The shells could not have fallen at a worse time. Today’s afternoon prayers in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya were unusually busy because worshippers had abandoned their evening prayers in the belief that if the Israelis planned to strike, they would do so at night.
But as the townspeople left the mosque at dusk, the explosions began, killing at least 12 people, six of whom were children. They came only hours before the Israeli ground offensive was launched into Gaza.
Fdil Sobih, 40, an ambulance driver who was one of the first people to arrive at the scene, told the Observer that the sight outside the Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque was horrific, and was made worse by the desperation of locals trying to dig out those buried under the rubble with their hands. "I saw people cut to pieces," he said. "No one expected this here. The mosque is a few hundred metres from the hospital and it is heavily populated and is surrounded by houses.
"The shell had hit the entrance of the mosque, not the mosque itself, hitting people who were stood outside the mosque after their evening prayer, standing talking to one another, shaking hands. They did not deserve it," he said.
The number of people around the mosque was higher than usual, he said.
"People are now combining their evening and night prayers because of fear of Israeli strikes. It was as they were leaving the mosque after prayer that they were hit," he said.
Sobih, who has been an ambulance worker for more than a decade, said that he saw no evidence of any Hamas fighters among the injured.
"They were civilians, and some were children. Some neighbours of the mosque were helping the casualties, with blankets and bringing them to the hospital, some neighbouring houses were also damaged by the rockets. No one expected that Israel would fire here – it is very crowded and so close to the hospital."
Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is about 400 metres from the mosque, recorded that 12 people had been killed and 30 injured, 12 of them seriously. Six of the dead victims are believed to be under 18 years old.
The mosque is located in a densely built area of apartment blocks and low-level housing. Reports claimed that there were more than 200 people inside the mosque when the Israeli shells struck.
It was not clear whether any of the dead were Hamas fighters. The Israelis have claimed it was suspected that the mosque has been housing militants – it is named after a founder of Hamas who was killed by the Israelis in 2004. However, locals have claimed that radicals no longer control the mosque.
The attack will provoke further questions about the Israeli Defence Force’s tactics as they search out Hamas’s military hardware and hardline activists.
The Israeli military has destroyed several mosques during its week-long offensive in Gaza, claiming that Hamas uses them to store weapons. Artillery fire is less accurate than attacks from the air using precision-guided munitions, raising the possibility of a higher number of civilian casualties.
Ayman Mohyeldin, al-Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, said that attacks on mosques could galvanise the Arab world into taking action against Israel. "This is proof that civilians are caught up in these attacks."
Mohyeldin said doctors in Gaza were being overwhelmed by the number of casualties as a result of the Israeli offensive and that hospitals were near a state of collapse due to a lack of medicines and blood stocks.
An artillery shell hit another building in Beit Lahiya, killing two people and wounding five, said members of the family living there. Ambulances could not immediately reach them because of the resulting fire, they said.
Before yesterday’s offensive, Israel’s bombing campaign had killed more than 430 Palestinians and left hundreds injured. The United Nations has said that at least a quarter of the dead were civilians. Much of Gaza’s public infrastructure has been destroyed and the territory is in a state of emergency after eight days of bombing, averaging one blast every 20 minutes.
Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Brigadier General Dan Harel, said that after Israel’s operation was finished "no Hamas building will be left standing in Gaza". He added: "We are hitting government buildings, production factories, security wings and more."
Among the targets so far have been the Gaza Interior Ministry, police stations, television stations, prisons and a five-storey building in the women’s wing of the Islamic University. Humanitarian organisations have criticised the Israelis for bombing a number of schools and a hospital.
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Israeli ground forces cross border into Gaza
Chris McGreal – The Guardian
Jan 3 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/03/middleeast-israelandthepalestinians
Israeli tanks and troops have launched a ground invasion to reoccupy parts of the northern Gaza strip as the military escalated its assault on the Palestinian enclave in an attempt to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.
With Israel’s chief military spokesman warning that the attack would take "many long days", the Israeli Cabinet also authorised the call of thousands more reservists. As Israeli tanks and infantry crossed into northern Gaza reports began to emerge of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops. The invasion comes after Hamas warned Israeli forces entering Gaza faced a "black destiny" and vowed that they would be defeated.
