WORLD> Middle East
Israeli forces bisect Gaza, surround biggest city
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-04 21:29


A wounded Palestinian boy is carried into a hospital in Gaza January 4, 2009. [Agencies] 

A senior military officer said Hamas was well-prepared for the Israeli incursion into Gaza, a densely populated territory of 1.4 million where militants operate and easily hide in the crowded urban landscape. He said the operation was "not a rapid one that would end in hours or a few days."

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Still, he said, "We have no intention of staying in the Gaza Strip for the long term." He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with army regulations.

Israel says the objective is to restore quiet to Israel's south, not to topple Hamas or reoccupy Gaza.

Hamas threatened to turn Gaza into a "graveyard" for Israeli forces.

"You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV. "Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday denounced the ground offensive as "brutal aggression," his harshest words yet in describing the assault on his Hamas rivals. Abbas said the situation has become unbearable and that "national unity is the most important thing to us."

His offer to start talks on sharing power still stands, Abbas said, though Hamas last week ignored the invitation.

The ground operation is the second phase in an offensive that began as a weeklong aerial onslaught aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire that has reached deeper and deeper into Israel, threatening major cities and one-eighth of Israel's population.

Rocket fire has persisted, however, and several rockets fell in Israel on Sunday morning, causing no casualties. In much of southern Israel school has been canceled and life has been largely paralyzed.

While the air offensive presented little risk for Israel's army, sending in ground troops is a much more dangerous proposition. Hamas is believed to have some 20,000 gunman who know the dense urban landscape intimately. For months, Israeli leaders had resisted a ground invasion, fearing heavy casualties.