Middle East

Bombing enters day seven after Hamas leader killed

Article published on the 2009-01-02 Latest update 2009-01-02 15:12 TU

Bombs fall as an explosion is seen after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday
(Photo: Reuters)

Israel continued air attacks on Gaza for a seventh day on Friday, as the death toll reached at least 420 Palestinians with over 2,000 injured. Thursday had seen over 50 attacks by the Israeli Defence Forces with Hamas responding by firing rockets into Israel.

On Thursday, leading Hamas member Nizar Rayan was among the Palestinian casualties. He was killed, along with four wives, ten children and two neighbours, by a missile fired on the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Rayan is the most senior Hamas figure killed by the IDF since Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004.

Israel says Hamas have fired 360 rockets since the beginning of the offensive last weekend. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was "not interested in conducting a long war".

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visited Paris on Thursday. She met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy after the Israeli government on Wednesday rejected a 48-hour truce proposition and ahead of the visit of Sarkozy to the Middle East next week.

Livni said Sarkozy "understood the situation and the complexity of the region well". She defended the offensive by the Israeli army saying, "We don't have the choice. We must defend our citizens."

She also said there was no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip, rejecting calls for a humanitarian truce and claiming that 100 trucks of aid were crossing into Gaza.

On Friday Israel said people in the Gaza Strip with dual nationality would be allowed to leave. These include citizens of Russia, the US, Norway and some eastern European states.