|
GAZA CITY: Israeli troops and Hamas fighters fought fierce battles
in the streets of Gaza’s main city on Tuesday as Israel’s war on
Hamas entered its 18th day and the death toll spiraled above 900.
The most relentless battles of the offensive
erupted when Israeli special forces backed by tanks and air strikes
lunged ever deeper into several neighborhoods in the south in the
early morning hours, witnesses said.
Palestinian fighters fired back with roadside
bombs, mortars and anti-tank rockets. Explosions, tank shell thuds
and the rattle of gunfire kept terrified residents who had not yet
fled the area awake all through the night.
The clashes come as the UN Security Council
prepares to meet again on the crisis, after both Israel and Hamas
ignored last week’s resolution calling for a halt to the fighting.
“We are tightening the encirclement of the
city,” Brigadier General Eyal Eisenbert, the commander of the
operation, told a group of reporters briefly allowed in with the
troops.
“We are not static. We are careful to be
constantly on the move.”
The Israeli media widely speculated on Tuesday
that the country’s leadership may approve an expansion of the
massive offensive in Gaza despite ongoing talks in Egypt on how to
end a war launched to stop rocket fire.
Battlefront scenes
The tanks retreated shortly after dawn from the
neighborhoods of Tal al-Hawa and Sheikh Ajlin, but troops and armor
remained camped in the outlying neighborhood of Zeitun.
Dozens of houses were damaged and some left in
rubble by Israeli armor in the hours following the fighting.
At least 10 people were killed in Tuesday’s
clashes, medics said, while the Army reported that one Israeli
officer was critically wounded.
Israeli warplanes pounded the densely populated
coastal strip with more than 60 air strikes overnight, targeting
rocket launching sites, weapons storage facilities, Hamas outposts
and smuggling tunnels on Gaza’s border with Egypt, the Army said.
Hamas defiant
Hamas and its allies sent four rockets and
mortar rounds into Israel, with the projectiles not causing any
injuries.
The Islamists vowed they would emerge
victorious, but said they were ready to examine truce initiatives.
“We are approaching victory,” Hamas leader
Ismail Haniya vowed in a rare television interview, adding that the
Islamists were ready to “examine in a positive manner any
initiative which can put an end to this aggression and the blood of
our children being shed.”
A Hamas delegation has been holding talks in
Egypt on a Western-backed proposal by President Hosni Mubarak on how
to end the fighting.
Israel and Hamas both ignored a UN Security
Council resolution—on which the United States abstained but backed
in principle—which called last week for a truce.
Peace initiatives
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who is to head to the
Middle East on Tuesday, called on Israel and Hamas to immediately
stop the fighting, saying “too many people have died.”
The Security Council was to hold closed-door
consultations on the crisis later on Tuesday. (See related story
B4.)
The focus of peace efforts has been on an
Egyptian proposal for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian
aid into impoverished Gaza, talks on opening Gaza’s border
crossings and taking steps to prevent arms smuggling.
Olmert on Monday reiterated Israel’s key
demands—stopping rocket fire and preventing Hamas from re-arming.
“If these two conditions are met, we will end
our operation in Gaza,” said the outgoing premier. “Anything
else will meet the iron fist of the Israeli people.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, whose
remit is limited to the West Bank, said the Egyptian initiative
offered the best hope of peace, putting pressure on both Israel and
Hamas to respond positively.
“He who refuses, voices reservations or moves
slowly on this initiative bears the responsibility of explaining
themselves, especially to the people of Gaza,” he said.
Humanitarian aid
Aid agencies have warned of a growing
humanitarian crisis in the territory where the vast majority of the
1.5-million population depends on foreign aid and that is already
reeling from months of a punishing Israeli blockade.
Since Israel unleashed its Operation Cast Lead
on December 27, at least 930 people, including 277 children, have
been killed and another 4,200 wounded, according to Gaza medics.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have
been killed in combat or by rocket attacks in the same period and
militants have fired some 700 rockets and mortars into Israel.
-- AFP
|
