Ramping up pressure on Hamas, Hamas leaders, and the Palestinian Authority, eleven Palestinian human rights organization are demanding that they endorse the U.N. Goldstone Report recommendation to investigate Palestinian violations of international law allegedly committed during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in Gaza from late December 2008 through January 2009.

According to the report in Ha’aretz, the Palestinian organizations urging the probe include:

• Adallah
• the Arab Association for Human Rights
• the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
• Al-Haq
• the Adameer prisoner’s rights group, and
• the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling.

The Goldstone Report criticized, in part, terror attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups on Israeli civilians, violent attacks and internal repression, like summary executions in the Gaza Strip, as well as arrests and torture in the West Bank

Hamas’ Gaza smuggling tunnels may soon have the capability to smuggle long range missles and rockets into Gaza in one piece, according to a senior IDF official who spoke with the Jerusalem Post.

The terrorist group’s operatives and contractors would need to widen new tunnels or old ones that weren’t destroyed during Israel’s recent Operation Cast Lead campaign.

Israel hit Hamas targets in Gaza on Sunday, including some of the terrorist group’s security caravans in the central Gaza village of al-Mughraqa (see map below):

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According to Haaretz, the caravans served as Hamas’ security headquarters.


The IDF says that the attack on Hamas was a response to “the barrage of Qassam rockets and mortar shells fired at Israel today, which wounded an Israeli civilian and two IDF soldiers.”

Also hit were Hamas smuggling tunnels coming from Egypt into Gaza. Last year, Hamas reportedly took in $20 million U.S. dollars per month from Gaza tunnel smuggling operations.

A Japanese reporter and his cameraman shot this video of a Gaza smuggling tunnel operation between Rafah and Egypt:

Hamas terror chief Khaled Meshal and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Iran on Sunday, February 1, 2009.

Iranian ‘Supreme Leader’ Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei told Meshal in Tehran that “the Islamic resistance (Hamas) should be prepared for any possible situation, including a fresh war in Gaza,” according to Iran’s state-controlled media outlet, Fars.

Last Spring, Iran promised the Hamas terrorist group advanced missiles, other weapons, financial support, and military training.