Region | Palestinian Territories
31 civilians killed in Gaza invasion
Israeli heavy armour thrust backed by air power cuts off Gaza city, but Hamas says still in control.
- AP
- Published: 21:35 January 4, 2009
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Gaza City: Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swathes through the Gaza Strip early on Sunday, carving the coastal Gaza Strip into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas fighters 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 fighters, but Gaza officials could confirm only four dead - in part because rescue teams could not get into the battle zones.
The ground invasion and live images of the fighting in Gaza drew international condemnation and dominated news coverage on Arab satellite TV stations, many of which aired footage of wounded Palestinians at hospitals.
Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza after nightfall on 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.
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 ensuring their routes had not been booby-trapped.
Gaza'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 new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip since Saturday to more than 500. Palestinian and UN officials say at least 100 civilians are among the dead.
Army ambulances were seen bringing Israeli wounded to a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The military reported 30 Israeli troops were wounded, two seriously, in the opening hours of the offensive.
In his first public comments on the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet yesterday that he was well aware of the risks, but that Israel could not allow its civilians to continue to be targeted by rockets from Gaza.
Urban landscape
"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 raid of 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, "We have no intention of staying in the Gaza Strip for the long term." He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with army regulations.
Israel says the objective is to restore quiet to Israel's south, not to topple Hamas or reoccupy Gaza.
Hamas threatened to turn Gaza into a "graveyard" for Israeli forces.
"You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Esmail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV.
"Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing," he said.
By midafternoon, 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. "The security forces are working, despite the shelling of its compounds ... It is protecting the back of the resistance," said ministry spokesman Ihab Ghussein.
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.
Rocket fire has persisted, however, and more than 30 rockets and mortar shells fell in Israel yesterday morning, sending Israelis scrambling for bomb shelters. Two Israelis were lightly wounded in the strikes. In much of southern Israel school has been cancelled and life has been largely paralysed.
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 defence officials said could enable a far broader ground attack as the operation's third phase.
The troops could also be used if Palestinian fighters in the West Bank or Hez-bollah figthers in Lebanon decide to launch attacks. Hezbollah opened a war against Israel in 2006 when it was in the midst of a large operation in Gaza.
An armoured force south of Gaza City penetrated as deep as the abandoned colony of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005, military officials and Palestinian witnesses said.
Largest population
That move effectively cut off Gaza City, the territory's largest population centre 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 invasion 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 had not entered major Gaza towns and cities by mid-day, instead fighting in rural communities and open areas militants often use to launch rockets and mortar rounds. But they took up positions on the outskirts of Gaza City and the nearby town of Jebaliya. Hamas was firing barrages of mortar shells toward Israeli positions. Israeli helicopter gunships are firing toward mortar launching sites.
Israel launched the air campaign against Gaza on December 27 with the aim of halting incessant rocket fire on its south. The operation appears to have slowed but not halted the rocket fire.
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