Israeli Forces Bisect Gaza Strip

As Troops Surround Gaza City, Death Toll Passes 500; U.N. Head Calls For End To Operation; Europe Pledges Aid

(CBS/AP)  Thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships pushed deeper into Gaza Sunday, fighting militants at close range and surrounding the coastal territory's largest city in the first full day of an overwhelming ground offensive.

Israel said it has inflicted a heavy blow against Hamas as it expands a weeklong offensive meant to stop rocket fire on southern Israel. But spiraling civilian casualties fueled an intensifying international outcry.

Israel's ground forces moved in after nightfall Saturday following hours of intense, fiery artillery shelling to clear the way. Gaza will be Israel's graveyard, Hamas warned, but Israel said it lost just one soldier in the first day of ground combat, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

"Israeli soldiers are currently in combat operations in Gaza and we know that we will take casualties," said government spokesman Mark Regev. "We didn't enter this operation because we wanted to."

They did it because they had to, said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a cabinet meeting, to stop the barrage of Hamas rockets raining down on Israeli communities. But the rockets haven't stopped, Roth reports. More than thirty fell on Israel on Sunday.

Israeli soldiers continued to fight primarily in open areas in the launching zones used by Gaza's militants to send rockets raining down on Israeli cities. As the troops in three brigade-size formations moved in, residents of those Israeli cities began emerging from bomb shelters in hopes that the rocket fire would taper off.

Backing up the troops, mobile artillery units fired shells that exploded in heavy veils of white smoke over Gaza's urban skyline. Tanks pushed south of Gaza City as deep as the abandoned Israeli settlement of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

That effectively cut off Gaza City, the territory's largest population center with some 400,000 residents, from the rest of Gaza to the south.

Israel's military chief said Hamas fighters were trying to draw soldiers deeper into Gaza's sprawling, densely packed urban areas, where the military said Hamas was seeking protection behind civilians.

Israeli forces have not yet entered urban areas, said Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, the chief army spokesman. He warned, however, that the operation was not a "school trip" and would be long and demanding.

The ground invasion presents Israel with the risk of being sucked into intense urban combat, with house-to-house fighting, sniper fire and booby-traps. Hamas is believed to have some 20,000 gunmen and has had time to prepare.

To guard against hidden explosives, Israel's ground forces moved through fields and orchards with bomb-sniffing dogs.

Since the ground assault began, 64 Palestinian civilians have been killed, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Health Ministry official.

At one hospital, in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, medics carrying three injured children in their arms rushed them to treatment. One of the children had a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his head and covering his eyes.

An Israeli shell also struck an ambulance in the town, killing one paramedic, said Marwan Abu Ras, a hospital administrator. The relief organization Oxfam, which said the ambulance belonged to a partner organization, al-Awda Hospital, confirmed the incident.

An airstrike hit another ambulance belonging to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza City, killing three other paramedics, said medic Jamal Hawajiri. That ambulance crew was driving to a Hamas training site where there were reports of wounded.

[tonyb-d-bing]

IRAN IS TO BLAME FOR GIVING TERRORISTS MISSILES AND WEAPONS!

Stop the evil Hamas and Hizbola terrorists from shooting at Israeli civilians!

Hamas and Hizbola only stands for destruction and murder, and they put their women and children in danger by bringing weapons near them, near schools and near homes,
TO GET THIER OWN PEOPLE AND CHILDREN KILLED FOR THEIR OWN PROPAGANDA!!!

Then they blame the Israelis who have no choice but to knock out the Hamas and Hizbola rockets and weapons!!!

These Hamas and Hizbola devils are getting weapons from the sickos and fascist religious maniacs who run the govt in Iran.

DOWN WITH IRAN!!!

DOWN WITH HIZBOLA!!!

DOWN WITH HAMAS!!!

[claydowner]

If you are oh so concerned about this war then lets all work to end our dependence on OPEC oil. Hamas gets help from Iran from whom we buy oil from. Go buy a 40 MPG car. Join the Pickens energy plan so we can wash our hands of OPEC oil forever.

