Israeli Attack On Gaza Continues; 230 Dead

U.S. Defends Israel's Offensive As Retaliation For Recent Missile Strikes; Other World Leaders Condemn The Fighting

(CBS/AP)  Israeli warplanes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security sites in Hamas-ruled Gaza Saturday and early Sunday, killing at least 230 people in one of the Mideast conflict's bloodiest assaults in decades. The government said the open-ended campaign was aimed at stopping rocket attacks that have traumatized southern Israel.

Most of the casualties were security forces, but Palestinian officials said at least 15 civilians were among the dead. More than 400 people were also wounded.

The unprecedented assault sparked protests and condemnations throughout the Arab world, and many of Israel's Western allies urged restraint, though the U.S. blamed Hamas for the fighting.

President Bush was briefed on the situation in Israel and Gaza during his daily intelligence briefing, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. Mr. Bush also spoke by phone to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the Middle East.

Presidenent-elect Barack Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, was also briefed and is monitoring the situation closely, CBS News correspondent Jaime Farnsworth reports.

An Obama transition aide said that Mr. Obama also spoke with Rice and was in touch with the White House.

There was no end in sight to the fighting. The first round of strikes began around noon Saturday followed by successive waves of attacks that continued into the early hours Sunday.

Israel warned it might go after Hamas' leaders, and militants kept pelting Israel with rockets — killing at least one Israeli and wounding six.

Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with the CBS Evening News that "if the goals of the operation will not be achieved by airstrike, we will have to consider boots on the ground."

He said those goals were "To change totally the behavior of Hamas. It's a terrorist regime that keeps shelling Israel with thousands of rockets and mortar shells over our civilian population indiscriminately."

Asked if Israel's response to Hamas' rocket fire might be considered disproportionate, Barak told the Evening News, "We are trying to avoid damage, but we have to achieve our goals."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said late Saturday that the goal was "to bring about a fundamental improvement in the security situation." He added, "It could take some time."

The Israeli airstrikes caused widespread panic and confusion, and black plumes of smoke billowed above the territory, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas for the past 18 months. Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as students were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children.

"My son is gone, my son is gone," wailed Said Masri, a 57-year-old shopkeeper, as he sat in the middle of a Gaza City street, slapping his face and covering his head with dust from a bombed-out security compound nearby.

He said he had sent his 9-year-old son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and could not find him. "May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn," Masri moaned.

Left: An explosion is seen in an Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel, Dec. 27, 2008.

Militants often operate against Israel from civilian areas. Late Saturday, thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language cell-phone messages from the Israeli military, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons.

The offensive began eight days after a six-month truce between Israel and the militants expired. The Israeli army says Palestinian militants have fired some 300 rockets and mortars at Israeli targets over the past week, and 10 times that number over the past year.

"There is a time for calm and there is a time for fighting, and now is the time for fighting," said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, vowing to expand the operation if necessary.

In Gaza City's main security compound, bodies of more than a dozen uniformed Hamas police lay on the ground. Civilians rushed wounded people in cars and vans to hospitals because there weren't enough ambulances to transport all the dead and wounded.

"There are heads without bodies .... There's blood in the corridors. People are weeping, women are crying, doctors are shouting, " said nurse Ahmed Abdel Salaam from Shifa Hospital, Gaza's main treatment center.

Military officials said aircraft released more than 100 tons of bombs in the first nine hours of fighting, focusing initially on militant training camps, rocket-manufacturing facilities and weapons warehouses that had been identified in advance.

A second wave was directed at squads who fired about 180 rockets and mortars at Israeli border communities. Palestinians said Israeli bombs destroyed a mosque early Sunday. The military called it a "base for terrorist activities."

Another target early Sunday was the Al Aqsa TV station used by Hamas. Its studio building was destroyed, but the station remained on the air with a mobile unit. Palestinians counted about 20 airstrikes in the first hours of Sunday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Hamas' political leaders could soon be targeted. ""Hamas is a terrorist organization and nobody is immune," she declared.

