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No. 4671 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)

Monday
January 5, 2009
TELLING IT AS IT IS www.sun2surf.com

News Without
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Bonanza pg25
Smoke rises

for fans
during an Israeli
air strike on the

Israel
northern Gaza
Strip yesterday.

G
AZA: Israeli troops and tanks split the Gaza
Strip and ringed its main city yesterday
in an offensive against Hamas militants
launched after eight days of deadly air
strikes failed to halt the group’s rocket
attacks on Israel.

invades
Israeli tanks poured shells and machinegun-fire
into suspected militant positions and war planes
struck from the skies as Hamas fighters fought
back with mortars and rockets.
Hamas rocket salvoes also hit southern Israel,
strengthening Israel’s resolve to stamp out the
threat which the Jewish state says made its of-
fensive necessary.
The Saturday night invasion of Hamas-ruled
Gaza followed a week of Israeli bombardments

Gaza
from land, sea and air - the most serious fighting
in decades in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
At least 34 Palestinians, most of them civilians,
were killed yesterday as Israeli shells slammed
into houses and Gaza’s main shopping district,
medical sources said.
That brought the death toll to more than 500 in
Gaza in the nine days of “Operation Cast Lead”.
One Israeli soldier was killed and 32 wounded
in the ground offensive, Israel said. Four Israelis
have been killed by the Hamas rocket strikes since TANKS AND INFANTRY IN
Dec 27.
Israeli officials said the offensive, whose stated
aim is to wreck the militants’ rocket-launching GROUND OFFENSIVE AFTER
infrastructure, could last many days.
“The government did everything before decid-
ing to launch the operation. This is an unavoidable
8 DAYS OF AIR STRIKES
operation,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

said.
Calls for a ceasefire from the United States,
Israel’s main backer, other foreign governments
and the United Nations failed to gain traction over
disagreements about who should stop shooting
first.
Israel has barred foreign correspondents from
entering Gaza.
But Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli thrust
cut Gaza in half from the border fence to the Medi-
terranean shore. Troops and armour had taken up
siege positions around Gaza City itself.
Yesterday morning saw gunbattles between
Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers but later the
action was mostly Israeli tank shelling and Hamas
rocket and mortar-fire.
Israeli aircraft struck dozens of targets, includ-
ing arms-smuggling tunnels, weapons caches and
mortar squads. Dozens of Hamas fighters were hit,
the Israeli military said.
Among the Palestinian casualties were five
civilians killed and 40 wounded when tank shells
slammed into Gaza City’s main shopping area.
Two children were dismembered by another blast
from a tank, medical workers said.
Heavy civilian casualties in the territory packed
with 1.5 million people could increase international
pressure on Israel to halt its biggest operation in
Gaza in four decades.
But the fighting also holds political risks for
Israeli leaders before a Feb 10 national election,
especially if its forces take heavy casualties in
street fighting.
A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz
el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said Israeli troops
faced death or capture.
Israel has not disclosed how many troops are
involved in the operation but thousands of reserv-
ist have been put on stand-by in an indication of
the scale of the mobilisation.
About 25 rockets were fired on Israel yesterday,
one hitting a house in Sderot and wounding a
woman, the army said.
The United States said a ceasefire should take
place as soon as possible but must guarantee an
end to Hamas rocket strikes.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, envoy
for powers sponsoring Middle East peace talks,
was to meet Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak
late yesterday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is
due in Jerusalem today.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for
an immediate end to the ground operation.
REUTERSPIX
Israel’s action drew cries of alarm across
Asia yesterday, with Pakistan and China call-
ing for it to end and angry Indonesians urging
war against the Jewish state.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood
Qureshi called for an immediate end to the Israeli
offensive in the Gaza Strip. Japanese Prime Minis-
ter Taro Aso warned that Israel’s ground offensive
would only worsen the situation.
China, a permanent member of the UN Se-
curity Council, for the third time called for the
conflict to end. “China is seriously concerned
with the escalating situation,” Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang said.
Singapore’s foreign ministry said that
Israel’s invasion was “extremely disturbing”
and “can only exacerbate the already grave
humanitarian situation”, reiterating a call for
restraint on all sides.
Israel was roundly condemned across the
Middle East, with Egypt also accusing the UN
Security Council of failing to act quickly to resolve
the crisis (US thwarts Libyan effort: page 13).
– Agencies