|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
The missile strikes caused panic in Gaza
Israeli F-16 bombers have pounded key targets across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 225 people, local medics say.
Most of those killed were policemen in the Hamas militant movement, which controls Gaza, but women and children also died, the Gaza officials said.
About 700 others were wounded, as missiles struck security compounds and militant bases, the officials added.
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said the operation “may take some time”- but he pledged to avoid a humanitarian crisis.
“It’s not going to last a few days,” he said in a televised statement, flanked by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Israel said it was responding to an escalation in rocket attacks from Gaza and would bomb “as long as necessary”.
![]() |
They were the heaviest Israeli attacks on Gaza for decades. More air raids were launched as night fell.
Staff at the main hospital in Gaza say operating rooms are overflowing, it is running out of medicine, and there are not enough surgeons to cope.
The raids came days after a truce with Hamas expired.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said “there is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight”.
But the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, called for a new intifada, or uprising, against Israel, in response to the attacks.
The movement’s Gaza leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said there would be no white flags and no surrender. “Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre,” he said.
Israel hit targets across Gaza, striking in the territory’s main population centres, including Gaza City in the north and the southern towns of Khan Younis and Rafah.
Mr Olmert said “we tried to avoid, and I think quite successfully, to hit any uninvolved people – we attacked only targets that are part of the Hamas organisations”.
|
Ismail Haniyeh
Hamas leader in Gaza |
Hamas said all of its security compounds in Gaza were destroyed by the air strikes, which Israel said hit some 40 targets.
Hamas vowed to carry out revenge attacks on Israel and fired Qassam rockets into Israeli territory as an immediate reply.
One Israeli was killed by a rocket strike on the town of Netivot, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Gaza, doctors said.
Ceasefire urged
The air strikes come amid rumours that an Israeli ground operation is imminent.
Israeli television said on Saturday evening that Israeli troops were massing on the Gaza border “in preparation for a supplementary ground offensive”. The report has not been confirmed by independent sources.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hamas of having triggered the new bout of violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: ‘We are not fighting against the people of Gaza’
“The United States is deeply concerned about the escalating violence in Gaza,” she said in a statement.
“We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there. The ceasefire must be restored immediately and fully respected.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also urged an immediate halt to the violence, condemning what he called Israel’s “excessive use of force leading to the killing and injuring of civilians” and “the ongoing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants”.
Calls for a ceasefire also came from Middle East envoy Tony Blair and the French EU presidency.
Hamas bases destroyed
Palestinian militants frequently fire rockets against Israeli towns from inside the Gaza Strip; large numbers of rocket and mortar shells have been fired at Israel in recent days.
A resident describes the attacks in Gaza
A Hamas police spokesman, Islam Shahwan, said one of the Israeli raids targeted a police compound in Gaza City where a graduation ceremony for new personnel was taking place.
At least a dozen bodies of men in black uniforms were photographed at the Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City.
Most of the dead and injured were said to be in Gaza City. The head of Gaza’s police forces, Tawfik Jaber, was among those killed.
Mr Olmert appealed to Palestinians in Gaza, saying “You – the citizens of Gaza – are not our enemies. Hamas, Jihad and the other terrorist organisations are your enemies, as they are our enemies.
“They have brought disaster on you and they try to bring disaster to the people of Israel. And it is our common goal to make every possible effort to stop them.”
It is the worst attack in Gaza since 1967 in terms of the number of Palestinian casualties, a senior analyst told the BBC in Jerusalem.
Mosques issued urgent appeals for people to donate blood and Hamas sources told the BBC’s Rushdi Abou Alouf in Gaza that hospitals were soon full.
In the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – whose Fatah faction was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007 – condemned the attacks and called for restraint.
Egypt opened its border crossing to the Gaza Strip at Rafah to absorb and treat some of those injured in the south of the territory.
Palestinians staged demonstrations in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron, and there were some scuffles with Israeli troops there.
Although a six-month truce between Hamas and Israel was agreed earlier this year, it was regularly under strain and was allowed to lapse when it expired this month.
Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade under which little more than humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza.
Israel said it initially began a staged easing of the blockade, but this was halted when Hamas failed to fulfil what Israel says were agreed conditions, including ending all rocket fire and halting weapons smuggling.
