- Title: MIDDLE EAST: UN calls for immediate Gaza truce, attacks go on
- Date: 10th January 2009
- Summary: ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER AREA, ISRAEL (JANUARY 9, 2009) (REUTERS) ISRAELI TANKS AND ARMOURED VEHICLES NEAR GAZA ISRAEL BORDER SOLDIER STANDING ON TANK VARIOUS OF TROOPS ON SITE / PREPARING FOR ANOTHER DAY OF OPERATIONS TRUCK CARRYING FUEL DRIVING ON ROAD SOLDIERS SLEEPING ON SITE, SOME GETTING UP VIEW OF TANK BEING DRIVEN ALONG BORDER TANKS LINED UP OPPOSITE PALESTINIAN HOUSES VIEW OF GAZA TOWN HELICOPTER HOVERING SDEROT, ISRAEL (JANUARY 9, 2009) (REUTERS) STREET SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) UNIDENTIFIED MALE SDEROT RESIDENT SAYING: "If they stop again, they (Hamas) will again continue. We have been suffering for eight years." (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) UNIDENTIFIED MALE SDEROT RESIDENT SAYING: "I suggest to let them talk out there, and allow the Israeli soldier to clean out the 'scourge of Israel'" RESIDENT DRIVING AWAY
- Embargoed: 25th January 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA800RD3YD9IPBBMNEXIFF5X67E
- Story Text: Israel pushed ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday (January 9), ignoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire to the 14-day-old conflict.
Israeli soldiers, deployed along the border of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with tanks, began morning preparations ahead of another day of fighting.
Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, residents said. Elsewhere, Palestinian medics said tanks shelled a house in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip, killing six Palestinians from the same family.
In New York, the Security Council passed a resolution urging an "immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire", and for Israel to withdraw from Gaza after its two-week air-and-ground offensive. The United States abstained.
There was no immediate reaction from Israeli officials to the vote, but Israel opposed the idea of a binding resolution. Israel's military commanders appeared keen to pursue the ground offensive to try to secure more gains.
Residents of southern Israel, frequently the target of Hamas rockets, voiced anger and frustration over the resolution.
"If they stop again, they (Hamas) will again continue. We have been suffering for eight years," one Sderot resident said.
"I suggest to let them talk out there, and allow the Israeli soldier to clean out the 'scourge of Israel'," added another resident of the same town.
On Friday, Hamas released a video showing what it said was footage of Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza Strip being shot by Hamas snipers.
For its part, Gaza's Hamas rulers did not recognise the resolution as it had not been consulted on it, said a spokesman for the Islamist group.
The resolution, pressed for by Arab countries in the face of efforts by Britain, France and the United States for a more muted statement, called for arrangements to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza and for its borders to be opened.
Israel lost three soldiers in combat with Islamist militants who hold the territory. Apart from a "friendly fire" incident which killed four, it was its heaviest one-day combat toll.
Ten soldiers have so far died in the campaign launched by Israel to crush Hamas forces and halt the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Israel says it is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties but accuses Hamas of deliberately placing its fighters close to homes and mosques. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
