Israel raids Gaza for second day, 290 killed

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-29  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ISRAELI warplanes, pressing one of Israel's deadliest assaults on Palestinian militants so far, dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation and dozens of other targets across Gaza Strip yesterday.

Israel's Cabinet authorized the call-up of at least 6,500 reserve soldiers, suggesting plans to intensify an offensive against Gaza rocket squads that has already killed nearly 290 Palestinians.

Israel launched some 250 airstrikes in the first 24 hours of the campaign and infantry and armored units are heading for the border for a possible ground invasion.

The air strikes also wounded hundreds more, said Gaza health official Dr Moaiya Hassanain. A Palestinian human rights group said among 251 dead it counted, 20 were children under 16 and nine were women.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said it was difficult to keep an exact count because of chaos at the hospitals and difficulty in identifying some of the dismembered bodies.

The civilian casualties included a 15-year-old boy who died yesterday in an attack on a greenhouse near the border. At least 644 people were wounded, Hassanain said.

Militants, unbowed, kept up the pressure on Israel, firing dozens of rockets and mortars at Israeli border communities in response. Two rockets struck close to the largest city in southern Israel, Ashdod, some 38 kilometers from Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas to renew a truce with Israel that collapsed last week.

In New York, the United Nations Security Council called on Israel and the Palestinians to halt all violence and military activities. It also called for a new cease-fire, and for the opening of border crossings to enable humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it was unclear when the operation would end. The situation in southern Israel "is liable to last longer than we are able to foresee at this time," he told his Cabinet.

The carnage has inflamed Arab public opinion, and the diplomatic fallout came swiftly.

A Syrian official said Damascus would suspend indirect peace talks with Israel, begun earlier this year, over the Gaza attacks. The official said "Israel's aggression closes all the doors" to any move toward a settlement in the region.

Condemnations and protests against the Israeli offensive swept the Arab world for a second straight day, occasionally turning violent.

A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up in the midst of a large demonstration in northern Iraq. Israeli troops fired on a protest in the West Bank, killing a Palestinian man.

The Israeli army says Palestinian militants have fired more than 300 rockets and mortars at Israeli targets over the past week and 10 times that number over the past year.

Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the US news show, Meet the Press, that Israel launched its strike because Gaza's Hamas rulers were smuggling weapons and building up "a small army."

But, she added, "Our goal is not to reoccupy the Gaza Strip." Israeli soldiers and settlers left the tiny seaside territory in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, though Israel retained control of Gaza's borders.

The Israeli military said warplanes attacked 40 tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border in the course of four minutes yesterday. Medics said two people were killed and 25 were injured. Witnesses reported large fires and dozens of explosions.

Weapons and goods are brought in through the passageways, which have allowed Hamas to stay in power by relieving shortages caused by the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after the Hamas takeover.

Shortly after the tunnel attacks, hundreds of Palestinians breached the border fence with Egypt in several places, drawing fire from Egyptian border guards.