The campaign was launched six weeks before national elections. Livni and Barak hope to succeed Ehud Olmert as prime minister, and the outgoing government has faced pressure to take tough action.

[lordsuntzu]

for my edification..

why are the liberal masses appalled by this???

because they hate the jews or they care about the palestinians??

[lordsuntzu]

FOR MY EDIFICATION..

why should Israel STOP NOW????

[shirajordan]

To all the people who sleep safely in their beds at night and have the audacity to criticize the Israeli government, this is for you:
None of you spoke in the past 8 years when rockets and bombs fell in southern Israeli cities, causing death and damage without any provocation on our part.
What you need to understand are two things-
First of all, there is no functioning government in Gaza. The Hamas took over and they are running the show. The Hamas, in case you didn''t know, is a terror organization. Just like Al-kaida and Hezbollah. Israel is dealing with terror organizations all around its borders. Not with governments. And not with civilians. We have nothing against the Palestinians. Only the terrorists.
The second thing you need to know is that the Hamas is a very cynical organization which uses innocent women and children to fight Israel. They launch their missals from civilian''s houses, not from open fields or military camps, and when the Israeli army wants to destroy those missals launchers- sometimes innocent people die.
Ask yourself- what would you do if your life was constantly under threat? Look at the map. Maybe that will help you grasp our geographic situation.
The purpose of the Israeli army is to defend. Not attack.
So next time you think about how miserable and poor the Palestinians are, and how powerful and evil the Israelis are- think again.
(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).

[shirajordan]

To all the people who sleep safely in their beds at night and have the audacity to criticize the Israeli government, this is for you:
None of you spoke in the past 8 years when rockets and bombs fell in southern Israeli cities, causing death and damage without any provocation on our part.
What you need to understand are two things-
First of all, there is no functioning government in Gaza. The Hamas took over and they are running the show. The Hamas, in case you didn''t know, is a terror organization. Just like Al-kaida and Hezbollah. Israel is dealing with terror organizations all around its borders. Not with governments. And not with civilians. We have nothing against the Palestinians. Only the terrorists.
The second thing you need to know is that the Hamas is a very cynical organization which uses innocent women and children to fight Israel. They launch their missals from civilian''s houses, not from open fields or military camps, and when the Israeli army wants to destroy those missals launchers- sometimes innocent people die.
Ask yourself- what would you do if your life was constantly under threat? Look at the map. Maybe that will help you grasp our geographic situation.
The purpose of the Israeli army is to defend. Not attack.
So next time you think about how miserable and poor the Palestinians are, and how powerful and evil the Israelis are- think again.
(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).

[jediservant]

The Palestinians are nothing but cowards! They hide behind women and children and teach their own kind to wear suicide bombs just so they can blow up women and children in Israel. Then they think there will be virgins waiting on them in heaven.

I have news for them; the only thing waiting on them is the fires of HELL! The God of Israel is the true and only God and He stands with the people in the place where He put His name.

Praise be to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[gaye5]

neoconRcrazy, NO where in the new testament does it tell the people to kill, it tells them to love their enemy, and to treat others as themselves, and not to murder.. they are to love even their enemies, and do you know why, one reason is that hate festers and destroys not only the hated but yourself...
Perhaps as well as reading the quran you could look at the new testament, and tell me where it says to murder others...

[gaye5]

OH COME ON Kawosa, little Israel with its 7 million people of which about 2 million are Arabs who can leave when ever they like but are happy to stay there.
Israel can fit into an area the size of lake Mitichigan, and is surrounded by many Muslim nations consisting of trillions of angry Muslims who want them dead.. you must be living in the twilight zone to think that Israel would want to take all these on in a fight.. and besides, with what Israel has they could have wiped out these countries long ago, it is time that you thought for yourself Kawosa... look up the map comparisons of Israel and other countries..

