Gaza civilians left exposed in Israeli invasion

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – With booms from artillery and airstrikes keeping them awake, the 10 members of Lubna Karam's family spent the night huddled in the hallway of their Gaza City home.

Earlier strikes shattered the living room windows, letting cold air pour in. The Karams haven't had electricity for a week and have run out of cooking gas. The family, including three small children younger than four, eats cold, canned beans.

"It's war food," said Karam, 28. "What else can we do?"

As Israel's offensive against Hamas moves from pinpointed airstrikes to ground fighting and artillery shelling, Gaza's civilians are increasingly exposed. Some two dozen civilians were killed within hours after the start of Israel's ground invasion Saturday night.

Israel says eight days of aerial bombardment, followed by the ground invasion, seek to undermine Hamas' ability to fire rockets at the Jewish state. So far, more than 500 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed. Palestinian and U.N. officials say at least 100 Palestinian civilians are among the dead.

The ground offensives will put Israeli solders, Gaza militants and civilians in much closer quarters.

The guiding principle of Israel's ground invasion is to move in with full force and try to minimize Israeli casualties, Israeli military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronoth. "We'll pay the international price later for the collateral damage and the anticipated civilian casualties," Fishman said.

While Israeli said its airstrikes have targeted only Hamas installations and leaders, some of the bombs were so powerful that they destroyed or damaged adjacent houses.

Karam said she always felt under threat. She said her family didn't sleep. "We keep hearing the sounds of airplanes and we don't know if we'll live until tomorrow, or not," she said.

Anas Mansour, 21, a resident of the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, said he and his family may try to leave the area later Sunday. Mansour said he was sleeping in his clothes, with his identification cards in his pocket in case he had to flee quickly.

He said he could see his neighbor loading a donkey cart with mattresses and blankets to leave, but hadn't yet decided if he'd do the same. "Where can we go? It's all the same," Mansour said.

Deprivation is nothing new in Gaza, but the Israeli-led blockade of the territory has grown increasingly tighter over the past two months, making cooking gas and many foods scare.

Adding to that, last week's bombings damaged the strip's sanitary and electrical infrastructure, leaving many residents without power and water, and most shops are now shuttered.

"When there was a siege, we kept taking about a catastrophe," said Hatem Shurrab, 24, of Gaza City. "But then the airstrikes started, and now we don't even know what word to use. There's no word in the dictionary that can describe the situation we are in."

Series of powerful quakes kills 4 in Indonesia

By ALI KOTARUMALOS, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A series of powerful earthquakes shook remote eastern Indonesia on Sunday, toppling or badly damaging more than 100 buildings and leaving at least four people dead and dozens injured.

One of the quakes — a 7.3-magnitude tremor — was felt as far away as Australia and sent small tsunamis into Japan's southeastern coast.

The first 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 4:43 a.m. local time (1943 GMT) about 85 miles (135 kilometers) from Manokwari, the main city in Papua province, at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by dozens of aftershocks.

At least four people died in Papua, and the airport runway nearest the epicenter was cracked, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters.

Panicked residents in Manokwari fled their homes in the dark fearing a tsunami, said Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official. The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency issued a tsunami alert, but it was revoked within an hour after it was determined the epicenter of the main quake was on land.

A huge quake off western Indonesia caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed about 230,000 people.

Quakes centered onshore pose little tsunami threat to Indonesia itself, but those close to the coast can churn up large waves that sometimes reach the coastlines of other countries like Japan.

Power lines fell, cutting off electricity in and around Manokwari, and commercial flights to the area were canceled. The National Disaster Coordination Agency said 135 houses and buildings were badly damaged or collapsed.

"I've instructed emergency steps be taken to help our brothers and to restore power and other vital utilities," Yudhoyono said.

Papua police chief Maj. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto said he received reports that a hotel and rice warehouse had been "destroyed," but he did not know if anyone had died. A search for possible victims was under way.

"My son's head was wounded when a cabinet fell on him," said Ferry Dau, a father of two who said the walls in his house were cracked. "It was very strong and scary. The power and phones went dead after the utility lines fell down."

Japan's Meteorological Agency said tsunamis between 4 inches (10 centimeters) and 16 inches (40 centimeters) high splashed ashore in towns along the coast. It also warned that bigger tsunamis were possible later.

Dave Jepsen, a seismologist at the government earthquake monitoring agency Geoscience Australia, said the quake was felt in the northern city of Darwin, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) southwest of the quake. There was no damage, he said.

Relief agency World Vision Indonesia was flying in 2,000 emergency provision kits, including canned food, blankets and basic medical supplies, said spokeswoman Katarina Hardono.

Papua is the Indonesian portion of New Guinea island, located about 1,830 miles (2,955 kilometers) east of the capital Jakarta. It is among the nation's least developed areas, and a low-level insurgency has simmered in the resource-rich region for years. It is off limits to foreign reporters.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to seismic activity.

New York mayor, in Israel, backs strikes on Hamas

By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed solidarity with Israelis threatened by Hamas rockets on Sunday in a daylong trip to Israel that included visits to two towns targeted by the Islamic militant movement in recent weeks.

During the visit to the embattled town of Sderot, Bloomberg and his party, which included Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat, were briefly hustled to a bomb shelter when a missile warning went off.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Bloomberg said he fully understood Israel's actions. "You should rest assured, if anyone in New York was being threatened, my instruction to the NYPD (New York police) would be to use all the resources at their disposal to protect civilians," Bloomberg said.

"I think as a New Yorker, we've been attacked twice by al-Qaida itself," said the mayor, who is Jewish. "We've seen enormous devastation and courage and after that you sort of feel you have a bond, if you will, for those who live in a dangerous world and subject to someone trying to kill them."

Israel is in the ninth day of its strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than 500 Palestinians. Ground forces pushed into Gaza Saturday night amid widespread world condemnation.

Bloomberg blamed the current situation entirely on the militant Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip and began launching rockets against Israeli towns in the south after its six-month truce with Israel lapsed last month.

"All Hamas has to do is stop sending rockets over to kill people and agree on the accords that were negotiated earlier and come to an agreement that is verifiable, durable and effective to stop people from being killed," he added.

International criticism of Israel has centered on the civilian deaths that have accompanied the attacks on Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where food, water and electricity are in short supply.

Ackerman, who accompanied Bloomberg to the southern Israeli towns of Ashkelon and Sderot, said the onus of the civilian deaths was on Hamas for using them as human shields.

"They have been the main victimizers of the innocent Palestinian people by inviting these kinds of attacks," said Ackerman, who chairs the House subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

The Invasion of Gaza: Military-Intelligence Agenda

The Invasion of Gaza: "Operation Cast Lead", Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Intelligence Agenda

By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11606

Global Research, January 4, 2009

The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analyzed in a historical context. Operation "Cast Lead" is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:

"Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas."(Barak Ravid, Operation "Cast Lead": Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:

"Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip. Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel. During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis. Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN." (Shamus Cooke, The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War, Global Research, December 2008)

Planned Humanitarian Disaster

On December 8, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was in Tel Aviv for discussions with his Israeli counterparts including the director of Mossad, Meir Dagan.

"Operation Cast Lead" was initiated two days day after Christmas. It was coupled with a carefully designed international Public Relations campaign under the auspices of Israel's Foreign Ministry.

Hamas' military targets are not the main objective. Operation "Cast Lead" is intended, quite deliberately, to trigger civilian casualities.

What we are dealing with is a "planned humanitarian disaster" in Gaza in a densly populated urban area. (See map below)




The longer term objective of this plan, as formulated by Israeli policy makers, is the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestinian lands:

"Terrorize the civilian population, assuring maximal destruction of property and cultural resources... [T]he daily life of the Palestinians must be rendered unbearable: They should be locked up in cities and towns, prevented from exercising normal economic life, cut off from workplaces, schools and hospitals, This will encourage emigration and weaken the resistance to future expulsions" Ur Shlonsky, quoted by Ghali Hassan, Gaza: The World’s Largest Prison, Global Research, 2005)

"Operation Justified Vengeance"

A turning point has been reached. Operation "Cast Lead" is part of the broader military-intelligence operation initiated at the outset the Ariel Sharon government in 2001. It was under Sharon's "Operation Justified Vengeance" that F-16 fighter planes were initially used to bomb Palestinian cities.

"Operation Justified Vengeance" was presented in July 2001 to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon by IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, under the title "The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces".

"A contingency plan, codenamed Operation Justified Vengeance, was drawn up last June [2001] to reoccupy all of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip at a likely cost of "hundreds" of Israeli casualties." (Washington Times, 19 March 2002).

According to Jane's 'Foreign Report' (July 12, 2001) the Israeli army under Sharon had updated its plans for an "all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army".

"Bloodshed Justification"

The "Bloodshed Justification" was an essential component of the military-intelligence agenda. The killing of Palestinian civilians was justified on "humanitarian grounds." Israeli military operations were carefully timed to coincide with the suicide attacks:

The assault would be launched, at the government's discretion, after a big suicide bomb attack in Israel, causing widespread deaths and injuries, citing the bloodshed as justification. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel's move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001, emphasis added)

The Dagan Plan

"Operation Justified Vengeance" was also referred to as the "Dagan Plan", named after General (ret.) Meir Dagan, who currently heads Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.

