Israeli soldiers are seen at a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip yesterday. — AP picTEL AVIV, Dec 30 — Israel vowed yesterday to sweep Hamas from power in Gaza, pledging "all-out" war and promising to smash every building linked to the Islamist movement.
Hamas continued to lob rockets at the Jewish State as Israeli forces carried out a third day of attacks on the Gaza Strip, broadening the offensive to include naval as well as aerial bombardments. But as Britain and other nations called for an end to the violence, there were signs that Hamas was feeling the strain with claims that its leader-in-exile was ready to renew a ceasefire that expired 10 days ago.
Yesterday’s targets in Gaza included a university building, the interior ministry and the office of Ismail Haniya, the Hamas political leader. The Palestinian death toll reached 345, with 1,550 wounded in just three days. Two Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets.
"The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas," Haim Ramon, the deputy to Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, said. It was the first time since it launched its blistering offensive that Israel has openly stated that regime change is its ultimate goal. "We will stop firing immediately if someone takes the responsibility of this government, anyone but Hamas," Ramon said. "We are favourable to any other government to take the place of Hamas."
It was not clear which party could take control if Israel succeeds in removing the Islamists. The only other party with experience of rule is Fatah, the secular movement that favours peace talks with Israel. But it is unpopular with many Palestinians, who see it as corrupt and ineffective, and was driven by Hamas from Gaza in battle 18 months ago.
Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, said Israel was in an "all-out war against Hamas", while Brigadier-General Dan Harel, Israel's deputy Chief of Staff, said his forces would erase every trace of Hamas from Gaza's crowded cities. "After this operation there will not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game," the general said. "We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas government and all its wings. We are hitting government buildings, production factories, security wings and more."
That broadening of the offensive was evident in the targets hit yesterday: the Islamic University in Gaza, a hotbed of support for Hamas but also a major educational establishment for students forbidden by Israel from studying outside Gaza, was crushed by bombs. Israel said its laboratories had been used to improve the crude rockets Hamas and other militant groups fire into Israel's southern towns.
Israeli bombers also hit the Interior Ministry, the first time in the campaign that it has struck general government buildings, and a further sign it is determined to prise Hamas's fingers from all levers of control in Gaza.
Along Gaza's borders, the Israeli military continued to muster tanks and troops in preparation for a ground offensive that many fear would plunge the strip — home to 1.5 million Palestinian refugees — into even more bloody chaos.
There were signs of cracks in the Arab unity that has been calling on Israel to halt its offensive, but which is wary of Hamas's Islamist radicalism. Egypt, which brokered a now defunct ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, said an Arab summit planned for Friday in Qatar was now in doubt. "Staging an Arab summit could be dangerous and subject to criticism, especially if it does not result in practical measures," Ahmed Abul Gheit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, said.
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram also hinted that Hamas was at least partly to blame for invoking the wrath of Israel with its constant rocket attacks, which appear to serve no strategic purpose. "If you can't kill the wolf, don't pull its tail," it commented.
There were also indications that behind the public calls for suicide bombings and renewed uprisings, Hamas's own will was strained. In Senegal, which currently presides over the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Foreign Ministry said that Hamas's leader-in-exile, Khaled Meshaal, had declared he was ready to renew the ceasefire if Israel ended its bombardment and allowed supplies into Gaza. Hamas was quick to deny the report. It has continued to fire rockets into Israel, one of which killed an Arab Israeli construction worker in the southern city of Ashkelon and wounded 18 more people today. A missile hit a bus station in the city of Ashdod, seriously wounding two people. Israel said that Hamas's longer range missiles now have half a million Israelis in their range.
Some 60 Israeli missiles were fired yesterday, but an Israeli Army spokesman said that was less than had been expected at this stage in an operation that could take days or even weeks to reach completion.
Israeli officials warned that a bloody ground invasion was still on the cards. "The worst . . . is still ahead of us," Harel said.
David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, hardened Britain's response by warning that the blitz on Gaza could encourage further extremism: "There is no point in me denying my fear that this will fuel radicalism. That is one of the dangers we face at the moment."
Such fears were borne out by Palestinians. "Now there is more hate and radicalism in the Gaza streets," one young Gazan told The Times by telephone from the apartment where he and his family were huddled, only venturing out to queue for hours for bread in the city's almost bare shops.
In Iran, a hardline student group started recruiting volunteers to fight Israel after the country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that anyone who died in the defence of Gaza would be deemed a martyr. — Times of London
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