Hamas vows to hit Israel harder

30/12/2008| IslamWeb

The armed wing of Hamas has vowed to send rockets deeper into Israel than ever before if the latter continued its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

 

"We tell the leaders of the enemy - if you continue with your assault, we will hit with our rockets further than the cities we have hit so far," a masked spokesman for Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in televised comments on Tuesday.

 

"If you think that Hamas and al-Qassam will be crushed, we will rise up from the rubble," the spokesman said.

 

The Hamas announcement followed Israeli warning that the onslaught in the Gaza Strip could last for "weeks".

 

More than 360 people have been killed, including at least 61 women and children, in four consecutive days of Israeli bombardment and local hospitals are saying they are unable to cope with any more casualties.

 

Civilians and security guards were among the dead in the latest raids on Tuesday, Palestinian medical workers said.

 

Israel said there would be no let up until the threat of Palestinian rockets attacks from the Gaza Strip had been removed.

 

"There is no room for a ceasefire," Meir Sheetrit, Israel's interior minister, said.

 

"The government is determined to remove the threat of [rocket] fire on the south.

 

"Therefore the Israeli army must not stop the operation before breaking the will of Palestinians, of Hamas, to continue to fire at Israel."

 

Four Israeli citizens have been killed by missiles fired from Palestinian positions since the offensive began on Saturday.

 

Military preparations

 

The Israeli army has been massing infantry and armored forces along the border amid increasing fears that a ground invasion is planned.

 

Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defense minister, said the military "has made preparations for some long weeks of action".

 

On Monday, areas of the border were declared "closed military zones" and thousands of reservists have been called up by the Israeli military.

 

"The ground forces are ready," Avital Leibovitz, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said on Tuesday.

 

"The option exists. It is possible that we will apply it but for the moment we are only hitting from the air and the sea."

 

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza Strip, said that the confirmation that naval vessels were now launching attacks was a further widening of the offensive.

 

"We understand they are targeting buildings and various other targets throughout Gaza," he said.

 

Mohyeldin said that a ground offensive would worsen the humanitarian situation for Gazans.

 

"A ground offensive will mean urban warfare, close proximity fighting from street-to-street ... Gaza is so densely-populated that ultimately in that kind of operation the civilian population will find themselves caught in the middle," he said.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Palestinian fighters from Islamic Jihad place homemade rockets before later firing them towards Israel on the outskirts of Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008.

 

Al-Jazeera