Dead Man Speaks: Bin Laden demands holy war as Israel bombs the dead in Gaza cemeteries

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Bin Laden demands holy war as Israel bombs the dead in Gaza cemeteries
By DAVID WILLIAMS


After having been reported murdered by Benazir Bhutto, and given the name of the murderer, this so called Bin Lauden, seems to have risen from the dead to make speeches. And of course, what would a dead man risen want to talk about: Holy War.

Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden was Murdered


Benazir Bhutto shot dead


Osama Bin Laden, Dead Man Speaking

Let the dead bury the dead, and let the dead stay dead, grave or not.


Omar Sheik, the man who murdered Bin Laden


Osama Bin Laden yesterday urged all Muslims to launch a holy war against Israel as the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza bombardment passed 1,000.

Speaking for the first time since May, the Al Qaeda leader vowed the terror network would open up 'new fronts'.

A crater was left after Israeli forces bombed a cemetery in Gaza yesterday, sending body parts flying on to neighbouring houses.

Gazans had already been forced to re-open graves to bury those killed in the Israeli offensive as cemeteries in the territory were filled up.

The call to jihad came as fragile hopes rose of a temporary halt in fighting after Egyptian and Palestinian officials said they were close to an agreement with Hamas for a ten-day ceasefire.

A Hamas spokesman said he believed an agreement was close and details were being put to Israeli officials last night.

'We hope that now Egypt will contact Israel and talk about all issues,' Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas adviser, said.

Second front?: Lebanese soldiers inspect the remains of two rockets, which were fired towards Israel but fell short in south Lebanon yesterday. Three more rockets are believed to have reached Israel.

A halt in fighting would allow aid into the territory and talks for a permanent solution to be stepped up. Palestinian officials said the death toll had reached 1,010, including 673 civilians.

More than 300 of the dead are children, with a further 1,500 among the 3,500 wounded, Ann Veneman, the head of the United Nations children's agency UNICEF claimed yesterday.

Despite signs of a breakthrough there was no let-up yesterday as Israel continued to blitz tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle military hardware into Gaza.

'The gates of Hell': An explosion tears through the sky after an Israeli air strike in Rafah.

An Israeli bomb struck a graveyard - the crammed Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City - sending body parts flying and blasting craters in the ground.

'Gaza is all a graveyard,' gravedigger Salman Omar said while residents collected charred body parts in plastic bags and placed them back in a crater which was all that remained of around 30 graves.

The Israeli army said the strike targeted a weapons storeroom adjacent to the cemetery and a separate strike targeted a spot from which rockets are launched.

A number of rockets were fired from Gaza yesterday while three from southern Lebanon landed near the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shemona. There were no reports of injuries.

Israel says 13 citizens have died since the offensive began on December 27.

The Bin Laden message was on a 22-minute tape entitled 'a call for jihad to stop the aggression on Gaza'.

The White House dismissed the tape, saying it reflected Bin Laden's 'isolation'.
Meanwhile in Cairo, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon renewed his call for 'an immediate and durable ceasefire'.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is said to favour a ceasefire but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is thought to want to press on with the military operations.




























He condemned Arab governments as Israel's allies in an audiotape message seen to be aimed at harnessing anger in the Middle East over the Gaza offensive.