Israel presses on with assault
2009-01-06 14:07
Tel Aviv - Israel pressed on with both its air and ground assault in Gaza, rebuffing on Tuesday an international push for an end to hostilities that includes another UN Security Council emergency session scheduled for later in the day.
At least 22 Palestinians were killed since midnight, raising the total Palestinian toll to at least 573 killed and 2 600 wounded since the Israeli offensive got under way on December 27, Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweye Hassenein said. At least one-fourth of the dead are civilians, according to UN staff on the ground.
Its agency caring for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) "strongly protested" an Israeli hit of an UNWRA elementary school in western Gaza City, in which over 400 people from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya had taken shelter.
Three civilians were killed as they left the school toilet, an UNWRA spokesperson told deutsche presse-agentur dpa.
Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since Israel on Saturday expanded the offensive by sending in ground troops, three of them late on Monday when an Israeli tank erroneously shelled a house on the outskirts of northern Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp, in which the troops had taken cover from Palestinian militants firing mortar shells. Another 24 Israeli soldiers were injured.
Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that it had set a "trap" for the soldiers.
Israeli ground troops, meanwhile continued to encircle Gaza City and were operating on its southern, eastern and northern outskirts, as well as on the eastern outskirts of Jabaliya, a crowded refugee camp in the north, and of Khan Younis in the south.
'Face-to-face' exchanges of fire
Heavy fighting took place in those areas, with Qassam Brigades saying in a statement sent to journalists that its militants were confronting the Israeli soldiers with anti-tank missiles, roadside bombs and "face-to-face" exchanges of fire.
A Palestinian militant leader however denied reports that the ground troops had advanced into populated areas, saying they were still occupying largely open areas.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the purpose of the ground invasion was to arrest and question Hamas fighters, find and destroy Hamas "infrastructure" - rocket storage sites - and hold territory from where militants have been launching rockets into Israel.
Soldiers have already detained and questioned dozens of suspected militants, the military spokesperson said, saying some of them were taken to Israel and some were questioned inside Gaza.
Hamas nevertheless has for the time being succeeded in launching more rockets into Israel, firing more than 40 on Monday and at least another 10 on Tuesday by the late morning. The Israeli town of Gedera, located north-east of the port city of Ashdod and over 40km from the most northern tip of Gaza, was hit for the first time, where a three-month-old baby was slightly injured.
The Israel Air Force also attacked another 40 targets overnight, including more smuggling tunnels, rocket storage depots and the Saraya security headquarters downtown Gaza City, firing some eight missiles at the evacuated compound and flattening several more buildings.
Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy late on Monday, meanwhile urged the Security Council to allow Israel "freedom to act" against Hamas and other militants firing rockets from Gaza.
Israel will not let up
"We cannot reach a compromise that would enable Hamas to fire at yet more cities and towns in Israel," he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due in New York on Tuesday and address the council, which is meeting for the second time since Saturday.
Sarkozy, who met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus later Tuesday, told his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres late on Monday that he came as a "friend of Israel" and condemned Hamas for its "intolerable" rocket attacks.
But he urged Israel to at least accept a 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire "with arrangements that will assure security for Israel and keep Hamas from raising its head again".
Israel has rejected that proposal, saying it will not let up the pressure on Hamas.
The European Union troika - Czech Foreign Minister Karl Schwarzenberg, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner - also continued its efforts in Israel, meeting Olmert and Peres in Jerusalem on Tuesday.