Ceasefire in Israel-Palestine conflict amid grizzly murders

Added by Gary Dunn on November 22, 2012

A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was announced on Wednesday amid violence that saw Palestinians execute six men suspected of being Israeli spies.

The ceasefire agreement was reached after eight days of fighting during an operation targeting Hamas and its military capabilities. The operation, called Operation Pillar of Defense, began on November 14 2012 with the killing of the chief of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari.

The conflict was sparked when Palestinian groups launched more than 100 rockets into souther Israel within 24 hours.

During the conflict the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) reportedly targeted over 1,500 sites in Gaza including command centers, operational control centers,hundreds of underground rocket launchers, smuggling tunnels, and dozens of long-range rocket launchers and launch sites.

Hamas reportedly acquired Iranian made Fajr-5 rockets, threatening large populated centers in Israel during the conflict.

Before the ceasefire was announced six Palestinians in the Gaza strip, suspected of providing information to Israel, were executed by a group of gunmen who claimed to have caught the six men “red-handed”. The gunmen said the six men “possessed high-tech equipment and filming equipment to take footage of positions.”

The masked gunmen publicly shot six suspected collaborators in a large Gaza City intersection, witnesses said. Izzedine al-Qassam, a military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility.

Witnesses said some in the crowd stomped and spat on the five bodies. A sixth corpse was chained to a motorcycle and dragged through the streets as people syelled, “Spy! Spy!”. Graphic images and videos of motorcyclists dragging the body circulated on the Internet. [warning – graphic video via Liveleak.com]

Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s deputy leader, condemned the “unlawful” killing of the six Palestinians urged others to avoid taking the law into their own hands.

“The way those collaborators were killed and the images after their death were completely unacceptable,” added Abu Marzouk.

The IDF reported 1,506 rockets were launched into Israel during the conflict, with 58 hitting urban areas and 421 interceptions.

Palestinians report 53 civilian deaths; The IDF reported 4 Israelis were killed and 240 injured.