Israel pounds Gaza City after warning of escalation

[laststeamtrain]

Source: AFP

Israel pounds Gaza City after warning of escalation
by Adel Zaanoun Adel Zaanoun – 26 mins ago

GAZA CITY, (AFP) – Tanks and warplanes pounded the outskirts of Gaza City before dawn on Sunday after Israel warned it would escalate its war on Hamas targets, as the death toll in the 16-day-old conflict passed 850.

With the body count spiralling, Hamas remained defiant in the face of Egyptian-led efforts to broker a cease fire, vowing it would not negotiate a truce "under fire."

And medics said three Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by heavy Israeli tank fire and air strikes, some according to doctors by banned white phosphorous shells that Israel denied using.

As dawn approached, an AFP correspondent reported increasing tank fire on the Al Sheikh Ajlin and Zeitun neighbourhoods of Gaza City, as well as on Sudaniyah, near the Mediterranean Sea in northwestern Gaza.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090111/ts_afp/mideastconflictgazaundraftvote_newsmlmmd

[peacetalksforall]

1. 1-11 Sunday morning death. And the Iranian aid ship is to dock today. 1-11.

Will this be a day to remember for giving aid? Or not?

[democrank]

2. "Banned" White Phosphorous .....

I don`t understand how anyone can condone this.


~PEACE~

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. WP is not banned

It is allowed for some uses.

[laststeamtrain]

3. AFP: Israeli troops battle Hamas in heavy clashes

Israeli troops battle Hamas in heavy clashes
by Adel Zaanoun Adel Zaanoun – 1 hr 9 mins ago

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled on Sunday in some of their heaviest clashes yet as Israel said it is nearing the goals of its war and the defiant Islamists vowed to fight on.

As the two sides fought on, ignoring world pleas to stop the 16-day-old war that has killed more than 875 people, Egypt was keeping up efforts to broker a truce in Israel's deadliest ever assault on the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Israeli infantry units backed by tanks pushed deeper into Gaza's main city overnight near the southern Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, encountering roadside bombs, mortar and gunfire from Palestinian fighters, witnesses said.

The troops withdrew at daybreak, but panicked residents fled from the area, clutching babies, toddlers and hurriedly-packed bags after a sleepless night that saw some of the fiercest confrontations so far, witnesses said.

Civilians continued to fall victim to Israel's onslaught on the Palestinian enclave, one of the world's most densely populated places where every other person of the 1.5 million population is under 18 years of age.

Two women and four children were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, medics and witnesses said. Twelve bodies were pulled from the rubble in Tal al-Hawa, 10 of them fighters, medics said....http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090111/ts_afp/mideastconflictgazaundraftvote_newsmlmmd

[laststeamtrain]

4. "fiercest ground battles so far"

Israeli troops, militants battle in Gaza suburb
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writers Ibrahim Barzak And Matti Friedman, Associated Press Writers 21 mins ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb of Gaza City Sunday in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel's military inched toward Gaza's population centers.

A top Israeli defense official said Hamas has been badly hurt by the offensive in Gaza — especialy by the deaths of senior militants and shortages of ammunition — but predicted that the group would fight on.

The group "is not expected to raise a white flag," military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the Israeli Cabinet Sunday.

The fighting in the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood erupted before dawn and continued through the morning as Israeli infantrymen and tanks advanced toward Gaza City and its approximately 400,000 residents, Palestinian witnesses said. Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said they ambushed the Israelis, leading to some of the heaviest fighting since Israel sent ground forces into the coastal territory on Jan. 3.

Gunfire subsided in the early afternoon, with the Israelis in control of buildings on the neighborhood's outskirts...http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

[ShadesOfGrey]

5. K&R to the greatest.

[DogPoundPup]

6. Fighting Escalates as Israeli Troops Push Farther into Gaza

Source: Washington Post

JERUSALEM, Jan. 11 -- Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen battled Sunday morning on the outskirts of Gaza City in some of the most intense fighting of the week-old ground offensive as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared that Israel is "close" to achieving its goals, but is not there yet.

On the sixteenth day of war since Israel launched a surprise air assault on Gaza, Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships pushed further toward the narrow strip's main population center, Gaza City. Ambushed by fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two sides battled for five hours Sunday morning, witnesses said. The fighting left at least 27 Palestinians dead, according to medical officials in Gaza. There was no immediate report of Israeli casualties.

