Israel attacks Gaza: more than 150 dead

Saturday Israel launched massive air raids against Hamas in Gaza, killing some 150 Palestinians in retaliation for the resumption of firing rockets from the territory controlled by the Islamists. "At least 145 people have died in these operations and more than a hundred others were injured in the Gaza Strip, told AFP the health minister from Hamas, Bassem Naim.

• This assessment was still provisional because of the continued raids in which Israeli leaders had threatened after a truce of six months on December 19.
  
  Hamas radio had also reported the death of 155 Palestinians, mostly in Gaza City and northern territory, and over 200 wounded in the bombing started around 11:30 (09H30 GMT).
  
  "The operation will continue and may be extended based on assessments of the army and officials of Defense," warned Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a statement.
  
  The Palestinian response was quick. Dozens of rockets were fired Saturday from Gaza against Israel, said the Islamist movement's radio.
  One of these devices killed an Israeli civilian in Netivot and four injured in a house in this town in southern Israel, according to Israeli emergency services.
  
  The population of localities within a radius of 20 km around the Gaza Strip was drawn to win the shelters through the passive defense, according to military officials.
  General Tawfik Jaber, police chief of Hamas, was killed in the raids which have particularly targeted the police headquarters of Hamas in Gaza City, according to the spokesman of the police, Islam Shawan.
  
  According to him, over a hundred policemen were among the dead. He said that in the northern Gaza Strip, a military training camp of Hamas had been completely destroyed.
  
  In a statement, Hamas called on its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Kassam Brigades to "save every effort to prevent the Zionists from sleeping."
  
  "We call on all our troops to retaliate by force operations of the enemy Israel, launched a spokesperson on Hamas radio.
  
  In Gaza fighters of the armed wing of Hamas called through loudspeakers residents of southern Israel "to prepare shrouds."
  Many capitals have called for a cessation of violence and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced it had begun "urgent contacts with several Arab countries and others to stop aggression and cowardly massacres in the Gaza Strip."
  
  But the Israeli military spokesman Avi Benyahou, warned that the operation "was just beginning."
  He also stated that "Israeli aircraft targeted Saturday military training camps, government offices, arsenals and command centers in all Hamas terrorist".
  
  According to him, "the secrecy of the operation was carefully maintained and the surprise was total (...) Most of the victims are people in uniforms of Hamas."
  Foreign Israeli Minister Tzipi Livni gathered her staff for an international information campaign to explain the Israeli decision to attack Hamas.
  
  Fawzi Baroum, Hamas spokesman, accused Egypt of complicity with Israel, speaking of "orchestrated conspiracy" after the meeting Thursday between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Mrs. Livni.
  On the ground, Egypt opened the Rafah terminal, bordering the Gaza Strip, and hosted Palestinian wounded.
  Brussels, Paris, Moscow in particular have quickly called for the end "immediate" violence.
  Jordan has requested an emergency meeting Sunday of Arab Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
  
      
      
  Ennahar / AFP