Saturday, March 01, 2008

Palestinians warned of bigger holocaust

Palestinians warned of bigger holocaust

Kuwait Times, March 1, 2008

JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli defence official said yesterday that Palestinians firing rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would bring upon themselves what he termed a “shoah”, the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Palestinians faced “new Nazis”.

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 33 Gazans, including five children, in the past two days. The army, which carried out additional air strikes yesterday, said most of those killed were militants. Israeli leaders said cross-border rocket fire may leave them no choice but to launch a broader military offensive against Hamas, which seized Gaza in June after routing forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

One Israeli was killed in a rocket attack on Wednesday in the southern border town of Sderot. Hamas raised the stakes by using Soviet-designed Grad missiles, more powerful and accurate than improvised Gazan Qassams, to strike deep into the larger city of Ashkelon, home to 120,000 people. Visiting Ashkelon, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Channel 10 television an Israeli response was “required” and that “Hamas bears responsibility for this deterioration and it will also bear the results”.

Continued . . .

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