Why did Hamas not invest its money in schools, roads, hospitals, infrastructure, and small businesses that would create jobs for Palestinians? Instead they chose Qassam rockets with help from Iran to bombard Israeli civilians. Hamas started this whole episode lets see if they have the stomach to see it end over the graves of the Palestinian civilians they are responsible for killing. I hope the Israeli Army tears the guts out of Hamas once and for all. Israel tried to live in peace but instead they got war. Sending rockets into civilian living areas killing women and children is an act of war. Whether you like Israel or not they must defend their families from attack.

There can be no peace in the Middle East until organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas are contained or destroyed. Remember these are the same organizations that encourage their young people to strap on suicide bombs for martyrdom. They are only about themselves exploiting helpless children and families for their own political gain. Lets hope Israel''s soldiers do their duty because they are fighting our fight. God bless them for standing up to these miserable and vile killers.

[dochavoc67]

It always amazes me how some group or country will pick a fight with Israel, vowing to do Allah''s will and destroy the Zionists (remember, Islam is a peaceful religion, right?). When Israel gets tired of having its people killed in terrorist attacks, they go after the responsible parties with a vengance - inevitably kicking a$$ and taking names. When the cowards that picked the fight in the first place get tired of getting stomped, they hide themselves and their weapons amongst innocents and cry ''Foul!'' in the international community. You know what we called chicken-$.h.i.t behavior like that back in the neighborhood? Punk. Giving these scum any more credibility than that word is ridiculous.

Bottom line: if the international community wanted to stop the violence, then they should have gone after Hamas for the missile and mortar attacks that started this whole thing.

[zzy-izzy]

Please lets just give one side the state of Texas and the other side the state of Alaska then the whole world would be happy.

[abrame]

Posted by Abrame at 06:12 AM : Jan 05, 2009
--------

Translation: I''ll say something non sequitur and pretend in means something....and I still won''t admit that the Jews stole Palestine by terrorism.

HAHAHAHAHA!!

Posted by FloydZeppd

(had to edit a mistake I made that reversed a meaning I intended to make )

I don''t much care if the Jews stole a thing, 60 years ago.

I don''t much care about the Korean war, the great drought of the early 50''''s, Joe McCarthy, etc.

There are lessons to be learned but there comes a time to move on.

Arabs and Palestinian terrorists are nut cases to me for choosing to hate Israel more than be good parents and providers and love their children.

Golda Meir was right as far as I am concerned.

I could go one but for me to obsess and hate anything going back that far is ludicrous.

[abrame]

Translation: I''''''''ll say something non sequitur and pretend in means something....and I still won''''''''t admit that the Jews stole Palestine by terrorism.

HAHAHAHAHA!!

Posted by FloydZeppd

FloydZeppd is obsessed that I admit Israel stole Palestine. Amazing. Simply amazing.

[abrame]

Posted by Abrame at 06:12 AM : Jan 05, 2009
--------

Translation: I''''ll say something non sequitur and pretend in means something....and I still won''''t admit that the Jews stole Palestine by terrorism.

HAHAHAHAHA!!

Posted by FloydZeppd

I don''t much care if the Jews stole a thing, 60 years ago.

I don''t much care about the Korean war, the great drought of the early 50''s, Joe McCarthy, etc.

There are lessons to be learned but there comes a time to move on.

Arabs and Palestinian terrorists are nut cases to me for not wanting to hate Israel more than be good parents and providers and love their children.

Golda Meir was right as far as I am concerned.

I could go one but for me to obsess and hate anything going back that far is ludicrous.

[petro49l]

Osama Bin Laden should speak on the Internet during the Jewish offensive. He must condemn the massacres of Arab Children. I thought he championed for oppressed Arabs. He softened his tone with the Israelis. Bin Laden liberalized the agenda for the Knesset.

[kittykatty2]

When is America ever going to call Israeli''s what they truly are? Thugs. And to think my tax dollars are funding their murderous rampages totally incenses me.

[abrame]

. You''''d be proud to be a Palestinian.
Posted by trishab59

Sure, I can just see my self-esteem getting stronger with each terror missile.