Reserve General Meir Dagan was Sharon's national security adviser during the 2000 election campaign. The plan was apparently drawn up prior to Sharon’s election as Prime Minister in February 2001. "According to Alex Fishman writing in Yediot Aharonot, the Dagan Plan consisted in destroying the Palestinian authority and putting Yasser Arafat 'out of the game'." (Ellis Shulman, "Operation Justified Vengeance": a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian Authority, March 2001):

"As reported in the Foreign Report [Jane] and disclosed locally by Maariv, Israel's invasion plan — reportedly dubbed Justified Vengeance — would be launched immediately following the next high-casualty suicide bombing, would last about a month and is expected to result in the death of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Palestinians. (Ibid, emphasis added)

The "Dagan Plan" envisaged the so-called "cantonization" of the Palestinian territories whereby the West Bank and Gaza would be totally cut off from one other, with separate "governments" in each of the territories. Under this scenario, already envisaged in 2001, Israel would:

"negotiate separately with Palestinian forces that are dominant in each territory-Palestinian forces responsible for security, intelligence, and even for the Tanzim (Fatah)." The plan thus closely resembles the idea of "cantonization" of Palestinian territories, put forth by a number of ministers." Sylvain Cypel, The infamous 'Dagan Plan' Sharon's plan for getting rid of Arafat, Le Monde, December 17, 2001)


From Left to Right: Dagan, Sharon, Halevy

The Dagan Plan has established continuity in the military-intelligence agenda. In the wake of the 2000 elections, Meir Dagan was assigned a key role. "He became Sharon’s "go-between" in security issues with President’s Bush’s special envoys Zinni and Mitchell." He was subsequently appointed Director of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2002. In the post-Sharon period, he remained head of Mossad. He was reconfirmed in his position as Director of Israeli Intelligence by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June 2008.

Meir Dagan, in coordination with his US counterparts, has been in charge of various military-intelligence operations. It is worth noting that Meir Dagan as a young Colonel had worked closely with defense minister Ariel Sharon in the raids on Palestinian settlements in Beirut in 1982. The 2009 ground invasion of Gaza, in many regards, bear a canny resemblance to the 1982 military operation led by Sharon and Dagan.

Continuity: From Sharon to Olmert


Olmert and Sharon

It is important to focus on a number of key events which have led up to the killings in Gaza under "Operation Cast Lead":

1. The assassination in November 2004 of Yaser Arafat. This assassination had been on the drawing board since 1996 under "Operation Fields of Thorns". According to an October 2000 document "prepared by the security services, at the request of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, stated that 'Arafat, the person, is a severe threat to the security of the state [of Israel] and the damage which will result from his disappearance is less than the damage caused by his existence'". (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel's move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001. Details of the document were published in Ma'ariv, July 6, 2001.).

Arafat's assassination was ordered in 2003 by the Israeli cabinet. It was approved by the US which vetoed a United Nations Security Resolution condemning the 2003 Israeli Cabinet decision. Reacting to increased Palestinian attacks, in August 2003, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared "all out war" on the militants whom he vowed "marked for death."

"In mid September, Israel's government passed a law to get rid of Arafat. Israel's cabinet for political security affairs declared it "a decision to remove Arafat as an obstacle to peace." Mofaz threatened; "we will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat." Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat told CNN he thought Arafat was the next target. CNN asked Sharon spokesman Ra'anan Gissan if the vote meant expulsion of Arafat. Gissan clarified; "It doesn't mean that. The Cabinet has today resolved to remove this obstacle. The time, the method, the ways by which this will take place will be decided separately, and the security services will monitor the situation and make the recommendation about proper action." (See Trish Shuh, Road Map for a Decease Plan, www.mehrnews.com November 9 2005



The assassination of Arafat was part of the 2001 Dagan Plan. In all likelihood, it was carried out by Israeli Intelligence. It was intended to destroy the Palestinian Authority, foment divisions within Fatah as well as between Fatah and Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas is a Palestinian quisling. He was installed as leader of Fatah, with the approval of Israel and the US, which finance the Palestinian Authority's paramilitary and security forces.



2. The removal, under the orders of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, of all Jewish settlements in Gaza. A Jewish population of over 7,000 was relocated.

"It is my intention [Sharon] to carry out an evacuation – sorry, a relocation – of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements.... I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza," Sharon said." (CBC, March 2004)

The issue of the settlements in Gaza was presented as part of Washington's "road map to peace". Celebrated by the Palestinians as a "victory", this measure was not directed against the Jewish settlers. Quite the opposite: It was part of the overall covert operation, which consisted in transforming Gaza into a concentration camp. As long as Jewish settlers were living inside Gaza, the objective of sustaining a large barricaded prison territory could not be achieved. The Implementation of "Operation Cast Lead" required "no Jews in Gaza".

3. The building of the infamous Apartheid Wall was decided upon at the beginning of the Sharon government.

4. The next phase was the Hamas election victory in January 2006. Without Arafat, the Israeli military-intelligence architects knew that Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would loose the elections. This was part of the scenario, which had been envisaged and analyzed well in advance.

With Hamas in charge of the Palestinian authority, using the pretext that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Israel would carry out the process of "cantonization" as formulated under the Dagan plan. Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would remain formally in charge of the West Bank. The duly elected Hamas government would be confined to the Gaza strip.

Ground Attack

On January 3, Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza in an all out ground offensive:

"The ground operation was preceded by several hours of heavy artillery fire after dark, igniting targets in flames that burst into the night sky. Machine gun fire rattled as bright tracer rounds flashed through the darkness and the crash of hundreds of shells sent up streaks of fire. (AP, January 3, 2009)

Israeli sources have pointed to a lengthy drawn out military operation. It "won't be easy and it won't be short," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a TV address.

Israel is not seeking to oblige Hamas "to cooperate". What we are dealing with is the implementation of the "Dagan Plan" as initially formulated in 2001, which called for:

"an invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory by some 30,000 Israeli soldiers, with the clearly defined mission of destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian leadership and collecting weaponry currently possessed by the various Palestinian forces, and expelling or killing its military leadership. (Ellis Shulman, op cit, emphasis added)

The broader question is whether Israel in consultation with Washington is intent upon triggering a wider war.

Mass expulsion could occur at some later stage of the ground invasion, were the Israelis to open up Gaza's borders to allow for an exodus of population. Expulsion was referred to by Ariel Sharon as the "a 1948 style solution". For Sharon "it is only necessary to find another state for the Palestinians. -'Jordan is Palestine' - was the phrase that Sharon coined." (Tanya Reinhart, op cit)

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11606.

Middle East nations condemn Israel's Gaza invasion

by Samer al-Atrush

CAIRO (AFP) – Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip was roundly condemned across the Middle East on Sunday, with Egypt also accusing the UN Security Council of failing to act quickly to resolve the crisis.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Israel's incursion into the impoverished territory on Saturday night came in "brazen defiance" of international calls to end the fighting.

"The Security Council's silence and its failure to take a decision to stop Israel's aggression since it began was interpreted by Israel as a green light," he said in a statement as Israeli forces rumbled into Gaza.

A Jordanian government spokesman said the invasion "will have dangerous repercussions and negative effects on the region's security and stability" and called for an immediate ceasefire, state-news agency Petra reported.

Foreign Minister Salah Bashir met ambassadors from the UN Security Council five permanent members and urged speedy "international action to end these attacks."

His statement came after Arab League chief Amr Mussa accused the UN Security Council of "ignoring" the crisis in Gaza.

Israel sent tanks and infantry into the impoverished Palestinian enclave on Saturday night after eight days of air strikes and naval bombardment killed more than 485 Palestinians. Rockets fired by Gaza militants have killed four Israelis.

The Security Council announced after the ground operations began that it would hold a special meeting on Gaza. But after four hours of consultation, its members failed to agree on a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The US has said it would not support a ceasefire that would return the "status quo" in Gaza, which the Islamist movement Hamas violently took over in 2007.

An Arab diplomat familiar with the talks at the Security Council blamed the US for blocking a resolution calling for a ceasefire.

"It's clearly the Americans, it doesn't require genius," he said, adding that the US had blocked a resolution because "the Israelis still need some time to finish their operations."

Washington said it would reject a Libyan proposal for a resolution calling on both sides to abide by a ceasefire because it did not explicitly mention Hamas rocket attacks.

Turkey, one of Israel's few Muslim allies, urged the UN to take the necessary steps to bring the situation under control and condemned the "unacceptable" offensive.

"We condemn and find it unacceptable that Israel has begun a ground operation (in Gaza) in spite of the warnings and reactions from the international community," said a foreign ministry statement.

"It is obvious that escalating the tension will not benefit anyone."

Hamas fired dozens of rockets into Israel after an Egyptian-mediated six-month truce expired on December 19. The militant group says it will not support a ceasefire as long as Israel continues to blockade the coastal strip.

Hamas' regional ally Iran said in response to Israel's ground operations that Gaza would become a "cemetery" for Israel.

Gulf newspapers slammed Washington's "protection of Israel" at the UN which has "prevented any international dissuasive (action) and the possibility of imposing a ceasefire," wrote the Emirati Al-Bayan daily.

Saudi's Al-Riyadh attacked US President George W. Bush "who started his first presidential mandate with wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and ends his (White House) days welcoming the spilling of Palestinian blood."

The Israeli press backed the ground offensive and its "limited" objectives, but looked to diplomatic ways of ending the conflict at the appropriate time.

"This is not a 'ground operation' but a real war, a war to defend our homes and lives," wrote the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot.

Israeli forces bisect Gaza, surround biggest city

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum.

The military used overwhelming firepower from tanks, artillery and aircraft to protect the advancing soldiers, and Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. The military said troops killed several dozen militants, but Gaza officials could confirm only four dead — in part because rescue teams could not reach the battle zones.

The ground invasion and live images of the fighting in Gaza drew international condemnations and dominated news coverage on Arab satellite TV stations, many of which aired footage of wounded Palestinians at hospitals. Hamas threatened to turn Gaza into an Israeli "graveyard."

Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar fire on Sunday — the first Israeli death in a ground offensive that so far has been widely popular with the Israeli public.

Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza after nightfall Saturday, beginning a long-awaited ground offensive against the area's Hamas rulers after a week of intense aerial bombardment. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City at first light as bursts of machine gun fire rang out.

The ground operation is the second phase in an offensive that began as a weeklong aerial onslaught aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire that has reached deeper and deeper into Israel, threatening major cities and one-eighth of Israel's population.

The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec. 27. Palestinian and U.N. officials say at least 100 civilians are among the dead.

TV footage showed Israeli troops with night-vision goggles and camouflage face paint marching in single file. Artillery barrages preceded their advance, and they moved through fields and orchards following bomb-sniffing dogs to guard against booby-traps.

Gaza City's civilians cowered inside as battles raged, while terrified residents in other areas fled in fear. In the southern town of Rafah, one man loaded a donkey cart with mattresses and blankets preparing to flee.

Lubna Karam, 28, said she and the other nine members of her family spent the night huddled in the hallway of their Gaza City home. The windows of the house were blown out days earlier in an Israeli airstrike, and the family has been without electricity for a week, surviving without heat and eating cold food.

She said no one slept overnight. "We keep hearing the sounds of airplanes and we don't know if we'll live until tomorrow or not," she said.

Gaza health officials said the dead included a 12-year-old girl, five members of a single family, eight civilians killed by a tank shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, and an ambulance driver.

The military reported 31 Israeli troops wounded, three seriously. The Israeli chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, told a meeting of Cabinet ministers that most of the fighting was at close range, with Hamas preferring to fight in built-up areas rather than on open ground. Ashkenazi said the operation aimed to take over areas militants use to launch rockets.

Military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that Hamas was using mosques, public institutions and private houses as ammunition stores.

Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, told the ministers there was a "weakening" in Hamas' desire to keep fighting. Still, he said, while the Hamas political leadership has been hit hard, its military organization has "yet to be dealt the harsh blow Israel expects it to be dealt." The security officials' comments were later relayed to the press by the Cabinet secretary, Oved Yehezkel.

In his first public comments on the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that Israel could not allow its civilians to continue to be targeted by rockets from Gaza.

"This morning I can look every one you in the eyes and say the government did everything before deciding to go ahead with the operation. This operation was unavoidable," he said.

A senior military officer said Hamas was well-prepared for the Israeli incursion into Gaza, a densely populated territory of 1.4 million where militants operate and easily hide in the crowded urban landscape. He said the operation was "not a rapid one that would end in hours or a few days."

Still, he said, Israel would not remain in Gaza "for the long term." He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with army regulations.

"You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV. "Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing," he said.

The Hamas Interior Ministry said it was still in control of Gaza and had captured residents collaborating with Israel, as well as traders exploiting the situation to inflate their prices.

Rocket fire into Israel has persisted, and more than 30 rockets and mortar shells fell in Israel on Sunday morning, sending Israelis scrambling for bomb shelters. Two Israelis were lightly wounded. In much of southern Israel, school has been canceled and life has been largely paralyzed.

While the air offensive presented little risk for Israel's army, sending in ground troops is a much more dangerous proposition. Hamas is believed to have some 20,000 gunmen and has had time to prepare. Israeli leaders had resisted a ground invasion for months, fearing heavy casualties.

Israel has called up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers, which defense officials said could enable a far broader ground offensive. The troops could also be used in the event Palestinian militants in the West Bank or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon decide to launch attacks, as Hezbollah did in 2006 when Israel was in the midst of a large operation in Gaza.

An armored force south of Gaza City penetrated as deep as the abandoned settlement of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

That move effectively cut off Gaza City, the territory's largest population center with some 400,000 residents, from the rest of Gaza to the south.

The offensive focused on northern Gaza, where most of the rockets are fired into Israel, but at least one incursion was reported in the southern part of the strip. Hamas uses smuggling tunnels along the southern border with Egypt to bring in weapons.

Ground forces did not enter major Gaza towns and cities, instead fighting in rural communities and open areas militants often use to launch rockets and mortar rounds.

Israel launched the air campaign against Gaza on Dec. 27 with the aim of halting incessant rocket fire on its south. The operation appears to have slowed but not halted the rocket fire.

Hundreds of rockets have hit Israel since the offensive began, and four Israelis have been killed. The relatively low number of Israeli casualties is largely due to warning sirens that give residents notice of incoming missiles and allow them to take cover.

The death toll in Gaza has outraged many. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conveyed his "extreme concern and disappointment" to Olmert and called for an "immediate end" to the operation.

Denunciations also came from the French government, which unsuccessfully proposed a two-day truce earlier this week, and from Egypt, Turkey and Jordan, Muslim nations with ties to Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival of Hamas who governs from the West Bank, condemned the Israeli invasion as "brutal aggression."

An Israeli government statement said Israeli leaders have been in contact with their counterparts abroad and encountered "much understanding" of the country's actions.

The U.S. has put the blame squarely on Hamas. At an emergency consultation of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday night, the U.S. blocked approval of a statement demanded by Arab countries calling for an immediate cease-fire and expressing serious concern at the escalation of violence.

Hamas emerged as Gaza's main power broker when it won Palestinian parliamentary elections three years ago. It has ruled the impoverished territory since seizing control from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian who was demonstrating against the Gaza offensive. The army said troops were quelling a violent demonstration and shot at the man when he tried to climb over Israel's West Bank separation barrier and ignored orders to stop.

Israel hit by 32 Gaza rockets: army

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 32 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel on Sunday, lightly wounding three people as Israeli troops pushed deeper into the Palestinian territory, the army and medics said.

One of the rockets scored a direct hit on a house in the southern town of Sderot, lightly wounding one woman. The town, which lies several kilometres (miles) from the Gaza border, has borne the brunt of the rocket fire since 2001.

Medics also treated another two people who were lightly wounded -- one in the Israeli port city of Ashdod and another in kibbutz Nir Oz.

At least 12 of the missiles were longer-range Grad rockets, which fell near Ashdod, and the towns of Ofaqim and Netivot which are both east of Gaza, the army said.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 500 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel since the beginning of the Jewish state's massive offensive on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on December 27, killing four people and wounding several dozen others, according to Israeli officials.

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel's ground offensive began on Saturday.

In total, more than 485 Palestinians have died since Israel began its offensive against Gaza on December 27.

Spain: End Israel ground offensive

MADRID--Spain on Sunday urged Israel to end its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, a Spanish foreign ministry spokesman told the Europa Press news agency.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former European Union Middle East envoy, "urges Hamas to stop launching rockets and Israel to end its ground operation," the spokesman said.

The Spanish government is "deeply concerned" by the current situation in the Gaza Strip and has asked both sides to "heed the calls of the international community and end the clashes," he added.

Madrid believes that "the continuation of the hostilities threatens the hope of reaching a fair, global and lasting solution," the spokesman said.

Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza on Saturday and engaged in night-time battles with Hamas forces after more than a week of air strikes that left hundreds of Palestinians dead and widespread destruction.

Moratinos has since the start of the conflict repeatedly called on Israel and Hamas to enter an immediate ceasefire.

Kidnapped British, Spanish journalists freed in Somalia: police

NAIROBI (AFP) – Two journalists, from Britain and Spain, were released Sunday after almost six weeks' captivity in Somalia's breakaway Puntland state, the head of Puntland police said.

"The two journalists are free after their ordeals," said Abdullahi Said Samatar. "They're taking some rest now and they will be available later. I'm happy to see them recovering their freedom."

The release was confirmed by the Spanish government in Madrid.

Samatar said the duo were recovering in a hotel room, and staff at the International hotel in Bosasso, Puntland's economic capital, said the pair "look in good condition".

The British newspaper writer, expected to be named formally, and Spanish photographer Jose Cendon were in the country to report on piracy.

They were seized on November 26 on their way to Bosasso's airport along with two Somali journalists who had been assisting them.

Cendon worked for a variety of media throughout east Africa, including AFP.

Regional governor Musa Gueleh Yusuf said at the end of November that police suspected involvement by the two Somalis. There was no news Sunday of their whereabouts.

While there was no claim of responsibility for the abductions, Puntland's deputy minister for seaports Abdulkebir Musa said in the days following their kidnapping that the journalists were being held in a territory controlled by a clan figures with close links to pirates.

Britain and Spain had set up a crisis cell to assist police in negotiations, which began with local elders within days of their disappearance.

Lawless Somalia -- whose president threw in the towel last week -- was ranked as the world's second-deadliest country for journalists throughout 2007 by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

In August 2008, two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian, were kidnapped near the capital Mogadishu and are still being held.

In December 2007, French cameraman Gwen Le Gouil was kidnapped and held for eight days by a local militia.

Spirit and Opportunity rovers mark five years on Mars

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US space agency's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity this month mark their fifth anniversary on the Red Planet, where they have endured harsh conditions and revealed a deluge of information.

The twin robots, which landed on Mars three weeks apart in January 2004, were initially expected to have just 90-day missions, but have since sent back to Earth a quarter-million images, toured mountains and craters and survived violent dust storms.

"The American taxpayer was told three months for each rover was the prime mission plan. The twins have worked almost 20 times that long," said NASA assistant administrator Ed Weiler in a statement.

"That's an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary times."

The rovers, which along with 250,000 images have sent back to Earth some 36 gigabytes of data, have greatly advanced NASA's understanding of Mars' geology, including peeks into the planet's wet and habitable past.

Analysts say the wealth of information data will keep scientists busy for years as they further unravel the vast banks of data.

