Israeli airstrikes kill hundreds in Gaza

Hamas rocket fire draws devastating response

An Israeli missile strike raised a cloud of smoke in the Gaza Strip yesterday. The waves of airstrikes killed at least 230 people, according to a Palestinian Health Ministry official, making it the deadliest Israeli assault on Palestinian territory in years. (sebastian scheiner/Associated Press)

JERUSALEM - Israeli warplanes and helicopters bombarded military targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip yesterday and today, retaliating for rocket fire into Israel, but also inflicting a heavy loss of civilian life in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

The waves of airstrikes killed at least 230 people yesterday, according to a Palestinian Health Ministry official in Gaza, making it the deadliest Israeli assault on Palestinian territory in years.

In an attack early today, Palestinians said Israeli aircraft bombed a mosque near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, destroying the building and killing at least two people.

Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored corps troops were heading for the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines.

Moaiya Hassanain, a Health Ministry officer, estimated that one-third of the dead in yesterday's raids were civilian noncombatants and that an additional 400 Palestinians were wounded.

Hamas said all its security installations in Gaza were hit; Israel's Army Radio reported at least 40 targets damaged. Gaza militants responded by firing about 180 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel - including several medium-range Grad rockets - killing one man and wounding four others in the border community of Netivot.

The Israeli military said aircraft released more than 100 tons of bombs in the first nine hours of fighting, focusing initially on militant training camps, rocket-manufacturing facilities, and weapons warehouses that had been identified in advance. A second wave was directed at squads that fired rockets and mortars at Israeli border communities.

The violence unsettled the Middle East. Street protests against Israel erupted across the region.

The White House called for restoration of the cease-fire and urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the European Union, the Arab League, and Russia called on both sides to cease hostilities.

But Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, said, "The operation will last as long as necessary." Hamas threatened further retaliatory measures.

"There is a time for calm and there is a time for fighting, and now is the time for fighting," Barak said at a news conference.

It was the bloodiest day of conflict in and around Gaza since before Hamas, an Islamic group doctrinally committed to the Jewish state's destruction, won the Palestinian Authority's parliamentary elections in early 2006. The group seized full control of Gaza from the rival Fatah movement in June 2007.

Israel had withdrawn its troops and settlers from the coastal strip in 2005, only to see its border communities come under frequent attack by crude rockets from Hamas and smaller Palestinian militant groups.

Yesterday's airstrikes occurred eight days after the collapse of a six-month-old truce between Israel and Hamas. Last week Hamas stepped up its attacks, launching 60 rockets on Wednesday alone and hitting southern Israeli communities miles beyond their normal 6-mile range.

Israel's response began shortly before noon with a round of air bombardments. Several more air attacks followed, sowing panic and confusion as thick clouds of smoke billowed over Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and Rafah. There were bodies on the pavement around Hamas security structures.

Some of the missiles crashed into civilian neighborhoods as the school day was ending and continued falling as desperate parents rushed into the streets seeking their children.

Hospital officials said about 40 people were killed at a police headquarters in Gaza City during a graduation ceremony for new recruits. Hamas's police chief, Tawfiq Jabber, was listed among the dead.

Across town, the bodies of more than a dozen uniformed security officers lay scattered in the ruins of Hamas's main security compound.

The Israeli military said the targets it attacked included Hamas security headquarters, training camps, and weapons depots. In a statement, it said the "vast majority of the casualties are terror operatives."

The military added that Hamas bore sole responsibility for any civilian casualties because it had located many of the targets "within civilian population centers."

"Hamas as a whole is the target - anyone and anything connected to the threats posed by Hamas," said Captain Eli Isaacson, an Israeli military spokesman.

Asked whether Hamas political leaders might be targeted in an expanded operation, Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, declared at a news conference: "Hamas is a terrorist organization and nobody is immune."

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station, said the group would take revenge not just with rocket attacks, but by sending suicide bombers into Israel - a practice it all but stopped years ago.

"Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood," he said.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose government brokered the cease-fire, said he was making an effort to restore it. But Egypt summoned Israel's ambassador to lodge a formal protest against what Mubarak called "military aggression" against Gaza.

That sentiment was echoed in street protests across the region.

Demonstrations were reported in Amman, Beirut, and in a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus. Palestinian protesters in the West Bank threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader who is at odds with Hamas and has been engaged in peace talks with Israel, called Israel's attack "criminal" and called on Western powers to intervene.

Gaza hospitals were crowded with people, and civilians rushed in the wounded in cars, vans, and ambulances.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, the Vatican, the UN secretary general, and special Mideast envoy Tony Blair all called for an immediate restoration of calm. The Arab League scheduled an emergency meeting today to discuss the situation.

At Gaza City's main security compound, a survivor raised his index finger in a show of Muslim faith, uttering a prayer. One man, his face bloodied, sat dazed on the ground as a fire raged nearby.

One Hamas rocket struck the Israeli town of Netivot, killing an Israeli man and wounding six people, rescue services said.

Dozens of stunned residents, some of them weeping, gathered around the house that took the deadly rocket hit. A hole gaped in one of the walls, which was pocked with shrapnel marks.

Netivot only recently become a target, and dozens of stunned residents, some weeping, gathered at the house that took the deadly rocket hit. "We need to finish this once and for all and strike back hard," said resident Avraham Chen-Chatam, 57.

The most violent West Bank response was in the city of Hebron, where dozens of youths, many of them masked, hurled rocks for hours at Israeli forces, who lobbed tear gas and stun grenades in response.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.