Israel mobilizes, Hamas defiant

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Israeli warplanes pressing one of the deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants dropped bombs and missiles on dozens of the targets across Hamas-ruled Gaza yesterday after killing nearly 300 Palestinians in the opening rounds of a powerful offensive.

As the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press yesterday, dozens of Israeli tanks and personnel carriers deployed on the edge of the Gaza Strip, poised to enter the densely populated enclave of 1.5 million Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reservists, a government official said.

Olmert said it was unclear when the operation would end. The situation in southern Israel "is liable to last longer than we are able to foresee at this time," he told his Cabinet. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed to expand a massive Israeli military campaign against Hamas targets "as much as necessary."

Despite the deadly Israeli attacks, Hamas remained defiant, with the movement's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal calling in Damascus for a new Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israel and promising new suicide attacks. Palestinian militants in Gaza kept up the pressure on Israel, firing dozens of rockets and mortars at Israeli border communities yesterday.

Two rockets struck close to the largest city in southern Israel, Ashdod, some 23 miles from Gaza, reaching deeper into Israel than ever before. The targeting of Ashdod confirmed Israel's concern that militants are capable of putting major cities within rocket range. No serious injuries were reported in any of the attacks, reported The Associated Press.

Hamas spokesman urged Palestinian groups to use "all available means, including martyrdom operations" - a reference to suicide bombings in Israel - to "protect the Palestinian people." The Palestinians' moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, a fierce rival of Hamas, urged the group to renew a truce with Israel that collapsed last week. "Palestine has never seen an uglier massacre," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said.

Israeli military affairs commentators said the offensive did not appear to be aimed at retaking the Gaza Strip or destroying its Hamas government - ambitious goals that could prove difficult and politically risky before Israel's Feb. 10 parliamentary election. Instead, they said, Israel wanted to bolster its deterrence power and force Hamas into a new truce that would bring a long-term halt to cross-border rocket salvoes, reported Reuters.

Aid groups said they feared a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Hospitals said they were running out of supplies due to a Israeli-led blockade. thousands protest

Thousands protest air strikes
Crowds of thousands swept into the streets of cities around the Middle East yesterday to shout down Israel's air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

From Lebanon to Iran, Israel's adversaries used the weekend assault to marshal crowds out onto the streets for noisy demonstrations, reported the Associated Press.

Protestors burned Israeli flags and fired AK-47s into the air in protests across Iraq yesterday, demanding a stronger response from Arab nations to the Israeli attack on Gaza. A teenage boy was killed in one protest in the northern city of Mosul when a suicide bomber on a bicycle detonated explosives in a crowd of around 300 protestors, reported Reuters. Police said 17 people were wounded in the attack in Mosul.

In Lebanon, police fired tear gas to stop dozens of demonstrators from reaching the Egyptian Embassy. Some in the crowd hurled stones at the embassy compound. Egypt has been criticized for not doing enough to allow aid to pass through its border with Gaza.

In the capital of neighboring Syria, more than 5,000 people marched toward the central Youssef al-Azmeh square, where they burned an Israeli and an American flag. One demonstrator carried a banner reading, "The aggression against Gaza is an aggression against the whole Arab nation." "Down with America, the mother of terrorism," read another.

More than 50,000 Egyptians - many of them students - demonstrated at campuses in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere and accused President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders of not doing enough to support the Palestinians.