Israel said that once Hamas stops it's attempts to attack Israel and import weapons, the siege will be lifted. It's nothing more than the UN resolutions demanded from Arabs many times over the past 61 years. If Hamas is so focused on holding on to power than to even help their own people, who are we Israelis to tell them otherwise? After all, people like you claim Hamas is the rightful leaders of the Gazans. If so, then they are responsible for their own people, and as such, no other govt or country must respect or allow free reign to any other govt or country. Israel doesn't have to like Hamas nor do business with them, and apparently, neither does the US or EU. So, Gazans can go to Egypt - oh wait, they have a siege there too. I guess Mubarak is now official a Zionist, huh?

Perhaps it even helps some war criminals to feel better in what they do.

"Occupation" - this is what Leftists call it but in legal terms and by the UN, this region is merely disputed. It is not occupied as Jordan and Egypt both relinquished their claims on the land. Law states it does not revert to the local citizens but to another govt body, ergo Israel. "siege" - you claim there is no food, no building materials, no medical care....yet, there are a lot of healthy, affluent people in Gaza. Please explain this, and the many over-flowing food stalls. "palestinians" - you mean Arabs who claim to be natives yet hail from the thousands of illegal economic migrants of the 1930s. Funny that they never considered themselves "palestinians" in 1920 but in 1964 they are suddenly a unique population - with no solidified language, no unique culture (other than terror) and no history of rule of any kind. Using your logic and obvious bias, can I band together with my neighbors and take a new name claiming to be a unique population? Then cry racism and "siege" when the local govt doesn't recognize us or allow us to have our own State? Sure I can, but using my analogy it sounds ridiculous, huh?

I had to say thank you to every "Israeli" has helped the Palestinians and considered them as a human being.....I do not deny that... but I'm talking about the " Israeli entity" in general....We dont need help from any one if you end your occupation and allow us to build our state which we dream for long time ....again thanks especially to " Israelis"doctors who i heard of my friends that most of them are real doctors

A farmer murdered in Southern Israel by shrapnel today while working in a greenhouse strongly justifies whatever lack of building materials Gazan's may experience due to their desire to turn any metal object into a terrorist device. Killing farmers will surely gain the world's sympathy and is a great way to prove to Israel, Egypt, and the UN the 'siege' should be lifted. The palestinians seem to forget so quickly, and if the past few days of rocket launches are any indication of where their minds are at, Cast Lead II may be just around to corner to remind them rockets are not the way. Send in the Paratroopers.

What did Gazans do after the Israeli pullout from Gaza? You had Gaza on a silverplatter, Judenrein, greenhouses, infrastructure, you name it. What happened? Can't you see that it is not us that is stopping you from building a state? It is you yourselves and your leaders, starting with the degenerate Arafart and your current corrupt and criminal ones.

If Gaza is such a bad place, how come so many Romanian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian women, and possibly other nationalities as well, choose to marry Gazan men and live there? How many Jews in Amsterdam were able to import wives during WWII?

Why should Gaza be any different? Why should anything Palestinian Arab be any different from any other Arab? They play backgammon, socialize,indiscriminately fire rockets at the innocent Israelis and live off the UN agencies' assistance. They produce nothing of value. Such people never succeed and they will never succeed.

Per the Oslo Accords, Israel is given control over the air and sea and borders of Gaza. That was to remain in place until official Statehood of Gaza/WB. Has that happened yet? In addition, it is the legal right of any country to control or "siege" an area or entity that is bent on terror. It's called self-defense and its enshrined in Intl law FOR sovereign nations - which Israel is (and Gaza is NOT). Your blatant biased accusation against Israel is also a blatant justification for terror.

Even after being caught using school children as human shields and tossing opposition members off roofs around the Strip. Haniyeh sleeps like a baby knowing his intransigence in maintaining political power keeps many Gazans from leaving the Strip for medical care. After doing so, there is no question as to how he sleeps after firing and threatening Fatah doctors from Shifa hospital, after they also vacated some wards of its patients specifically for Hamas members. But I guess war crimes is in the eye of the beholder...and thus far, you see these actions as justified.

