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Hamas defiant as Israel rejects Gaza truce
AFP - 2 hours 36 minutes ago
GAZA CITY (AFP) - - Hamas vowed on Wednesday to fight "until the last breath" if Israel makes good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza after rejecting calls for a truce and pressing on with its air assault.
"We in Hamas are ready for all scenarios and we will fight until the last breath," senior official Mushir al-Masri told AFP as warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth day and the enclave's Islamist rulers hit back with rockets.
"Israel will embark on a veritable adventure if it decides to invade Gaza. We have prepared surprises for them," he vowed.
Despite international appeals for the bloodshed to end, Israel's security cabinet rejected proposals for a ceasefire.
"The cabinet decided to continue with the military operation," a senior government official told AFP earlier on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the meeting conditions were not yet ripe to halt the bombardment, launched in response to persistent rocket fire from the territory that Hamas has run for a year and a half.
"We did not launch the Gaza operation only to end it with the same rocket firing that we had at its start," the official quoted Olmert as saying.
Amid mushrooming protests worldwide, diplomats have been scrambling to find a way to stop one of Israel's deadliest-ever offensives on the Gaza Strip that has so far killed at least 393 Palestinians.
There was no let-up in the violence on Wednesday, with Israel conducting nearly 60 air strikes and Hamas firing more than 60 rockets .
Hamas said it would consider any ceasefire proposal that includes an end to the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza since the Islamists took power.
The exiled head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, speaking by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, voiced "readiness to cease armed confrontation but on condition of the lifting of the blockade of Gaza," the Russian ministry said.
The White House said it was up to Hamas to make the first move.
"I think President (George W) Bush thinks that Hamas needs to stop firing rockets, and that is what will be the first steps in a ceasefire," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas threatened to abandon peace talks with Israel so as not to support its deadly "aggression" against Gaza.
Israel has warned that its "all-out war" on Hamas could last for weeks. It has massed tanks on the Gaza border, authorised the call-up of 9,000 reservists and warned of a ground invasion.
Since it was launched on Saturday, the Israeli offensive has killed at least 393 people, including 42 children, and wounded more than 1,900, according to Gaza medics.
At least 25 percent of those killed have been civilians, the United Nations said.
The intensive bombardment has reduced much of Hamas's administrative infrastructure to rubble but has failed to stop rocket fire into Israel.
Since the start of the onslaught, Gaza militants have fired more than 250 rockets and mortar shells at Israel, killing three civilians and one soldier and wounding several dozen people.
Five of the rockets fired since late on Tuesday slammed into the desert town of Beersheba some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Gaza border -- the deepest yet that its projectiles have reached inside Israel.
Hamas has also threatened to stage suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.
As protests were held in countries from the United States to Iran, Israel's regional ally Turkey condemned the offensive as "ruthless."
"The attacks on Gaza should stop immediately and a permanent ceasefire should be urgently secured to prevent irreversible developments in the region," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters.
The bombardment has raised concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a tiny, aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million people that Israel has virtually sealed off since Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007.
Bush called Olmert, who assured him Israel was taking "appropriate steps" to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, the White House said.
Israel opened one of its border crossings with Gaza again on Wednesday, bringing to 179 the number of lorryloads of supplies delivered since the Gaza bombardment began, the army said.
Meanwhile, several Arab countries cancelled New Year's Eve festivities in solidarity with Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, celebrations are low-key at the best of times and were expected to be particularly subdued.
At the same time, civil defence officials urged residents in southern Israel to stay indoors.
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