Israeli jets bomb government buildings in Gaza

GAZA CITY – Israeli jets bombed the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza early yesterday and navy ships opened fire at Hamas positions along the coastline as growing diplomatic pressure to end six days of devastating violence showed little immediate effect.

Huge explosions shook Gaza City as Israeli planes targeted three government buildings, including the parliament. Hospital officials said 25 wounded were evacuated from nearby houses. The military said aircraft also bombed smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, part of an ongoing attempt to cut off Hamas’ last lifeline to the world outside the embattled Palestinian territory.

One pre-dawn strike targeting the house of a Hamas operative in northern Gaza killed a 35-year-old woman and wounded eight people, Gaza Health Ministry official said.

Gaza officials put the casualty toll at more than 390 dead and 1,600 wounded since Saturday. Hamas says some 200 uniformed members of Hamas security forces have been killed, and the U.N. says at least 60 Palestinian civilians have died.

In Israel, three civilians and a soldier have been killed by rocket fire, which has reached deeper into Israel than ever.

The U.N. Security Council, meeting for emergency consultations Wednesday night, rejected an Arab request for a legally binding resolution that would condemn Israel and halt its attacks. A draft resolution was immediately rejected by the United States as “unbalanced” because it made no mention of halting Hamas rocket fire at Israeli towns – the immediate cause behind the massive air offensive Israel launched Saturday.

Diplomatic efforts by leaders in the United States, Europe and the Middle East appeared to be having little effect. A French proposal for a 48-hour cease-fire to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza failed to gain traction. Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert said the time was not ripe to consider it. A separate proposal by Turkey and Egypt, two of Israel’s few allies in the Muslim world, also seemed to be attracting little serious study in Israel or Gaza, where Hamas has also dismissed talk of a truce.

The moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will travel to New York to participate in another Security Council meeting about Gaza on Monday, Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said. Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to his Hamas rivals in a violent takeover last year, will demand Israel “stop this aggression in Gaza” and lift its blockade of the territory, he said.

Israel sent more troops to the Gaza border on Wednesday, rapidly moving forward with preparations for a possible ground offensive as the next stage of its military assault.

In five days of shock-and-awe raids, Israeli warplanes have carried out some 500 sorties against Hamas targets, and helicopters have flown hundreds more combat missions, a senior Israeli military officer said on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

Earlier this week, the government approved the call-up of more than 9,000 reserve soldiers. The call-up has yet to be carried out.

Echoing Israel’s cool response to truce proposals, a senior Hamas leader with ties to its military wing said now was not the right time to call off the fight. Hamas was unhappy with the six-month truce that collapsed just before the fighting began because it didn’t result in an easing of Israel’s crippling blockade on Gaza.

Osama Mazini said in a statement distributed by the Hamas press office that his fighters were eager for a ground assault. “The people of Gaza are waiting to see the Zionist enemy in Gaza to tear them into pieces of flesh,” said Mazini.

Mazini also had a message for anyone who might question the wisdom of Hamas’ decision to take on Israel and provoke the fiercest military assault on Gaza since the 1967 Mideast war.

“Whoever says that Hamas entered a losing gamble, we say this is the price of victory and liberation. Whoever doesn’t pay the price will be a slave all their lives,” he said.

The Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, promised victory in a speech broadcast later on a Hamas TV station.

“Absolutely, you will be victorious with God’s will. Victory is near, God willing, it is closer than what people expect,” Haniyeh said. Haniyeh, like other Hamas leaders, is in hiding.

Israel’s latest air strikes have concentrated on crushing the numerous smuggling tunnels running under Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. They provide a crucial lifeline, not just for the Hamas rulers, but also for bringing in food and fuel for Gaza’s people.

Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza after Hamas violently seized control of the territory in June 2007, and have cracked open their borders only to let in limited amounts of humanitarian aid.

Israel says more than 80 tunnels have been destroyed. Several hundred tunnels ran under the border before Israeli warplanes began striking.

Fighting on, Gaza’s militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Wednesday evening, including one in the city of Ashkelon that was caught on a security camera. In the video, a man is seen walking along a sidewalk and ducking for cover along a wall as the missile explodes in a cloud of smoke just a few steps behind him.

The city of 120,000 people 11 miles (17 kilometers) north of Gaza has been a frequent target.

Students in large swaths of Israel’s south were told to stay home Thursday because of the rocket threat. The 18,000 students at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, southern Israel’s only university, were also told to stay home. On Wednesday, a Hamas rocket fell through the ceiling of a classroom in the city that was empty because school had been canceled.

Beersheba, a major southern Israeli city 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Gaza, had never before been within range of Gaza rockets, reflecting the increasing sophistication of Hamas’ arsenal.

In 2001 Gaza militants began firing homemade rockets at Israeli communities adjacent to Gaza. Now militants are firing large numbers of industrial-grade weapons that defense officials say are manufactured in China and Iran. The new missiles have dramatically expanded their range and put more than one-tenth of Israel’s population in their sights. – AP