Artillery guns fire towards the Gaza Strip from the Israeli side of the border.(Shay Shmueli/AFP/Getty Images)
From Times Online:
Israeli tanks and infantry battalions swept up to the edges of Gaza City yesterday, battling Hamas fighters and sealing off the bomb-scarred capital city from the rest of the coastal territory.
With the civilian death toll rising by the hour and diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting making no headway, the head of the UN refugee agency called the situation a catastrophe. Israel made clear that it was not about to heed calls for a swift ceasefire. It insisted that it needed to smash Hamas and destroy its weapons stockpile to ensure a lasting peace not just for its citizens, who had endured years of Palestinian rocket fire, but also for the people of Gaza themselves.
Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister and architect of the assault on Gaza, said that the operation would be “expanded and intensified” as was necessary. “War is not a picnic,” he said.
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