As for murder hundreds of innocent men women and children, the animals were firing their rockets at Israel from schools, and Mosques. SCHOOLS man where there are little children... What animal puts their offspring at risk like that, only one who wants their own to be killed so as the world would say how terrible Israel is...

[gaye5]

neoconRcrazy, thanks for your comment, unlike all other religions the Quran says to slaughter all who will not submit. If we keep looking at what is done in the old testament, we are living in danger for what is being done to us today and making excuses for what they are doing to the many thousands that are being murdered every year by Muslims. Do we sit back and just let it happen because on rare occaisions the old testament did it.. It is now that I am concerned with, and seeing that out of 22 main conflicts in the world today have 20 of them being done by Muslims we must look and see what they have in line for us once their numbers have increased to become a force.

[juwboy]

neoNaziCrazyConMan only writes about (fictional) events that support his anti-Semitic view of history and ignores the rest.

[neoconrcrazy]

But it appears that most Muslims only know the good bits of the Quran and are not taught the rest.

Posted by Gaye5


yeah, kinda like the Bible, or the Torah. But your balanced intentions are recognized.

[gaye5]

If Muslims were to shed their yoke of ignorance, they would discover that the real reason those who indoctrinate them, control them, suppress them, fleece them, and abuse them want them deceived is that the actual message contained in Allah%u2019s Book is horrendous. It is more intolerant, racist, punitive, and violent than Hitler%u2019s Mein Kampf. There are one hundred vicious verses for every nice one. The book inspires infinitely more terror than peace.
The more you know, the more you will come to despise the fraud Muhammad perpetrated on his fellow Arabs and they on human kind. To know the Qur%u2019an is to reject Islam.
But it appears that most Muslims only know the good bits of the Quran and are not taught the rest..

[gaye5]

drmaqazi, you said that Islam is a religion of peace, so how do you explain the few of the hundreds of verses like these below...

Ishaq:285 %u201CThen the Apostle went raiding in the month of Rabi u%u2019l-Awwal making for the Quraysh. Then he raided the Quraysh by way of Dinar.%u201D

This is the god that you follow.. what makes allah happy.
Tabari VII:56 %u201C%u2018Messenger of Allah, what makes the Lord laugh with joy at his servant?%u2019 He replied, %u2018When he plunges his hand into the midst of an enemy without armor.%u2019

Bukhari:V5B59N702 %u201CAllah did not admonish anyone who had not participated in the Ghazwa [raid] of Badr, for in fact, Allah%u2019s Apostle had only gone out in search of the Quraysh caravan so that he could rob it.

Qur%u2019an 8:39 %u201CSo, fight them till all opposition ends and the only religion is Islam.%u201D

Ishaq:204 %u201C%u2018Men, do you know what you are pledging yourselves to in swearing allegiance to this man?%u2019 %u2018Yes. In swearing allegiance to him we are pledging to wage war against all mankind.%u2019%u201D

[gaye5]

drmaqazi, you are dead right, America should never have gone into Iraq, they should have left Muslims to continue to slaughter each other in the many thousands as was happening..
And as far as Muslims being peaceful, that verse you quote is only for Muslims of exactly the same thinking as you.. Islam are also not allowed to kill the innocent but what they dont tell the infidel is that the infidel is not the innocent. Muslims are also not allowed to lie, UNLESS, it is in times of war, to further the cause of Allah, to their wives, if they are in a corner and in fear of their lives etc as long as they do not believe it in their hearts, which means any time they want to..
I think it is about time that you read what your own prophet did to the people all around him like,
Ishaq:327 %u201CAllah said, %u2018A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land.
Bukhari:V5B59N516 %u201CWhen Allah%u2019s Apostle fought or raided people we raised our voices saying, %u2018Allahu-Akbar! Allahu-Akbar! None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.%u2019%u201D
yep, raid, upon raid upon raid, killing, raping and taking booty as they went,, all done by your precious leader, Mohammad.. Allah was a god of agriculture, war and the sword, I wonder why Mohammad chose that god instead of one of the 360 gods of the time, no god of love just the god of war..

