Published: 6:31AM Tuesday January 06, 2009
Source: Reuters
Source: ReutersIsraeli soldiers drive a mobile artillery unit as the sun sets over the central Gaza Strip
Israeli troops backed by air strikes fought to seize ground from
Hamas militants deep inside the Gaza Strip despite international
calls for a ceasefire in a conflict that has killed more than 540
Palestinians in 10 days.
Israel's defence minister said the operation, aimed at stopping
Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, could get more difficult
before the mission was accomplished.
Hamas vowed to fight on in every street, every alley and threatened
to fire more rockets across the border into Israel.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace-brokering trip to the
Middle East, and US President George Bush, in his final weeks in
the White House, both appealed for a ceasefire.
But disagreement on who should stop shooting first and on what
terms made the chances of a pause soon remote.
Israel made clear its priority was to secure the safety of its
citizens, while Hamas called for a lifting of the blockade of the
enclave, crammed with 1.5 million people whose lives are growing
ever more squalid. Many lack food, water or power.
The death toll in Gaza rose to at least 541 people, many of them
civilians.
Among Monday's victims were 13 members of a Palestinian family
killed in an Israeli strike on their home in a refugee camp,
Palestinian medical officials said.
The Israeli army said dozens of Hamas fighters had been killed
since ground troops invaded on Saturday following a week-long air
blitz.
Israel launched the offensive after Hamas called off a six-month
truce last month and stepped up its rocket attacks in response to
Israeli raids and blockade of the enclave, which the Jewish state
occupied from 1967 to 2005.
Israeli soldiers and Islamist militants fought throughout the day
and into the night on Monday. Militants fired mortars and grenades
and detonated mines and tried to lure Israeli soldiers into
built-up areas, witnesses said.
The Israeli air force bombed dozens of targets, including homes of
Hamas members used as weapons depots.
As night fell, Israeli troops were trying to capture a hill
overlooking Jabaliya town and refugee camp and Hamas fighters were
resisting them strongly, witnesses said.
Heavy Israeli air and artillery strikes concentrated on that
area.
Israel's advances into Gaza have carved the 40 km-long coastal
territory into two zones and forces have surrounded its largest
urban area, Gaza City.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak told parliament's foreign affairs
and defence committee Hamas had been dealt a heavy blow.
"But we cannot say that its fighting capabilities have been harmed
... Hamas did not seek a direct confrontation with our forces and
wants to drag our forces into urban areas," he said.
"Difficult moments lie ahead in this operation and the main test
could still be ahead."
Street fighting
Hamas leaders rallied their combatants with defiant rhetoric.
Thousands of fighters were waiting in every street, every alley
and at every house to tackle them, Hamas military spokesman Abu
Ubaida said in a broadcast speech.
Hamas would increase its rocket strikes on Israel if the Israeli
attacks on Gaza continued, Ubaida said.
A rocket hit the Israeli port city of Ashdod, damaging a building
and wounding two people, police said. Four Israelis have been
killed by salvoes fired into Israel since the offensive
began.
An Israeli soldier was killed in fighting on Sunday and 48 have
been wounded since the ground invasion began.
In Ramallah in the Palestinian-ruled West Bank, French President
Sarkozy called for a ceasefire as soon as possible and said that
"time is running against peace".
"The guns must fall silent, there must be a humanitarian truce,"
Sarkozy said.
He said he would tell Israeli leaders the violence must stop but he
also condemned Hamas for its attacks on Israel.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, heading an EU peace
mission, sounded more resigned to prolonged fighting.
"We do not have a specific plan for a ceasefire because the
ceasefire as such must be concluded by the involved parties," he
said in Jerusalem.
US President George Bush, speaking in Washington, blamed Hamas for
provoking the bloodshed and said any ceasefire must include
provisions to stop its rocket attacks.
"Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use
Gaza to use rockets to kill innocent Israelis," he said.
Saudi Arabia said the international community should do more to
stop Israeli barbarity and should not ignore the history of its
occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rebuffed European proposals
for international observers in the Gaza Strip after any ceasefire,
pushing instead for teams that will help search out and seal off
tunnels that could allow Hamas to rearm.
At the United Nations, Arab countries were drafting a resolution to
demand an immediate end to Israeli aggression.
The situation for Gaza residents grew more fraught.
People badly needed food, medical supplies and other aid but the
hostilities were hampering relief efforts, aid agencies said.
In all 29 Palestinian civilians were killed on Monday, medical
officials said.
Bombs hit a tent where a family was mourning a paramedic killed in
an air strike on Sunday. Three people were killed and 17 wounded,
medical workers said.
"We were sitting in the mourning tent when suddenly they bombed us,
we ran to rush the casualties to hospitals but they bombed again,"
Abdel-Dayem said.
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