GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israel bombed Gaza for a fourth day on Tuesday, with troops and armour massed on the edge of the battered enclave as Hamas fired back with deadly rockets landing deep inside the Jewish state.
Israel vowed again that its "all-out war" to wipe out Hamas was only beginning, even as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders to work urgently to end the "unacceptable" violence that has killed at least 360 Palestinians.
In the latest raids, Israeli warplanes carried out at least 40 strikes early on Tuesday, targeting Hamas buildings in raids that killed at least 10 Palestinians, medics and witnesses said.
The four days of intensive bombardment, which has killed several senior Hamas officials and turned into rubble many of the group's structures in Gaza, has failed to stop rocket fire from the territory.
Three Israelis -- two civilians and one soldier -- were killed on Monday alone by rockets fired from Gaza, with one reaching deepest yet inside Israel slamming the southern port city of Ashdod more than 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Gaza border.
A boat of Palestinian activists trying to break the Israeli blockade of the besieged territory and carrying a shipment of medical aid was rammed by an Israeli patrol vessel in the waters off Gaza. No one was wounded in the collision.
Israel vowed again on Tuesday that the blitz, one of its deadliest offensives against Gaza, would continue.
"We will continue this war to the very end," Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said on army radio.
On Monday, Defence Minister Ehud Barak declared that Israel was in an "all-out war" with Hamas, deputy army chief Brigadier General Dan Harel vowed not a single Hamas building would be left standing, and Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said the goal of the blitz was "to topple Hamas."
Israeli continued to mass troops and equipment at the edge of Gaza on Tuesday, with the border area having been declared a closed military zone -- a move that in the past has been followed by ground operations.
Since Israel unleashed its massive aerial attack on Saturday in retaliation for persistent rocket fire from Gaza, at least 360 Palestinians have been killed and 1,690 wounded, according to Gaza medics.
At least 57 of the dead have been civilians, including 21 children, according to UN figures.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 250 rockets since Saturday, killing four people inside Israel and wounding around two dozen more.
Despite mounting anger over the bombardment in the Muslim world and repeated calls by the UN chief for a halt to the violence, Israel's main ally Washington signalled strong support.
"The United States understands that Israel needs to take actions to defend itself," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "They are taking the steps that they feel are necessary to deal with the terrorist threat."
At the United Nations, Ban said he was "deeply alarmed by the current escalation of violence in and around Gaza. This is unacceptable.
"Both Israel and Hamas must halt their acts of violence and... a ceasefire must be declared immediately."
Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose forces were ousted from Gaza when Hamas seized power in June last year, implored the international community to help end "this aggression."
EU foreign ministers were set to meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how they can work to help ease the Gaza crisis, the French foreign ministry said.
There was growing concern about the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million which Israel has virtually sealed off the Hamas takeover.
The Israeli military opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow more than 100 trucks filled with humanitarian aid to enter Gaza on Tuesday, a military spokesman said. On Monday, some 80 trucks were allowed to pass through.
Hamas, blacklisted by the West as a terror group despite its victory in 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, has lashed out at the world for not doing more to end the blitz and has warned it could launch suicide attacks against Israel for the first time since January 2005.
Israel's offensive followed days of rising violence after a tenuous six-month truce in Gaza ended on December 19. It also comes ahead of early parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
