Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second successive day on Sunday, piling pressure on Hamas after 229 people were killed in one of the bloodiest 24 hours for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
GAZA CITY - ISRAELI tanks massed at the Gaza border on Sunday as warplanes again pounded Hamas targets in the densely populated enclave where raids have killed nearly 290 people in less than two days.
Dozens of tanks and personnel carriers idled at several points near the border after Israel warned it could launch a ground offensive in addition to its massive air bombardment, AFP photographers reported.
RAFAH (Egypt) - DOZENS of empty ambulances waited on the Egyptian border with Gaza on Sunday to evacuate those wounded by Israeli air strikes, but found no one to take for treatment despite a deal with Hamas.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit claimed on Sunday that Hamas is preventing hundreds of Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes from leaving Gaza for treatment in Egypt.
JERUSALEM - MILITANTS inside the battered Gaza Strip launched rockets deeper into Israel on Sunday as Israeli warplanes continued to pound Hamas targets in the overcrowded Palestinian territory, officials said.
One rocket landed near the Israeli town of Yavne, more than 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the Gaza Strip, without causing injuries, according to Israeli medics.
Over 50,000 rally as pro-Gaza demos sweep Egypt cities
CAIRO - MORE than 50,000 people took to the streets of a dozen Egyptian cities on Sunday to protest against the killing of more than 280 Palestinians in 24 hours of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
The largest protest saw around 8,000 people demonstrate on the streets of Assiut, a city in southern Egypt of 400,000, a security official said, with another 3,000 gathering in Minya, south of Cairo.
Hamas responded to the ongoing bombardment by firing rockets the farthest yet into Israel, with one striking not far from Ashdod, Israel's second-largest port, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Gaza. It caused no casualties, medics said.
Britain and Russia meanwhile joined the growing international chorus for a halt to the violence.
Pope Benedict XVI implored the international community to do 'all it can to help the Israelis and Palestinians on this dead-end road... and not to give in to the perverse logic of confrontation and violence'.
But Israeli Defence Minster Ehud Barak vowed to 'expand and deepen' the bombing blitz, unleashed in retaliation for persistent rocket fire by militant groups.
'If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so,' his spokesman quoted him as saying.
The cabinet gave the green light to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers, a senior official told reporters after the meeting.
Warplanes continued to pound the impoverished and overcrowded territory of 1.5 million people, where many streets were deserted and schools and shops stayed shut as hundreds of funerals were held.
Jets bombed a series of tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt - a lifeline for Hamas used for smuggling in goods and weapons into the enclave, which has been virtually sealed by Israel since the Islamists violently seized power in June 2007.
At least two people were killed in the bombing.
Businesses in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, observed a strike in protest at the onslaught that one Palestinian human rights group called 'the bloodiest day in the history of the (Israeli) occupation'.
Since early Saturday, at least 287 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded, medics said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign was launched 'in order to regain a normal life for the citizens in the south who have suffered for many years from incessant rocket, mortar and terror attacks'.
But Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June last year, remained defiant.
Its exiled leader Khaled Meshaal called in Damascus for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel and promised more suicide attacks.
Hamas's last suicide bombing in Israel was in January 2005.
The Israeli bombardment sparked huge international concern.
In New York, the UN Security Council called for an 'immediate halt to all violence' and urged all sides 'to stop immediately all military activities'.
In Rome, the pope said that 'the terrestrial homeland of Jesus cannot continue to be the witness of such bloodshed which is repeated ad infinitum'.
Egypt, which had brokered a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas that expired on December 19, said it was trying to negotiate a new ceasefire.
But a senior Israeli official told AFP that 'we have our goals and our timetable and we don't seek mediation'.
Israel's main ally Washington has blamed Hamas 'thugs' for provoking the offensive by firing rockets into the Jewish state from Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid causing civilian casualties.
Israel has kept Gaza largely sealed off since the Hamas takeover in June 2007 allowing only very limited supplies of basic goods into the aid-dependent territory.
The Israeli offensive sparked protests in the occupied West Bank, where one demonstrator was killed in clashes with police. More than 50,000 rallied in Egypt and hundreds in Dubai.
Israel unleashed 'Operation Cast Lead' against Hamas in the middle of Saturday morning, with some 60 warplanes hitting more than 50 targets in just a few minutes.
By Sunday, some 230 targets had been hit, the military said.
Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, killing one man and wounding a handful of other people.
Army chief Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi told the cabinet on Sunday that half of Hamas's rocket launch sites were destroyed in the initial wave of Israeli attacks.
'Hamas was dealt a surprising and hard blow yesterday,' a senior official quoted him as saying.
The Israeli blitz came after days of spiralling violence since the expiry of the Gaza truce. It comes less than two months before snap parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10. -- AFP
