At least 170 killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza * Story Highlights * NEW: Death toll in raids climbs to 170; Palestinians say 110 hospitalized * White House urges Hamas to stop attacks, Israel to avoid hitting civilians * One Israeli killed in rocket attack reported by Hamas military wing, sources say * Many senior Hamas police officials, including chief, reportedly killed GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli airstrikes pounded targets in Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 170 people, Palestinian medical sources said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said her country is ready to continue the attacks "as long as it takes." Palestinian medical sources said 110 people were hospitalized in Gaza in serious to critical condition. Earlier Saturday, the sources said at least 250 people had been wounded in the raids. The militant group Hamas, which controls the government in Gaza, vowed to retaliate. The strikes followed several days of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. Hamas police stations were hit, killing many senior police commanders, a reporter in Gaza said. Maj. Gen. Tawfeeq Al-Jaber, a senior commander in the Hamas police force, was killed, as was Ismail Jabari, who headed the special police force in Gaza, Palestinian sources said. Israeli Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN the military began the attacks "in order to preserve the security situation in Israel." "We are prepared for any type of scenario right now. We have our own operation and assessments as we go along, and we are ready to continue this operation as long as it takes," Leibovich said by phone from Tel Aviv. VideoWatch panicked Palestinians try to help the wounded » Not long after Hamas called for retribution, an Israeli woman was killed when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a house in Netivot, about six miles east of Gaza, Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. Hamas acknowledged firing the rocket. Map » Two other Israelis were listed in "medium to serious" condition at a hospital in Bersheba, Rosenfeld said. Rosenfeld said at least 15 missiles from Gaza had landed in Israel by late afternoon. The Israeli Defense Ministry issued a statement saying Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the military into action based on a decision by the Cabinet. "The action will continue and will widen as much as is demanded according to the evaluation of the situation by the high command of the army," the statement said. Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, speaking from Ramallah in the West Bank, accused Israel of ignoring the terms of the tenuous six-month cease-fire that expired a week ago. "This is certainly a very cruel escalation, a relentless bombardment of a captive civilian population that has already been under siege for months, that has been deprived of basic requirements like food and medicines and fuel and power," she said. VideoWatch Ashrawi condemn the airstrikes » The Arab League scheduled an emergency meeting in Cairo, Egypt, at 7 p.m. (noon ET) Sunday to discuss the outbreak of violence. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe called on Hamas to cease its rocket attacks on Israel and urged Israel "to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza." A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israeli aircraft attacked "a series of Hamas targets and infrastructure facilities." "The Air Force activity came as a result of the continuation of terror activity by Hamas terror organization from the Gaza Strip, and the duration of rocket launching and targeting Israeli civilians," the IDF statement said. Video showed severely wounded people being loaded into cars and driven to hospitals. Inside one Gaza hospital, doctors appeared overwhelmed; the floors were covered with wounded men and some children. "Many killed and many injured," a Gaza-based reporter said. "People are running in the streets." The Egyptian government sent 20 ambulances, along with medical personnel, to Rafah at its border with Gaza to help with the wounded, an Egyptian official said. The reporter, who is not being named for safety reasons, said the attacks were the biggest he had seen in his decades in Gaza. The IDF said the targets "include Hamas terror operatives that operated from the organization's headquarters, training camps and weaponry storage warehouses." The shaky six-month truce between the Hamas government in Gaza and Israel expired a week ago. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Hamas agreed to end militant attacks on Israel from Gaza, and Israel agreed to halt raids inside the territory and ease its blockade on humanitarian goods. Israel on Friday opened three border crossings for the first time in 10 days to allow food, medical supplies and other humanitarian goods into Gaza, but Palestinian rocket attacks continued.
The IAF deployed approximately 100 bombs, with an estimated 95 percent of the ordnance reaching its intended target. Most of the casualties were Hamas operatives. Clearly Hamas refusal to renew truce and the escalation of rocket attacks against civilian Israeli targets was a huge blunder.
Two wrongs make killing civilians right? Oh, I forgot, they aren't dead people, they are just collateral damage or human shields. Makes the technological killing so much easier when they are not human beings...push a button, poof. Those who can afford the best high tech weapons are the virtuous? How about a war where both sides are wrong to be killing each other, is that possible?
One wrong actually. When your democratically elected government (Hamas) lobs hundreds of rockets into civilian areas of a neighboring country - these are acts of war by any definition and this is wrong. When your democratically elected government (Kadima) responds to these acts of war with a military campaign targeting enemy combatants - this is not wrong, this is right, this is exactly what governments are sworn to do. When your government (Hamas) starts a war with its neighbor you don't need to be a brain surgeon to expect collateral damage on both sides. When this neighbor is Israel you should thank Allah as your collateral damage with any other country/government on the planet would likely be a hundred times higher.
Israel is the most disgusting country I have ever seen. They starved these people, there were stories only a few days ago of people eating grass, and now they murder hundreds. Dead children everywhere. Israel is pack of godless scum. I hope they get nuked.
arab christians and moslems have been fighting arab jews for 2000 years. before modern armaments were introduced, the maggots were fighting with sticks and stones. Who triumphed was dictated by who's god was stronger that particular day. things changed after the US started shipping advanced weapons to the arab jews and the Saudis started funneling funds for the arab christians and moslems to buy mortars and guns. The solution is the saudis and the US should stop sending arms and money and let the maggots in each side go back to fighting with sticks and stones. None of this has any impact on the markets. The only reason it makes news is because western media is owned by european jews sympathetic to their arab jewish brethren.
Wow, Israel has so much power over those people they can starve them. How the hell is that possible? What moronic population can't have some gardens and feed itself? Maybe the Egyptians should take down the wall they use to keep the Palestinians contained. Maybe the neighboring Islamic states should send in some food? Hell no, they keep the Palestinians there to screw with Israel.
The whole region is just a huge fuck-up... Israel is like a nightmare of 10x neocon madness riding on the back of the world. They talk about "wanting to change the behaviour of Hamas" - well, it seems like it's they themselves who need behavioral modification, and lots of it. The Kadima party has some founding statements about wanting a Palestinian state solution, so that they can both keep Israel a democracy AND a Jewish state - meaning quite clearly that they want a segregation for religious means, if they want to continue posing as a democracy. Israel is a de facto theocracy, of course... with their crazed religious right-wing (seemingly fascist) parties dominating politics there. The whole religious fanaticism is just pure madness, and Abrahamic religion is the root of most of the unrest in the world now and for the foreseeable future. The neocons were all about reflecting the old hatred of their arab archnemesis, as well as hatred against Russia. At least they are seemingly out of power right now - although they play both sides of the fence in American politics to perpetuate their influence. Payback is a bitch, and at the rate that the US is losing influence around the world - Israel is in for some really shitty times. In 2050 there will be more than 10 billion people on Earth, with Africa and Asia rising the quickest. I wonder how Israel will be doing... not too great at the rate they are going. It will definitely hit them hard at some date, and quite frankly - they have it coming to them. Huge sanctions should be directed towards Israel, with embargoes and whathaveyounot to see if they can't be whipped back to the ground.