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Nizar Rayyan, a cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas's most hardline political leaders, had called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. Medical officials, confirming his death, said two of his four wives and seven of his children were killed in the bombing, in Jabalya refugee camp.
Hundreds of supporters scrambling over the concrete rubble vowed revenge as the mangled bodies, covered in blood and cement dust, were extracted from the wreckage.
"The blood of Sheikh Nizar Rayyan and the blood of other martyrs will never be wasted and the enemy will pay a heavy price for the crimes it has committed," Hamas official Ayman Taha said.
Black-bearded Rayyan, 49, was a preacher at Jabalya's "mosque of martyrs" who mentored suicide bombers. With a cartridge belt around his stocky frame, he would sometimes patrol the streets of Gaza with Hamas fighters.
Hamas Radio said he had ignored advice to leave his house as other Hamas leaders have done in anticipation of assassination attempts by Israeli forces, who confirmed the air strike.
"I think that even now, after a few days of operation we have achieved changes," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said after talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"We affected most of the infrastructure of terror within the Gaza Strip and the question whether it's enough will be according to an assessment on a daily basis."
Late on Thursday night, Israeli war planes bombed the Jabalya mosque. Israeli security officials said it was a meeting place and command post for Hamas militants and the large number of secondary explosions after the strike indicated that rockets, missiles and other weapons had been stored there.
Witnesses in Gaza said it was completely destroyed.
Israeli armored forces remained massed on the Gaza frontier in preparation for a possible ground invasion as international calls for an immediate ceasefire mounted.
Turkey, starting a rotating membership at the United Nations Security Council, urged Israel to end the offensive and lift its blockade against the coastal strip.
A humanitarian agency said it was told Israel would let 400 foreigners leave the Gaza Strip on Friday, possibly part of preparations for a land offensive. Most resident foreigners are spouses of Gaza Palestinians and their children.
AID GETTING IN
Livni reiterated Israel's rejection of a French-proposed ceasefire of 48 hours to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
"There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce," she said. "Israel has been supplying comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Strip ... and has even been stepping this up by the day."
Seventy trucks carrying humanitarian supplies crossed into the Gaza Strip from Israel on Thursday. But medics say their needs are acute and power blackouts are increasing.
The deadliest conflict in the Gaza Strip in four decades has killed at least 412 Palestinians and wounded some 1,850. About a quarter of the dead were civilians, the U.N. estimates.
On the sixth day, Israeli planes and ships attacked about 20 Hamas targets, including a government complex.
Visiting southern Israeli towns where rockets fired from Gaza have killed four people since Saturday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was fighting Hamas with an "iron fist."
Israeli television broadcast film of rubble-strewn street in the port of Ashdod, where a Hamas rocket tore into the eighth floor of a high-rise. Several residents were treated for shock.
"I very much hope we will succeed in achieving our goals quickly," Olmert said.
CEASEFIRE MOVES
In New York, the U.N. Security Council adjourned an emergency session without a vote. Western delegates described an Arab-drafted resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire as unbalanced and said talks would continue to agree a text.
The Czech premier announced that EU foreign ministers would conduct a mission to the region, likely to coincide with a visit to Jerusalem on Monday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Olmert told his security cabinet on Wednesday that if a diplomatic solution could be found that ensured better security for southern Israel, the government would consider it.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli attacks must stop before any truce proposals could be considered. Israel must also lift its economic blockade of Gaza and open border crossings.
Israeli officials said a truce would require international monitoring to ensure Hamas lives up to its obligations.
The Gaza operation, launched after Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire on December 19 and intensified rocket strikes, could affect the outcome of Israel's February 10 national election.
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The major cause for the problem is the refusal of the Islamic countries to accept the reality of Israel and peaceful co-existence. Israel had occupied the place they consider their homeland only over sixty years ago. The Jewish religion and people was there even before Christianity and their homeland was near Jerusalem during those days. Later, they had to leave their homeland due to various historical factors including Christian and Islamic onslaught. The establishment of Israel, therefore, is like a second homecoming for the Jews. Thereofre, their fight is for their existence in their homeland.
How is the civilian casualty justified now? Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, told the US media “"Unfortunately in a war ... sometimes also civilians pay the price". Then, the same argument should apply when Hamas kills Israeli civilians, but it does not. If we are to be consistent both sides are terrorists for engaging in killing civilians, otherwise the label of terrorism should be discarded as nothing other than a term of war propaganda. It also follows, the more civilians you kill, the bigger the terrorist you are. So it is Israel that wins the title here but overall trailing well behind the US
People have seen Jews dancing and celebrating rather joyfully the carnage in Gaza. Indeed, a fleeting glance at the Israeli media these days reveals a sick and cannibalistic society that is as bestial as Nazi Germany was during the holocaust.Perhaps I am doing some injustice to the Germans. After all, the Germans were living under a hateful and tyrannical dictatorship that would have brutally crushed any protests by conscientious citizens.But, unlike Nazi Germany, Israel claims to be “a light upon the nations,” “the only democracy in the Middle East” and a civilized western nation.Well, if such is the behavior of “democratic” Israel, just imagine how the Jewish state would behave once the terrorist entity fell in the hands of manifestly fascist forces and parties.
