The operation started on December 27 last year with an air raid involving more than 60 fighters and armed helicopters and it entered a ground operation on January 3.

Israeli ground force of three-brigade scale including tanks and infantry units broke into various areas of Gaza Strip on the night of January 3 to launch into a bloody operation of genocide and destruction.

The indiscriminate artillery and air strikes and other military actions of the Israeli forces had left 514 Palestinians dead and more than 2,600 wounded and reduced many public institutions and buildings to ruins in Gaza Strip by last Sunday.

The spokesman for the Israeli army blared that the operation was aimed at destroying the infrastructure of Hamas, the Palestinian political and military organization controlling Gaza Strip.

The reckless military action of Israel escalating the inhuman massacre of Palestinians from the beginning of the new year under the cloak of "anti-terrorism" is calling forth anger and denunciation against Israel and the United States worldwide.

Arab and Islamic countries strongly demand that Israel promptly stop its military operation in Gaza Strip causing humanitarian disaster, saying it is immediately an attack on cities of all Arab countries and a criminal act destroying the Mid-east peace process.

Demonstrations and rallies condemning Israel's acts of aggression and the unjustifiable Mid-east policy of the United States are sweeping Asia, Europe, Latin America and rest of the world, to say nothing of Mid-east.

Noting that the criminal acts of the Israeli army resulted from the policy of the U.S. imperialists for gratifying their aggressive ambition on the Palestinian territory and Mid-east countries by manipulating Israel, the Bolivian President said the U.S. should abandon its despicable scheme to push its aggressive policy through its satellite forces like Israel.

Entirely right is this voice of condemnation of the international community.

Now the U.S. is defending Israel's acts of genocide, claiming that Israel has "the right to self-defense" and Hamas is "a terrorist organization".

Vice-president of the U.S. Cheney in his radio interview on January 4 went the lengths of blabbing that the air-raid operation on Gaza Strip was not enough and Israel was right in deciding to launch into a ground operation.

The U.S. already in September last year allowed Israel to purchase 1,000 GPS-guided missiles, called GBU-39, to be used in bombings on Gaza Strip. These missiles arrived in Israel in early December before the start of air strikes and they were the main means of strike in the air-raid, the first stage of the current military operation.

With this patronage of the U.S., Israel tightened the blockade of Gaza Strip last year and killed armed personnel of Hamas on November 4, which forced Hamas to resume its rocket and mortar attacks on the northern area of Israel.

This led to the total destruction of the truce which had been maintained, though perfunctorily, between Hamas and Israel from June 2008. Israel, as if it had been waiting for it, made it a pretext to carry its plan of massive military attacks on Gaza Strip into practice.

Israel and the U.S. are pursuing several political and military purposes through the operation.

A general election is slated in Israel on February 10. Yet the ruling Kadima Party appears disturbed over the scandal of the Prime Minister and the support rate to it is woefully low.

The Israeli authorities seek to stave off the crisis within the party and boost its "popularity" through the military adventures at the expense of the Palestinians.

From the military point of view, they regard the operation as an important chance of recovering from its miserable setback in the 2006 Lebanese War.

The current operation may be called the second war by proxy to be provoked by the present U.S. administration in the Mid-east through Israel during its eight-year office.

The Bush administration has tried by hook or by crook to turn the Mid-east peace process into an "anti-terrorism war" for establishing an order of its exclusive sway in the region, but to no avail.

The U.S. is trying to cover up its defeat in its Mid-east policy by means of focusing the world's attention on the "terrorism" of Hamas and beating the drum of "anti-terrorism war" more loudly.

It is not a mere accident that the U.S. is branding Hamas as a "terrorist organization" and justifying the military attacks on it, challenging the international opinion condemning the anti-human crimes of Israel.

The aggressive and dominationist Mid-east policy of Israel and the U.S. which regard the Palestinians and the Mid-east peace process as a scapegoat on the altar of their political strategy will result in further isolating them in the international arena.