Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza yesterday, including the prime minister’s office, after Israel’s Cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing for a possible ground invasion.
Israeli planes shattered the office building of Gaza Strip Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh — where he had met on Friday with Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil — and struck the Interior Ministry.
Loud explosions regularly rocked the densely populated Palestinian territory, sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. The occasional hiss of outgoing rocket fire showed Islamist militants were pursuing their defiance of the assault.
Photo: EPA
Despite the violence, Tunisia’s foreign minister arrived in the enclave yesterday in a show of solidarity, denouncing the Israeli attacks as illegitimate and unacceptable.
Officials in Gaza said 41 Palestinians, among them 20 civilians, including eight children and a pregnant woman, had been killed in Gaza since Israel began operations four days ago.
Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.
Israel’s military said its air force had hit at least 180 targets since midnight on Friday, including a police headquarters, government buildings, rocket launching squads and a Hamas training facility in the impoverished territory.
A three-story house belonging to Hamas official Abu Hassan Salah was also hit and completely destroyed early yesterday. Rescuers said at least 30 people were pulled from the rubble.
“What Israel is doing is not legitimate and is not acceptable at all,” Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he visited Haniyeh’s wrecked headquarters. “It does not have total immunity and is not above international law.”
Israel launched a massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border rocket salvoes that have plagued southern Israel for years.
The Palestinians have fired hundreds of rockets out of Gaza, including one at Jerusalem and three at Tel Aviv — Israel’s commercial center. Jerusalem had not been targeted in such a way since 1970, and Tel Aviv since 1991.
Although there were no reports of casualties or damage in either city, the long-range attacks came as a shock and advanced the prospect of an Israeli ground invasion into Gaza
“This will last as long as is needed; we have not limited ourselves in means or in time,” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel’s Channel One TV yesterday.
Hamas says it is committed to continued confrontation with Israel and is eager not to seem any less resolute than smaller, more radical groups that have emerged in Gaza in recent years.
The Islamist Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007. Israel pulled settlers out of Gaza in 2005, but has maintained a blockade of the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session late on Friday with a clutch of senior ministers on widening the military campaign, while other Cabinet members were polled by telephone on increasing mobilization.
Political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000. It did not necessarily mean all would be called up.
Three soldiers were lightly hurt by fire from the Gaza Strip yesterday, the Israeli army said.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
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