Israeli leader should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide againstthe Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine--just as the the International Criminal Tribunal done in the case of Sebian leaders
Good Slap on the Face of Hamas,let hamas Man Hid behind Children and Women and Find Safe Place under the Skirt of Girls,Hama used to Strike Great State of Israel and Then Hid,but this time,Lion Went to there own Place and Crushed them into Piece,why Throw the Rocket and Stone on Lion and then Cry if Lion comes to Attack,I really Don't know if India will follow Israel or Not but One Thing is Sure,Isreal is the Only Country in the World which can really Be Proud of there Courage,Blood is Boiling in my Body after Seeing the Filthy Pakistani Terrorist attacking our Peace Loving Country, If Pakistani Terrorist for born to One Father,Let Them Face India Face to Face.
Isreal will soon be humilated, wait and watch, they they forgotten the lesson from theri misadventure in Lebanon, Indian guys are inspired by the Isreal savagery, but remember, Israels war machine is financed by the American tax payers money, their economy is in shamble, India Cannot afford this facilities, and god forbid if India opt for war, soon we can see the similar condition prevailing at the time of of Bangladesh war, at that time no one will help India, then we will be worst off than Srilanka.SUB KUCH LUTA KE HOSH ME Aaye TO KYA KIYA
Let us remember on this somber occasion the words of Martin Niemoller who lamented the bankruptcy of German intellectuals in the few years preceding the Second World War. "In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up." For God’s sake, let us learn from history, because today’s Israel is strikingly similar to 1936’s Germany.Please, say No to Jewish Nazism before it is too late
Israel is a peaceful and forward looking nation, plagued like India with terrorism, which both of us will overcome
may allah's curse be on you and all your jews who are fighting and killing our children and brothers and sisters. May allah give a similar or more tragedic end to all of you and may this world be a witness to this. You were all chosen by God you think, yes we believe, you are all chosen by God to enter the hell eternally and you will suffer all the symptoms in this world itself. May Allah give you all long life full of disease, poverty and fatal moments to suffer every second. Aameen. Thumma Aameen
hahaha,,,,,what a comment,,israel a peace loving nation. after occupying land for 40 years and creating refugee camps, terrorising the people how can they be peaceful. MR. Hari indian like u alwyas born to be slaves of whites. even after independence, and ur israel love is strange. study the history first
Terrorist like u and Hamas deserve only understand 1 language ie language of force. Piss be upon U
Dear Yahud, have you forgotten the Hitler or a new one has to be invented for you.
The real terrorrist are the Isrealis, sooner it is declared a terrorrist state, this cancer should be removed from the Middle East once for all.
Israel's bombardment of Gaza bears all the hallmarks of war crimes, In the context of total aerial supremacy, in which one side in a conflict deploys lethal aircraft against opponents with no means of defending themselves, the bombardment bears all the hallmarks of war crimes. The attacks, in retaliation for rockets fired by the Palestinians, would not contribute to the security of Israel, "It is a blight not only on the Middle East, but on the entire world - and particularly world leaders who have consistently failed the people of Palestine and Israel over the past 60 years." More than 270 people were killed in the attacks on Saturday.
The genocidal Israeli onslaught against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is strikingly similar to the German blitz in the initial stage of the Second World War. The pretexts are nearly the same and the behaviors of both Nazi and Israeli political and military leadership are nearly identical. And as the German Nazis sought to justify their blitz against their neighbors to the east, using a plethora of carefully concocted lies and pretexts, Israel is doing virtually the same thing. However, unlike the Nazis whose naked aggression was widely condemned around the world, the ongoing Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip is being condoned, even celebrated, by a huge media network throughout the western world from Sydney to Los Angeles
My congratulations to the Israeli's in their successful operations against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Israel is simply exercising her right to self defence and what they are doing is right despite what some pro-Arab/terrorist news stations are trying to project. Some media institutions are saying that Israels approach was disproportionate. What is so disproportionate in protecting your citizens? Is israel supposed to kill one or four Hamas members in retaliation? No, since the Arabs have so many people the Israeli's have to give them an incentive not to fight. I know now that the mere thought of firing a rocket to Israel is going to make Hamas sh-t their pants. This is what India needs to do. We need to realize that we can never have peace with the Pakistani people. Their people want India to be destroyed so there will always be terrorists there. It is upto us to destroy Pakistan. If anybody is interested in impartial reporting I suggest you log on to jihadwatch.org.
Isreal is the estidote for these islamic terrorists. We in India should support Isreal and not the Arabs
After Mumbai, they can bomb them to the stone age
Kudos to Israel to decimate the terrorist organisation Hamas and its leaders. Israelis are acting purely in proactive self defense. Hope they subdue and decimate the terrorist organisation Hezobollah