Palestinian witnesses said a small column of military vehicles moved across the border firing tracer bullets after dark. The Israeli army said the assault is intended to take control of territory in the north of the Gaza strip from where Hamas fires its rockets.
"The objective is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations," said a spokeswoman, Major Avital Leibovitch. "We are going to take some of the launch areas used by Hamas."
However, Israel said this is not the start of a reoccupation of Gaza.
Hours earlier, an intense Israeli artillery assault along the border, apparently intended to drive away enemy forces and clear mines or roadside bombs, cleared the way for the incursion.
The ground offensive followed a day of heavy air, sea and artillery bombardment of Gaza that left at least 11 people, including children, dead and dozens wounded when an Israeli missile strike hit a mosque in Beit Lahiya as worshippers were praying inside.
The death toll, as the Israeli assault on Gaza entered its second week, rose to about 450 Palestinians, about one third of them civilians or policemen, with four Israelis killed by Hamas rocket fire.
As diplomatic pressure for a truce gained momentum, the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, rejected a ceasefire in Gaza until Israel agrees to end its three-year blockade of the territory which has caused economic collapse and widespread hardship.
The latest of more than 700 Israeli aircraft strikes over the past week also killed another senior Hamas official, Abu Zakaria al-Jamal, a leader of its armed wing.
Israeli forces attacked the American school in Gaza, killing a guard. The Israeli military said the school, which has no links to the US government, was being used to store Hamas weapons and to shelter its fighters.
But the continued Israeli assault did not stop Hamas from firing rockets. Fifteen hit Israel yesterday, one of which lightly wounded two people when it hit an eight-storey building in Ashdod. Another rocket struck an empty house in Ashkelon, setting it on fire.
As diplomatic efforts continued to reestablish the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that collapsed last month, Meshaal said in a televised address that the organisation had been contacted by European and Arab countries about a truce.
Egypt says it has begun exploratory talks with Hamas.
President George Bush said in his weekly radio address that Hamas must take the initiative to end the fighting by halting its rocket fire into Israel.
"Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable," he said. "There must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure the smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end… I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace."
But Meshaal said Hamas would not agree to a truce until Israel stops its attacks and lifts the blockade of Gaza.
"Our demand is clear – that aggression should end immediately. The siege must be ended and the crossings must all be opened," he said. "We will not break, we will not surrender or give in to your conditions."
Meshaal also warned that the organisation would fight an Israeli ground assault if it comes.
"We are ready for the challenge: this battle was imposed on us and we are confident we will achieve victory because we have made our preparations," he said.
Meshaal said Hamas will attempt to capture Israeli combatants and hold them prisoner alongside Gilad Shalit, the soldier who was snatched from his armoured vehicle and taken in to Gaza in June 2006. "If you commit a foolish act by raiding Gaza, who knows – we may have a second or a third or a fourth Shalit," Meshaal said.
A ground offensive carries great risks for the Israeli military and the country’s political leaders, particularly the defence minister and Labour party leader, Ehud Barak. His support in the polls in the run-up to next month’s general election has risen sharply over his handling of the assault on Gaza. But if Israeli military casualties were to rise sharply, or soldiers were to be captured, as Meshaal threatens, public support for the war is likely to ebb away.
Still, Barak and the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, may feel they have little choice but to escalate if the air bombardment continues to fail to stop Hamas rocket fire. The pressure for more action is likely to intensify further if there are more Israeli civilian deaths.
Meanwhile, the head of the Arab league, Amr Moussa, said he was astonished at claims by the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, that there is no humanitarian crisis in the densely populated Gaza strip.
"I am greatly surprised by, and I reject, the words of the Israeli foreign minister, who asks: ‘Is there a humanitarian crisis? There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,’" he said. "This is an astonishing thing, that after more than 450 victims and more than 2,000 injured… then it is said there is no humanitarian crisis.
"There may be those that sympathise with such a remark. This is something we must condemn, and we must say there is a major humanitarian crisis."
The UN said there is growing shortages of basic foodstuffs and fresh water because of damage to the infrastructure. The main power plant has shut down. Fuel for cooking is no longer available.