- Title: GAZA/ISRAEL: Gaza residents stock up on supplies as Israel keeps up air assaults
- Date: 2nd January 2009
- Summary: RESIDENTS WAITING IN LINE CLOSE OF BOYS RESIDENTS WALKING OUT OF BAKERY WITH BREAD MORE OF RESIDENTS STANDING IN LINE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABU ALI, RESIDENT OF GAZA CITY, SAYING: "We are waiting on God's mercy we hope God will look upon us and save us from these infidels. No one but god could save us from this"
- Embargoed: 17th January 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA3C0G56CY6KG6WXSDW8K69B4YA
- Story Text: Gaza City streets were mostly empty with the exception of residents queuing up at bakeries to buy bread on Friday (January 2), as Israel continued its airstrikes on the Gaza Strip for the seventh day.
Showing no sign of relenting in its Gaza offensive, Israel bombed around 20 targets, killing two Palestinians in a house, and raising the Gaza death toll to at least 414 since last Saturday (December 27). Palestinians responded with rocket fire at Israel.
Israeli armoured forces remained massed on the Gaza frontier in preparation for a possible ground invasion, ignoring international calls for a halt to the conflict.
Although seventy trucks carrying humanitarian supplies crossed into the Gaza Strip from Israel on Thursday (January 1), needs are acute for Gaza residents and power blackouts are increasing.
"We are waiting on God's mercy, we hope God will look upon us and save us from these infidels. No one but God could save us from this," Abu Ali, a resident of Gaza City said while queuing outside a bakery.
"No electricity, no gas, no food, no flour. Even the bakeries they don't have electricity so that they can bake for the people to eat. We have never in the history of Gaza seen women and children standing in line at bakeries in order to get bread," Sami Abu Mahsi, another resident told Reuters.
Late on Thursday night, Israeli war planes bombed a Jabalya mosque.
Israeli security officials said it was a meeting place and command post for Hamas militants. The Israeli army distributed cockpit video footage of the bombing.
At least 414 Palestinians have been killed and some 1,850 wounded since Israel launched its assault on Gaza on Saturday (December 27) in response to Hamas rocket fire after a six-month truce ended on December 19.
It is the deadliest conflict in the Gaza Strip in four decades. The United Nations estimates a quarter of the dead are civilians.
Four more Israelis were killed in rocket attacks from Gaza since the Israeli offensive began last Saturday. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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