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Israel vows war on Hamas in Gaza

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Uploaded by on Dec 29, 2008

Israel vows war on Hamas in Gaza

Images from a third day of Israeli attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip

Top Israeli officials have vowed to continue attacks on militant group Hamas, as Israeli air strikes pounded the Gaza Strip for a third day.

Israel was fighting a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas, its defence chief said. A top army official said no Hamas buildings would be left standing.

About 320 Palestinians have died since Saturday, the UN says. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets from Gaza.

There were more air strikes early on Tuesday morning, with 10 reported dead.

Palestinian officials said that Hamas-run offices and security installations were targeted, with another 40 people said to be wounded.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire.

Mr Ban said he was "deeply alarmed" by the escalation of violence in Gaza. While recognising Israel's right to defend itself from militant rocket attacks, he condemned its "excessive use of force".

Israel has massed forces along the boundary with Gaza and has declared the area around it a "closed military zone".

GAZA CAMPAIGN DEATHS
320 - Official Gaza toll (source: UN)
62 civilians in Gaza (source: UN)
4 civilians in Israel (source: Israel police)

West Bank anger at Gaza strikes
Israel looks for knockout blow
In pictures: Third day of raids

Correspondents say the move - in addition to the call-up of thousands of reservists - could be a prelude to ground operations, but could also be intended to build pressure on Hamas.

In other developments:

• The Red Cross described the situation in Gaza's hospitals as chaotic, with medical teams "stretched to the limit"

• Gaza's Shifa hospital was evacuated following a rumour that it was about to be targeted - patients and staff later returned

• A small number of wounded Palestinians have begun passing through the Rafah crossing into Egypt for treatment; trucks laden with medical aid have been permitted to cross into Gaza

• European Union foreign ministers are to meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the escalating crisis

'Topple Hamas'

Dozens of centres of Hamas strength, including security compounds, government offices and tunnels into Egypt, have been hit since Israel started its massive bombing campaign on Saturday morning.
See detailed map of attacks

Early on Monday, raids damaged both the interior ministry and a science building at the Islamic University in Gaza, from which many top Hamas officials graduated.

Places hit by later strikes included the home of a senior Hamas commander and a car carrying gas cylinders, reports said. Five sisters were killed in one attack in the densely-populated Jabaliya area.

Police help an Israeli woman in shock following a rocket attack from Gaza on south Israeli town of Sderot (29/12/2008)
Israelis in nearby towns have faced an escalated militant rocket threat

US tacitly backs Israeli offensive
Aid worker diary: Gaza raids
Rocket attacks plague Israeli towns

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said his latest information was that about 320 Palestinians had been killed and 1,400 injured.

"Sixty-two of those killed, we believe... are civilian casualties," he told a news conference.

"That simply encompasses those who are women and children. It does not include any civilian casualties who are men - even though we know that there have been some civilian men killed as well."

Palestinian hospital sources put the death toll higher, with 345 people killed and 1,650 injured.

Israel reported its second fatality, a labourer at a building site in the city of Ashkelon that was hit by a medium-range Grad missile. Three people were seriously wounded in the attack.

Late on Monday, Israeli media reported two more deaths from rocket fire in the space of an hour, at Nahal Oz near the border with Gaza and in the southern city of Ashdod. Several people were injured in the attacks.

Israel says its aim is to end the rocket attacks by Hamas-linked militants - of which there were more than 40 on Monday, the Associated Press news agency said.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was not fighting the residents of Gaza, but wanted to deal Hamas a "severe blow". The Israeli operation would be "widened and deepened as needed", he said.

The army's deputy chief, meanwhile, said that there would "not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza" after the operation.

Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon went further. "The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas," he said.

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  • Hamas wants to ELIMINATE the State of Israel. Hamas is NOT the-people-of-Gaza. The IDF is at war with Hamas. The IDF is NOT at war with the-people-of-Gaza. The-people-of-Gaza just want to live in peace and prosperity with Israel as their supportive neighbor. The-people-of-Gaza have had enough of Hamas violence and destruction. The-people-of-Gaza are tired of being gunned down by Hamas for simply speaking out against Hamas in public.

  • Will Hammas never learns that it cannot achieve its objectives by terrorism?

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  • @whatsso4me, in PEACE and prosperity with Israel ?

    But hamascum's / fatah's CHARTA say what else, despite tons of tons FOOD & other stuff from ISRAEL,

    for brood of enemy !

    RESPECT ISRAEL, Jewish Nation & IDF, Holy Land Defenders!

  • i don t know why pakistan do something?

  • @TheRegimelife

    Israel created funded Hamas to counter Arafat, kinda shot themselves in the foot lol

  • didn't Arafat create Hamas?

  • @nilofc

    "muslim terrorists"

    Actually the grandfathers of modern terrorism are the Irgun and Lehi Zionist terrorist gangs of the 50s who were the first in the world to ever use suicide bombings, plane hijackings, main bombs, etc, against Britain.

    So really these "muslim terrorists" (who are simply defending their ancient native homeland) should be paying Israel for copyright infringement, since it is Israel who holds the patent for modern terrorism.

  • @1100100il

    Well Hamas was created by Israel, so if Hamas is a cancer then what does that make Israel?

    Answer: the source of all depravity and moral illness.

  • @whatsso4me

    Hamas was created by Israel you moron.

    The Israeli Mossad created Hamas in 1987, with the frontmen Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, because, as Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says: “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).”

    Also why are you supporting the ONLY country in the Middle East to have ever attacked the United States.

    Coward traitor.

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