Defiant Hamas Hits Israel With Rockets

3 Israelis Killed By Barrage; Palestinians Say Death Toll From Strikes Has Reached 364

(CBS/AP)  Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip sent a deadly barrage of missiles flying deep into Israel on Monday, demonstrating that Hamas still has firepower three days into Israel's punishing offensive against Gaza. Three Israelis were killed and two seriously wounded.

Israel, meanwhile, turned the force of its air assault toward Hamas field operatives in Gaza, sending warplanes to bomb their houses in a sweep meant to tear at the roots of the militant organization.

A tough-talking Israeli defense minister promised them a "war to the bitter end," as the three-day death toll in Israel's shock-and-awe offensive rose to 364, according to Gaza health officials.

The "bitter end" might involve Israeli ground troops following the air strikes on Hamas strongholds in Gaza, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips from the Israel-Gaza border.

Israeli army mechanized units were forming up in the area around Gaza today, reports Phillips. The soldiers said they'd received no orders to advance - so far.

Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni defended her country's three-day attack, telling CBS News the missile strikes were necessary to bring peace to Israeli citizens.

Livni said her country "tried everything in order to avoid this military operation," but that Israel would not live under attack by Hamas. "We reached last week a point in which we said enough is enough. We tried a ceasefire with Hamas which they violated every day," she added.

The intensified rocket strikes by militants, which triggered the Israeli offensive, have revealed the expanding range of missiles in their stockpiles. Larger cities farther inside Israel are now vulnerable.

In a nighttime barrage, militants sent a missile crashing into a bus stop in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, 23 miles from Gaza. A woman was killed and two others were wounded, one of them seriously. They were the first causalities in the city of 190,000 residents.

The leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Eli Yishai, was visiting the city and was forced to dive beside a car when warning sirens sounded.

One person was killed and another was seriously wounded by another missile in the Negev desert community of Nahal Oz, closer to the Gaza border. Earlier Monday, a construction worker was killed by a missile hit in the city of Ashkelon. In all, four Israelis were killed since the weekend.

The White House, calling Monday for a lasting cease-fire in the Mideast, backed Israel's attacks and said the Islamic militant group ruling there had shown its "true colors as a terrorist organization."

"Right now the people of southern Israel are not able to live in peace," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush is spending time at his ranch. "They have to live in bomb shelters a lot of the time. And that's unacceptable."

President-elect Barack Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, is monitoring the situation closely. Obama senior advisor David Axelrod told CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday that the president-elect "recognizes the special relationship between the United States and Israel" and that he wants to help bring about peace.
Israel's overwhelming retaliation has rattled the Middle East and capitals around the world, triggering street protests and fiery speeches by key adversaries of Israel like Lebanon's Hezbollah. In the largest street rally yet, tens of thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah supporters stood under pouring rain in Beirut Monday to protest the assault.

In Cairo, where the Egyptian government had been key in brokering the now-collapsed ceasefire, people called for an end to cooperation with Israel, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar.

Stone-throwing clashes also broke out in around half a dozen places in the West Bank as well as in several Arab-populated areas inside Israel.

On the outskirts of Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinian youths darted around burning barricades of tires and furniture to hurl rocks at Israeli police and soldiers. The Israeli forces responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, but it did not appear that anyone was injured.

The targets Israel chose to strike on Monday revealed an intention to chip away at Hamas' foundation. Israel carried out five separate strikes on the houses of field operatives, though there has been no confirmation that any of them were killed.

And in grainy surveillance video from an overhead drone released by Israel's military, several men are seen loading a pickup truck with what the military said were medium-range Grad rockets. Moments later, a large explosion from a missile strike envelops the image.

One of the strikes against field operatives targeted a house in Jebaliya refugee camp, killing seven people, but the Hamas activist was not there. Another hit the Jebaliya home of Abdel-Karim Jaber, a Hamas political figure, though not widely known. Jaber, a senior administrator at Gaza's Islamic University, was not at home at the time and it wasn't immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the strike.

In another air assault, an Islamic Jihad commander was killed as he was walking near his house.

As signs mounted that the Gaza offensive could widen into a ground war, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's parliament he wants to strike a devastating blow against Hamas. However, later Monday he indicated a ground assault is not inevitable, issuing an ultimatum-sounding statement that he is giving Hamas a last chance to halt its rocket fire.

