Gaza braces for Israeli ground assault
Paper: Invasion may begin 'tonight'

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Gaza_b...ault_0102.html

2/2/2008

After a week of airstrikes on Hamas targets, leaving an estimated 420 dead and scores more injured, Israel is poised to launch what's said to be a "major ground offensive" into the Gaza strip.

"All along the border, Israeli tanks and troops have turned fields into makeshift camps from which to launch their offensive into Gaza," reported the Times Online. "The Government has already mobilised more than 6,000 reserve troops and has given the green light to call up almost 3,000 more.

"Artillery barrages were also being fired into the strip while aircraft dropped bombs on open ground that the army will need to cross, and where Hamas has placed mines and dug tunnels to allow its guerrillas to outflank the invaders."

The lives of four Israeli's have been claimed by rockets fired from Palestine. Early Friday, the same rockets were said to have within their potential range Israel's Dimona nuclear facility.

The same day, Hamas called for a "day of wrath" after an Israeli air strike killed Nizar Rayan, a firebrand hardliner, and several of his wives and children.

Rayan is the most senior Islamist figure killed by Israel since Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004 and Hamas again warned that it could resume suicide operations against Israel for the first time since January 2005 to avenge his death.

"After the last crime, all options are open to counter this aggression, including martyr operations against Zionist targets everywhere," Hamas official Ismail Radwan vowed after the attack.

"Support for Operation Cast Lead is sky high in Israel, with polls showing that almost 85 per cent of the public backing the campaign," said the Times.

"There is also majority support for expanding it into a ground campaign, despite the dangers of high casualties in an urban battlefield against highly trained and motivated guerrillas waging war on their own turf. Almost 42 per cent of Israelis wanted the army to move in, while 39 percent favoured a continued air campaign."

"We've been in regular contact with the Israelis," White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe told reporters when asked if US officials were trying to prevent a possible ground offensive.

US officials have urged the Israelis "to be mindful that any of the actions that they're taking in Gaza avoid unnecessary civilian casualties and also to help continue with the flow of humanitarian goods," he said.

"So I think any steps they are taking, whether it's from the air or on the ground or anything of that nature, are part and parcel of the same operation," Johndroe said.

"Those will be decisions made by the Israelis," he said.