Since 2004 the machines have covered 21 kilometers (13 miles) of Mars' characteristic red rock desert, driving inch by inch to avoid chasms and rocky obstacles, picking up samples and snapping images to beam back to mission control on Earth.

"These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.

"We realize that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."

While the machines have had relatively balmy 20 degree Celsius (68 degree Fahrenheit) summers, they have had to endure frigid extremes, where temperatures of minus-100 degrees Celsius (minus-148 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter are common.

Harsh Martian winds, however, have provided an occasional cleaning job to the rovers' solar panels -- critical instruments to power the machines.

This unconventional aid, however, has not be reliable, with the Spirit machine's panels hardly clear enough to survive its third southern hemisphere winter, which ended in December.

Although the 820-million-dollar project's mission began as scientific, the it has become something much larger, according to Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the rover mission's principal investigator.

The journeys "have led to something else important," he said. "This has turned into humanity's first overland expedition on another planet.

"When people look back on this period of Mars exploration decades from now, Spirit and Opportunity may be considered most significant not for the science they accomplished, but for the first time we truly went exploring across the surface of Mars."

The continuing wealth of data provided by the rovers is a welcome hold-over for the US space agency, which was forced to delay a landmark mission to Mars by 26 months last month.

The 2.3- billion-dollar Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is now expected to be launched in 2011.

Launch opportunities for Mars come only every 26 months, when the planets are in right alignment.

Keeping pace with space

He is the first Muslim to have offered prayers in space. He is a man with a strong determination and vision to take the Ummah to a new height of glory, to space.
Meet Datuk Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar — a doctor by qualification, an astronaut by training and a model by choice. Now the man is on a mission to establish an Islamic Space Agency (ISA).

“Around 500 people have gone into space but only nine of them have been Muslims,” said Muszaphar, a Malaysian, speaking about his ambitious project.

Upset over a poor growth of scientific research and achievement in Muslim countries, Muszaphar said: “We must remember he who conquers space will conquer the world.”
Lauding the US and the West for their scientific achievements, he said: “Look at them where they have gone. And now China, India and South Korea are racing to go into space.”

Muszaphar wants Muslim states to also take a keen interest in space technology. He wants more Muslims to go into space, and in pursuit of his goal, he has conceived the idea of the ISA and is in touch with four other Muslim astronauts.

During his three-week stay in the Kingdom, the 36-year-old also met Secretary General of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities Prince Sultan bin Salman, the first Muslim to go into space. “We both share the same passion for space. The prince liked the project, his response was very encouraging.”

Muszaphar is passionate about his project. He wants Muslim and Arab nations to unite and retain the scientific and technological upper hand. “I want to bring Muslim scientists, scholars, aerospace engineers, astronauts and others under one roof for research and development to build a technically sound and intellectually rich nation.”

Born on July 27, 1972, Muszaphar is an orthopedic surgeon and the first Malaysian to go into space. He earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from Kasturba Medical College , Manipal , India. He was pursuing his Master’s in orthopedic surgery at University Kebangsaan, Malaysia, when he joined the “Angkasawan” space program.

After completing initial training at Star City in Russia, Muszaphar and Faiz Khaled were selected to undergo an 18-month training program in Russia at the end of which Muszaphar was chosen as prime crew member, while Faiz Khaled served as back up.

When asked what was the reason for his final selection, he said: “There is nothing exceptional about me, I’m not the fastest runner, or the fastest swimmer, or physically very strong. But I’m mentally very sharp. My strength is mind. I believe what the mind believes the body can achieve,” he said.

Muszaphar performed experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS) relating to the characteristics and growth of liver cancer and leukemia cells, and the crystallization of various proteins and microbes in space.

The experiments relating to liver cancer, leukemia cells and microbes were conducted to benefit science and medical research, while the experiments relating to the crystallization of proteins, lipases in this case, will directly benefit Malaysian industries, he said.

Muszaphar was launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-11 with the Expedition 16 crew on Oct. 10, 2007. He flew under an agreement between Malaysia and Russia, and returned to Earth on Oct. 21, 2007. Muszaphar shared his story on being the first Malaysian “Angkasawan” and his journey into space with Arab News. He touched on many of the difficulties he faced when eating, drinking, sleeping and praying in space, a topic of much debate among Muslim scholars across the globe.

“For me it was a dream come true. I have been very much fascinated by space since age 10; I used to look at the sky from the window of my house. I always wanted to go there; it was my childhood dream which came true with my flight from Kazakhstan ,” he said.

“Once there, I realized how small the Earth is and how big other planets in the galaxy are. The first time when I saw earth from the space, it was a magical feeling, my heart stopped beating, my eyes stopped blinking at the sight of beautiful Earth. And believe me, I had the same magical feeling when I performed Haj,” Muszaphar said.

An interesting part of his space odyssey was that he offered all five prayers a day during his 12 days in space. Since Muszaphar is a Muslim, and as his time in space coincided with the last part of Ramadan, the Islamic National Fatwa Council drew up the first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space.

Muslims are required to pray five times a day. Each prayer is performed at a certain defined hour. Muszaphar said the challenge was how to know the prayer time in a shuttle or space station that orbited the Earth 16 times every 24 hours.

This meant he had to pray 80 times a day, as the sun appears rising and setting every 45 minutes from the ISS. So, the solution was to adhere to the prayer times in Kazakhstan , from where the astronaut had left for space. “For my prayers I chose the local time in Baikonur from where I was launched into space,” he said.

Muszaphar celebrated Eid Al-Fitr aboard the ISS. He had taken some cookies that he distributed among the crew members on Oct. 13, 2007, to mark the end of Ramadan.

He said the main objectives of the Angkasawan program were to inculcate an interest in science and technology among young Malaysians and to motivate them to dream the impossible. Muszaphar hopes to be the catalyst for change in the minds of young Malaysians. “It’s not about name or fame. It is about my promises. I want to inspire and change the mind set.”

After being in outer space and serving people as a surgeon on earth, Muszaphar has now set his sights on the sky. He hopes to become a pilot by 2013 after finishing his contract with Malaysia ’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

“I like to diversify. I encourage everyone to do so. The reason I do many things in life is to see how far I can go. One must get out of his comfort zone and see how far he can go. Once I succeed in one profession, I go to another. I do not stick to one thing,” he said.

“My passion is to inspire people, I try to be a role model and not only a model, though I have done modeling too, because people look at what I do for inspiration and strength. I also hope to spend some time in Africa working with children there,” he added.

Syria's Assad calls for Gaza aid

DAMASCUS, Syria, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said Friday that action should be taken against Israel because of its actions against the Gaza Strip.

A presidential statement said both Assad and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon support implementing measures that would allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip, the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, reported.

The call for international action regarding Israeli efforts came during a telephone conversation between the two leaders, the statement said.

KUNA said the discussion occurred as a second convoy of trucks carrying aid supplies departed from Syria in an attempt to deliver the goods to struggling Gaza Strip residents.

Robert Fisk's World: What's in a name? Quite a lot, where the military is concerned

Churchill objected to names of a frivolous nature and banned Operation Bunnyhug

Saturday, 3 January 2009
Related Articles

* Israeli troops move into Gaza Strip
* Protesters voice anger over Gaza conflict
* Gaza leader at war with Israel – and his own rivals
* Polls show Israeli public in no mood for compromise
* Anne Penketh: Tehran's links with Hamas could spark retribution
* Minority Arabs seethe as bombing intensifies
* Bush denounces Hamas 'terror'

I am bemused by the name of Israel's latest military operation against Hamas (and the usual cull of toddlers) in Gaza. The Israeli military calls it Operation Cast Lead. Come again? "Cast Iron" I might understand, though it would woefully misrepresent Israel's policies since they will in due course talk to the "blood-soaked terrorists" of Hamas when it suites their purposes just as they eventually talked to the "blood-soaked terrorists" of the PLO.

Armies like to tell us that their operational names come from a computer though I always doubted this. Operation Iraqi Freedom did not come from a computer. Operation Litani – Israel's hopeless 1978 invasion of Lebanon – didn't come from a computer either. Nor did Operation Peace for Galilee – the even more hopeless 1982 invasion of Lebanon that took the Israeli army to Beirut and infamy at Sabra and Chatila. Besides, the real military name of Peace for Galilee was Operation Snowball. And as we all know, snowballs get bigger as they roll downhill.

Perhaps it's nostalgia for real history, but I always thought the armies of the Second World War had a better flair for names. Operation Overlord – D-Day on 6 June 1944 – was a real cracker. So was Operation Torch (the invasion of North Africa), though Operation Market Garden – the landings at Arnhem – pretty much reflected its dismal results.

Nazi Germany's ferocious Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 – was named after the 12th-century King Frederick of Germany and chief executive officer of the Holy Roman Empire. The much postponed and canceled German invasion of England in 1940 would have been Operation Sea Lion – Winston Churchill must have appreciated that – although my graduate research into Irish neutrality in the Second World War revealed that Germany's tentative plans to invade de Valera's island was to have been called merely Operation Green. Well, it would, wouldn't it?

Churchill himself had strong views about such nomenclature. Indeed, a largely forgotten disquisition on the subject can be found in a memo he wrote to General Hastings Lionel "Pug" Ismay, his chief of staff, on 8 August 1943. "Operations in which large numbers of men may lose their lives," Churchill wrote, "ought not to be described by code words which imply boastful and overconfident sentiment, such as 'Triumphant', or, conversely, which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency, such as 'Woebetide', 'Massacre', 'Jumble', 'Trouble', 'Fidget', 'Flimsy', 'Pathetic', and 'Jaundice'."

