King and PM speak out as a total of 42 Palestinians in a UN-run school died on the day the Three Kings brought a message of peace and goodwill to Spain
BOTH the Spanish King and Prime Minister have called for an immediate halt to the violence in Gaza.
The calls came as Israeli bombs killed 42 people sheltering in a UN-run school in the Palestinian enclave.
Children are thought to have been among those who died when three tank shells exploded in the yard outside the building in the Jabalya refugee camp.
Medical officials in Gaza said hundreds of people were sheltering to escape being hit during operations against the militant Islamic group Hamas.
In total 75 Palestinians died on the day that the Three Kings brought a message of peace and goodwill and gifts to children across Spain. In total 629 have died since the conflict began.
Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Zapatero, slammed Israel insisting the country was not on the road to peace in the Middle East.
The Spanish Prime Minister insisted that the population should not be held hostage, and that everyone must make an effort to avoid the serious spiral of violence.
He roundly condemned the ‘absolutely disproportionate reactions of Israel’ which he said ‘are against international human rights’.
But he also criticised the ‘irresponsible and provocative conduct’ of Hamas by breaking the cease fire.
He called on the international community to react. He is expected to pass on his opinions to Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, this week and is due to meet with President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas in Madrid on Friday.
Meanwhile King Juan Carlos has joined calls for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
In a traditional Epiphany Day speech on Jan 6, King Juan Carlos said the crisis demanded “all diplomatic efforts necessary to achieve, as our government has urged, an immediate cease-fire to bring an end to the dramatic situation of violence and suffering in the region.”
Medical officials in Gaza said more than 2,700 Palestinians have been wounded since Israel began the campaign before Christmas. It’s declared aim is ending the Hamas rocket attacks on its southern towns.
Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed in the conflict.
I grew up always believing that Jews were intelligent people. I don’t think carpet bombing Gaza and killing hundreds of people in retaliation for the deaths of a handful, is very intelligent.
They will pay heavily for this and alienate themselves from all the surrounding Muslim countries.
“alienate themselves from all the surrounding Muslim countries.”
I think they did that decades ago…
It’s awfully funny don’t you think, that you see, if you look closely, the same photos over and over again especially of children being hurt etc.
How would you like it if, for 6 years, rockets are going off on & off, and one never know where or when they will strike next. . . .that’s how the Israeli’s have been living since the Hamas took over in the Gaza strip. The Palestinians know how Israel will react when they have had their fill, so why have the Palestinians allowed the Hamas to go underground amongst women & children, and dig tunnells to get weapons to use against the Israelis. . . . .
Say Malaga was Israel, and all the surrounding areas were Arabs, that you know really want you out of there. . . . .Do you really think Malaga would or should sit still and wait to be annihilated, or start taking action especially when Malaga knows that Hamas has taken over & is in there midst keeping weapons, and grenades in the houses of civilians.
I wonder why noone ever mentions these things, the close borders & Hamas terrorists. . . .
Ok,did the Hamas issue a cease fire because the 6th January was a high holiday for the muslims, I didn’t hear of any.
Don’t get me wrong, I think fighting anywhere is a terrible waste of manhood, because whenever, and wherever there is a war, civilians get killed, homes destroyed, and families live with that for years to come, but please look at both sides of the coin, and then make your own decision.
I remeber during the war in England as a child, having to go out to get the midwife, and seeing fingers, arms and legs lying in the street, after the bombing the night before, and not a house standing, people crying and looking for people under the rubble. . . . is there a difference now all of a sudden because the Palestinians are muslims?
I’m sorry I get really upset when you hear over and over again, the palestininas, the palestinians, and never a word about the Israelis who have been living with this for years, and years.
Thank you for listening to me.
Rita, Israel have just used a sledgehammer to crack a nut. However you try to spin it, it still does not change the fact that what they have just done in Gaza is very wrong.
As usual, if someone kills a Jew, no big deal, but if a Jew hits back? he is a monster!!
To answer some of the bigots,
1] not only didn’t Jews carpet bomb, they made thousands of phone calls to warn Palestinians before they bombed. No country in history ever did that.
2] Disproportionate?
When someone starts shooting at your children, you shoot back until all the shooters are dead or stop shooting . You don’t count how many of your kids died in proportion to how many of theirs. You do whatever it takes to protect your own children first, and if the cowardly shooter hides behind his own children while shooting at your children ? YOU SHOOT HIM ANYWAY, … and then … instead of cheering about dead children like the Arabs,.. if his child is hurt, do like the Jews do and rush him to see a Jewish doctor who then saves his life … so he can then pick up a gun and also shoot at the Jewish kids.
The Gazans voted for a government that they knew had sworn to kill every Jew, and declared unceasing war on Israel, and were training their children to kill Jews .
When Germany launched thousands of missiles at London, like Hamas did to Israel, no one counted how many Brits were killed and decided to kill only an equal number of Germans, no body cried about so-called innocents when England bombed back Berlin did they.
THEY MADE SURE NO MORE ROCKETS LANDED IN ENGLAND.
3] Spain wants to bring Israelis to trial for war crimes? That’s a laugh !!!
How about first arresting the Hamas leaders, since they started it?
How about first condemning the leaders of all the Arab countries that have invaded Israel over and over and over again for 50 years, no matter how hard Israel tried to make peace !!
4] How about arresting the Ayatolla of Iran for supplying training and weapons for terrorists all over the world?
When you are done with all the real monsters, we can then look at an Israeli soldier who might have accidentally killed innocents.
The Spanish have had a history of anti-semitism since the inquisition. It’s no coincidence that on many financial websites you see many Spaniards claiming the Jews are responsible for the financial crisis. And it’s also no wonder that their view of this crisis involves a lot of hyperbole and only one perspective.
Strange that nothing is said about the untenable situation Israel is in. There is no way to respond proportionally to rocket attacks made from civilian centers into civilian centers. It is also strange that you never hear anything said about the fact that a Palestinian state was accepted by Israel and everyone except the Arab world when the partition was passed. Yet Israel is blamed for “alienating” the Arab States? These same Arab states began their initial international relationship with Israel by trying to kill every last Jew in the state and destroy it. Is it possible the Arab states alienated Israel? Is it possible that the attitude towards Jews in Spain (I understand your rid of most of your population of Jews) alienate Israel?
It’s not a fair response to say that every critique of Israel is antisemitic, but it is fair to say that every biased critique, particularly thos that ignore exculpatory evidence and blame Israel for everything, is motivated by this age-old Spanish tradition.
Hamas and Hizbullahhave called for the total destruction of Israel and the death od all jews worldwide. If you as a non Jew were repeatedly threatened with death through hate speeches every day from the Mosques to almost every muslim and arab country, rockets launched at you for the last 8years what would you do. I don’t live in Israel, however my family fled from the terror and persecution that was meted out to us by those muslims just because we were born as jews. We now live in the west although I have still been subjected to abuse from some muslims who can see that I am (‘A Yahud’) so now when I go anywhere I have two massive protector dogs weighing between them around just over 250kgs to guard me from any muslim attacks, that is if they dare to go against my two minders.