Salma - let's call a spade a spade. If you REALLY wanted to focus on State building, you would have done it by now. Claiming that ALL occupation must end is a typical psychological issue that people who look for excuses to avoid work/responsibility use often. It's well documented and I see the entire "palestinian" people are obsessed with blaming others. You had the chance to build a State in 1947, but chose a genocidal route instead, and lost. You had the chance again in 1967 when Israel announced publicly on the BBC that it will give all the lands it took in order to receive 100% peace. It was rejected again on racist intentions. You had the chance again in 2000, and on the backdrop of the fastest growing economy in the world, huge hope and free movement of both people's, you AGAIN chose a violent route. In 2005, you got your chance again. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and vacated Jewish land in Gush Katif in order to give you a reason to build a State. Arab countries offered you millions to develop projects there and you had a built in economy. Rather, you destroyed it and Hamas rescinded every agreement made with Israel, with the goal of destroying it. There are tons of school books, summer programs, TV programs, etc. ALL supporting the destruction of Israel and claiming Jewish ties are a myth. If you're so interested in State building, why do you spend every waking movement and endless resources trying to destroy Israel? Fayyad *might* be your savior, but people like you (and there are plenty) will be your destruction.

That is how they steal farm animals from Jewish farmers.

The Israeli/Jewish capacity to deny the obvious and spin reality is amazing!! Jacob Shrybman seems to think that just because Israel allows the bare minimum of humanitarian aid into Gaza this negates the fact that Israel has imprisoned 1.5m people as a form of collective punishment. As with typical Israeli Hasbara it is important to leave out facts that might defeat the lie that you are trying to fool people with. In this case Jacob Shrybman omits the following facts: Gaza is still under Israeli occupation and control: 1) Israel controls and occupies Gaza’s airspace and costal region not to mention the buffer zone within Gaza. 2) Israel controls all border crossings including the Rafah Crossing. On this point I quote Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i: "Israel will not open the Rafah Crossing on the border with the Gaza Strip, and will not permit any passageway of Palestinians into Egypt until progress is made in securing the release of captured IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit”. Also: "Forget about it. Unequivocally, opening the Rafah Crossing and the crossing of Palestinians into Egypt is conditional on the release of Gilad Schalit," Vilna'i. 3) Israel controls all imports/exports thus controlling the Gaza economy this is why Gaza need international humanitarian aid as Israel will not allow Gazans to import or export goods/raw materials and services. 4) Even the international humanitarian aid is under Israeli control with Israel dictating what basic food types are allowed into Gaza and what reconstruction material is barred. Just because patients and their companions were allowed to exit the Gaza Strip for medical treatment doesn’t equate to unbridled free movement for all Gazans. I doubt if Shrybman really understands how utterly stupid his ‘argument’ really is. It is like saying that if some prisoners are allowed to leave a jail for medical treatment then all the prisoners are ‘free’ and cannot be considered ‘imprisoned’!? Aside from patients and their companions who else has Israel allowed to leave Gaza? Anyone? Helloooo?! Like I have said it is amazing to see the Israeli/Jewish capacity to deny the obvious reality in Gaza – what is equally amazing is that readers here will actually believe the BS that Shrybman spews to avoid taking responsibility for the humanitarian disaster that Israel is deliberately creating in Gaza as part of its ongoing policy of collective punishment of the Palestinian People. Call it what you like; siege/ the world’s largest prison/occupation/collective punishment/etc the fact remains that Israel controls Gaza and has never given up the illegal occupation. It is no wonder that elements among the 1.5m people that Israel is brutally oppressing would launch attacks on Israel - just ask yourselves this: Question: If 1.5m Jews were imprisoned, brutally oppressed and denied basic human rights and freedom of movement by an oppressive Goy army would these Jews just lie down and accept this or would they fight back?