Short of reoccupying Gaza, however, it is unlikely that any amount of Israeli firepower will be able to completely snuff out the rocket barrages. Past operations have all failed to do so.

Since 2005, Hamas militants and their allies have launched more than 6,000 rockets at Israeli targets, reports MacVicar.

In preparation for a possible ground offensive, Israel has begun massing troops on the Gaza border and the Cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reserve soldiers, though no full combat formations have been mobilized. Areas around Gaza have been declared "closed military zones."

A final decision to call up reserves has yet to be made, and the Cabinet decision could be a pressure tactic. Military experts said Israel would need at least 10,000 soldiers for a full-scale invasion.

Meanwhile, Israel continued to strike from the skies with its fleet of warplanes, helicopters and pilotless drones. Airstrikes on more than 320 sites since midday Saturday have reduced dozens of buildings to rubble, overwhelmed hospitals with wounded and filled Gaza's deserted streets with smoke and fire. The military said naval vessels have also bombarded targets from the sea.

For the first time, Israel also hit one of a series of tunnels Hamas prepared along the border with Israel for use in attacks on invading ground forces, several Israeli TV networks reported. One of the tunnels was packed with explosives and several militants inside were killed, Channel 1 said.

On Monday, aircraft pulverized a house next to the home of Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh, a security compound and a five-story building at a university closely linked to the Islamic group - all symbols of Hamas strength in the coastal territory it has ruled since June 2007.

A day earlier, airstrikes took out dozens of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, cutting off a key lifeline that had supplied Hamas with weapons and Gaza with commercial goods. The bombardment sent hundreds of residents fleeing their homes.

Most of those killed in three days of airstrikes have been Hamas members, but the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees said at least 51 of the dead were civilians. A rise in civilian casualties could intensify international pressure on Israel to abort the offensive.

A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussen, said 180 members of the Hamas security forces were among the total number of dead.

Eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate strikes overnight, medics said Monday.

Still, militant rocket barrages continued. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day Monday as more than 40 rockets and mortar rounds rained down.

In Gaza, some families left their apartments next to institutions linked to Hamas, fearing they could be targeted. Suad Abu Wadi, 42, was keeping her six children close to her on mattresses in her Gaza City living room. Her husband sat with them, chain-smoking. Abu Wadi said he had not said a word since seeing their neighbor carrying the body of his child, killed in an airstrike Saturday.

Gaza's nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said 364 Palestinians have died and more than 1,400 have been wounded. Some of the injured are now being taken to private clinics and even homes, he said.

Israeli security officials have warned that the militants' range now includes Beersheba, a major city 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Gaza. Resident Mazal Ivgi, 62, said she had prepared a bomb shelter. "In the meantime we don't really believe it's going to happen, but when the first boom comes people will be worried," she said.

A graphic displayed on Israeli television illustrated the growing rocket reach with overlapping, color-coded circles. Those in the closest range were advised to stay within a 15-second dash of a bomb shelter.

Israel opened one of Gaza's border crossings Monday to allow several ambulances and 62 aid trucks, including shipments of donated blood, to cross. Jordan was also sending doctors.

On Monday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded four Israelis in a West Bank settlement before he was shot and wounded. It was not immediately clear if the attack was directly connected to the events in Gaza.

Meanwhile, crude prices rose above $40 a barrel as the death toll mounted in the oil-rich region.

[readinessman]

May God continue to bless the United States and Israel. I suspect that 2009 will start out as an extremely difficult year for both our great nations. Starting today (01 Jan 09) we should put ourselves on the highest state of alert for what will most likely come as a 100% more unimaginable and cowardly attack than 9/11.....that our retaliation be swift and sure.

[you_fools]

Hamas is for losers..

Hamas = death...


Hamas members wear womens underwear..

Hamas is proof the Muslims have $ex with goats..

Hamas.. is just looking for a fight then theycry like little girls when they get hit back.. Poor babies..

DEATH TO HAMAS!!!!!

[larryhammick]

Hamas is finding that it is not as easy to kill off the Israelis as it was to kill off their Palestinian rivals in Fatah.

