12/28: Israel launches new wave of Gaza attacks, facing international
condemnation, UN call to halt attack
Palestine Watch - Projects of Peace NO War Network
http://www.palestinewatch.net
http://www.PeaceNOWar.net
Israel launches new wave of Gaza attacks
28/12/2008 08:54:00 AM GMT
Aljazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=198201
Israel begins a fresh wave of air strikes in the Gaza Strip after it killed
265 people and wounded 800 others on Saturday.
Israel begins a fresh wave of air strikes in the Gaza Strip after it killed
265 people and wounded 800 others on Saturday.
Israeli warplanes staged an air strike early Sunday in the southern Gaza
Strip, targeting a fuel truck traveling outside Rafah near the Egyptian border,
witnesses said.
The Sunday Israeli air attacks have so far left six Palestinians dead and
several others wounded.
The latest deaths raise the Gaza death toll to 271.
An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv told AFP that Israeli aircraft had
staged several air strikes throughout the night, one of which was staged against
a mosque in Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.
According to Israeli public radio, the military carried out at least 20
overnight airstrikes across the impoverished region.
Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza
border early Sunday in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military
officials said.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News on Saturday that he would
not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground
invasion.
Barak on Saturday added that Israel "cannot really accept" a
cease-fire with Hamas, rejecting calls by the international community for a
truce
Source: Press TV
1/28: Israeli assault on Gaza Strip draws widespread condemnation
Xinhua Net (China)
www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-28
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/28/content_10570421.htm
BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Saturday morning launched a massive
air raid which it said was targeted at Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip,
killing at least 225 and wounding 700,a move that has drawn condemnation from
many countries and world bodies.
The Arab world reacted strongly to the Israeli attacks. Egypt, an active
mediator between Israel and Palestine's Islamic Hamas movement, strongly
condemned the Israeli military action on Saturday and summoned the Israeli
ambassador in Cairo.
Israel is responsible for the casualties in the strikes, Egypt's official MENA
news agency cited a statement issued by the Egyptian presidency as saying.
Any military escalation would deteriorate the humanitarian condition in Gaza and
have a negative impact on stability in the Middle East, the statement said.
Egypt has also urged Palestinian groups "to adhere to calm and desist from
giving Israel an excuse to attack Gaza," it added.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora denounced the Israeli air raids as
"tragic and criminal."
Seniora called upon the Arab League, as well as Arab kings and heads of state,
to convene an extraordinary session and adopt a "united Arab stand to face
the aggression."
He also called on the United Nations to adopt "deterrent and necessary
measures against Israel for it's continuous violations of Palestinian and Arab
human rights."
Seniora also pledged a "Lebanese, Arab and international solidarity
campaign to stop the attack and rescue the victims."
Iran also condemned the Israeli raid on Gaza. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hassan Qashqavi said in a statement that the Israeli attack was proof of the
aggressive attitude of the Zionist regime.
He called for urgent action from the UN Security Council, the Organization of
the Islamic Conference (OIC), and other Islamic nations and countries to
"prevent this regime (of Israel) from continuing its crimes."
In a statement issued on Saturday, Syria condemned the Israeli military strikes
on the Gaza Strip as a "heinous crime and convicted terrorist act."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who currently holds the rotating chairmanship
of the Arab Summit, called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss possible
action regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip following the Israeli raid.
"Syria condemns this appalling crime and calls on Arab nations and the
international community to use all available means to pressure Israel to stop
this aggression immediately, allow the transfer of the injured and ensure them
medical care, and open all crossings to allow access of foodstuffs and health
needs to the besieged Palestinian people," the statement said.
Shortly after the attack Saturday, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi called in
succession Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Tunisian President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Syrian
President Al-Assad to discuss "urgent action."
The Libyan Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on Arabs to take action
"in response to the Israeli brutality against Gaza," and urged the
international community to stop Israel's attacks.
The Sudanese government on Saturday also issued a statement strongly condemning
the Israeli air raid on the Gaza Strip, and asked the Arab League and the OIC to
hold urgent meetings at the levels of foreign ministers and heads of state to
discuss the Israeli military action.
