This must be the most absurd army caualities ever heard of: "Ten other solders also suffered different degrees of cold weather injuries". I wonder how many more got injured by mosquitos?? Is the Israeli public so naive to believe this boloony? I dont think so

may g-d keep safe and strong so that you can win this war and come home with gilad. g-d bless israel amen

I still reserve judgement - very hard to trust Olmert, Livni, & Barak to do anything really effective. As long as the objective is NOT to conquer Gaza for that loser Abbas but only to seriously damage Hamas, then maybe we're on the right track. The Hamas casualty numbers will tell the truth - But Hamas cannot be allowed to claim victory, it is essential that they be perceived by Gazans (& others) as having been defeated. Otherwise, they will emerge stronger than ever.

Hang a flag on your car if your son, husband, father, brother, neighbour or friend is in the army. Hang a flag on your car if you are proud to be an Israeli. Come out of the cupboard and declare that you are a Zionist.

Wow...the photos looks like the one from Lebanon

...That they are going in hard? I've posted elsewhere that if they have the ability to hit Dimona - the ramifications of that.... is it confirmed anywhere Hamas have them or BS?

terrorists and no more capacity in Gaza hospitals, I certainly hope that frostbite and mosquitos (as you say) are the worst injuried that our soldier endure as they pulverize the Gaza Hamas Terrorist and their infrastructure.

Not defeated but leaving not one scrap of of their existence, not even the bodies of their leaders.

may they be protected and be safe ..our prayers will see them through!may God guide them as they fight with the enemies.God will be their light and protection!long live israel!God will bring victory to His people to glorify His name.PRAY FOR THE SOLDIERS!

Hashem look after our brave soliers. Keep our suvillians safe. May we succeed in taking the terror out of our nation. May there be only peace!!!!!!!!! Yiddeshe all over the world read Tehillim.

I have no doubt in IDF and IAF abilities to do what is necessary in order to finish off Hamas, but I have serious doubts in the government mainly Olmert, Livni, and Barak. But we are already in it so we have to fight united and fully support our troops. There is no more room for mistakes. For more please visit: http://israelactnow.blogspot.com/

There is no limit to the force justified to clear Hamas and those opposed to peace. Move all 2 million to other countries and level Gaza. Everyone would be happy in the end. No casualties for anyone. Israel is too patient with militants.

Despite the necessity of this operation let's not forget that in a war there are NO winners, only losers.

There is a certain utility in leaving Hamas in control of Gaza. One, we have no interest in re-occupying Gaza & becoming responsible for the well-being of Gazans. Two, it is immoral, not to mention stupid, to conquer Gaza for Abbas. This operation can be considered successful if we seriously degrade their infrastructure, destroy arms supplies, destroy smuggling tunnels, kill many of their leaders, & kill a sufficient number of gunmen. But the level of damage to Hamas must be high enough to insure the perception of defeat. Our essential problem is that we really don't have a very clear long-term goal for Gaza. There just is no concensus in Israel on this issue, we honestly don't know what we want to accomplish. Personally, I would like to see this operation, as a secondary effect, undermine Fatah. It would be particularly of interest for Fatah to join Hamas in fighting us. You can certainly see my logic.

Thank you Mr. Sharon. i am sure that you are seeing this from wherever you are. you sold our soul to the americans and this invasion proves you wrong! hopefully someone will pick on this and avoid another costly mistake. you israelis need anther 60 years to understand that your loyalty is to your Jewish citizens and not to the sub-humans that you are harboring in the Holy Land.

R. Donniel Hartman, father of an IDF soldier, penned an eloquent and touching essay on the eve of the incursion. View it at http://www.hartman.org.il/Opinion_C_View_Eng.asp?Article_Id=257

"All Gaul is divided in three parts." --Caesar's Gallic Wars Couldn't resist!

Israel needs to improve its PR machine to get the message out to the cynical uninformed biased world. More appearances of Major Avital Leibovitz & Mark Regev are needed.