[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 destruction 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 (in a military coup!) 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 through 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.

[shirajordan]

-continue-
They stash weapons; bombs etc. in hospitals, mosques, civil houses and schools exactly for this reason- they know that the Israeli army will not bomb those places. Over the years, they have dig tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle everything, including weapons which is being used against us.
The Israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgically hit those places. And that is exactly what we are doing. The manipulations in the media, done by the Arabs are ridicules, at best.
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. And if you support the Palestinians right now in any way- that means you support terrorism.
(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).

[taino04]

''Israel has a right to defend itself'' I keep on hearing and reading. The ''rocket attacks'', the ''suicide bombers'' are a direct consequence of Israel''s actions. These acts of violence are from a desperate people, and they are resisting Israeli policy against them. Israel has not got a moral leg to stand on. Outside the US and the sycophantic European countries, the World knows exactly what''s going on. Just read about the votes against Israel policies in the UN over the years, every time vetoed by the US. No wonder there''s so much violence over there.

[nonyabeeswax]

Living in america we are not taught to hate our Mexican or Canadian neighbors from the cradle. We don''t have generations of hatred on either side. Imagine if we did?

If you eradicate Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon..some other faction will find it''s way into power within the Palestinians. IF the Palestinians had support from other arab neighbors, if they were valued as a people by the arab nations at the borders would this all be different? Israel has a right to defend itself from attacks.

[taino04]

A quote from wvu7462
''From what I have learned and read, the Jews are the most persecuted race in human history''

I do not think so. Jews in Europe were persecuted. Not anywhere else.
There are other peoples around the world who have suffered much more that European Jews. The Ashkenazim do not hold the monopoly on suffering and persecution. And it seems that successive Israeli administrations has always used that same argument to justify its actions against it''s so called enemies.

[berniew4]

I believe the ISRAELIES should annihilate all the HAMAS and their followers until they SURRENDER unconditionally. This nwill give peace. BUT the other arab jew haters will again continue to abuse ISRAEL. It is a dangerous time. Israel is right but in a lose lose situation without the help of USA and any right minded arab leaders who are afraid of their people

[closethippy1]

If Israel is being attacked in any way by Palestinians is because of the occupation and confiscation of their land.
Every word the Palestinians have said about Israel, every action taken, every breath comes after the fact.
Most Jews who lived in Palestine before Israel was created in 1948 came to Palestine after the end of World War 2. It wasn''t until 1996 that Israel elected a Prime Minister who was actually born in Israel.
So if land can be taken by force then it''s more than OK to take it back by force!
The only way to stop the bloodshed over there is by implementing international law which will then lead to the implementation of the agreed UN resolutions.
I don''t understand why Israel and the US are against this since Israel is the only country in the world to have been created by the UN!
So if the UN laws are good enough for its creation it sure is good enough to keep the peace.

[taino04]

I''ve found a new ''friend'' Factsearcher, who comes out with such gems as:''Palestinian is an adopted word because Palestine never existed'' What''s in a name! This is a label the Europeans gave them, BUT call them what you will, they have been there for centuries and are indigenous.
As for Arabic and Muslim Brotherhood, I do not remember reading much about Jewish brotherhood in some of the Nazi Ghettos. Or fast forward to our man Bernie Madoff ... nuff said.

[taino04]

This one made me laugh
''The Arabs have caused 90% of the current situation in the Mid-East. Once they accept peace, then Israel can be at peace with their neighbors'' by factsearcher.

Yes, Those *** Arabs, resisting colonisation en masse from Europe. Can they not see that we want their land to build settlements illegally? :D.
psst..If you didn''t know; THE ARABS ARE FROM THE MIDDLE EAST!!
There actually should be sanctions against Israel, just like against the old South African regime. I doubt if Israel would be so arrogant and blatant in its actions then. But alas, Big Brother United States protects Israel pumping millions of US tax payers dollars into that country. what a shame.

[jsd330]

The israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgicly hit those places.
posted by shirajordan 10:52am Dec 30, 2008
I get sick and tired of hearing how much better the idf is then the american forces.
The israeli army got those technologies from the U.S. taxpayer,and were trained by U.S. forces on their use, they sure as hell didn''t invent them.
Lets see how good the idf is when they have to go in on the ground and dig the rats out of their holes.
They''ll be in the same situation as we are in iraq, their casualties will be high. It''s easy to drop bombs with little or no resistance and no casualties.
I just read another article that israel is thinking about a cease fire. I guess they don''t want a high casualty count on their side, with their election coming up.

