GAZA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Sunday intensified strikes on the Gaza Strip for the ninth consecutive day, a day after its army carried out a large-scale ground operation into the enclave, leaving 514 people killed since Dec. 27.
Israeli warplanes struck by missiles dozens of
targets into Gaza on Sunday as columns of tanks rolled deep into the enclave on
Saturday night, cutting it into two separate areas, Hamas local Radio Station
al-Aqsa Radio said.
The Israeli army began a ground operation on Saturday
night, eight days after Israeli warplanes carried out intensive airstrikes on
hundreds of targets, where Israel said they belong to Hamas movement in the Gaza
Strip.
Witnesses said that dozens of tanks, armored vehicles
and hundreds of Israeli paratroops seized an area south of Gaza City, which is
used to be the Israeli settlement of Nitzarim, amid intensive tanks shelling in
all directions.
The Israeli ground forces had also seized areas east
of Gaza City, northeast and northwest of the Gaza Strip, said local Radio
stations, adding that Israeli forces were supported by heavy and intensive
airstrikes on the whole enclave.
Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance
services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, told reporters that since the
beginning of the ground operation in Gaza on Saturday night, over 50
Palestinians were killed and more than 200 injured.
He added that the death toll of the Palestinians who
were killed since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip on
Dec. 27, 514 were killed and 2600 wounded, at least 800 are in serious
conditions.
Israeli soldiers drive armored cars in
Gaza strip, Jan. 4, 2009. Israeli on Sunday army clamed 30 injureds since
the ground operation on Jan. 3, 2009. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) Photo Gallery>>>
He expected that the death toll would grow higher and
higher in the coming days if the Israeli army continues airstrikes and tanks
shelling on houses, mosques, markets, cars and densely populated areas.
Hassanein warned of a severe humanitarian crisis at
hospitals and in the Gaza Strip in general if the Israeli air and ground
operations continue on the Gaza Strip, amid a tight blockade imposed on the
enclave.
In a fresh Israeli airstrike, Hassanein said that two
Palestinians were killed after Israeli warplanes struck a mosque in Zeitoon
neighborhood in southern Gaza City.
Witnesses said that a mosque and money exchange store
in Gaza City were struck by missiles on Sunday night, and two were killed at the
mosque, but no injuries reported in the attack on the money exchange store.
Hassanein said that four Palestinian paramedics were
killed and more than ten people were injured in two separate airstrikes that
targeted paramedics who were trying to rescue casualties in southern Gaza City.
He also said that earlier during the day, five
Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on Mosab Ben Omier mosque in Jabalia
refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.
Hassanein added that another crime was carried out
earlier during the day, where a mother and her four children were killed when
Israeli warplanes hit their house in Tufah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
He added that among the five dead, there is a
one-year-old baby boy and a 2-year-old baby girl.
In southern Gaza Strip, medics at Rafah Hospital said
that five civilians belong to the same family were killed in an airstrike on
their house in Rafah town, adding that among them two adults and three children.
In northern Gaza Strip, medics said that four
children were killed in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip, in
addition to six other adults, in a series of intensive Israeli airstrikes early
on Sunday morning.
Also on Sunday, an Israeli missile hit Firas market
in Gaza city downtown, killing five Palestinians and wounded 40. The strike
targeted a Hamas activist. He was killed and his colleague was injured.
Meanwhile, Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said
in separate statements that its militants launched more than 20 rockets at
southern Israeli towns and cities, mainly Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot.
The group also said that its militants confronted
"the invading Zionist forces and caused severe damages and fatalities among the
soldiers." It claimed that dozens of soldiers were killed and
wounded.
Smokes rise following an Israeli
airstrike on an area known to have smuggling tunnels in Rafah, in the
southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, Jan. 3, 2009. The Israel
Defense Forces Saturday evening began its ground incursion into the
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, vowing to destroy "terror infrastructure" of
Hamas. And more than 450 Palestinians has been killed and some 2,300
wounded during Israeli ongoing intensive airstrikes since Dec. 27,
2008.(Xinhua Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
GAZA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance
services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, said that three more Palestinian
paramedics were killed by Israeli airstrike on Sunday evening.
Hassanein said the three were rescuing the injured inside
a house, which was damaged in southern Gaza City, where another airstrike took
place, killing the paramedics. Full story
RABAT,
Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Scores of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets on
Sunday in the capital Rabat to condemn the Israeli "barbarous" offensive on
Gaza, and denounce the Arab and international silence.
There were fifty thousands according to police figures,
and far more according to organizers, to take to Rabat's main streets and
strongly denounce the Israeli raids, and call for the immediate halt of the
offensive. Full story
RAMALLAH, Jan. 4 (Xinhua)
-- Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekaton Sunday accused Israel that it is burying
the peace process after it enlarged military operations in the Gaza Strip and
killed more than 500 Palestinians.
"The Israeli government is burying the peace process by
escalating its military actions in the Gaza Strip," Erekat said in a statement
sent to the press hours after Israel launched a ground operation into Gaza on
Saturday night. Full story
Smokes rise following an Israeli
airstrike on an area known to have smuggling tunnels in Rafah, in the
southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, Jan. 3, 2009. The Israel
Defense Forces Saturday evening began its ground incursion into the
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, vowing to destroy "terror infrastructure" of
Hamas. And more than 450 Palestinians has been killed and some 2,300
wounded during Israeli ongoing intensive airstrikes since Dec. 27,
2008.(Xinhua Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
JERUSALEM, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation against
Palestinian militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip will be neither short
nor easy, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Saturday evening.
Barak made the remarks while addressing the nation in a
special televised press conference following the launch of the IDF ground
incursion. Full story