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
By Stephen Gibbs
BBC News, Mexico City |
![]()
About 5,000 people are said to have died in drug violence this year
|
It has been another violent weekend in Mexico’s drug wars.
Ten suspected traffickers and a soldier were killed in a shootout on Sunday in the southern state of Guerrero.
Another six people were killed in the north of the country when gunmen opened fire inside a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, on the US-Mexico border.
The Mexican defence department also said that at least eight bodies had been found in a shallow grave in central Michoacan State.
At dawn on Sunday morning in the normally quiet town of Arcelia, residents were woken by the sound of a major gun battle.
Initially it appears to have been between rival heavily armed drug gangs in a fleet of cars. Later the police and army joined in. By the time it all ended, 11 people, including one soldier were dead.
The confrontation exemplifies what many observers say is behind the violence that is spiralling in Mexico.
Two years ago, President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out assault on the country’s drug cartels, which for many years had operated with minimal government interference.
Under pressure for their lucrative routes, the traffickers are fighting both among themselves, and against federal forces.
Pressure
The brutality of this war is shocking Mexico. Every day, the papers contain vivid images of another killing.
Also on Sunday, Ciudad Juarez, focus of much of the recent violence, provided yet another headline.
Armed men drew their weapons inside a billiards hall, murdering six people. And in Michoacan State, west of Mexico City, soldiers uncovered a shallow grave, with the remains of at least eight bodies. The corpses had been cut in pieces and burned.
President Calderon is facing some pressure from those who wonder whether the war against the cartels is winnable.
He has repeatedly stated his conviction that unless the traffickers are defeated, Mexico’s future as a viable country is uncertain.
BOGOTA, Colombia – Suspected leftist rebels attacked a small police convoy in Colombia’s turbulent northeast on Friday with explosives and automatic weapons, killing eight police officers and wounding one.
The slain officers, traveling in a four-wheeled vehicle and on two motorcycles, were responding to an anonymous tip about a cadaver supposedly found near a cemetery not far from their base in Fortul, the Arauca Province police chief, Col. Luis Ortiz, told The Associated Press.
He said it appeared the bomb blast was triggered by remote control.
The rebels finished off the police with gunfire, said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who blamed the attack on leftist rebels.
Later Friday, police issued a statement blaming the attack on the National Liberation Army, or ELN, which operates in the oil-producing region bordering Venezuela.
The statement did not give details on why authorities suspect the ELN rather than the much larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is also active in the area.
While Colombia has seriously debilitated the rebels in the past two years, thanks in great measure to U.S. military assistance, they remain capable of damaging hit-and-run attacks.
In the first 10 months of this year, 331 police and soldiers were killed in combat, down from 467 in the same period last year, according to the Defense Ministry.
Santos says the FARC has been reduced to fewer than 8,000 fighters, less than half its strength when law-and-order President Alvaro Uribe first took office in 2002.
A second attack on the supply pipeline to Afghanistan today. The last attack reportedly destroyed as many as 200 US military vehicles and other supplies.
The following documents are currently featured as Headlines on the ReliefWeb Home Page. If you do not have Web access and wish to receive the full Headline documents via Email, simply reply to this email and paste into the body the reference to a document you wish to retrieve (including the link). Note that only one document can be retrieved at a time.
Thailand: Severe floods hit southern provinces Source : Integrated Regional Information Networks Date : 05 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7M2HLE?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
Somalia: “Highest levels of malnutrition in the world”
Source : Integrated Regional Information Networks Date : 05 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7M2HCH?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
Uganda: DRC refugees need food, emergency supplies Source : CARE Date : 05 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-7M2FUB?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
Philippines: Over 400,000 affected as widespread flooding hits eastern seaboard Source : Agence France-Presse Date : 05 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KSAI-7M24MB?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
Horn of Africa: Food crisis could rapidly turn into famine – IFRC Source : Agence France-Presse Date : 05 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KSAI-7M23BD?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
oPt: Arab League calls for international effort to lift siege on Gaza Source : Kuwait News Agency Date : 04 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/CJAL-7LZRT5?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
Zimbabwe: Government declares a national emergency Source : Integrated Regional Information Networks Date : 04 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/CJAL-7LZPBD?OpenDocument
**************************************************************************
Sudan: Masked men abduct, beat Darfur aid workers Source : Reuters Date : 04 Dec 2008 URL :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/CJAL-7LZN77?OpenDocument
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||