Hundreds of Palestinian civilians dead, thousands injured in Israeli aggression on Gaza

PNA urges Hamas, Jihad for consultative dialogue; suspends negotiations with Israel

Worldwide wrath over Gaza massacre; Security Council calls for halting violence

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued their raids on the Gaza Strip for the third day, rising the death toll to 345 victims, making this the deadliest military operation in Gaza since Israel seized control of the coastal territory from Egypt in 1967.

Palestinian and media sources in Gaza reported that Israeli air strikes hit overnight a security compound seized by Hamas, a mosque, the Islamic University, and a network of tunnels along the border with Egypt. The Palestinian death toll hovered around 300, making this the deadliest operation in Gaza since Israel seized control of the coastal territory from Egypt in 1967.

Meanwhile, the international Red Cross said Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are overwhelmed and unable to cope with the casualties from Israeli air strikes.

'Hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to cope with the scale and type of injuries that keep coming in,' Marianne Robyn Whittington, an ICRC health delegate in Gaza, said in a statement from the organization.

Seven died when Israeli shells hit the home of Al-Qassam Brigades leader Maher Zaquot in Beit Lahiya north of Gaza City.

Witnesses reported that the house had been evacuated shortly before the shelling began, and those killed were passersby on their way home or to local grocery stores to buy food. The shelling also demolished the nearby houses.

Shortly after the home of an Al-Aqsa Brigades leader was targeted in Jebalya and the home of Hamas leader Ayman Balksam in the same neighborhood. Several resistance activists were killed in the two attacks.

A timeline of the day’s air strikes is:

4:00pm An UNRWA employee and a Police officer were killed in an Israeli air strike on Al-Qarara village east of Khan Younis.

2:30pm An air raid targeted a car parked near Al-Khizindar gas station in the northern Gaza Strip. The driver was killed instantly and several passersby were injured.

2:25pm Israeli air strikes hit two targets killing four activists from Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades and one child, the son of an activist. were injured and evacuated to Kamal Udwan Hospital.

Several others were injured in the attack that took place near Khalil Ar-Rahman Mosque in the village of Abasan Al-Kabira east of Khan Younis. The dead child was identified by medical sources as Ziad Abu Teir, he was eight-years-old.

The military wing threatened to retaliate.

1:00pm Israeli air forces bombarded a security headquarters in southern Gaza City near Al-Quds Open University.

1:40pm Two were killed in Israeli air strikes in the Tal Az-Za'atar and Izbat Abid Rabbo neighborhoods of the northern Gaza Strip.

12:30pm An activist affiliated to Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades was killed in an Israeli raid east of Gaza City.

12:00pm Israeli air strikes targeted a training field for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Qassam Brigades near Al-Bureij Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip. Parts of the camp were destroyed but no casualties were immediately reported.

12:00pm A house at the Ar-Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza City was also bombarded by missiles; it stood near the de facto government's Culture Ministry building.

9:30am Israeli warships bombarded the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency in Gaza City.

The compound is known as Al-Muntada. No casualties were immediately reported in that attack.

According to Muawiya Hassanein, the director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 316.

Several dead and injured are reportedly still under the debris of collapsed buildings.

Israeli air forces launched several sorties against targets in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring several people including women and children.

In Jebalya in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes destroyed a mosque, killing at least seven people. In another sortie on a house in Jebalya, five people from the Ba’lousha family were killed, including children.

Israeli forces also fired after midnight several missiles at the girls' dormitory in the Islamic University in Tal Al-Hawa in southern Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses said they heard five missiles fired from what they believed was an F16 warplane.

Two people were killed in a strike on a car in Jebalya in the northern Gaza Strip and a terminal used for fishermen in the north.

A mosque in Jebalya called Abu Bakr As-Siddiq was destroyed and initial news reports indicated that there are casualties.

Palestinian military groups in the Gaza Strip continued to launch projectiles towards Israeli towns in retaliation for the Israeli air strikes that have now claimed 368 lives.

Al-Qassam

Hamas’ Brigades reported to Ma’an that they fired a number of projectiles at the Israeli town of Ashdod.

Al-Quds Brigades

Islamic Jihad’s Brigades reported that they fired three homemade projectiles at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, and two more at Sderot.

