 (Eyad Baba/AP Photo) A Palestinian family flees an Israeli airstrike in Rafah. Seven schoolchildren waiting for a bus were reported to be among the Gaza casualties |
Hundreds of Israel’s tanks gathered on the border for a possible ground assault, but there was no sign of an end to the aerial bombardment.
Health officials in Gaza City said today that 315 people had been killed in the three-day raid, including seven children under the age of 15, while more than 1,400 are thought to have been wounded.
The military strike was launched by Israel in a bid to end missile attacks on its southern towns. However, the rockets continued to fall this morning and one Israeli was killed after a direct hit in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
The unnamed man was the second fatality in Israel since the beginning of the offensive, and the first person ever to be killed by a rocket in Ashkelon, a city of 120,000.
Hamas missiles reached as far as the city of Ashdod for the first time yesterday, twice as far from Gaza as Ashkelon and only 25 miles from Tel Aviv.
Khaled Meshaal, the group's exiled leader, called for Palestinians to start a third intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation. Riots erupted in the West Bank, controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, where one demonstrator was killed by Israeli fire and several Israeli soldiers were injured by protesters.
In Gaza City there was a mood of defiance as well as fear. Abdel Hafez, 55, a history teacher, said he was not a Hamas supporter, but believed the strikes would only increase support for the group. “Each strike, each drop of blood are giving Hamas more fuel to continue,” he said.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, hardened the British Government’s response by warning the blitz on Gaza would encourage further extremism, he reiterated the call for an immediate ceasefire.
“I think that any innocent loss of life is unacceptable and in this case there have been massive casualties, some of them civilians and some of them children. That is one reason we have called for a ceasefire,” he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
“This is a very dangerous and very dark moment, partly because of the lives that have been lost and the humanitarian crisis that exists, partly because of the threat to the chance of the comprehensive peace that is so important for the Palestinians, but also for Israel, and partly for the fuel for radicalism that can be argued by some to be the right response.”
“There is no point in me denying my fear that this will fuel radicalism,” he said. “That is one of the dangers we face at the moment."
The Israeli military claimed that its offensive was working and had surprised Hamas with its ferocity and timing. The aim was to destroy Hamas rocket arsenals, metal works and military personnel, while minimising “collateral damage”, a souce said.
The targets are clustered in crowded streets, however, and many civilian casualties were reported, including seven teenagers waiting for a bus to take them home from their UN-run school.
Israeli planes bombed the Egyptian border to destroy tunnels used for smuggling weapons as well as supplies to the besieged population. Desperate Palestinians tried to flee over the frontier, prompting Egyptian police to open fire. A Palestinian youth and an Egyptian border guard were killed in the ensuing clashes.
Air strikes also destroyed the Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold which an Israeli army spokesman said was used for the development of rockets, explosives and electronic devices.
Anti-Israeli demonstrations erupted across the Arab world, and there were also protests in Western capitals such as Madrid, Paris and London. Hamas accused Israel of “committing a Holocaust as the whole world watches and doesn’t lift a finger”. The international community called on both sides to agree a ceasefire.
As Hamas continued its rocket attacks, Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, said that he would expand his operation to root out militants and their weapons.
Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Foreign Minister, who will stand as the ruling Kadima party candidate in a General Election this February, said that the world should back her country against Hamas.
“I expect the international community, including the entire Arab world, to send a clear message to Hamas: ‘It is your fault; it’s your responsibility; you are the one who’s being condemned’,” she told NBC.
Israeli fighter jets also flew sorties over Lebanon yesterday in an apparent warning to Hezbollah not to weigh in across Israel’s northern border.
The Shia militant organisation ordered a cross-border raid in 2006 when Israel staged a massive Gaza incursion in retaliation for the kidnap of one of its soldiers by Hamas. A month-long war left more than 1,500 people dead.
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