- Title: ISRAEL/GAZA: Early morning fighting rocks Gaza
- Date: 15th January 2009
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (JANUARY 15, 2009) (REUTERS) BLACK SMOKE ABOVE GAZA (AUDIO: GUNFIRE) EXPLOSIONS IN URBAN AREA IN GAZA CITY, SMOKE RISING (AUDIO: GUNFIRE, AMBULANCES)
- Embargoed: 30th January 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Reuters ID: LVA1M1H364SNCK3924RQSAW9YBB7
- Story Text: Israeli troops deployed along the Gaza border prepare for the 20th.
consecutive day of fighting against Hamas in the coastal strip.
Israeli soldiers deployed along Gaza's border on Thursday (January 15) prepared for the 20th. consecutive day of fighting as war planes heavily bombed Gaza city.
Israeli tanks and artillery pounded Gaza city in a relentless barrage of shelling on Thursday, despite some signs of progress in the international effort to bring about a ceasefire to the 20-day conflict.
Live video footage from a Reuters camera in downtown Gaza showed sustained fire from the edge of the city for several hours. Shells exploded in downtown areas and long machine-gun bursts echoed off Gaza's cramped housing blocks.
Witnesses said that Israel's attacks targeted the area of the Islamic University in the centre of Gaza city as well as the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
Israeli forces have encircled the city of 500,000 people for days.
Tanks have made forays towards the centre to test the resistance of Hamas and other militant groups but have held off a full-scale assault on the densely populated urban maze.
The Palestinian death toll from the air-and-ground offensive has risen to at least 1,024, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. A Palestinian rights group said 670 of the dead were civilians. Thirteen Israelis have been killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire.
As the toll mounts, ceasefire negotiations have intensified.
An Israeli envoy was to meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Thursday after a Hamas delegation concluded talks on an Egyptian truce proposal by repeating their demand that Israel withdraw its troops and lift a long-standing blockade on coastal Gaza.
Israel, which wants an end to rocket attacks on its towns and guarantees that Hamas cannot smuggle in more weapons from tunnels to neighbouring Egypt, said it would not agree to a truce allowing the Palestinian Islamists to regroup and rearm.
France and Germany repeated their calls for an immediate halt to the fighting, while Venezuela cut off all diplomatic ties with Israel, just days after expelling the ambassador.
Having launched the Gaza offensive on Dec. 27 to counter Palestinian rocket fire, the Israeli government has been unclear about whether the assault could soon end or be stepped up.
Political analysts see a possible deadline in Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama as U.S. president, after which Israel may be reluctant to test White House support for a campaign that has stirred international outrage.
Underscoring its demand for an end to Hamas arms-smuggling, Israel sent warplanes to drop more bunker-busting bombs along the 15 km (9 mile) sandy frontier between Gaza and Egypt.
Since the offensive began, Hamas rocket fire into Israel has declined sharply, but militants still managed to launch 14 rockets at Israel on Wednesday, the army said. There was some damage to buildings but no casualties.
In Cairo, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- who arrived in the region on Wednesday for several days of intense diplomacy on the conflict -- renewed his call for "an immediate and durable ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas. The Islamist group swept Palestinian elections in 2006 but has been shunned by the West for its hostility to Israel. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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