An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades

The Popular Resistance Committees Brigades said their fighters launched five mortar shells at the Israeli military post of Nahal ‘Oz and earlier projectiles towards Ashdod.

“Eagles of Palestine”

A previously unknown military group calling themselves the “Eagles of Palestine” claimed to have fired two projectiles at Sderot. NRB

The military wing affiliated to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the National Resistance Brigades, claimed to have launched a homemade projectile at Ashkelon.

PRC

The Popular Resistance Committees claimed the shelling at Nahal Oz.

Four Israelis were injured as a homemade projectile landed in the Israeli town of Sderot in the western Negev.

According to Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom, one of the four injured sustained scrapes to the face from projectile shrapnel, while another three suffered from shock.

An Israeli soldier and a woman were killed and 34 injured, including three seriously, as a result of a barrage of Grad missiles and mortar shells, which hit Ashdod and the western Negev.

One of the dead was a soldier, killed near the border wall in northern Gaza, and the second was a civilian woman who died in an attack on Ashdod.

An additional 34 Israelis were injured in the attacks, and were taken to nearby hospitals. Medical sources said three are seriously injured.

In Ashkelon the attacks cut power to the city overnight.

The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States in strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

The missile, called GBU-39, was developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low collateral damage strikes.

Israel received approval from Congress to purchase 1,000 units in September and defense officials said that the first shipment had arrived earlier this month and was used successfully in penetrating underground Qassam launchers in the Gaza Strip during the heavy aerial bombardment of Hamas infrastructure. It was also used bombing of tunnels in Rafah.

The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world. The 113-kg. bomb has the same penetration capabilities as a normal 900-kg. bomb, although it has only 22.7 kg. of explosives. At just 1.75 meters long, its small size increases the number of bombs an aircraft can carry and the number of targets it can attack in a sortie.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the An-Nasser Brigades refused to participate in the all-factions meeting called by President Mahmoud Abbas, while Fatah officials called for wide participation

Hamas leader Muhammad Nazzal made the announcement for his party during an interview with Al-Arabiya television. Hamas will not try to make any political gains on the backs of the Gaza massacre, he said.

Islamic Jihad sent a statement to Ma’an saying “what is required now is resistance,” and further stated that it was the party’s duty to defend “our land and our people and respond to the massacres committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

They called for unity in resistance activities, but spurned Abbas’ call for national unity.

Abu Abeer with the An-Nasser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said that all factions should refuse Abbas’ invitation and rally all Gazans, encouraging patience in such harsh times.

Senior Fatah leader Ibrahim Abu An-Naja, however, insisted that all factions must gather and assess the bloody events in Gaza.

Abu An-Naja sent a statement to Ma’an calling the leaders of all security services to stop political arrests immediately and release all political detainees. He said that now is the time when parties can prepare the political climate for a national reconciliation and save the people of the Gaza Strip.

He further called for an end to all media campaigns that further divide the Palestinian people, and asserted the importance of unity in crisis.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad described Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip as “a disaster to all Palestinians and Arabs,” asserting that such behavior cannot be explained any other way.

But he also slammed criticism against Arab countries through media outlets: “The Arab dimension of the Palestinian question is the most important dimension, and thus it must be preserved and never be undermined,” Fayyad insisted.

He added, “I am quite sure the question of Palestine will remain a top priority for Arab countries, however, I feel the Palestinians must exert every possible effort to preserve and develop that. We have to discriminate between condemnation of Israeli aggression and recruitment of international solidarity and between irresponsible calls which harm our cause.”

“Thus, I call on all Palestinian political leaders to behave more responsibly and more wisely,” he said.

Fayyad also stated his concern about incitement against Arab countries and against the Palestinian Authority.

He said, “I wonder about the attempts to call attention to anything other than what is going on in the Gaza Strip. Whose interest does this incitement and suggesting doubts about Arab leaders who have always supported the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights serve?”

“Thousands of ‘martyrs’ from Arab countries were killed defending Palestinian rights,” he added.

Fayyad also applauded Egypt for hosting injured Palestinians and offering them medical care in Egyptian hospitals. He thanked Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz for his announcement that Saudi Arabia will receive any injured Gazan in the kingdom’s hospitals.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has said he is ready to sign a cease-fire agreement for Gaza that would involve Israel ending its attacks and its blockade of the territory, Senegal’s Foreign Ministry said.

