MikeLigalig.com

 Bombardment ... heavy artillery firing on Gaza from behind the Israel border




  Innocent victim ... wounded Palestinian child is carried to hospital in Gaza's Beit Lahiya

THE terrorist-plagued Gaza Strip was scythed in TWO yesterday — as Israeli ground troops swept in with tanks and helicopter gunships.
The ferocious blitz on Hamas fanatics firing rockets across the border followed a week of air strikes on their lairs.
Last night the onslaught was feared to have taken the Palestinian death toll since Israel began hitting back after Christmas to more than 512.

At least 64 were killed yesterday. Israeli commanders said one of their troops died.
Meanwhile the list of Gaza’s wounded in the past week was said to have soared to 2,600.
Israel vowed to halt the terror raining down on its own citizens for good.

On alert ... Israeli soldiers

But even as its troops rooted out those responsible at least 45 MORE rockets and mortar shells screeched out of the skies to explode deep inside its territory.

The towns of Netivot and Beersheba were among those hit. To the north in Sderot a woman was injured as one slammed into her house.
Among civilian casualties in Gaza yesterday was a Palestinian Oxfam paramedic killed in an ambulance by an explosion.The ambulance’s driver was injured in the blast. A fellow medic lost a foot.
Oxfam chief John Prideaux-Brune said: “Hospitals are overflowing with dead and wounded while facing severe shortages of essential medical supplies.

Bombardment ... heavy artillery firing on Gaza from behind the Israel border
“Oxfam and local partners have had to suspend all our work, apart from emergency medical aid.”
Defiant Hamas guerillas were feared to have taken to a secret network of underground tunnels — in a tactic perfected by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
That terror group claimed victory when Israel was forced to move out in 2006.

Assault ... graphic shows targets hit and troop crossings
Its killers used the underground warren to pop up and massacre Israeli forces.
Yesterday one Hamas leader claimed that the thousands of advancing troops and tanks had fallen into a similar trap.
He sneered: “They have come to where we wanted and they will soon receive our gifts.”
Fellow terrorists claimed to have laid ambushes and booby traps around their strongholds.
The suburbs of Gaza City and the town of Beit Lahiya saw some of the heaviest fighting yesterday after Israel staged its stealth attack in the night.


Columns of tanks poured over the border at a series of carefully selected points.
Fierce fighting erupted immediately. Parachute flares dramatically lit up the scene.

Innocent victim ... wounded Palestinian child is carried to hospital in Gaza's Beit Lahiya

In the Hamas stronghold of Zeitoun, troops were locked in gun battles with extremists. Israel said just ONE of its soldiers was killed yesterday — although around 40 were wounded. Hamas claimed to have captured two enemy soldiers. But Tel Aviv insisted none of its men was missing.
Israeli commanders warned the offensive could last for many days.
But pressure for a ceasefire looked certain to mount as the civilian toll climbed.
Gaza is just 30 miles long and seven miles at its widest — but is one of the most densely packed places in the world with 1.5million people. Yesterday’s ground assault followed days of air and artillery strikes aimed at Hamas leaders.

At least three were killed — with Abu Zakariya, 40, the most senior. He had masterminded the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza City.
Casualty of war ... wounded Israeli soldier is taken on stretcher to hospital in Beersheba
Yesterday’s risky operation was ordered to mop up remaining resistance. In Gaza City at least five Palestinians were killed and 40 wounded.
Twelve died in Beit Lahiya. In the southern town of Rafah, a man and two teenage sons were killed.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak insisted the aim of the ground push was solely to protect southern Israel from Hamas rocket attacks.

He declared: “It won’t be easy. It won’t be short.” Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, vowed death to the advancing Israeli forces. Spokesman Abu Ubaida ranted: “The Zionist enemy must know his battle in Gaza is a losing one.”

As Palestinian civilians took refuge in their homes, humanitarian agencies warned water, food and medicines were in desperately short supply.

Advertisement

The US called for an urgent ceasefire — but said an end to Hamas rocket strikes must be guaranteed. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the ground operation to halt. Last night 90 per cent of the mobile phone network in Gaza was down — along with landlines.
Telecoms officials said Gaza was close to losing contact with the rest of the world.
Palestinians said troops broke into broadcasts on Hamas TV channel Al Aqsa and appealed to them not to act as human shields. Hamas stepped up rocket attacks on Israel after calling off a six-month “truce” last month.

The Iranian-backed fanatics, who won elections in 2006 and drove out their more moderate Fatah rivals, claimed Gaza had been crippled by an Israeli blockade.




Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=17032.0

i can't imagine third world war..  It's too easy to  annihilate a country.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=17032.0