Israel, Hamas Trade Fire in Gaza Streets as Truce Efforts Fail

Israel said the strikes were in response to continued rocket fire by Palestinian militants against Israeli towns.


Mosques in Gaza are calling on people to donate blood. Hamas sources said there was no room in the hospitals to treat victims.


Missiles hit security compounds and militant bases across Gaza. Israel said the operation would go on "as long as necessary".


A BBC producer in Gaza says people are desperately seeking refuge, but he says there are no safe places.



Israeli warplanes launched a wave of air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring scores of Palestinians.

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli troops, backed by attack helicopters, fought Hamas gunmen in street battles that raged in the Gaza Strip’s main cities, as European diplomatic efforts failed to end the 11-day conflict.

Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair said a truce can probably be worked out quickly if smuggling tunnels that allow arms and money to flow into Gaza from Egypt are shut down. French President Nicholas Sarkozy urged Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to use his political clout so that the militant Islamic Hamas movement stops firing rockets at Israel.

“There are circumstances in which we could get an immediate cease-fire,” the former U.K. prime minister, who now represents the world powers seeking Middle East peace, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio’s “Today” program from Jerusalem. They include “clear action to cut off the supply of arms and money through the tunnels.”
Israeli forces are expanding their hold over the 65- kilometer (40-mile) long coastal territory, fighting in the streets of Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south, in a bid to stop the rocket fire into Israel. Palestinians scored their longest shot so far when a rocket hit the Israeli city of Gedera, 45 kilometers to the north, injuring a 3-month-old infant, police said.

Gaza’s water and sewage systems were on the verge of collapse because of power shortages, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned. More than 530,000 people among Gaza’s population of 1.4 million are completely cut off from running water and the rest receive water only every few days.

At least 580 Palestinians have died in the conflict, some 50 in the overnight fighting, and 2,600 are wounded, said Mu’awia Hassanein, chief of emergency medical services in Gaza. Israeli forces today hit two schools run by the United Nations in Gaza, killing five people, Agence France-Presse cited UN officials as saying.
UN officials say as many as a quarter of the Palestinians killed are civilians, a figure Israel disputes as too high.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed yesterday to continue the operation until Hamas stopped its rocket attacks. The armed wing of Hamas issued a statement in Gaza saying it had “lots of surprises” waiting for Israel’s soldiers.

Sarkozy met with al-Assad today in Damascus after holding talks yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian leader, who controls the West Bank, is scheduled to address the United Nations today.

“I am sure that Syria has an influence; Syria should help us convince Hamas to listen to the voice of reason,” Sarkozy said today at a news conference. Al-Assad said he favored a cease-fire, while describing Israel’s offensive in Gaza as a “war crime.”

As many as 3,200 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel since the start of 2008. Rocket attacks have killed four Israelis since fighting began. At least 30 rockets struck Israeli territory today compared to 40 yesterday, according to the army. That’s down from a peak of 76 on Dec. 27, the first day of the operation.
Last week, Israel rejected a French-proposed 48-hour truce with Hamas, saying it was seeking a permanent end to the Gaza rocket attacks.

The Israeli air force attacked more than 40 targets throughout the Gaza Strip yesterday. They included tunnels dug under the Egyptian border, weapon storage areas, houses of Hamas operatives, a number of weapons manufacturing sites and rocket launching areas, the army said in an e-mailed statement.

Israel has come under increasing diplomatic pressure since the start of the ground operation.

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