It said the proposal for a truce in Gaza was made in a telephone call to Meshaal by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, current president of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). “The Hamas leader said he was ready to sign such an accord in a place to be chosen by common consent between the two sides,” the ministry said in a statement. It said Wade was proposing “a definitive truce between Israel and Hamas through the signing of an agreement that engages Hamas in the immediate observation of a cease-fire in exchange for an immediate cease-fire by Israel accompanied by a total lifting of the blockade on Gaza.” The statement gave no more details.

Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in his New Year's message.

Ben Ali's remarks come after Israel bombed the Gaza Strip for a fifth consecutive day in a campaign that has so far killed nearly 400 Palestinians and wounded almost 2000.

"The violent, savage aggression which has taken place for the past few days ...should encourage the world's conscience to act vigorously," the Tunisian president said, calling for the strikes to stop immediately and the blockade of Gaza to be lifted.

Ben Ali said Tunisia wanted a peaceful resolution to the conflict and called on "influential international parties" to help end the violence without delay.

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan “called for a united Arab stand against the ongoing Israeli aggressions on the Gaza Strip”. President Al-Bashir is reported to be among the first Arab leaders who called for an urgent Arab summit to issue strong statements condemning the Israeli action. Also the former Prime Minister of Sudan and current leader of Umma Party, Sadiq Al Mahdi, “asked Arab and Islamic world to cut ties with Israel after resumption of hostilities between Hamas and Israel this week.

Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, responding to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's address - without naming him- vowed that "the Egyptian People would confront this war."

"Someone called on the Egyptian people to take to the streets and create an atmosphere of anarchy. In other words, they want an atmosphere of anarchy similar to the one they created in their own country," Abul-Gheit told a press conference in Ankara.

"This person (Nasrallah) also called on the Egyptian armed forces, but he is not aware of the situation," Abul-Gheit said after talks with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan.

"If you do not know, let me tell you that the Egyptian armed forces are tasked with defending Egypt. If need be, they will also protect Egypt against people like you," he told Nasrallah.

Abul-Gheit also underlined that the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza was open for dispatching humanitarian supplies and receiving wounded Palestinians.

In a televised address, Nasrallah urged Egyptians to take to the streets "in millions" to force the government to open the Rafah crossing to Gaza, arguing that security forces could not take actions against such a large turnout.

"I am not calling for a coup in Egypt... but if you (the Egyptian leadership) do not open the Rafah crossing, if you do not help the Palestinian people, you will be considered accomplices in the massacre and the blockade," added Nasrallah.

“There is no point in attending an Arab summit of statements, without having the right conditions for success and influence,” the official Saudi Press Agency quoted Abul-Gheit saying. “such a summit could be dangerous and subject to criticism, especially if it does not result in practical measures”, ha said.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Ali Abul-Gheit made a call for immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

Babacan and Abul-Gheit held a joint press conference following a tête-à-tête meeting at the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

"We discussed the developments in Gaza and exchanged opinions on the situation in the region," Babacan said. "In our meeting, we evaluated what Turkey and Egypt, two influential countries in the region, can do," Babacan said.

"The developments in the region may hurt the regional stability. The peoples of the region are in a mood of anger. The tense atmosphere must be softened. We support the decision of the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Gaza two days ago. We call on Israel to immediately stop its military operation in Gaza," Babacan said.

On the other hand, Hamas should not be involved in activities that would justify Israeli attacks, Babacan said.

The people of Gaza are in a difficult position, Babacan said.

We can not remain indifferent to the situation in Gaza, Babacan said.

Calm between Israel and Hamas must be re-established and a cease-fire must be immediately implemented, Babacan said.

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is ready to sign a truce over Gaza if Israel agrees to a ceasefire and lifts its blockade, the foreign ministry said.

"The Hamas leader said he was ready to sign such a deal in a place chosen by the parties by mutual consent" in a phone call to Senegalese President Abdoullaye Wade , the ministry said.

According to the ministry Wade offered a proposal for an "immediate way out of the crisis."

"It is about getting a definite truce between Hamas and Israel by signing an accord that would oblige Hamas to observe an immediate ceasefire in exchange for an Israeli immediate ceasefire accompanied by a total lifting of the blockade of the Gaza strip," it said.

The following Security Council press statement on the situation in Gaza was read out by Council President Neven Jurica ( Croatia):

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. The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military activities.

