GAZA CRISIS
The
Israeli military and militants in Gaza are continuing to trade fire, with the
round of violence that has followed Israel's killing of Hamas's military chief
showing no sign of abating.Israel hit 200 sites overnight, including PM Ismail
Haniya's office.Gaza militants continue to fire rockets into Israel - one
headed for the city of Tel Aviv was intercepted.Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled
Meshaal will hold talks with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey on
Saturday.
At
least 40 Palestinians and three Israelis have now died since Israel killed the
Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari on Wednesday.Israel's military says it still
has hundreds of targets it wants to hit in the Gaza Strip.A spokeswoman also
told the BBC that troops gathered near the border were ready to invade should
the Israeli government give the order.It has been another difficult night for
people in Gaza. One of the strikes targeted the home of a Hamas leader in the
Jabaliya refugee camp - one of the most densely populated places in the world.It
looks as though the missile went in through the front room. The washing is
still hanging on a line, and everything else is totally destroyed. Most of the
people around here are young children. We understand that 30 people were
injured here, some of them children, and some of them critically.There were a
lot of strikes in the south of Gaza in Rafah, targeting some of the smuggling
tunnels down there.The Hamas prime minister's HQ, hit with five missiles, was
very badly damaged. But the scene here is the picture we've been seeing all
week, that civilians are being caught up in the violence.The Israeli military
spokeswoman told the BBC it did not see any distinction between the military
and political wings of Hamas and that anything connected with the militant
group was considered a legitimate target.An Israeli air force spokesman said it
had destroyed at least 90% of long-range rockets in Gaza and severely damaged
medium- and short-range rockets, and the infrastructure to fire them. However,
hundreds of short-range missiles remained, he said.The BBC's Richard Galpin in
Jerusalem says that despite the ferocity of the Israeli bombardment, some 60
rockets were reported to have been fired into Israel on Saturday, with some
buildings damaged and four soldiers suffering minor injuries.Sirens
went off around Tel Aviv on Saturday, with Israel's military saying that a
missile had been intercepted by a newly installed battery of its Iron Dome
defence system.One rocket also hit an apartment building in the Israeli port
city of Ashdod, wounding several.Israel has now put 75,000 reservists on
stand-by, on top of the 16,000 called up in recent days.Our correspondent says
that, so far, there has been no decision on sending in the troops. However, one
government minister has been quoted as saying that soldiers could launch a
ground offensive into Gaza within the next 24 hours if the rocket fire does not
stop.
On
Saturday, Gaza City was hit by a string of large explosions shortly after 03:00
(01:00 GMT).There was another series of strikes in and around the city after
05:00, with several targeting Hamas's cabinet buildings, which correspondents
say were likely to have been empty.Another of the targets was the house of a
Hamas leader in Jabaliya, north of Gaza City.Israel said it was targeting
rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and smuggling tunnels on the
border with Egypt in southern Gaza.
Israeli
military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said 200 targets had been hit overnight.Government
spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC the operation would end when Israeli citizens
were safe, and that all options - including a ground incursion - remained
"on the table".Militants and civilians, including at least seven
children, have been among the Palestinians killed during Israeli strikes in
recent days, Hamas says.Before the recent offensive - codenamed Pillar of
Defence - Israel had repeatedly carried out air strikes on Gaza, as Palestinian
militants fired rockets across the border.Hundreds of rockets have been fired
into Israel from Gaza since Wednesday.Most of them landed in the south, but a
small number have been aimed at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The
three Israelis who died were in a building in the southern town of Kiryat
Malachi which was hit by a rocket on Thursday.A quarter of the attacks have
been intercepted by the Iron Dome system, officials say.Hamas has confirmed Mr
Meshaal will meet the Emir of Qatar, Egypt's President Mohammed Mursi and
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Cairo on Saturday night to discuss
how a ceasefire can be achieved.A senior Hamas source in Gaza told the BBC a
proposal for a truce made by Turkey was being studied by the Hamas delegation
in the Egyptian capital.Ahead of the meeting, Mr Erdogan said: "It's a
tactic of Israel's to point the finger at Hamas and attack Gaza."Israel
continues to make an international racket with its three dead. In fact it is
Israel that violated the ceasefire."
Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of carrying out
"massacres".Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem arrived in
Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to show support for Hamas.
Later on Saturday he visited the wreckage of Mr Haniya's HQ.
Prof. John Kurakar
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