hamas in Gaza.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – DAY 22 – Eventually the Israeli Cabinet decided, on Sunday 01/18/2009 at 02:00, on a unilateral cease fire. The last day of the operation, Saturday 01/17/2009, witnessed a sharp decrease in the exchange of fire.
* ‘CAST LEAD’ – EPILOGUE – On Sunday 01/18/2009, Hamas and its affiliated organizations accepted a cease fire with Israel in a special broadcast in the Syrian official TV channel.
*Related topics –
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12/2008 -TANGLED ISRAEL
12/2008 -THE IRANIAN COBWEBS
01/2002 -THE WEAPON SHIP ‘KARIN A’