The members of the Council called for all parties to address the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza and to take necessary measures, including opening of border crossings, to ensure the continuous provision of humanitarian supplies, including supplies of food, fuel and provision of medical treatment.

The members of the Council stressed the need for the restoration of calm in full, which will open the way for finding a political solution to the problems existing in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate end to all violence in Gaza, which has been under Israeli assault for two days in retaliation for mortar and rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.

The statement issued through Ban's spokesperson said he had called for calm in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other regional leaders.

He also spoke with members of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators; the European Union, United States, Russia and United Nations.

The statement said a UN relief worker and eight UN relief trainees were among the casualties.

The United Nations said Ban "deplores that violence is continuing today and he strongly urges once again an immediate stop to all acts of violence."

The UN Security Council earlier had called for an immediate end to all violence in Gaza

. Ban underscored the council's call for Israel to open border crossings to Gaza to ensure its residents receive humanitarian supplies.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Gaza was told by Israeli officials that relief would be allowed in, the statement said.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz made an urgent telephone call to United States President George W. Bush about the Israeli aggression against Gaza and its implications of continuing Israel's policies of blockade, occupation and torture against the Palestinian people all over the Occupied Territories and the need for the international community to move and for the major countries to shoulder their responsibilities to stop this Israeli attack and save the lives of the innocent and remaining infrastructure in the Palestinian territories.

President George W. Bush and his top advisers conducted an urgent round of telephone diplomacy to help end the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas, but insisted that if any new cease-fire is to work, it must be honored by the Islamic militant group.

"We want to see an end to the violence for the long term, not just the immediate," White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe said, briefing reporters in Crawford, where Bush is staying at his ranch. "We don't want a cease-fire agreement that isn't worth the piece of paper it's written on. We want something that's lasting, and most importantly, respected by Hamas," which controls the Gaza Strip.

Under international pressure, Israel is considering a 48-hour halt to its punishing air campaign on Hamas targets in Gaza to see whether the Palestinian militants will stop their rocket attacks on southern Israel. The United Nations said that during a teleconference, the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia appealed for an immediate cease-fire that would be fully respected, and called for the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza to be addressed.

The U.S. blames Hamas for breaking the truce. It says Israel has a right to defend its citizens from the attacks, yet the Arab world has been enraged by the four days of bombings by Israeli warplanes.

Despite the bombings, Hamas has kept up its barrage of rockets, which have killed at least four Israelis since the weekend. Many more Israelis have been sent running for bomb shelters — some of them in cities under threat of attack for the first time because the range of Hamas' rockets has grown.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that regional and international partners had not done enough to help end the Israeli-Hamas conflict. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called Ban's criticism "unfair," saying the United States has been very active diplomatically.

From the ranch, where he was clearing brush and relaxing with first lady Laura Bush, Bush had a briefing via a secured video conference with top advisers. He later called moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who help govern the West Bank, but not Gaza. They are rivals of Hamas, a group the U.S. considers a “terrorist” organization, which in June 2007 seized control of Gaza, a crowded, coastal territory that is home to 1.5 million people.

Bush and Abbas agreed that if any new cease-fire agreement is to be effective in the Mideast, "it must be respected by Hamas," Johndroe said.

He said that Fayyad thanked the United States for an $85 million contribution that it made this week to a special United Nations fund to assist Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. "The president is concerned about the citizens of Gaza, but not the Hamas “terrorist “leaders who are doing this to the people of Gaza," Johndroe said.

Bush also called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to thank him for his peacemaking role there. Bush talked on the phone with Jordan's King Abdullah II and took a call from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Bush last talked to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before the crisis began.

"These other governments in the region, such as Egypt, the officials in the Palestinian Authority, Jordanians, others who are in touch with the various Hamas factions, will make it clear that this is in no one's interests — certainly not the Palestinian people, certainly not the people of Gaza, and definitely not the people of the entire Middle East region," Johndroe said. "All those governments, as they have been in the past, are committed to assisting with the current situation."

The State Department said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was keeping up steady U.S. calls for a "durable and sustainable" — but not necessarily immediate — cease-fire to end Israel's assault on Gaza and rocket attacks by Palestinian militants based there. In phone calls with Israeli and Arab leaders, including the Jordanian king as well as other interested regional and international officials, Rice pressed for a durable solution to the fighting that is not used by Hamas to launch more rockets into Israel, spokesman Gordon Duguid said.

