ISRAEL/GAZA: Hamas makes deepest rocket strike yet on Israel, amidst international calls for a ceasefire

Record ID: 340083

  • Title: ISRAEL/GAZA: Hamas makes deepest rocket strike yet on Israel, amidst international calls for a ceasefire
  • Date: 1st January 2009
  • Summary: NETIVOT, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 30, 2008) (REUTERS) VIEW OF MOTHER AND CHILDREN WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NETIVOT RESIDENT, ETY, SAYING: "We are here with all our children and all our family and all the people here, we are going to Arad (an Israeli city out of rockets range). We are going to a vacation there for two days. We do not know who will pay for it, but we are goin
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA17DJIKC27SGOCBRTUF9PF89QC
  • Story Text: Hamas rocket hits Israeli town of Beersheba in the deepest strike yet on the Jewish State, amidst international calls for a ceasefire.
    A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a city 42 km (25 miles) inside Israel on Tuesday (December 30, 2008), the deepest such attack yet by Palestinian militants.
    Hamas Islamist rulers claimed responsibility for the strike on Beersheba, where an empty kindergarten was hit.
    There were no casualties but the building was badly damaged.
    Foreign powers have stepped up calls on Israel and Hamas to halt hostilities after four days of Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip and rocket salvoes by militants inside the Jewish state.
    In the southern Israeli city of Netivot, which is often targeted by missiles launched from Gaza, some residents decided to leave until the fighting is over.
    They've been climbing onto buses to take them to safer areas.
    In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, commenting on the possibility of a ceasefire, said in the current circumstances it is "an act of equating between the victim and the jailer."

    "What is required at this moment and immediately is an arab, Islamic and international effort to stop the aggression, lift the siege and open the crossings, and a rebuilding of the Gaza strip, " he said.
    Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli airforce hit tunnels at the border between Gaza and Egypt. According to the Israeli military, the tunnels were used by Hamas to smuggle weapons.
    Medical officials put Palestinian casualties since the aerial onslaught began on Saturday at 384 dead and more than 800 wounded. A U.N. agency said at least 62 of the dead were civilians. Four Israelis have been killed.
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