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News Middle East
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Fighting rages in Gaza
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| Flares lit up Gaza City as Israel used artillery, fighter jets and helicopter gunships [AFP] |
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Heavy fighting has taken place in and around Gaza City with Palestinian fighters putting up a stiff resistance to advancing Israeli ground forces.
Large explosions and intense gun battles were reported from the Shejaiya neighbourhood late on Monday.
Flares lit up the skies as Israeli helicopter gunships and fighter jets flew low over the the city.
A spokesman of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks were trying to move into Gaza City.
He said that the group's fighters had destroyed an Israeli armoured personnel carrier in the clashes.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Gaza Strip, said that much of the fighting took place around a high area on the outskirts of the city.
"The strategic overlook essentially gives an overview of the entire northern part of Gaza .. that's why it probably has some significance to the Israeli military," he said.
"Because of its height and elevation it has probably also been used to fire rockets into Israel."
Fierce fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters was also reported in eastern Jabliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
'Everywhere bombed'
"All of Gaza is dark except for the flares fired by F-16s and Apaches [helicopter gunships]. The F-16s for the first time are flying very low and shooting missiles everywhere," Moussa el-Hadda, a retired doctor in the Gaza Strip, said.
"Nobody can leave their home, we have no shelters and Israel knows this. They just bombed everywhere and most of their bombs are hitting houses," he told Al Jazeera.
Earlier, Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, told members of parliament that Gaza City was partially surrounded.
"We have hit Hamas hard, but we have not yet reached all the goals that we have set for ourselves," he said.
Dozens of Palestinians were reported to have been detained during the Israeli push into the Gaza Strip.
Despite 10 days of constant bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military, causing the deaths of at least than 548 Palestinians, a senior Hamas official said on Monday that "victory is coming" for Palestinian fighters.
Mahmoud al-Zahar said that the movement's armed wing had "given the most beautiful performances during its confrontation with the army that the world thought invincible".
"We will defeat it, God willing," he said.
Israeli officials say the assault on Gaza is aimed at stopping Hamas firing rockets into southern Israel.
Al-Zahar warned that Israel's war on Gaza had opened it up to retribution by Palestinian fighters.
"They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine," he said.
"They have legitimised the destruction of their synagogues and their schools by hitting our mosques and our schools."
Rocket attacks
Palestinian fighters have continued to fire rockets into southern Israel despite the Israeli military operation.
But Major Avital Leibovitch, an Israeli military spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera that the cross-border attacks were being slowed.
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"As long as the aggression intensifies, your losses will increase and you will sink further into the Gaza quagmire"
Abu Obeida,
Izz-e-din Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman
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"Those rockets are coming less and less, because today we have had approximately 20 launchings which is one-tenth of Hamas's original launching capabilities ... there are signs that Hamas is weakening," she said.
"The second stage of the operation is going as planned, we have a variety of forces joining in this and it is proceeding according to the plan."
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas's Izz-e-din Al-Qassam Brigades, warned the Israeli military that it had many fighters ready to face it in the Gaza Strip.
"We have prepared thousands of brave fighters who are waiting for you in each corner of the street and will welcome you with fire and iron," he said.
"As long as the aggression intensifies, your losses will increase and you will sink further into the Gaza quagmire."
Al Jazeera's Mohyeldin said that the ongoing fighting was "not a battle between two armies".
"The Palestinian factions' biggest weapon, they say, is their will and resolve. What they are using are small to medium sized machine guns ... nothing particularly sophisticated," he said.
"The style of warfare they are engaging in is a cladestine one where they can simply melt away, they have the agility advantage over the Israelis because they are not operating large vehicles, they are mostly on foot."
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Source: |
Al Jazeera and agencies
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Feedback |
Number of comments : 8 |
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Jack Gold
United States |
06/01/2009 |
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Misleading "Palestinian fighters putting up resistence Gazns or Hamas would be accurate |
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Palestinians they are not really. They are HAMAS and GAZANS not Palestinians
To say that is misleading. One appears completely antisocial and fires rockets and commits thievery and smuggling and limits its peoples right to soccer and the the other one is free-er and not totalitarian in its behavior. apples and oranges. Please be more accurate next time in your writing and specify Gazans. After all the Fatah is not part of that. The Fatah had thier leggs shot by the HAMAS! PLS correct that! |
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Ilan
Israel |
06/01/2009 |
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The Hamas is sending rockets from densely populated areas in purpose so that their civilians will be killed. They exploit their people blood. |
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israel
Israel |
06/01/2009 |
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why 1/3 |
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I see all those people hurt crying and asking why? Ask them how did they vote..hamas only delivered its policy and kept of fighting the occupation (who left if they didn’t notice) and keeping fighting bravely until Israel will be wiped out..so I ask why? If we leave this ground why did they build roads on top of explosives ?why did they booby-trap all those houses ?why did they provoke and took gilad? Why they fire those rockets? Did they really think that Israel will be wiped out with this |
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israel
Israel |
06/01/2009 |
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maybe today they were still exporting something else from rockets. another thing, I have never seen enemy who is fed by his enemy and still has complaints about the service..take what you can to make a better future not a better war! I hope the next time the people of aza will elect a party which represent a solution and not a problem.
israel (the citizen) |
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Brigitte Meier
United States |
06/01/2009 |
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Fighting rages in Gaza |
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When will the world act to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians? Even Hamas doesn't have real weapons. This is an attack against a civilian people. This is genocide. The rockets could easily and much better have been stopped with humane treatment of the Palestinians. Israel hides behind a foul excuse to exterminate Palestine. Israel no longer has a legitimate right to exist. |
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danny
Israel |
06/01/2009 |
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the only reason hamas could not stop the rockets is the gangs who own the tunels that have a clear intres that israel will keep the border close so they can make mony of their poor people ... the financial revenue of the tunels went from 30m$ to 1bil$ in the past 3 years |
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MADALA MPHANDANA
South Africa |
06/01/2009 |
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comments on the "fighting rages in Gaza" |
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I'm deeply sadened by the nations who are refusing to hault and influence peace in the holy land that is nowadays not so holy to women and innocent children.no matter who is to blame but the fact of the matter is that people are being slaughtered and for how long is the whole world going to watch helplesly? |
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Daniel cooper
Palestinian Territory |
06/01/2009 |
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Israel occupation |
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BY killing so manny innocent plestinian men,weman and children ,Israel is violating international law and human rights, and her action is nothing short of state-terrorisem.
Israel leaders together with Mr Bush are war criminals and must be brought to justice.
Israel is effecting and indangering the world peace,
Why do we all have to suffer because Israel wants to live illeagally by occupation. |
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