Have some said history tends to repeat?; has the man kind never learnt anything from the past?
It only makes feel reckless to think of how the state of Israel was established, how much of suffering Jews had to endure before that, and how the state of Jews has passed on this suffering to the others. According to the reports by the Associated Press, in total, there have been at least 541 Palestinians casualities, with more than 2400 injured. Alas! Is this truely the nation of which people had been through the halocaust and supposedly fed up with the notion of mass killings? Needless to mention, we see the moral hazard of the nations, particularly the US, once again become prevalent. Seriously.. what good is spending years after years to dig out the truth and ask for apologies where no one has a tiny bit of interest to do so?
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Tuesday 6 January 2009
Article history
Civilian toll soars as troops and tanks press into Gaza
Israeli forces were locked in heavy fighting in northern Gaza last night with intensive artillery strikes and jet bombing in the north and across Gaza City as the military pledged to press on with its attack.
On the 10th day of the conflict, Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, insisted his country's troops had not finished their operation despite mounting Palestinian casualties and growing international calls for a ceasefire.
"Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective and therefore the operation continues," Barak said.
Israeli forces have already pushed deep into Gaza but last night appeared to be stepping up their fight, with witnesses reporting wave after wave of bombing strikes across the north of the territory accompanied by gunfire from helicopters and artillery from land and sea. The military said it had bombed more smuggling tunnels across the border with Egypt in the south and hit more than 40 other sites across Gaza including buildings storing weapons and rocket launching areas.
As Israeli troops and tanks pressed deeper into Gaza, the toll of civilian casualties rose rapidly. The UN said at least 94 Palestinians had been killed since the ground offensive began on Saturday night. In one incident yesterday a house in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, was hit by tank shells killing at least nine people, including at least four children. In the Shamali district, north of the city, an Israeli bomb destroyed a three-storey house killing a family of seven, including four children.
In total at least 541 Palestinians have died since Israel's operation began, with more than 2,400 injured. Hospitals have been overwhelmed: morgues were crowded with bodies and injured patients had to be treated in hallways. On the Israeli side eight people, including five soldiers, have died and about 60, mostly soldiers, have been hurt. Early today the Israeli military said that three soldiers were killed and four injured when a tank shell was fired in error.
In Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior leader of Hamas in the strip and a hardliner in the movement, appeared on the party's al-Aqsa television station and gave a defiant speech threatening attacks not only in Gaza but elsewhere.
"The Zionists have legitimised the killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people," Zahar said. He urged Hamas fighters to "crush your enemy".
Another Hamas figure, a recognised military spokesman called Abu Ubaida, said thousands of Hamas fighters were waiting in Gaza to take on the Israeli military and said rocket attacks would increase. More than 40 were fired into southern Israel yesterday, including one that landed in an empty kindergarten, which has been closed since the conflict began, like all schools near the Gaza border.
Israeli troops are now deployed in and around the major urban areas of Gaza, particularly in the north, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya. They have ordered residents in many areas to leave their homes with leaflets, telephone calls and radio announcements forcing at least 15,000 Palestinians to flee to safety elsewhere. At least 5,000 are staying in 11 different UN schools and shelters.
The UN said more than a million Gazans were still without electricity or water and that it was increasingly difficult for staff to distribute aid or reach the injured. It said more diesel was needed to reopen the strip's sole power plant, shut for a week.
