The Israeli Defense Forces (‘IDF) hit Hamas in the Gaza strip yesterday.


In one operation, the Israeli Air Force hit Beit Lahiya (below), injuring at least 15 Palestinians.

View Larger Map
In a different operation, one Hamas gunman was killed and two were wounded during a battle with IDF troops in northern Gaza.

Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas official nabbed by EU officials in 2006 trying to smuggle a suitcase full of €600,000 – US$800,000 from Egypt into Gaza now is now ‘unendorsing’ Barack Obama for U.S. President.


According to Reuters, Zuhri alleged that:

“Hamas does not differentiate between the two presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, because their policies regarding the Arab-Israel conflict are the same and are hostile to us, therefore we do have no preference and are not wishing for either of them to win,” Zuhri said.

Fascinating words from a man who openly praised a deadly attack by a Palestinian guman on Jewish religious students studying at a Yeshiva in Jersusalem. In March, the Zuhri lauded the deadly massacre as a “heroic attack.”

U.S. presidential candidates neither need, nor want the support of terrorists like Hamas, its supporters, and heinous attacks against innocent civilians.

Photo credit: BBC

Egyptian security forces seized a cache of heavy weapons in mountains roughly 48 miles south of Rafah the Gaza strip.

One report said that 30 anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons, 3,000 bullets and rifles were confiscated, but that no suspects were caught.

Hamas’ weapons smuggling operations continue from Egypt into Gaza. The weapons, training, and support continues to come from Iran.

Given that Israel told Egypt that it’s Arab neighbor must halt smuggling of weapons and other materials into Gaza as a pre-condition to any possible ceasefire with Hamas, this incident should not come as a surprise.

Egyptian sources said that the mountain region where the weapons where discovered was also used by terrorist groups charged with the 2004 and 2005 bombings of Egyptian resorts in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Top Iranian officials promised Hamas figurehead Khaled Meshal (inset, on the right) ongoing support to carry out further terrorist attacks against Israel, according to the London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper.

The newspaper reported that high level Iranian political, security, military, and religious officials met with Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshal in Tehran to discuss Iran’s ongoing supply of weapons, military training, and financial support to Hamas.


One alarming part of the report stated that Iranian Brigadier General Ahmad Wahid — a key leader of the country’s missile program — promised Mishal that Iran would “provide very advanced missiles that are currently being produced at the Martyr Bakiri Complex in Tehran especially for Hamas.”

Other Iranian officials present at the talks with Hamas included:

• Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander in Chief Maj. General Jafari;
• Brigadier General Qasim Sulaymani, Commander of Iran’s Quds Force;
• Officials from Iran’s Defense Industries Organization

Israel has long known about Iran’s role in equipping, financing, and training Hamas terrorists to carry out attacks against Israel. The New York Times reported last August that:

Hamas has sent hundreds of its fighters abroad for military training, most of them to Iran, the Israeli Army’s deputy chief of staff says, and Israel has the names of more than 100 of them.

On March 9, 2008, the The Sunday Times reported that a senior Hamas commander boasted that 300 of the organization’s “best brains” were secretly sent to Iran for military training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard:

“Iran is our mother,” the commander said. “She gives us information, military supplies and financial support.”

The Sunday Times report said that since 2005, at least seven (7) separate groups of Hamas fighters trained with Iranian instructors so that they could be snipers, make explosives out of everday items, and make deadlier rockets to use in terrorist attacks against Israel.