It also called on the UN Security Council and the international community to
exert pressure on Israel to stop the action and lift its blockade against the
Palestinian people.
Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco on Saturday also condemned the Israeli air strikes
and urged the international community to move quickly to stop the bloody raids.
Jordan's lower house Saturday condemned the Israeli strike and called for an
immediate end to the attacks.
Jordan also summoned the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council to discuss the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Foreign
Ministry said.
Turkey strongly condemned "the death of many Palestinians as result of
Israel's attack on Gaza," and appealed for "an immediate halt" to
the military operation.
"We strongly condemn the death of many Palestinians as result of Israel's
attack on Gaza. We are calling for restraint and an immediate halt to the
Israeli operation," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"We are inviting the international community not to remain indifferent to
this tragedy and extend a helping hand to Gaza," the statement said.
Saudi Arabia in a statement Saturday also condemned the Israeli attacks.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday condemned the Israeli air strikes on
the Gaza Strip, and supported the call for an emergency Arab League meeting, a
Foreign Affairs Ministry statement said.
Outside the Arab world, countries such as Finland, Argentina, Brazil and
Switzerland also joined a chorus of criticism against Israeli military action in
the Gaza Strip.
The European Union's (EU) foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, on Saturday urged
an immediate halt to military action by both Israel and the Palestinians, saying
"there is no military solution" to the situation in Gaza.
"The EU has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel. The current
Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and
will only worsen the humanitarian crisis as well as complicate the search for a
peaceful solution," he said.
Solana urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to calm and called on everybody
in the region to use their influence to encourage restraint and prevent recourse
to violence.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet behind closed doors at 10:00 p.m.
EST Saturday (0300 GMT Sunday) to discuss the latest violence and bloodshed in
the Israel-Palestine conflict, diplomatic sources said.
Earlier on Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate
halt to the violence in Gaza and southern Israel, condemning the excessive use
of force leading to civilian casualties and the ongoing rocket attacks by
militants.
However, Israel's longtime ally the United States said Saturday that it held
Hamas responsible for the bloodshed.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned Hamas for breaking the
ceasefire with Israel and leaving more than 200 dead in renewed violence in
Gaza.
"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks
against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for
the renewal of violence in Gaza," Rice said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. State Department urged Israel to avoid civilian
casualties when it launched reprisal strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, and
said that the Islamic movement must stop its rocket attacks.
Israel launched air strikes Saturday against the Gaza Strip, hitting more than
30 targets, most of them security compounds run by the Hamas movement.
At least 225 Palestinians were killed and some 750 others wounded in a series of
rapid and intensive air strikes, Palestinian officials said.
Hamas has vowed to exact revenge with rocket attacks and suicide bombings.
About an hour after the Israeli airstrike, militants in Gaza fired rockets into
southern Israeli towns, killing one woman.
U.N. Security Council calls for end to Gaza violence
Sun Dec 28, 2008 2:53am EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE4BR0H920081228
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council called early on Sunday for
an immediate halt to all violence in Gaza after a day of Israeli air strikes in
response to rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants against Israel.
"The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the
escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all
violence," said a statement read to reporters by Croatian Ambassador Neven
Jurica, president of the council.
"The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military
activities."
Palestinian medical officials said on Sunday that 271 Palestinians had been
killed in 24 hours of Israeli attacks in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Since the
operation began, one Israeli had been killed by Palestinian rocket fire.
Diplomats said the Security Council meeting had been convened at the request of
Libya, the only Arab country on the council.
The statement, agreed upon after four hours of closed-door council discussions,
called on all parties to address "the serious humanitarian and economic
needs in Gaza."
It urged them to take necessary measures, including the opening of border
crossings, to ensure Gaza's people were supplied with food, fuel and medical
treatment.
Council members "stressed the need for the restoration of calm in
full" to open the way for a Palestinian-Israeli political solution.
(Reporting by Patrick Worsnip; editing by Todd Eastham)