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news without borders
GAZA CITY: Israeli aircraft
destroyed a bastion of Hamas’s rule
over the Gaza Strip yesterday, the
third day of an offensive that has
killed more than 300 Palestinians
in the deadliest violence in the
territory in decades.
“We have an all-out war against
Hamas and its kind,” Israeli
Defence Minister Ehud Barak said
in parliament, using a term he has
employed in the past to describe a
long-term struggle against Israel’s
enemies.
Broadening their targets to
include the Hamas government in
the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes
bombed the interior ministry,
which supervises 13,000 members
of the group’s security forces. The
building had been evacuated and
there were no casualties.
Hamas defied the Israeli
assaults, the fiercest in the coastal
enclave since the 1967 Middle East
war. Its forces fired a rocket salvo
into the Israeli city of Ashkelon,
killing one person, the second such
fatality since Israeli bombing began
on Saturday.
Israel has said the offensive
is aimed at halting cross-border
rocket attacks that intensified after
a six-month, Egyptian-brokered
ceasefire with Hamas expired on
Dec 19.
Palestinian medical officials put
the Gaza deathtoll at 310, most of
them members of Hamas which
took over the Gaza Strip in June
2007.
The United Nations Relief and
Works Agency said at least 57 of
the dead were civilians. It based
the figure, which a spokesman
called “conservative”, on visits by
agency officials to hospitals and
medical centres.
theSun | TUESDAY DECEMBER 30 2008
Israeli jets again pound
Israel declared areas around
the Gaza Strip a “closed military
zone”, citing the risk from
Palestinian rockets, and ordering
out journalists observing a buildup
of armoured forces preparing for
a possible ground invasion of the
territory.
“You’ve got to go,” an army Palestinians pass
spokesman told a Reuters by the Alshefaa
correspondent after she appealed a mosque after
military police directive to leave. it was hit in an
Excluding the press could Israeli bombing
help Israel keep under wraps its raid in Gaza City,
preparations for a Gaza incursion on Sunday.
following three days of air strikes
that have caused chaos, turned
some buildings to rubble and left
hospitals struggling to cope.
Most Gazans in the densely
populated enclave stayed at home,
in rooms away from windows
that could shatter in blasts from
air strikes on Hamas facilities.
Residents of southern Israel ran
for shelter at the sound of alarms
heralding incoming rockets.
“At no time could we leave the
kids unattended. They trembled
every time there was a bombing,
day and night, and all of us had
almost no sleep,” said Umm
Hassan, a mother of seven. Israel “no longer live in terror and means, including martyrdom when Hamas seized the territory
An Israeli air raid flattened in fear of constant rocket barrages”. operations” against Israel in June 2007, implored the
a building in the heart of a “(The operation could) – a reference to suicide bombings international community to help
residential neighbourhood in take many days,” said military during a Palestinian uprising that end the violence.
Gaza, sending a cloud of dust into spokesman Avi Benayahu. erupted in 2000 but has since died “We call on the entire world to
the air, shaking nearby dwellings In what it called a “terrorist” down. work to put an immediate stop to
and wounding five people. It was attack, the Israeli military said a The Gaza offensive and this aggression,” he said.
not immediately clear why the Palestinian stabbed three Israelis in civilian casualties have enraged Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi
structure, which was apparently the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba Arabs across the Middle East. Livni said Israel was targeting
empty, was targeted. in the West Bank before he was shot Protesters burned Israeli and US militants but “unfortunately in a
Mark Regev, a spokesman by a passerby and arrested. flags in several places to press for war ... sometimes also civilians pay
for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud One of the wounded Israelis was a stronger response from their the price”.
Olmert, said the military action, in serious condition. leaders. Chief Palestinian negotiator
launched after a six-month Hamas spokesman Fawzi Western-backed Palestinian Ahmed Qurie said US-backed
ceasefire expired, would go on Barhoum urged Palestinian groups president Mahmud Abbas, whose peace talks with Israel have
until the population in southern on Sunday to use “all available forces were routed from Gaza been put on hold, citing the Gaza