Churchill also objected to "names of a frivolous character" and therefore banned Operations Bunnyhug, Billingsgate, Aperitif and Ballyhoo.

"After all," Churchill added, "the world is wide and intelligent thought will readily supply an unlimited number of well-sounding names which do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called 'Bunnyhug' or 'Ballyhoo'."

Churchill preferred proper names, the heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, famous racehorses – was it a ghost of this idea that persuaded the Ministry of Defense to call its 1990 airlift of troops to Saudi Arabia Operation Ascot? – and the names of British and American war heroes. As usual, Churchill was a bit preachy. "Care should be taken in all this process," he wrote. "An efficient and successful administration manifests itself equally in small as in great matters." If only.

The Americans followed Churchill's advice when they decided to organize a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadeq of Iran in 1953. They called it Operation Ajax, though this might actually have fallen into Churchill's "despondency" bracket. Ajax was second only to Achilles in bravery, but he killed himself in a fit of madness. "Monty" Woodhouse, MI5's man in Tehran, chose a more prosaic name for the whole fandango: Operation Boot.

Muslim armies tend to be a little tiresome in their operational titles. During the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranians named their attacks after prayers and then gave them numbers. The Fajr ("Dawn") operation was followed, I'm afraid, by Fajr Two, Fajr Three, Fajr Four and so on. Not very inventive. I guess the most frightening Middle Eastern name of all was Israel's Operation Grapes of Wrath, which reached its appalling end after Israeli artillerymen killed 106 Lebanese civilians – more than half of them children – in the south Lebanese village of Qana in 1996.

Operation Grapes of Wrath was no tribute to John Steinbeck but took its name from the blood-and-vengeance Book of Deuteronomy wherein chapter 32, the song of Moses before he dies leading his Jewish people towards the promised land, speaks of those who will be destroyed by the wrath of God. "The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young men and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of grey hairs," announced verse 25.

Not a bad description of the Qana massacre. And this week, not a bad account of Israel's Gaza shenanigans. Maybe the Israelis should take a leaf out of Iran's book and call it Operation Grapes of Wrath Two.

Robert Fisk: The rotten state of Egypt is too powerless and corrupt to act

Thursday 01 January 2009

There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" – the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut – and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people? And now – after three decades of Hosni Mubarak – can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals – but then they will be shut down, with the help of the tens of thousands of secret policemen and government militiamen who serve the princes and kings and elderly rulers of the Arab world.

Egyptians demand that Mubarak open the Rafah crossing-point into Gaza, break off diplomatic relations with Israel, even send weapons to Hamas. And there is a kind of perverse beauty in listening to the response of the Egyptian government: why not complain about the three gates which the Israelis refuse to open? And anyway, the Rafah crossing-point is politically controlled by the four powers that produced the "road map" for peace, including Britain and the US. Why blame Mubarak?

To admit that Egypt can't even open its sovereign border without permission from Washington tells you all you need to know about the powerlessness of the satraps that run the Middle East for us.

Open the Rafah gate – or break off relations with Israel – and Egypt's economic foundations crumble. Any Arab leader who took that kind of step will find that the West's economic and military support is withdrawn. Without subventions, Egypt is bankrupt. Of course, it works both ways. Individual Arab leaders are no longer going to make emotional gestures for anyone. When Sadat flew to Jerusalem – "I am tired of the dwarves," he said of his fellow Arab leaders – he paid the price with his own blood at the Cairo reviewing-stand where one of his own soldiers called him a "Pharaoh" before shooting him dead.

The true disgrace of Egypt, however, is not in its response to the slaughter in Gaza. It is the corruption that has become embedded in an Egyptian society where the idea of service – health, education, genuine security for ordinary people – has simply ceased to exist. It's a land where the first duty of the police is to protect the regime, where protesters are beaten up by the security police, where young women objecting to Mubarak's endless regime – likely to be passed on caliph-like to his son Gamal, whatever we may be told – are sexually molested by plain-clothes agents, where prisoners in the Tora-Tora complex are forced to rape each other by their guards.

There has developed in Egypt a kind of religious facade in which the meaning of Islam has become effaced by its physical representation. Egyptian civil "servants" and government officials are often scrupulous in their religious observances – yet they tolerate and connive in rigged elections, violations of the law and prison torture. A young American doctor described to me recently how in a Cairo hospital busy doctors merely blocked doors with plastic chairs to prevent access to patients. In November, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported how doctors abandoned their patients to attend prayers during Ramadan.

And amid all this, Egyptians have to live amid daily slaughter by their own shabby infrastructure. Alaa al-Aswani wrote eloquently in the Cairo paper Al-Dastour that the regime's "martyrs" outnumber all the dead of Egypt's wars against Israel – victims of railway accidents, ferry sinkings, the collapse of city buildings, sickness, cancers and pesticide poisonings – all victims, as Aswani says, "of the corruption and abuse of power". Opening the Rafah border-crossing for wounded Palestinians – the Palestinian medical staff being pushed back into their Gaza prison once the bloodied survivors of air raids have been dumped on Egyptian territory – is not going to change the midden in which Egyptians themselves live.

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah secretary general in Lebanon, felt able to call on Egyptians to "rise in their millions" to open the border with Gaza, but they will not do so. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the feeble Egyptian Foreign Minister, could only taunt the Hizbollah leaders by accusing them of trying to provoke "an anarchy similar to the one they created in their own country."

But he is well-protected. So is President Mubarak.

Egypt's malaise is in many ways as dark as that of the Palestinians. Its impotence in the face of Gaza's suffering is a symbol of its own political sickness.

Source: The Independent.
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-rotten-state-of-egypt-is-too-powerless-and-corrupt-to-act-1220048.html.

China arrested almost 1,300 in Muslim west last year: report

China arrested almost 1,300 people for terrorism, religious extremism or other state security charges in the country's Muslim-majority western Xinjiang region last year, state press said Sunday.

The vast desert area bordering Central Asia is home to more than eight million members of China's ethnic Uighur population, Muslims who have complained for decades of political and religious repression.

The Procuratorial Daily said the arrests came as the government made "maintaining social stability" a priority last year, when Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympic Games in August.

A wave of unrest, at times resulting in violence, erupted in Xinjiang ahead of the Olympics. According to state press reports, the unrest was largely fomented by Uighur Muslim separatists.

The paper said 1,295 people were arrested on suspicion of endangering state security in the first 11 months of 2008, and that 1,154 were formally charged and faced trials or administrative punishment.

Judicial authorities were ordered to "strike hard on the three forces of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism that endanger state security," it said.

Last month, two Islamic "terrorists" were sentenced to death for an attack on police four days before the Olympics that was intended to sabotage the Games, state press reported earlier, citing the Supreme Court.

The men were convicted of murder following the attack in Xinjiang that left 17 police dead and 15 injured.

The August 4 attack was the worst in a wave of unrest in Xinjiang ahead of and during the Olympics that left dozens of people dead and which China blamed on separatist militants. — AFP

Source: Today Online.
Link: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/295561.asp.

Pakistan not to hand over Mumbai suspects to India: FM

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 4 (PNA/Xinhua) -- Pakistan Sunday again ruled out hand-over of suspects of Mumbai attacks to India a day after the Indian prime minister asked Islamabad to hand over those behind the attacks.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi renewed Pakistan's policy at a press conference that no suspect would be handed over to India.

"We do not have an extradition treaty with India," Qureshi told a news conference at the eastern Pakistani city of Multan.

He said that Pakistan had an extradition treaty with the U.S.

However, "Please do not compare, every situation is not identical," Qureshi said when a journalist asked him about the hand-over of Pakistanis to the U.S.

Qureshi admitted that the Mumbai attacks, which killed about 170 people, had caused a setback for relations between Pakistan and India.

"There is a pause in the composite dialogue but we will endeavor to end this pause and move towards normal relations. We must emerge from the stress that has developed in our relations," he said.

Qureshi said that tension with India had reduced but had not yet been fully over.

"Friends and important nations in the region and beyond played positive roles to defuse the tension," he said, adding that good relations with India would remain Pakistan's policy.

"The Mumbai incident was a serious matter. There were great losses. Now we should find a solution that such attacks are not taken place in India, Pakistan and any other country in future," he said.

"We have to reach at the bottom of the matter that such incidents should not repeat in future. The region is under the threat of terrorism. There should be regional approach for solution. It is in our own interest," said the Pakistani foreign minister.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday asked Pakistan to hand over "criminals responsible for Mumbai attacks so that they face trial in India."

At the press conference, Qureshi also announced that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher would be visiting Pakistan and would meet him on Monday. (PNA/Xinhua)

Israeli army wary of Hezbollah attacks in northern borders: report

JERUSALEM, Jan. 4 (PNA/Xinhua) -- The Israeli army is on high alert along the northern border with Lebanon out of concern that Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah will attack Israel, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.

Hezbollah will possibly fire rockets -- or use Palestinian proxies to do so -- in response to the Israel's escalation of its Cast Lead operation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, said the report.

This would open a second front for Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as it is operating against Hamas in the south, it noted.

Another element that has Israel concerned is that the first anniversary of the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh -- the Hezbollah military commander who was killed in a Damascus car bombing in February last year -- is approaching and that the group is seeking revenge, said The Jerusalem Post.

The fear is that Hezbollah will take advantage of Israel's preoccupation in Gaza to carry out a retaliatory attack, it said.

On Saturday evening, following the launch of the IDF ground incursion in Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak addressed the possibility of an escalation in violence in northern Israel, along the border with Lebanon.

"We hope that the northern front will remain calm, but we are prepared for any possibility," he said while addressing the nation in a special televised press conference.

