Hamas warns foreign airlines, declares truce talks over

[Bosonic]

Source: AFP

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The armed wing of Hamas warned foreign airlines on Wednesday against flying into Tel Aviv, threatening to step up its six-week conflict with Israel and declaring truce talks in Cairo over.

"We are warning international airlines and press them to stop flying into Ben Gurion airport from 6 am (0300 GMT) Thursday," said Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida in a televised speech.

Dressed in military fatigues with his face wrapped in a red and white chequered headscarf, he said Hamas was abandoning efforts to negotiate a durable ceasefire with Israel at Egyptian-brokered talks.

"We are calling on the Palestinian delegation to withdraw immediately from Cairo and not to return," said Abu Obeida in a speech broadcast on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV channel.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-warns-foreign-airlines-against-flying-tel-aviv-170038167.html

[kelliekat44]

1. This is not good. I fee sorry for the poor civilian population of Gaza and wherever this spills

into. The entire world is going crazy and it is mostly because the haves, the powerful, the occupiers, the tyrants refuse to see others as worthy human beings and continue to want and take more and more and never seem willing to give back. Add to that the international bigotry and racism against people of other religions and color and ethnicity and the world is fast becoming a toxic wasteland of violence and intolerance.

[murielm99]

2. That is not what I am seeing.

I am seeing a terrorist threat made against airlines.

[leftynyc]

3. Me too

Just waiting to see if any on DU come along to say whoever gets shot out of the sky flying to Tel Aviv deserved it somehow.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. I don't see a terrorist threat against airlines, but an effort to impose economic costs on Israel.

[Rhinodawg]

9. Dude...come on...seriously ?

[Octoberfurst]

4. How insane.

I support the Palestinian's right to a homeland and I deplore the carnage Israel has wrought on Gaza but this announcement by Hamas is just plain idiotic. Seriously WTF do they think they are going to achieve by trying to hit the airport in Tel Aviv? Hardly any of their rockets get through and it just gives Israel an excuse to keep bombing them! If they do this Israel's Iron Dome defense shield will shoot the rockets down and the bombing of Gaza will continue anew with more death and more destruction on the Palestinian people. It just makes me wanna tear my hair out. This is why I hate war so much. The innocent die and the Generals just keep the war machine going.

[DFW]

6. All they need is one well-aimed SAM

And the arms merchants have been selling them to anyone who pays. Hamas doesn't need to bomb Ben Gurion. Just look up and shoot.

[DFW]

5. I'd give things about 24 hours after the first airliner is shot down

Besides the 300 or so people killed in any passenger plane destruction, probably five thousand innocent Palestinians, along with maybe a couple hundred armed combatants, would die violent deaths, along with who knows how many Israeli casualties.

If some Israeli extremist wanted as many Palestinians dead as possible, I couldn't think of a more effective way to bring this about. If this "Abu Obeida" is really a Hamas spokesman, I really hope it's a lot more bark than bite, because if it's not, his own people will be the ones getting bitten.

[regnaD kciN]

8. My guess is that they're not planning to blow an aircraft out of the sky...

...but of having rockets come close enough to the airport to scare foreign airlines into suspending service (as they did for a short time earlier in the war). Any extended moratorium on flights to Israel could hurt their tourist economy enough to make truce concessions more imperative.

I don't see any way Hamas would, by contrast, think that actually killing several hundred airline passengers would help their cause in any way. My main concern, since there seem to be a whole plethora of disconnected Palestinian militant organizations, is that some other group of hotheads might decide to try it.

[Purveyor]

10. The liability risk for the airlines itself would be huge. Wouldn't be surprised

if their insurers cancelled coverage for flights into israel as they do on ships traveling in dangerous waters.

[seveneyes]

11. "foreign airlines?"

As if Hamas would ever put together their own fleet of Cabs, much less an airline fleet.

[azurnoir]

12. Israel quit the talks -yesterday something not apparent from the headline

16:37
PM recalls delegates from Cairo talks

The prime minister and defense minister have instructed the Israeli delegation at the Cairo talks to return to Israel because of the ceasefire violation by Hamas, Israel Radio says citing diplomatic sources.

Read more: Hamas breaches truce, fires at south, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv; Israel quits talks, strikes back | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/day-43-israel-confirms-truce-extended-by-24-hours-at-egypts-request/#ixzz3AxdSBbfp
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