Rice called King Abdullah, Olmert and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel blames Hamas for the escalation of violence in Gaza because of the firing of rockets into Israel and the abandonment of its ceasefire, her spokesman said.

In a telephone call , Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “agreed that the responsibility for the development of the situation in the region clearly and exclusively lies with Hamas,” spokesman Thomas Steg told a regular government news conference.

“Hamas unilaterally broke the agreement for a ceasefire, there has been a continuous firing of ... rockets at Israeli settlements and Israeli territory, and without question—and this was stressed by the chancellor—Israel has the legitimate right to defend its own people and territory,” Steg said. “As a result it is completely clear that in this situation Hamas is called upon to permanently stop the firing of rockets so that Israeli military operations can be ended quickly.”

Merkel however told Olmert that “everything possible” must be done to avoid civilians being hurt by Israel’s operations, Steg said. She believed long-term peace could only be arrived at through a political solution, he added.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called for an "immediate halt to all violence" in Gaza following devastating air strikes by Israel.

Miliband said an "urgent ceasefire" is needed to stop the "massive loss of life" in the territory.

He insisted that Tel Aviv must abide by its "humanitarian obligations", and said he and Prime Minister Gordon Brown are following the situation with "grave concern".

The statement came as fears grew that Israel could launch a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip in a bid to prevent militants firing rockets.

Japan called on Israel to exercise restraint and for Palestinian militants to halt rocket attacks as an Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip killed more than 300 people.

Japan said it was "deeply concerned" about the situation in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has threatened a ground offensive in addition to its air blitz to stop rocket attacks into its territory.

"Japan urges both parties to immediately halt the use of force in order not to escalate the violence further," Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said in a statement.

"Japan calls on Israel to exercise its utmost self-restraint. Japan also calls on Palestinian militants to stop attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israel," he said.

Nakasone said that Japan, a leading donor to the Middle East peace process, was ready to provide assistance to help Palestinians, including residents of the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the militant Hamas movement.

Japan, which relies on the Middle East for nearly all of its oil, has traditionally kept good relations with Arab nations and Iran.

China urges parties concerned to immediate stop the military operations in the Gaza Strip, and take effective measures to ease the tension, visiting Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang said.

Li, who is paying a four-day official visit to Kuwait, exchanged views with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah on the situation in Gaza after Israel carried out massive air strikes against dozens of targets in Gaza.

Li said China is shocked and serious concerned about the current military operations in Gaza which caused heavy casualties.

He said the Middle East peace process has drawn worldwide attention, and the international community has put great efforts to solve the issue.

However, the parties concerned used force to solve their differences and caused heavy civilian casualties. " This runs counter to the efforts made by the international community."

The Chinese vice premier urged the two sides, Israel and the Palestinians, mainly Hamas, to resolve their differences through dialogue and realize peace and stability in the Middle East as early as possible.

Chanting anti-Israel slogans, protesters in the cities of Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan expressed their solidarity with those suffering in Gaza and supported the right of the Palestinians to fight against the Israelis.

Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani also condemned the Israeli air attacks on Gaza.

Pope Benedict XVI has used his traditional Christmas Midnight Mass to call for an end to "hatred and violence" in the Middle East.

Addressing a huge congregation at the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica, he appealed for a new understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Thousands of pilgrims celebrated the start of Christmas in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, amid tight security.

March 14 forces strongly denounced the massacres that Israel is committing in Gaza. The March 14 alliance said in a statement issued today that these massacres add to Israel’s record, “which is loaded with massacres committed upon the Palestinian people.”

March 14 supported Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s call for an “extraordinary meeting of the Arab league to take a unified Arab stand in face of the Israeli terrorism for which the Palestinian people are paying its price.”

March 14’s statement called for “wide Arab and international action to stop these monstrous massacres, curb Israel and force it to stop its aggression.”

It also called on the Palestinians to unify their ranks and put an end to their divisions.

The statement said that the March 14 movement’s “solidarity with Gaza and its people is a part of its solidarity with the Palestinian people and its fair cause according to a comprehensive solution which is based on related UNSCR actions, in particular, UNSCR 1850 and the Arab peace initiative.”