In July 2006, the Second Lebanon War broke out between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.

Following 34-day fierce fighting that left 1,000 Lebanese and 130 Israelis killed, a UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect between Israel and Lebanon on Aug. 14, 2006. (PNA/Xinha)

Police found three owls in Pangasinan

SANTA BARBARA, Pangasinan, Jan. 4 (PNA) -- The local police here rescued three owls on Friday and entrusted these to a local television station before turning these over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Inspector Isaias Dominguez, the town's deputy police chief, with PO1's Jonathan Gabis and Christopher Idos, were on routine patrol in barangay Tuliao when they found the owls.

The birds were brought by them to the Police Station and later delivered to the care of ABS-CBN North Central Luzon Bureau Reporter Maria France Noguera.

After documenting the rescue, ABS-CBN turned over the three birds to representatives of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office in Dagupan City that same afternoon.

Superintendent Eric Noble, chief of police of Sta. Barbara, said the three owls were named "Dominguez", "Gabis" and "Idos" after the names of the three policemen who found them.

Noble lauded the three as exemplars of the virtues of "Pulis Makakalikasan" (pro-environment).

At the same time, Noble learned that owls do not readily thrive in captivity and need open spaces to really thrive.

Endemic to the Philippines, the birds are mostly found in lowland forests in the islands of Catanduanes, Samar, Bohol, Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte and possibly Sibuyan.

Known locally as “kuwago” or “bukao”, owls usually have a total length of 40 to 50 centimeters (16-20 inches) and a wing-length of about 35 centimeters (14 inches), said Noble.

Hezbollah chief: Gaza militants to inflict big loses on Israel

Chief of Shiite armed group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Saturday night the resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip will inflict big loses on the "enemy" whose troops entered the enclave, al-Manar TV reported.

"We will be witnessing new victories of blood over the sword" in Gaza, Nasrallah told tens of thousands of followers who gathered in Hezbollah's stronghold of the southern suburbs of Beirut.

"Israeli incursions in Gaza are aimed at slicing Gaza and imposing a new status quo," Nasrallah said, noting that the battle will be defined when the resistance kills Israeli soldiers and destroys tanks.

The resistance, namely Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas, will win the battle, said Nasrallah, whose movement fought Israel in a devastating 34-day conflict in the summer of 2006.

He also accused Arab regimes of "collaborating with Israel to defeat the resistance."

Addressing those claiming the war in Gaza is a regional conflict, he said "Let those who are trying to turn Gaza into a regional conflict keep their mouth shut because what is going on is for defending Palestine."

Nasrallah took the lead in defending the Palestinians in Gaza since the beginning of Israeli air raids on Dec. 27.

On Saturday night, Israeli troops began ground incursion into Gaza after eight days of air and sea bombardment of the crowded territory, home to some 1.5 Palestinians.

Jordan Reshuffles Intel Community

* Middle East Newsline
* January 02, 2009

AMMAN [MENL] -- Jordan has launched a reshuffle of its intelligence community. Jordan's King Abdullah has replaced his intelligence chief, who served for
more than three years.

Abdullah dismissed Lt. Gen. Mohammed Dahabi, director of General Intelligence, responsible for internal security in the Hashemite kingdom amid criticism of his secret talks with Hamas.

"You have proven yourself to be a very reliable and dedicated soldier who contributed to the stability and security of the homeland," Abdullah told Dahabi in a statement on Dec. 29.

Jordan king tells Blair world's Gaza 'silence' unacceptable

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II told Middle East peace Quartet envoy Tony Blair on Saturday that the world's "silence" on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is unacceptable, the palace said.

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated in a way that silence has become unacceptable," a palace statement quoted the king as telling Blair over the telephone.

"The international community should help end this tragedy and press Israel to stop its aggression and open border crossings to allow aid and evacuate the wounded," the king said, according to the statement.

The Quartet includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia.

The king and Blair discussed "international efforts to halt Israel's military operations in Gaza," the statement said.

Jordan plans to build a field hospital in Gaza and send daily aid shipments to densely populated and impoverished territory.

On Thursday it evacuated eight Gazans from the Egyptian's city of El-Arish near Gaza to treat them in a military hospital in Amman.

More than 460 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's deadly campaign against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules Gaza.

Somalia: insurgency spreads, Sufis appeal for peace

by WW4 Report
Tue, 12/09/2008

Wahhabi al-Shabaab insurgents seized two districts in central Somalia without violence Dec. 7, including the stronghold of a Sufi group that traditionally abjures violence. Residents in Galgadud region reported that fighters aboard armed trucks peacefully entered the provincial capital Dhusamareb. "The local clan militias withdrew before they came," one resident told the independent Radio Garowe. Shabaab fighters also took control of Mataban district to the south, with clan militias similarly offering no resistance. The Shabaab faction already controls key regions in southern Somalia, including the port towns of Kismayo and Marka.

A spokesman for the Sufi group Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a rejected reports their followers battled against Shabaab guerrillas in Galgadud region. Sheikh Abdulkadir Somow told reporters in Mogadishu: "The fighting in Guri El [in Galgadud] was between brothers, and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a was not involved." He called on Somalis to "stop fighting each other" and for Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Adde to "resolve differences," while praising Djibouti for supporting the peace process. (Garowe Online, Puntland, Dec. 8)

Somali fighters destroying shrines

Somali fighters used hammers to destroy the graves of clerics and other prominent people in Kismayo
Al-Shabab, an armed group fighting transitional government and Ethiopian forces in Somalia, is desecrating religious shrines in the south of the country, Al Jazeera has learned.

The ancient graves of clerics and other prominent people are among holy sites being targeted by the armed group in the port city of Kismayo.

Al-Shabab took control of Somalia's third-largest city about four months ago and quickly announced it would not tolerate anything it deemed un-Islamic.

Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Adow said Kismayo's Roman Catholic church was torn down just days after they seized power through bloody fighting.

"The 60-year-old church had not been used for nearly 20 years and not a single Christian lives in the city - but that was not a good enough reason for the militias to spare the building, he said."

"They are planning to replace it with a mosque."

Graves targeted

The fighters then turned their hammers on graves, some of which contained the remains of followers of Sufi, a mystical form of Islam.

The sites have been revered for decades and are regularly visited by people paying homage to the dead, a practice al-Shabab has condemned as being akin to idolatry.

Propaganda war: trusting what we see?

By Paul Reynolds

Israel has tried to take the initiative in the propaganda war over Gaza but, in one important instance, its version has been seriously challenged.

The incident raises the question of how to interpret video taken from the air.

Israel released video of an air attack on 28 December, which appeared to show rockets being loaded onto a lorry. The truck and those close to it were then destroyed by a missile.

This was clear evidence, the Israelis said, of how accurate their strikes were and how well justified. A special unit it has set up to coordinate its informational plan put the video onto YouTube as part of its effort to use modern means of communications to get Israel's case across.

The YouTube video has a large caption on it saying "Grad missiles being loaded onto the Hamas vehicle." As of Saturday morning UK time, more than 260,000 people had watched it.

Different version

It turned out, however, that a 55-year-old Gaza resident named Ahmed Sanur, or Samur, claimed that the truck was his and that he and members of his family and his workers were moving oxygen cylinders from his workshop.

This workshop had been damaged when a building next door was bombed by the Israelis and he was afraid of looters, he said.

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem put Mr Sanur's account on its website, together with a photograph of burned out oxygen cylinders.

Mr Sanur said that eight people, one of them his son, had been killed. He subsequently told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: "These were not Hamas, they were our children... They were not Grad missiles.".

The Israeli response was that the "materiel" was being taken from a site that had stored weapons. The video remains on You Tube.

But the incident shows how an apparently definitive piece of video can turn into something much more doubtful.

It is reminiscent of an event in the Nato war against Serbia over Kosovo in 1999. In that case, a video taken from the air seemed to show a military convoy which was then attacked.

On the ground however it was discovered that the "trucks" were in fact tractors towing cartloads of civilian refugees, many of whom were killed.

Israel effort

The Israeli propaganda effort is being directed to achieve two main aims.

The first is to justify the air attacks. The second is to show that there is no humanitarian calamity in Gaza.

Both these aims are intended to place Israel in a strong position internationally and to enable its diplomacy to act as an umbrella to fend off calls for a ceasefire while the military operation unfolds.

Israel has pursued the first aim by being very active in getting its story across that Hamas is to blame. The sight of Hamas rockets streaking into Israel has been helpful in this respect.

It has also allowed trucks in with food aid and has stressed that it will not let people starve, even if they go short.

Israel appears to think its efforts are working.

One of its spokespeople, who has regularly appeared on the international media, Major Avital Leibovich, said: "Quite a few outlets are very favourable to Israel."

Ban on foreign media

Israel has bolstered its approach by banning foreign correspondents from Gaza, despite a ruling from the Israeli Supreme Court.

The Arab television news channel Al Jazeera is operating there and its reports have been graphic and have affected opinion across the Arab world. The BBC also has its local bureau hard at work.

But the absence of reporters from major organisations has meant, for example, that Mr Samur's story has not been as widely told as it probably would have been, or his account subject to an on-the-spot examination.

Meanwhile Israel has received good coverage of the threats and damage to its own towns and communities.

Whether Israel retains any propaganda initiative is not all certain. Pictures of dead and wounded children have undermined its claim to pinpoint accuracy and the longer this goes on, the greater the potential for world public opinion to swing against it, with diplomatic pressure building for a cessation.

Its presentational problems would be hugely increased if it engaged in a ground operation, which would bring with it more pictures of death and destruction.

Update: several readers have e-mailed to ask whether I believe Hamas. One said I had "bought into" Hamas propaganda. Another that I should have dealt with Hamas' claims: "What's missing speaks volumes about your one-sidedness."

I do not believe anyone's "propaganda." We seek to verify all claims, from whatever source. One of the main claims in Gaza at the moment is the serious situation for the population. Having reported from Gaza many times over the years, I know how crowded parts of it are and how dependent the people are on food aid from the UN. This means they have no other source of supply but equally, if the system is working, they should be getting enough to get by on. The problem is that foreign correspondents cannot get in to establish the exact situation for themselves.

Denmark holds suspected pirates

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Denmark says it is keeping five suspected pirates in custody while it explores legal action after an attack on a Netherlands Antilles-registered freight ship off the coast of Somalia.

Thomas Winkler, head of legal services at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says a request has been sent to Dutch authorities and that the men will be held until Denmark knows where they will be prosecuted.

The Danish navy caught the suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Friday after receiving a distress call from the freighter.

The Danes intercepted and sank the vessel after the freight ship crew set it on fire with a distress signal rocket, forcing the suspected pirates into the water.

Winkler said Saturday the suspected pirates were on the Danish frigate Absalon.

Iran hangs two drug traffickers

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran on Saturday hanged two men in prison in the southeastern city of Zahedan after they were convicted of drug trafficking, the state broadcaster reported.

The report said the unnamed men were found guilty of smuggling 300 kilos (660 pounds) of drugs.

The hangings are the first to be reported in 2009. Iran executed at least 246 people last year, according to an AFP count.

The human rights group Amnesty International says Iran's total of 317 executions in 2007 exceeded those of any other country apart from China.

Capital offenses in the Islamic republic include murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery.

Six killed in internecine fighting in Somalia: locals

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Six combatants died Saturday in central Somalia in clashes between rival Islamist militia groups while another seven were injured, local elders told AFP.

The morning fighting pitted members of the extremist Islamist Shebab and local supporters of a rival group, Ahlu Sunna Wal-jamaah, in the suburbs of Guriel, some 400 kilometers (249 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.

Besides the six dead, another seven combatants were wounded, elder Mohamed Warsame Hirsi told AFP.

"Both sides are still facing each other in the outskirts of the town," he added.

Resident Abdifatah Moalim Dahir confirmed the toll, adding many of the town's residents had fled.

"Most of the civilians deserted the town earlier and the rest started fleeing today after the fighting broke out," he said.

The clashes occurred as Ethiopia continued to withdraw its troops from Somalia nearly three years after it invaded its neighbor to support an embattled transitional administration and rout an Islamist insurgency.

Addis Ababa vowed Saturday not to leave a power vacuum when it completes the withdrawal, leaving ill-equipped and underfunded African Union peacekeepers facing an increasingly powerful Shebab insurgency that continues to gain ground.

Similar fighting pitting the two rival militias took place in Guriel and nearby Dhusamareb a week ago, after the Shebab regained control over the two towns after being attacked by the previously little-known Ahlu Sunna Wal-jamaah.

"Many people are dying in this meaningless fighting so that we are trying to mediate between those religious groups," said Dhusamareb elder Ali Husein.

No power vacuum after Somalia pull out, Ethiopia pledges

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – The Ethiopian government on Saturday pledged not to leave a power vacuum when it completes its troop withdrawal from neighboring Somalia in the coming days.

"Necessary steps are being taken to avoid a vacuum and relapse of the former situation of lawlessness," it said in a statement.

"Based on the agreements reached in Djibouti (in 2008), our defense forces have started implementing the decision to withdraw by the end of 2008."

The statement said that the heads of the African Union mission to Somalia (AMISOM), the military of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Ethiopian Defense Forces in Mogadishu had already met in Addis Ababa to analyze the situation and work out plans to be carried out subsequently.

Ethiopia said Friday its military withdrawal from Somalia was under way and would last several more days.

"We have already started to implement our withdrawal plan. It will take some more days. It is a process and it will take some time," Bereket Simon, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's spokesman, said.

Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006 to rescue an embattled transitional administration and oust the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which had taken control of most of the country and started imposing a strict form of Sharia.

"As it has been confirmed that both Uganda and Burundi are willing to increase their forces in Somalia, Ethiopian Defense Forces are on the last chapter of a successful withdrawal from Mogadishu," Saturday's statement said.

"Based on this fact, all areas once patrolled by Ethiopian forces have been transferred to AMISOM and TFG troops. The government is now implementing its pledge to completely withdraw once the above mentioned is put in place."

"It is to be recalled that Ethiopian Defense Forces entered Somalia two years ago after extremist forces waged 'jihad' and posed a substantial threat to the sovereignty of our country," it added.

"The Ethiopian Defense Forces have already managed to diffuse this threat and conclude their mission successfully... also sacrificed a lot during the past two years in order to weaken the extremists and achieve lasting peace in Somalia."

There are currently 3,600 Ugandan and Burundian African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Somalia, but they are ill-equipped and under-funded and have been unable to restore stability in Somalia.

Ethiopia's pullout was agreed upon by the Somali government and the more moderate wing of the Islamist-led political opposition during UN-sponsored reconciliation talks in Djibouti.

Ethiopia's continued presence in Somalia has been the main argument used by Islamist insurgents and allied clan militias for their struggle.

Invading Israeli troops battle Hamas fighters in Gaza

by Sakher Abu El Oun and Mai Yaghi

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Invading Israeli ground forces fought fierce battles with Hamas in Gaza on Sunday after escalating an eight-day bombing blitz that killed hundreds of Palestinians and wreaked widespread destruction.

The thunder of Israeli tanks , artillery and missiles mixed with the clatter of small-arms throughout the night after troops crossed the border at around 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Saturday in the biggest Israeli military operation since the 2006 Lebanon war.

Operational details were sketchy, but heavy fighting was reported in the north of the densely populated coastal strip around Gaza City, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya.

Israel began its week-long air campaign two days after Christmas in a bid to halt rocket fire from Hamas, most of it coming from that part of Gaza.

An Israeli military spokesman said dozens of Hamas fighters were killed in the initial battles, while the Islamist group said nine Israeli soldiers had also been killed.

There was no independent confirmation of the claims, as ambulances were unable to reach casualties because of the fighting.

An army spokeswoman told AFP that 28 soldiers had been wounded, two of them seriously.

Gaza emergency services said five civilians had been killed, including one child.

France led criticism of the invasion as the UN Security Council met to discuss the crisis, which has caused critical shortages of food, water, fuel and electricity for Gaza's 1.5 million people.

Israel did not say how many men were involved in the attack, but around 9,000 reservists had been called up in advance of the assault and media reports said another 10,000 were being mobilized.

Israel has kept Gaza virtually sealed off since Hamas seized power there from forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in 2007.

An Israeli military official was quoted by the Ynet news website as saying, "We are facing several hubs of resistance, yet we are not dealing with massive resistance.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the army would capture sites used to fire rockets and vowed to deal a "hard blow" to the Islamists.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "it will not be easy or short but we are determined."

The army had "dealt an unprecedented heavy blow to Hamas" he declared. "Our aim is to force Hamas to stop its hostile activities against Israel and Israelis from Gaza, and to bring about a significant change in the situation in southern part of Israel."

Hamas remained defiant, vowing the Israeli army would pay a "high price."

"Your incursion into Gaza will not be a walk in the park and Gaza will become your cemetery," spokesman Ismail Radwan said.

Militant rocket fire into Israel on Saturday slightly wounded three people, with six projectiles fired after the ground offensive began, Israeli police said.

Hours before the invasion, in one of the deadliest strikes of the campaign, an Israeli jet hit the Ibrahim al-Maqdana mosque in Jabaliya, killing at least 16 people among more than 200 people at prayer, medics and witnesses said.

Four children were among the dead and dozens of wounded were dragged from the rubble.

Two Hamas military commanders were also killed in air strikes on Saturday.

Israel has staged nearly 800 air raids against Hamas leaders and targets since "Operation Cast Lead" began on December 27.

Gaza medics said at least 463 Palestinians had been killed -- including 75 children -- and 2,310 wounded in the air campaign.

Four people have been killed in Israel by more than 500 rockets fired from Gaza over the same period.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged an immediate end to the offensive, and the Security Council met but failed to agree on a statement calling for a ceasefire, French ambassador and current president Jean-Maurice Ripert said.

US President George W. Bush called on Hamas "to turn away from terror" and rejected calls for a unilateral ceasefire that he said would allow the Islamists to continue hitting Israel with rockets.

US president-elect Barack Obama made no immediate comment, while many international leaders condemned the offensive.

Abbas said the onslaught will have "grave consequences" for the Middle East, senior aide Saeb Erakat reported.

"President Abbas vigorously condemns this aggression and calls for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to put an end to it," he told AFP.

Abbas is to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the West Bank on Monday before going to the Security Council to make a plea for a ceasefire. The French leader is also due to meet Olmert in Jerusalem.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the invasion a "dangerous military escalation" that would undermine attempts to broker a ceasefire.

"France condemns the Israeli ground offensive against Gaza just as it condemns the continuing firing of rockets," Kouchner said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke with Olmert, "pressing hard for an immediate ceasefire," a statement from Brown's office said.

Demonstrations against the Israeli action were staged around the world.

Up to 100,000 Arab-Israelis attended a rally in northern Israel and tens of thousands joined demonstrations in London, Paris -- where police fought demonstrators -- and other European cities.

US blocks UN Security Council action on Gaza

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS – The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement at this time "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council."

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current council president, announced that there was no agreement among members on a statement. But he said there were "strong convergences" among the 15 members to express serious concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for "an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire."

