Israel launched air strikes against Palestinian targets across the Gaza Strip yesterday and said it would continue an open-ended offensive after rebuffing a ceasefire proposed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Israeli leaders said the military would press on with air and ground assaults until Palestinian militants released Corporal Gilad Shalit, a soldier abducted in a cross-border raid on June 25, and halted rocket fire on Israeli cities.
"It is a war for which it is impossible to set a timetable," Israel Radio quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as telling members of his Cabinet.
He repeated, the report said, his refusal to negotiate a prisoner release with militants in exchange for the soldier.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat called on international aid organizations to help avert "human catastrophe" in Gaza. Israeli forces have destroyed a main power station there and killed about 50 people, including some 20 civilians, local residents said.
At least three militants were wounded in an early morning air strike near the Karni commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel, Palestinian medics and police said.
Israel also bombed a key bridge in northern Gaza, despite an appeal from the UN to stop targeting the strip's already badly damaged infrastructure. The army said the goal was to prevent militants from transporting Qassam rockets to launch sites.
In the latest attacks, a rocket landed in a street in the Israeli town of Sderot, wounding one person, the army said. A second rocket slammed into a house in the border town and three people were treated for shock. Hamas' armed wing claimed credit.
Israeli missiles killed seven Palestinians, including a 6-year-old girl and a policeman, on Saturday, Palestinian witnesses said. The Israeli military said it had targeted militants.
In Damascus, a senior official of Hamas's political bureau said yesterday that the organization would not succumb to military pressure over the soldier's abduction and demanded that Israel release Palestinian detainees.
"The Israeli soldier must be released through diplomatic ways, not military ones," Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, told reporters.
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Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique