Friday, 9 January 2009
Two Palestinians were reportedly killed in IDF operations in northern Gaza on Friday afternoon.
It came after a Grad attack on Ashdod, which occurred after a three-hour humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas was supposed to have already begun.
Earlier, an intense IAF bombardment and a barrage of Hamas rockets indicated that there would be no rapid end to the fighting, despite the UN Security Council calling Thursday night for an "immediate" and "durable" cease-fire in Gaza.
Palestinians reported intense Gaza battles between IDF soldiers and Hamas gunmen Friday morning, after the IAF had hit some 50 targets in the Strip in overnight strikes.
On Friday morning, Assad el Jamala, a senior Hamas operative, was killed by IDF tank fire in the Zeitoun neighborhood, the IDF said Friday. El Jamala was involved in firing rockets, planting bombs and other terror activities, the army said.
In addition, one IAF air strike killed two Hamas terror operatives and another unidentified man, while another flattened a five-story building in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people, including an infant, Hamas security officials said.
Five IDF soldiers were wounded in overnight Gaza fighting. One was in moderate condition, and four were in light condition.
Also, over 20 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel on Friday morning, wounding one man in the Eshkol region.
In Israel on Friday morning, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met to decide whether to heed the UN's cease-fire call. The Security Cabinet was due to meet later.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas envoy to Lebanon, rejected the UNSC call for a cease-fire, telling the al-Arabiya satellite channel that the group "is not interested in it because it does not meet the demands of the movement."
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the UN failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people. "This resolution doesn't mean that the war is over," he told the al-Jazeera satellite television network. "We call on the Palestinian fighters to mobilize and be ready to face the offensive, and we urge the Arab masses to carry on with their angry protests."