The tank movement was seen in Gaza as a possible precursor to a new phase of the war, one in which Israeli forces move into the territory's most densely packed urban centers and refugee camps.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011100616.html

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011100616.html

[DogPoundPup]

7. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS...Israeli military refused to allow aid shipments through Gazas border checkpoint

Saturday, saying the crossings were closed for the Sabbath AT WHICH TIME..The Israeli military ordered another three-hour pause in its operations Saturday to enable relief workers to deliver supplies and send ambulances to collect the wounded.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011100616_3.html

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DogPoundPup]

9. Israelis accused of gas strike on Gaza citizens

Source: The Sunday Mail UK

ISRAEL was last night accused of using gas against civilians in Gaza.

Charity workers said hospitals treated scores of people suffering eye and breathing problems.

Christian Aid said: "People have been exposed to gas. Doctors don't know what it is - a kind of tear gas."

Some 800 Palestinians - including 250 children - have been killed in the two-week offensive.

Read more: http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/uk-and-international-news/2009/01/11/israelis-accused-of-gas-strike-on-gaza-citizens-78057-21032132/

[bushmeister0]

17. What took them so long?

israelenews.com:

"'On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high number of cases of , spasm in legs and hands, connected to the nervous system. Pupils were dilated...Other symptoms included shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and sweating.'"

Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel's impending wall has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report (procured by the International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC), 'the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a nerve gas.'

The following day, Israel's 'Peace Bloc', Gush Shalom, began a press release with the following quote from Al-Zawiya: 'What the army used here yesterday was not tear gas. We know what tear gas is, what it feels like. That was something totally different . . .'

. . . Though it is a state secret, Israel's development of chemical and biological weapons has been known and analyzed for decades. From the typhoid poisoning of Palestinian wells and water supplies in 1948 (3,4) to the conversion of F-16s into nerve gas 'crop dusters' in 1998 (5), Israel has always demonstrated a strong interest in developing CBW agents and methods for their dispersal.

http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=476

[Barack_America]

11. Israeli bomb shrapnel wounds 4 Egyptians

Source: Reuters

11 Jan 2009 16:57:24 GMT
Source: Reuters

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Two Egyptian children and two police officers were wounded by shrapnel from Israeli bombs near a crossing point at Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, security sources said.

The children, aged two and five, and the two officers were the first Egyptians to be wounded by Israeli bombs since the Israeli offensive against Gaza began on Dec. 27, and were taken to hospitals in el-Arish.

There were no details of the gravity of their injuries.

Witnesses said Egyptian houses near the border and government offices at the crossing were damaged by shrapnel on Sunday.

<snip>

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed, writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni; editing by Tim Pearce)

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE50A1XS20090111

---

This, in addition to reports of Israeli planes violating Egyptian airspace. You've got to wonder, despite Israeli denials, how they're bombing so close to the Egyptian border without actually crossing it.

Egypt police, children wounded in Israeli air strikes

RAFAH, Egypt (AFP) — Two Egyptian police officers and two children were wounded by shrapnel on Sunday during Israeli air strikes near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, a security official said.

The children, aged two and five, and the policemen have been hospitalised but the seriousness of their wounds was not immediately clear, the official said, adding that that "tens of homes were damaged by shrapnel."

"They were wounded by shrapnel when the Israeli air force bombed the border area," said the official, adding that the air strikes appeared to be targeting smuggling tunnels about 400 metres (yards) from the Egyptian border with Gaza.

Witnesses have said that Israeli warplanes violate Egyptian airspace daily as they carry out low-altitude raids on Gaza. Unmanned drones are also frequently seen over Egypt...

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVnXw4c1aYTNUoEE70ohDxICwzWw

Edited to change link to official Reuters site.

[Barack_America]

12. Mods, this isn't about Israel attacking Gaza. It's about the war spilling into Egypt.

Different topic, IMO.

[maddezmom]

13. it's referenced in the OP's link

~~The army said it had blown up 20 tunnels on Sunday, when shrapnel from the air strikes wounded two Egyptian police officers and two children at the Rafah crossing into Gaza, a security official said.

Hamas, however, has vowed to keep fighting and on Sunday 19 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, without wounding anyone.~~

And in an effort to keep the threads manageable in LBN we're combining threads.