[mtminds]

Defiant Hamas hides and cowers from Israel. Hamas will continue to hide like rats until they are order out of there holes by their Iranian religious bosses.

[taino04]

It''s not until the middle of the 19th century that the Zionist (Ashkenazi European movement) started promoting the idea of a ''Judenstadt'' that things started to change (for the worst).
After the British and French carved up the middle east between them, after the defeat of the Ottoman Turks. It fell to the British to determine the fate of Palestine. Unfortunately, under a lot of pressure from the Zionist movement (Irgun, Stern Gang terrorist groups), and the guilt complex of the Nazi Holocaust, the British abandoned Palestine.
In 1948 Israel declared it''s independence with UN backing. The Arabs of Palestine were not even consulted, and the hardline Zionist have always beleived in Eretz Isreal (greater Israel) Hence the wars with the neibouring countries, Israels own attemmpt at Liebenssraum.
History will judge Israel on its actions, which is not very good.

[taino04]

Ok first of all you are absolutely right, Jews have always lived in the middle east, the Mizrahim (the Arab Jews) like their Muslim brothers and sisters, are indigenous to the region. The Ashkenazim, who make up the power base in Israel are NOT. The Sephardim who were originally from southern Europe and were slaughtered and banished from there after the Spanish inquisition, settled in the Maghreb (morocco, algeria and Tunisia) and other middle eastern countries, where they remained with the Mizrahim for centuries. At the same time in Europe, countries regularly carried out pogroms and purges against their own Jewish citizens (Ashkenazi Jews). Middle eastern Jews flourished and coexisted amongst the muslim population, and were protected to a certain extent by the Ottoman Turks.

[vsg4]

"The blockage started the day after Hamas won free and fair elections in 2006.

Posted by lovegetpeace at 12:55 PM : Dec 30, 2008"

I really wonder what happened to spreading democracy in the middle east. Or shall we call it spreading selective democracy, leaving Saudi, Egypt Jordan alone ?

Hamas should stop firing rockets at once. If it wants to fight, declare war and fight. Israel should stop these reckless bombing. It creates more suicide bombers than it can handle. Israel need to think with a rational head. I do not see anybody having one so far.

[factsearcher]

Palestinian is an adopted word because Palestine never existed.
So called palestinians are egyptians and turks...
but neither the egyptians nor Turkey (are u nuts!) want them...nor Iran or Syria or Lebanon!
Very brotherly of their fellow islamic people!
They rather see them starved, in misery, fighting a their cause than help them.
And the world expect these people to abide any of the treaties and truce... dream on!

[factsearcher]

The fact is that this piece of land which was desert and nobody was really so interested in it was never taken from the palestinians.. here read facts:

1 - Jews have lived in Israel for 3000 years
2 - Most of what became Israel was land bought by Jewish settlers during the early Zionist period.
3 - Jordan was created from the Palestine Mandate by Britain to give to one of the Saudi King''''s relatives, it should have been part of Palestine
4 - Israel accepted the partition of Palestine, the UN resolution of 1948, Only the Arab states did not.
5 - The 1948 war was begun by the Arab State with the objective of destroying Israel. Even after the end, Jordan prevented Jews from Jerusalem for 20 years in violation of the armistice.
6 - While Israel accepted thousands of Jews forced from Arab countries (Yeman, Egypt, etc) no Arab state accepted the Palestinians, many who left on their own with the understanding they would come back after the Jews were destroyed.
7 - in 1967 & 1973, Israel was forced into combat against 3 fronts. In 1967 Golda Meir tried to keep Jordan out to no avail.
8 - The Arabs have caused 90% of the current situation in the Mid-East. Once they accept peace, then Israel can be at peace with their neighbors

[xcuja]

It''s interesting that Obama makes his comments, even though not president yet, when it comes to the ecnomy or whatever, but keeps mum on the Israelis massacre, nazi style killings of the Arabs. I suppose he is afraid of Bush and Rice, or proves he is one sided with the Jews,