Israel pounds Gaza as death toll hits 43
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel pounded Gaza with fresh air strikes, warning there could be no "quick victory" after having so far failed to win the release of a soldier seized two weeks ago or to stop militant rocket attacks.
Forty-two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its operation last Wednesday, pouring tanks and troops into the Gaza Strip and moving into land evacuated in September after a 38-year occupation.
One Palestinian militant was killed and six others wounded in two overnight Israeli air raids targeting cars in Gaza City, medical and security sources said. An Israeli assault helicopter also bombed a metal workshop in the city.
Two civilians were wounded in one of the strikes, when a vehicle apparently carrying members of an armed group who fled the scene, before the drone fired a missile hitting the car and wounding two bystanders.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said aircraft carried out two overnight strikes, one on a weapons factory operated by the Islamic Jihad faction and another against a "cell identified trying to launch rockets at Israel".
Despite the mounting death toll, Israel has rejected a call by Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya for a mutual ceasefire, warning troops could be in for the long-haul in order to end rocket fire and retrieve the teenage soldier.
"The field of operations in the Gaza Strip does not allow a quick victory…… Our actions are going to have to be lengthy and require patience because we do not want to reoccupy this area," said Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Boim.
"Israel does not have a miraculous solution at this stage against Palestinian rocket fire, but we can reduce the number and our objective is eventually to completely finish with such fire," he told public radio.
The return of troops to Gaza has evoked memories of the army's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon where soldiers became bogged down in a deadly quagmire before finally pulling out in 2000.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet on Sunday that it was "a war which can not be given a timetable" as Defence Minister Amir Peretz conceded "so far there has been no success, but we require patience and restraint".
Militants have fired at least 30 makeshift rockets towards Israel since the army began a vast operation in the northern Gaza Strip late Wednesday, lightly wounding one man in the southern desert town of Sderot, where Peretz lives.
Israel has refused any negotiations with Hamas —— whose armed wing was one of three groups that claimed the June 25 attack in which corporal Gilad Shalit was captured —— on a Palestinian prisoner swap in exchange for the soldier.
"I know that efforts are underway by Egypt, but we will not negotiate with Hamas and not release prisoners," Boim said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas nevertheless ordered two envoys to visit Hamas's exiled political supremo Khaled Meshaal in Damascus and Syrian leaders to discuss the soldier's abduction and the crisis in Gaza.
Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee members Taysir Khalid and Abdullah Horani were due to leave on their mission Monday.
Israel has repeatedly accused arch-foe Damascus of supporting Palestinian militants behind the capture of Shalit and threatened to kill Hamas leaders based in Damascus since the crisis flared.
Recent reports have suggested that Meshaal, who is due to give a press conference in Damascus Monday, has blocked mediation efforts to secure the soldier's release.
Hamas, which has seen its government offices bombed in Israeli air strikes since Shalit was captured, has warned that the military assault was complicating the fate of the corporal, who it said was being well looked-after.
The beleaguered Haniya on Saturday stressed that his government was determined to solve the problem through diplomatic channels in a "peaceful" manner, calling on Israel to halt its military operation.
Israeli ground troops on Saturday shifted the focus of their Gaza campaign, leaving the north in favour of the eastern frontier of the narrow Mediterranean territory —— one of the most densely populated regions on earth.
Tanks advanced one kilometre (half a mile) to the eastern outskirts of Gaza City where deadly clashes broke out Saturday although there has been an uneasy lull in such on ground fighting since then.
Aid groups have, however, expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the government.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has demanded immediate access for UN workers and humanitarian relief supplies to Gaza, an immediate halt to Israel's "disproportionate use of force" and for militants to release Shalit.
The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues has also urged the UN Security Council to intervene in the "dramatic situation" and called for an international force to be sent there.
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel pounded Gaza with fresh air strikes, warning there could be no "quick victory" after having so far failed to win the release of a soldier seized two weeks ago or to stop militant rocket attacks.
Forty-two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its operation last Wednesday, pouring tanks and troops into the Gaza Strip and moving into land evacuated in September after a 38-year occupation.
One Palestinian militant was killed and six others wounded in two overnight Israeli air raids targeting cars in Gaza City, medical and security sources said. An Israeli assault helicopter also bombed a metal workshop in the city.
Two civilians were wounded in one of the strikes, when a vehicle apparently carrying members of an armed group who fled the scene, before the drone fired a missile hitting the car and wounding two bystanders.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said aircraft carried out two overnight strikes, one on a weapons factory operated by the Islamic Jihad faction and another against a "cell identified trying to launch rockets at Israel".
Despite the mounting death toll, Israel has rejected a call by Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya for a mutual ceasefire, warning troops could be in for the long-haul in order to end rocket fire and retrieve the teenage soldier.
"The field of operations in the Gaza Strip does not allow a quick victory…… Our actions are going to have to be lengthy and require patience because we do not want to reoccupy this area," said Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Boim.
"Israel does not have a miraculous solution at this stage against Palestinian rocket fire, but we can reduce the number and our objective is eventually to completely finish with such fire," he told public radio.
The return of troops to Gaza has evoked memories of the army's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon where soldiers became bogged down in a deadly quagmire before finally pulling out in 2000.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet on Sunday that it was "a war which can not be given a timetable" as Defence Minister Amir Peretz conceded "so far there has been no success, but we require patience and restraint".
Militants have fired at least 30 makeshift rockets towards Israel since the army began a vast operation in the northern Gaza Strip late Wednesday, lightly wounding one man in the southern desert town of Sderot, where Peretz lives.
Israel has refused any negotiations with Hamas —— whose armed wing was one of three groups that claimed the June 25 attack in which corporal Gilad Shalit was captured —— on a Palestinian prisoner swap in exchange for the soldier.
"I know that efforts are underway by Egypt, but we will not negotiate with Hamas and not release prisoners," Boim said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas nevertheless ordered two envoys to visit Hamas's exiled political supremo Khaled Meshaal in Damascus and Syrian leaders to discuss the soldier's abduction and the crisis in Gaza.
Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee members Taysir Khalid and Abdullah Horani were due to leave on their mission Monday.
Israel has repeatedly accused arch-foe Damascus of supporting Palestinian militants behind the capture of Shalit and threatened to kill Hamas leaders based in Damascus since the crisis flared.
Recent reports have suggested that Meshaal, who is due to give a press conference in Damascus Monday, has blocked mediation efforts to secure the soldier's release.
Hamas, which has seen its government offices bombed in Israeli air strikes since Shalit was captured, has warned that the military assault was complicating the fate of the corporal, who it said was being well looked-after.
The beleaguered Haniya on Saturday stressed that his government was determined to solve the problem through diplomatic channels in a "peaceful" manner, calling on Israel to halt its military operation.
Israeli ground troops on Saturday shifted the focus of their Gaza campaign, leaving the north in favour of the eastern frontier of the narrow Mediterranean territory —— one of the most densely populated regions on earth.
Tanks advanced one kilometre (half a mile) to the eastern outskirts of Gaza City where deadly clashes broke out Saturday although there has been an uneasy lull in such on ground fighting since then.
Aid groups have, however, expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the government.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has demanded immediate access for UN workers and humanitarian relief supplies to Gaza, an immediate halt to Israel's "disproportionate use of force" and for militants to release Shalit.
The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues has also urged the UN Security Council to intervene in the "dramatic situation" and called for an international force to be sent there.