[Barack_America]

14. Okay, fair enough.

Thanks for the response.

[laststeamtrain]

15. AP: Israeli reservists enter Gaza, signaling new phase

Israeli reservists enter Gaza, signaling new phase
33 mins ago

JERUSALEM – Israel's chief military spokesman says the army has begun sending reserve units into the Gaza Strip.

The comments are a strong signal that Israel is entering a new phase of its 16-day offensive against Hamas.

Israel began a ground invasion on Jan. 3 and quickly took over areas outside Gaza's cities. Officials say the next phase of the operation will involve taking over even more areas. They say that will require the use of thousands of reserve forces waiting at the border.

Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu told reporters Sunday that reserve units are already in Gaza. He declined to say whether the next phase of the offensive has officially begun....http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_603

[laststeamtrain]

16. IRIN: Gazans have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

Gazans have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

TEL AVIV, 11 January 2009 (IRIN) - Palestinians in the Gaza Strip received on 10 January air-dropped leaflets warning them that the Israeli military was about to step up operations against militant targets there and that they should take necessary precautions.

However, it remained unclear what Palestinians could do, given that UN officials have said Gazans have no safe place to hide.

"There is nowhere safe in Gaza," Allegra Pacheco, deputy head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories, said. His views were echoed by Max Gaylord, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Jerusalem.

The leaflet told Gazans that they should follow the recent example of Rafah's residents, who fled their homes in the south of the Gaza Strip after receiving similar announcements instructing them to do so just before the Israeli airforce began to pound the city, which is along the Egyptian border. Israeli officials said Palestinian militants were using tunnels to smuggle weapons under this border.

Witnesses said up to 50,000 people fled the town, and the UN reported that Israel's ongoing Operation Cast Lead, which began on 27 December, has created the largest number of forcibly displaced Palestinians since the 1967 war...http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=82301

[laststeamtrain]

18. AFP: Israel sends reserves into Gaza but says end may be in sight

Israel sends reserves into Gaza but says end may be in sight
by Mai Yaghi – 50 mins ago

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel began pouring reservists into heavy clashes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the death toll from its war on Hamas approached 900 and officials indicated that the end may be in sight.

Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza's main city, as warplanes carried out at least 50 air strikes on the 16th day of a war launched to combat Palestinian rocket fire, which has continued despite the offensive.

Israel's Channel Two said the army had begun sending in some of the thousands of reservists called up when the war began on December 27, and an army spokesman said they would be increasingly "integrated" into combat units.

Civilians again fell victim in Israel's offensive on the impoverished and isolated Palestinian enclave, one of the world's most densely populated places where half of the 1.5 million residents are less than 18 years old.

Two women and four children were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, medics and witnesses said.

Israeli officials suggested the end may be close of its offensive, which has killed hundreds of civilians, despite having last week waved off a UN resolution calling for an immediate halt to the fighting...http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090111/ts_afp/mideastconflictgazaundraftvote_newsmlmmd

[laststeamtrain]

19. AP: Israel's Gaza war extends into psychological realm

Israel's Gaza war extends into psychological realm
By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 26 mins ago


JERUSALEM – At first it didn't seem unusual when the faces of the Hamas leadership turned up on the group's TV network. But then they were shot down, one by one, while a message warned that Hamas' time was running out.

Even as Israel's armor and foot soldiers push into the Gaza Strip in an effort to stop militants from launching rockets into Israel, the war is also being waged with psychological operations designed to sap morale on both sides.

Over at Islamic Jihad's Voice of Jerusalem radio station in Gaza City, broadcaster Kamal Abu Nasser said that at least once an hour, the Israeli military also breaks into his signal and broadcasts messages blaming Hamas for everyone's problems.

Hamas, for its part, said it has broadcast messages on Israeli military walkie talkies threatening to kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers. The army said it had no information on such transmissions.

The fate of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured by Hamas-linked militants in 2006 and whose whereabouts remain unknown, is repeatedly evoked in broadcasts and statements by Hamas, which has several times has threatened to nab more Israeli soldiers. Hamas tried to spread rumors that it had captured several. At least one actual attempt failed, the military said.

Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ilan Tal said he would not comment on Israel's psychological operations...http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_psychological_warfare_1