How did a thai worker effect a siege on Gaza? See the Sderot Media Center's coverage on the attack yesterday- http://sderotmedia.org.il/bin/content.cgi?ID=620&q=3

Despite what you say being valid - the causes of palestinian hardship are nothing to do with a "siege". Those statistics show just how much bullshit the "Goldstoners" of the world want the rest of us to believe. Its complete and utter crap.

utter rubbish. baroness ashton described gaza as worse than haiti the UN sec Gen will see for his own eyes. israel is discredited and no one but no one believes the bs anymore

Please don't confuse me with those who support that report. I don't. Palestinian hardship in Gaza is related to alot of things, a primary cause being a self-inflicted wound by their leadership (Hamas). On the other hand, there is genuine suffering there, and Israel's easing up on the blockade could help. I am open to different ideas. My statement in my earlier post (#21) is based on something I heard from Congressman Brian Baird of Washington State. Maybe he is mistaken (maybe not). If William's idea of monitoring shipments (see Post #26) is feasible, let's try that. It is hard to see how the current squeezing of the citizens Gaza by Israel is an effective policy. My point: let's - calmly - explore alternatives.

like all prisoners, you get used to the situation and some choose to stay or return, because It's all they know. You chose what you have. In stead of your youth throwing rocks. they should try building your hospitals and roads. All that wasted energy on hate has gotten you 0 . Try 1x something different. We jews did it with a lot less then you are being offered $. where's all the 1,000,000's going into you schools that teach nothing but hate.

The reality is there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and there are no starving children. Aid continues to flow through the crossings. This year alone over 366,282 tons of aid and over 45.693 million liters of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip. Several weeks ago, 674 truckloads (16,323 tons) of humanitarian aid were transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom cargo terminal and the Karni conveyor belt. In addition to food, medicine and hygiene products, games, basketballs and balloons, trampolines and swimming pools, generators, air-conditioning accessories, clothing, shoes and hats, chairs, mattresses and Styrofoam cups; and raw materials for paper production were all transported into Gaza. But does Hamas want peace? : http://xrl.us/bezuyy

You can't put hospitals in gaza because Israel restricts access to medical education for the doctors and students. There is a seige so no one can get training. Also Israel strictly forbids the importation of medical equipment and medicines that might be dual use. In other words, Israel bans the importation of cancer treating equipment and medications. No treatment facilities for cancer are permitted by Israel in gaza. The gazans cannot build their own hospitals, they cannot staff then , and drugs/cancer treatments are strictly forbidden. If you have cancer in gaza, you must go to Israel. This is why the death rate for breast cancer in the gaza strip is the highest in the world. It can get identified but not reliably treated. This is the greatest evil Israel practices: the wholesale denial of effective cancer treatments to an entire population for fear of a dirty bomb. This is evil.

As you can see the target of Gaza is to distroy Israel and to kill all the jews, your beloved hamas leaders say this every day on the news, we listen to their horrible words broadcasted from Gaza, from Siria from Lebanon, now from Turkey almost every day. Gaza is today the capital of terrorism. How can you think that israelis should give a part of Jerusalem to you? We don't trust you at all. Hamas is fighting our existance every day planning terrorists attacks. What do you want us to do? We should not fight back? we should not reply? we should watch our people die and our kids kidnapped? STOP TERROR we will then stop reply to Gaza. Israelis do not wake up in the morning with the willing to kill palestinians, they wake up with the hope to have a silence day from all of you. We don't want to send our soldiers in Gaza anymore we want to stay out of that place forever we want to stop with this war, we had enough! STOP THIS CONFLICT and let your people live in peace with us, we have no choice if we both have to live here we can't fight each other anymore. AGAIN STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST THE ISRAELIS recognize the right for the jews to exist. Believe me your life will be different. Just see what peace caused in Ramalla and Jenin, life in the West Bank is changed completly. Make the same changes in Gaza.

This is a complete distortion of facts.

The building of hospitals and training or recruiting of doctors in Gaza is not Israel's responsibility. Israel does not forbid the import of medical equipment, medications or specialized care to Gaza. Palestinians travel to Israel for specialized care because Palestinian leadership has not used their money to invest in the provision of adequate local healthcare to meet the needs of the population. They spend their money on terror and salaries of Hamas and Fatah officials. Then they complain about delayed treatment due to border crossings. They should thank Israel for treating their patients and providing care they neglect to provide.

The Palestinians are the largest per capita receipients of aid world-wide. The Gaza "seige" is the first one in history were the amount of food and medicine provided by the outside world goes UP after the seige not down.