[gaye5]

well, today we have seen the media reprot on how the Muslims are shooting rockets from school playgrounds where their children are and from mosques. Sure sounds like they are protecting their own eh. They know two things and one being that they know that the world will be against Isreal for killing children, and (2) that Israel is reluctant to send rockets where they know children are..
This is what the WORLD is up against, animals who would put their own precious children in danger of being killed, of course it was probably all girls that they left there.

The critics of Israel expect the Jews to do nothing while these animals keep sending rockets to kill babies, children, etc in Israel.. You are no better than the Muslim animals who do this to their own.. and still the critics dont wake up.. for goodness sake read the last three quarters of the quran and others of the muslims books to see what the WORLD in up against, not just Jews but the WORLD..

[boandco]

This can only end in nuclear fission. The Israelis will continue to haggle and niggle at Palestinian land, and keep the Palestinians in captivity and starvation until the Palestinians reach breaking point. Once the Palestinians acquire atomic weapons, it will all be settled.

[kawosa]

All this is nothing more than muscle flexing and scare tactics. Israel is being a huge bully and is trying to incite a stronger resistance uprising. This will in turn allow them to fight the bigger boys. Weapons exist in the Israeli defense that would return fire on the actual terrorists rather than murder hundreds of innocent men women and children. Israel should have their ***** smacked good for this.

[christ_truth]

drmaqazi

If Islam is a religion of "peace" as you claim, then please provide the historical evidence of the "peace" that you claim Islam has brought to the world. Then tell us how many rights women have in Islamic countries while you''re at it.

Know the Truth folks:

www.thereligionofpeace.com

[christ_truth]

Look for this great one to begin speaking on TV soon - he cares for all humans alike, and offers wise advice on how to save our planet and reconcile our differences in a more humane and civilized way.

War will soon become a thing of the past, and this dark chapter of humanity will finally come to an end.

www.WakeUpMankind.org

Posted by global_eye at 12:38 AM : Dec 28, 2008

This is one of satan''s tricks folks. Don''t be fooled by this post above. The Bible warns us about this:

This false teacher even declares himself to be "The Christ" if you follow the link that this "global_eye" is telling you to visit.

Here is Christ'' (the REAL Christ!) warnings:

Mark 13:21
At that time if anyone says to you, ''Look, here is the Christ !'' or, ''Look, there he is!'' do not believe it.

Mark 13:22
For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect%u2014if that were possible.

[christ_truth]

Look for this great one to begin speaking on TV soon - he cares for all humans alike, and offers wise advice on how to save our planet and reconcile our differences in a more humane and civilized way.

War will soon become a thing of the past, and this dark chapter of humanity will finally come to an end.

www.WakeUpMankind.org

Posted by global_eye at 12:38 AM : Dec 28, 2008

This is one of satan''s tricks folks. Don''t be fooled by this post above. The Bible warns us about this:

This false teacher even declares himself to be "The Christ" if you follow the link that this "global_eye" is telling you to visit.

Here is Christ'' (the REAL Christ!) warnings:

Mark 13:21
At that time if anyone says to you, ''Look, here is the Christ !'' or, ''Look, there he is!'' do not believe it.

Mark 13:22
For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect%u2014if that were possible.

[christ_truth]

Einstein said that "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish".

"For me", he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions".

Einstein didn''''t believe in Fantasy. Sorry, Droolers..


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by slinginrich

It appears Einstein is your "God" then slinginrich. As you believe everything he said represents the absolute truth.

By the way, Einstein did believe that the universe had to come into existence by a Higher Power, or God, by the way. He even admitted this.

Do your history homework, honest history homework that is. No propaganda revised history that''s out there nowadays.