[abrame]

Here''s a great CBS article for Palestinians:

Overcoming Unemployment And Mental Illness

Jan. 4, 2009, by Jonathan LaPook

(CBS) While unemployment for the overall population is running at 6.7 percent, for people coping with psychiatric difficulties, it reaches 90 percent. For those struggling with both, there''s a special program that not only dramatically lowers unemployment, but also fosters self-respect, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook...

[grandesign]

In 2006, 31% of the Palestinian children killed were 12 years or younger. 8/ The vast majority of children died as a result of injuries sustained either to the head, chest or to more than one place of their body.
Posted by neoconRcrazy at 05:33 AM : Jan 05, 2009

Did any of those Palestinian children die from suicide vest put on them by their parents? I remember the many pictures of Palestinian five and six year old children, where their parents dressed them up in militant clothes including explosives packed vests. They thought it was their future I guess. Or maybe they thought it was funny, I don''t know. I found it disturbing.

[abrame]

I wonder if Abrame ever looked up Irgun?

Probably not. Didn''''t want to hear about Jew Terrorism that was used to steal Palestine.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Posted by FloydZeppd

Your mind reading is defective, as usual.

[mnbrant]

The problem is land. Not enough to go around. Not enough arable land. people getting shifted off to reservations like the Gaza strip. Unlike the Indians too many Palistinians to go around. Palistinians have no government to help them leading to extremist groups.Hm maybe the Isrealies should offer up some real land in exchange for peace. I hear the settlement villages in Costa Rica are nice. Maybe it doesnt have to be Isreali held land.

[neoconrcrazy]

israel wants an exclusive "right to exist" using the holocaust as their unspoken reference....

what did the palestinians have to do with the holocaust?

israeli existence is not threatened by the palestinians, rather the opposite.

Shalom

[rusure5]

The Israeli Zionists seem to think that they are the only people with an inherent "right to exist", while constantly denying their neighbors this same right, by relentlessly targeting their civilian populations with powerful bombs, claiming the lives of mainly women and children.

[neoconrcrazy]

Is it not AMAZING that our MSM talking insessantly about the thousands of "rockets" hamas fires into israel -

but forgets to mention that israel in 2006-07 alone, fired over 14''000 heavy artillery shells in tiny Gaza?

[wdh3007]

It is clear that the U.S and even Obama himself seems to support Israel''s right to exist during this conflict does anyone still think he should be president?

[neoconrcrazy]

Palestinian Deaths in the Gaza Strip

The vast majority of Palestinian deaths occurred in the Gaza Strip. In 2005, 52% of all fatalities from the Israeli- Palestinian conflict happened there. In 2006 the rate was 78%, and in 2007, 67%. (Similarly in 2005, 58% of deaths from internal violence occurred in Gaza, in 2006, 88% and in 2007, 95% of deaths.) 12/

Palestinians have been killed from Israeli military operations, targeted killings, border incidents, search and arrest operations and undercover operations. However, graphs 4 - 6 show that the circumstances in which deaths occur is different between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Although both areas are subject to Israeli military operations, in the Gaza Strip, targeted killings, incursions and border incident are more prevalent. At least 284 Palestinians have been killed for moving within 150 metres of the perimeter fence with Israel, 117 of them civilians, including 23 children. 13/

During 2006, Israeli Security Forces fired some 14,000 artillery shells into the Gaza Strip which were responsible for killing 59 persons, almost all of them civilians. 14 In November 2006, the Government of Israel placed a moratorium on the use of artillery fire, contributing to a significant reduction of civilian deaths in 2007.

United Nations Office for Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA)

[neoconrcrazy]

Children

A total of 971 children have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian conflict violence, representing 18% of the total number of conflict deaths. Children are protected, in a number of legal instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, against arbitrary loss of life, even in armed conflict.

Of the overall number of children killed, 88% were Palestinian and 12 % were Israeli.The trend of child deaths mirrors the total rate: the number of Israeli children killed has declined markedly while that of Palestinian children remains high.

Palestinian children make up 20% of the total Palestinian deaths while Israeli children represent 12% of total Israeli deaths.

In 2006, 31% of the Palestinian children killed were 12 years or younger. 8/ The vast majority of children died as a result of injuries sustained either to the head, chest or to more than one place of their body.

United Nations Office for Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA)