Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, 145 dead

(December 27, Gaza Strip, Sri Lanka Guardian) Israeli warplanes destroyed dozens of security compounds across Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of air strikes, killing at least 145 people and wounding more than 310 in the single deadliest day in Gaza fighting in recent memory, Palestinian medical officials said.

The strikes came in response to renewed rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli border towns. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "the operation will last as long as necessary" but it was not clear if it would include a ground offensive.

Asked if Hamas political leaders might be targeted next, military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovitch said "Any Hamas target is a target."

Gaza militants fired several Grad-type Katyusha rockets at southern Israel in response to the strikes, the military said. One hit in the border community of Netivot, killing a woman and wounding four people, Israel's rescue service reported.

The strikes caused widespread panic and confusion as black clouds of smoke rose above Gaza. Some of the missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children.

In Gaza City's main security compound, the bodies of more than a dozen uniformed security officers lay on the ground. One survivor raised his index finger in a show of Muslim faith, uttering a prayer. The Gaza police chief was among those killed.

It wasn't immediately clear how many civilian casualties there were.

Said Masri sat in the middle of a Gaza City street, close to a security compound, alternately slapping his face and covering his head with dust from the bombed-out building. "My son is gone, my son is gone," wailed Masri, 57.

The shopkeeper said he sent his son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. "May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn," Masri moaned.

Hamas leaders threatened revenge attacks and Israel told its civilians near Gaza to take cover as militants began retaliating with rockets. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has governed from the West Bank since Hamas seized control of Gaza last year, called for restraint and Egypt opened its border with Gaza to allow ambulances to drive out some of the wounded.

Hamas officials said all of Gaza's security compounds were destroyed. Israel Army Radio said at least 40 targets were hit.

Barak said the coming period "won't be easy and won't be short for the communities in the south" of Israel.

Israel declared a state of emergency in Israeli communities within a 12-mile range of Gaza, putting the area on a war footing.

Hamas said it would take revenge not just with rocket attacks but by sending suicide bombers into Israel. "Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood," said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station.

The first round of air strikes came just before noon, and several more waves followed.

Civilians rushed to the targeted areas, trying to move the wounded in their cars to hospitals.

Television footage showed Gaza City hospitals crowded with people, including civilians rushing in wounded people in cars, vans and ambulances.

"We are treating people on the floor, in the corridors. We have no more space. We don't know who is here and what the priority is to treat," said one doctor who hung up the phone before identifying himself at Shifa Hospital, Gaza's main treatment center.

Moawiya Hassanain, a Gaza Health Ministry official, said at least 145 people were killed and more than 310 wounded.

Frantic civilians drove wounded people to hospitals in their cars.

In the West Bank, Hamas' rival Abbas condemned "this aggression" and called for restraint, according to an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Abbas, who has ruled only the West Bank since Islamic Hamas militants seized power in Gaza in June 2007, was in contact with Arab leaders and his West Bank Cabinet convened an emergency session.

Israel has targeted Gaza in the past but the number of simultaneous attacks was unprecedented.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation but the withdrawal did not lead to better relations with Palestinians in the territory as Israeli officials had hoped. Instead, the evacuation was followed by a sharp rise in militant attacks on Israeli border communities that on several occasions provoked harsh Israeli military reprisals.

The last, in late February and early March of this year, spurred both sides to agree to a truce that was to have lasted six months but began unraveling in early November.

With 200 mortars and rockets raining down on Israel since the truce expired a week ago, and 3,000 since the beginning of the year, pressure had been mounting in Israel for the military to crush militants.

Israeli leaders have been voicing strong threats in recent days and consider Hamas to be primarily responsible for the situation. - Sri Lanka Guardian