Thank you and God will be with you IDF, bless israel amen , inshaalla

I disagree with you. I think the best thing to do would be to reconquer, in the very least, the precise swath of land that was unilaterally given to the Gazans for nothing in return, both to exact a punishment for their behavior and to establish a buffer zone. Call me crazy but I would re-establish settlements there as well, although I'm certain this will never be done. Recall the headlines that we used to get from the Gaza Strip back in the days when there were settlements there? "3 Qassams hit a house today in Gush Katif, none injured." "4 Qassams hit a rooftop in the Israeli settlement of..." If there are still Israeli citizens who want to inhabit that territory, why not let them? Gaza was "occupied," so to speak, not long ago. Was it that bad? Did the citizens of Ashdod and Ashkelon-- or for that matter Beersheva-- live under fear of daily rocket fire? And where, I ask, will we have to retreat to next? What will the new buffer zones be? I'm sure that the government will never see the wisdom of it, but I frankly see no other alternative, and I cannot reconcile myself to the notion that after all this, the Palestinians should retain that territory. All that this operation will otherwise accomplish is a temporary improvement. The strategy-- avoiding re-occupation at all costs-- is essentially the same strategy that was pursued in Southern Lebanon two years ago. There is more decisiveness now for sure, and that makes success far more certain, for it was indecisiveness, in my opinion, that was most at fault for the loss of deterrence then, but the lack of strategic vision seems to remain, most notably witnessed in the intention, signaled by the government, to accede to the installation of a foreign "observer" force to oversee the implementation of a more "viable" cessation of hostilities. That's simply a prescription for long-term failure, in my view.

Stop and say some tehillim (Psalms). In English or Hebrew: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt26c1.htm And remember, Shomer Yisrael never sleeps. God watches over Israel!! NO FEAR!

is if a shell accidentally kills people in a shopping center we are sorry for loss of innocent lives BUT if Hamas either sends rockets into civilian neighbourhoods or sencs sucide bombers to shopping mails it is to deliberately kill Jews. BIG DIFFERENCE

1. Pray Tehillim (Psalms); specifically, #20, 46, 67, 83, 120 & 121... or any you prefer. 2. PR - stay informed and promote Israel's just cause whenever you can, with brains and charm, without becoming strident as our enemies do. Become pro-active and write to politicians, the media, etc., promoting Israel's just defense. Enough with surrendering public relations to the Islamofascists and anti-Semites. 3. Financially support israel, the IDF, the MDA, etc. The hell with the $ crisis, now is the time to put our money where our mouths (and souls) are. 4. Get on a plane and go visit Israel to offer our moral support in person.

Undo the mistake that caused all this trouble and allow the Jews who were deported from their homes to return.

There are already destroyed TANKs and Armored Vehicles in the Strip but the Goverment is Hiding... We dont want this war our beloved soldiers will die and we will lose We have to indict OLmert and LIVNI and BARAK

While I would agree that disengagement was a mistake, it's just not in the cards to re-create Gush Katif, etc. It's not realistic to expect this to occur. Nothing prevents us (except lack of leadership) from making incursions as necessary, for example to destroy new smuggling tunnels. The idea of some international monitors in Gaza is just plain stupid as was the dumb idea of putting UN forces in S. Lebanon. That this could still be considered shows that this trio of dimwits, Olmert, Livni, & Barak, have learned nothing. We do not need any phoney truce agreements with Hamas either - deterrence will establish quiet IF we hurt them badly enough & if they know with absolutely no doubt that we will repeat punishment as often as necessary.

The ,preferable,short term solution to Gaza is to work with local and international Media as well as diplomatic means to relocate that population to an arab country and spend the huge amount of money currently spent in this dead matter by settling them elsewhere, and retake Gaza. There is no other fair solution. Israel is too tiny and the arab world is too big for this insanity to be kept. Reason must prevail over(their) hate and primitiveness and the truth of the matter must be exposed ,with the aim of solutioning the problem.Yes ,Israel has many opponentes(antisemits)who just don't want our well being,but the majority of humans ,if well directed,understand the difference between sane and insane;correct and not... This MADNESS must be put to an end. We don't want nether to be responsable fot those crazies nor want them by our side.That's very simple!They are not our problem as them and international community desire it to appear to be!

is if a shell accidentally kills people in a shopping center we are sorry for loss of innocent lives.. well thats some things natural but actully what israel doing is attacking palestinian by killing them(women and children), distroy thier houses. and with this behaviour palestinin are defending thier selves to attck them back, if some body attack your house, will you be silent???????????? or attck them back?????????? we are all human and we need freedom,,, life is short for the second life with GOD