Arab nations demanded that the council adopt a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire following Israel's launch of a ground offensive in Gaza earlier Saturday, a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Libya's U.N. Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi, the only Arab member of the council, said the United States objected to "any outcome" during the closed council discussions on the proposed statement.

He said efforts were made to compromise and agree on a weaker press statement but there was no consensus.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Arab nations demanded Saturday that the United Nations Security Council call for an immediate cease-fire following Israel's launch of a ground offensive in Gaza, a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Libya circulated a draft statement to council members before emergency council consultations began expressing "serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza" following Israel's ground assault and calling on Israel and Hamas "to stop immediately all military activities."

The 15-member council then met behind closed doors to discuss a proposed presidential statement that would also call for all parties to address the humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza, including by opening border crossings.

Council diplomats said the United States opposed the presidential statement because it was similar to a press statement issued by members after Israeli warplanes launched the offensive a week ago that was not heeded. Presidential statements become part of the council's official record but press statements are weaker and do not.

The five permanent council members — the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China — along with Libya, the only Arab nation on the council, then met privately to discuss possibly issuing another press statement.

"We need to have from the Security Council reaction tonight to bring this latest addition of aggression against our people in Gaza to an immediate halt," Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer told reporters.

The statement, if approved, would become part of the council's official record but would not have the weight of a Security Council resolution, which is legally binding.

Mansour said 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and injured since Israeli warplanes starting bombing Gaza a week ago. More than 480 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and four killed in Israel.

International criticism of the offensive has increased steadily, but Israel maintains the offensive is aimed at stopping the rocket attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza that have traumatized southern Israel.

Before the council met Saturday night, Ban telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and said he was disappointed that Israel launched a ground offensive and "alarmed that this escalation will inevitably increase the already heavy suffering" of Palestinian civilians, the U.N. spokesman's office said in a statement.

"He called for an immediate end to the ground operation, and asked that Israel do all possible to ensure the protection of civilians and that humanitarian assistance is able to reach those in need," the statement said.

Ban reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire and urged regional and international partners "to exert all possible influence to bring about an immediate end to the bloodshed and suffering," the statement said.

The secretary-general said the Israeli ground operation is complicating efforts by the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia — to end the violence.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert echoed Ban.

"We think it's time for both parties to stop fighting and go back to the political track," said Ripert. He said he was speaking as French ambassador not as Security Council president, a job he took over on Jan. 1.

Several Arab foreign ministers are expected at U.N. headquarters on Monday to urge the Security Council to adopt a resolution ending the Israeli offensive. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delayed his arrival until Tuesday so he can meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the West Bank.

Israeli ground troops invade Gaza to halt rockets

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Thousands of Israeli troops backed by columns of tanks and helicopter gunships launched a ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday night, with officials saying they expected a lengthy fight in the densely populated territory after eight days of punishing airstrikes failed to halt militant rocket attacks on Israel.

The incursion set off fierce clashes with Palestinian militants and Gaza's Hamas rulers vowed the coastal strip would be a "graveyard" for Israelis forces.

"This will not be easy and it will not be short," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on national television about two hours after ground troops moved in.

Army ambulances were seen bringing Israeli wounded to a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The military said a total of 30 soldiers were injured in the opening hours of the offensive along with "dozens" of militants.

The night sky over Gaza was lit by the flash of bullets and balls of fire from tank shells. Sounds of explosions were heard across Gaza City, the territory's biggest city, and high-rise buildings shook from the bigger booms.

Troops with camouflage face paint marching single file. As the ground troops moved in, Israel kept pounding Gaza with airstrikes. F-16 warplanes hit three targets within a few minutes, including a main Hamas security compound.

Gaza residents said troops were seen before dawn Sunday in the town of Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, and the sound of intense fighting could be heard just east of the city, toward the border with Israel.

In the city itself, the Hamas-run Al Aqsa radio station was in flames from a missile strike. Staff had evacuated the building about a week earlier, at the start of the Israeli offensive, and continued broadcasting from another location.

"We have many, many targets," Israeli army spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN. "To my estimation, it will be a lengthy operation."

Israeli leaders said the operation, known as Cast Lead, was meant to quell militant rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel. They said it would not end quickly but that the objective was not to reoccupy Gaza or topple Hamas. The depth and intensity will depend in part on parallel diplomatic efforts that so far haven't yielded a truce proposal acceptable to Israel, the officials said.

In the airborne phase of Israel's onslaught, militants were not deterred from bombarding southern Israel with more than 400 rockets — including dozens that extended deeper into Israel than ever before. They fired six rockets into Israel in the first few hours after the ground push began, the military said.

One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the southern city of Ashkelon earlier Saturday and another struck a bomb shelter there, leaving its above-ground entrance scarred by shrapnel and blasting a parked bus.

"I don't want to disillusion anybody and residents of the south will go through difficult days," Barak said. "We do not seek war but we will not abandon our citizens to the ongoing Hamas attacks."

Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists and the country's north was on high alert in the event Palestinian militants in the West Bank or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon decide to exploit the broad offensive in Gaza to launch attacks against Israel on other fronts. Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said U.S. officials have been in regular contact with the Israelis as well as officials from countries in the region and Europe.

"We continue to make clear to them our concerns for civilians, as well as the humanitarian situation," Johndroe said.

The U.N. Security Council held emergency consultations on the escalation in Gaza. But late Saturday, the United States blocked approval of a council statement demanded by Arab nations that calls for an immediate cease-fire.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call to end the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council."

Israel's bruising air campaign against Gaza over the past eight days began days after a six-month truce expired. Gaza health officials say the air war has killed more than 480 Palestinians in an attempt to halt Hamas rocket attacks that were reaching farther into Israel than ever before. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets.

Israel is taking a risk by wading into intense urban warfare in densely populated Gaza that could exact a much higher toll on both sides and among civilians.

This sort of urban warfare has not gone well in past campaigns where Israel sent ground forces into Arab population centers in the Palestinian territories or in Lebanon wars in 1982 and 2006. Israeli forces have either gotten bogged down or sustained heavy casualties, without quelling violent groups or halting attacks for good.

The decision to expand the operation, while continuing to batter Gaza from the air and sea, was taken after Hamas refused to stop attacking Israel, government officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions leading up to wartime decisions are confidential.

Before the ground incursion began, heavy Israeli artillery fire hit east of Gaza City, in locations where the military said Hamas fighters were deployed. The artillery shells were apparently intended to detonate Hamas explosive devices and mines planted along the border area before troops marched in.

Hamas has long prepared for Israel's invasion, digging tunnels and rigging some areas with explosives. The group remained defiant as the ground war began.

"You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV, broadcast shortly after the start of the invasion. "Your entry to Gaza won't be easy. Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing," he said.

"Gaza will not be paved with flowers for you. It will be paved with fire and hell," Hamas warned Israeli forces.

A text message sent by Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, said "the Zionists started approaching the trap which our fighters prepared for them." Hamas said it also broadcast a Hebrew message on Israeli military radio frequencies promising to kill and kidnap the Israeli soldiers.

"Be prepared for a unique surprise, you will be either killed or kidnapped and will suffer mental illness from the horrors we will show you," the message said.

Hamas has also threatened to resume suicide attacks inside Israel.

Before the ground invasion, defense officials said about 10,000 Israeli soldiers had massed along the border in recent days.

Israel initially held off on a ground offensive, apparently in part because of concern about casualties among Israeli troops and because of fears of getting bogged down in Gaza.

An inner Cabinet of top ministers met with leading security officials for four hours Saturday before deciding to authorize the ground invasion.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the meeting that Israel's objective was to bring quiet to southern Israel but "we don't want to topple Hamas," a government official quoted the prime minister as saying. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to share the information.

The immediate aim of the ground operations was to take control of sites militants use as rocket-launching pads, the military said. It said large numbers of troops were taking part but did not give specifics.

Israeli airstrikes intensified just as the ground operation was getting under way, and 28 Palestinians were killed. Palestinian health officials said civilians were among the dead, including a woman, her son and her father who died after a shell hit their house.

One raid hit a mosque in Beit Lahiya, killing 13 people and wounding 33, according to a Palestinian health official. It was not immediately clear why the mosque was hit, but Israel has hit other mosques in its air campaign and said they were used for storing weapons.

Israeli artillery joined the battle for the first time earlier on Saturday. Artillery fire is less accurate than attacks from the air using precision-guided munitions, raising the possibility of a higher number of civilian casualties.

An artillery shell hit a house in Beit Lahiya, killing two people and wounding five, said members of the family living there. Ambulances could not immediately reach them because of a resulting fire, they said.

Resident Abed al-Ghoul said the Israeli army called by phone to tell them to leave the house within 15 minutes.

The ground operation sidelined intense international diplomacy to try to reach a truce. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to visit the region next week, and President George W. Bush favors an internationally monitored truce.

Israel has already said it wants international monitors. It is unclear whether Hamas would agree to such supervision, which could limit its control of Gaza.

In Hamas' first reaction to the proposal for international monitors, government spokesman Taher Nunu said early Saturday that the group would not allow Israel or the international community to impose any arrangement, though he left the door open to a negotiated solution.

"Anyone who thinks that the change in the Palestinian arena can be achieved through jet fighters' bombs and tanks and without dialogue is mistaken," he said.

Hamas began to emerge as Gaza's main power broker when it won Palestinian parliamentary elections three years ago. It has ruled the impoverished territory of 1.4 million people since seizing control from the rival Fatah forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.

Israel occupied Gaza for 38 years before pulling out thousands of soldiers in settlers in late 2005. Israel still controls Gaza border crossings.