Israel attacks Gaza Strip

Finn McCool said:

Thank you very much for that Shahid. Your arabic skills might come in handy in the future too. I can only hope that the Israeli government doesn't make the same mistake and thus propels the reigon to war.

I doubt that the Syrians are actually going to fight Israel. This statement, along with the mobilization of the reservists, is simply Syria trying to act strong, and keep the war in Lebanon and out of Syria. The critical time was when this war was just beginning, and Syria and Iran were both threatening Israel. Israel called their bluff and they backed down. If they didn't act then and openly enter the war, they certainly won't now.

Personally, I think that Hezbollah does have at least some MANPADS. Maybe they were never properly trained in their use, or the Israelis have been able to avoid them, or Hezbollah is trying to lull the Israelis into a false sense of security. But I agree with Isthvan; if they got their hands on the C-802, they probably have MANPADS.

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I mean a disaster for their tanks, officers, and soldiers. There will be a high price for them to pay. Right from the first day, I never claimed, even during negotiations and in my past speeches, that I can shoot down F-16's. We have never claimed that. We did not claim such a thing even during the [confrontation] in the sea, but we managed to surprise them in the sea.

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Last update - 20:02 07/08/2006IDF shoots down Hezbollah drone over sea near Haifa coastBy Amos Harel,
Haaretz Correspondent, and AP

IDF brought down an unmanned drone over the Mediterranean Sea on Monday night, near the coast of the northern city of Haifa. It is not clear whether it had explosives onboard.

In the past year, Hezbollah has twice managed to fly a drone into Israeli airspace, both of which returned safely to Lebanese territory.

"I can confirm that the airforce destroyed a Hezbollah drone," an army spokesman said, but would not provide any other details, including where the drone was flying.


Channel One television reported that the drone was believed to be armed, but the army had no comment.

In November 2004, Hezbollah sent its first ever drone, named "Mirsad 1" over Israel, where it flew around for some 20 minutes while filming.

Despite broadcasting a short segment of the film taken by the unmanned vehicle, Hezbollah gave away few details on it and it was unclear if it was a homemade, makeshift aircraft or bought from abroad.

Israel makes frequent use of drones over the battlefield to give it real time intelligence during fighting.

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"The Russian-made Cornet anti-tank rockets are destroying the Israeli Merkava tanks at a rate of one a day."

Source: SF Chronicle Aug. 7, 2006

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coolieno99 said:

This probably explains why the Israeli offensive drive has been slow and cautious. Keep in mind that the Merkava tank is one of the largest and most modern tank in the world:

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coolieno99 said:

This probably explains why the Israeli offensive drive has been slow and cautious. Keep in mind that the Merkava tank is one of the largest and most modern tank in the world:

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Finn McCool said:

About the F-16 thing-Nasrallah is probably trying to avoid having expectations set too high for Hezbollah. He's right that there is apparently nothing that either the Lebanese Army or Hezbollah can do about Israeli air strikes. Obviously, it would be misguided to expect that either of them could ever challenge the IAF, but they aren't even providing any sort of a threat or anything.

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