ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 29 - Israel Set For Ground Invasion

APS Diplomat Recorder, Dec 31, 2009

Israeli warplanes continue pounding the Gaza Strip as the casualty toll in the two-day offensive reached 296 killed and over 900 injured. At least 180 of the injured were in critical condition, Palestinian medical sources said. The UN Security Council urged an immediate end to all military activities in the Gaza Strip, but Israel brushed it aside and lined up tanks on the border of the coastal strip in apparent preparation for a ground invasion.

Tel Aviv also called up reservists. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Jordan's King Abdallah discussed Israeli hostilities in Gaza and other matters of mutual concern over telephone. The Saudi Shoura Council condemned Israel's savage bombing in Gaza and called for immediate international intervention for the cessation of hostilities. In one airstrike, three missiles fired from an American-supplied F-16 fighter jet hit the main security compound known as Al-Sarayya in the center of Gaza City, completely destroying it. The compound included the Gaza Strip's main prison. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners were seen escaping unharmed while others were trapped under the rubble. Shortly before targeting Al-Sarayya, the warplanes bombed a medical storage facility in Rafah city and a truck carrying fuel. On Dec 27 night, Israeli warplanes carried out 23 airstrikes including one on a mosque located near Al-Shifa Hospital. The warplanes also targeted the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa Television station. Israel's Cabinet authorized a call-up of at least 6,500 reserve soldiers, suggesting plans to expand the offensive. Infantry and armored units were already headed to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion. Defiant Palestinians kept up the pressure on Israel, firing dozens of rockets and mortars at border communities. Two rockets struck close to the largest city in southern Israel, Ashdod, some 38 km from Gaza, reaching deeper into Israel than ever before. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a fierce rival of Hamas, urged the group to renew a truce with Israel that collapsed last week. After meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, he told reporters: We have warned of this grave danger and said that we should remove all pretexts used by Israel. We all hope to end the aggression and return to the calm. We want to protect Gaza". Egyptian FM Ahmad Aboul Gheit said a renewal of the truce should be a priority. "There has been a calm and we should work to restore it", said Aboul Gheit. Deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk dismissed such talk and blasted Egypt for what he said was its attempt to weigh the actions of both sides equally. "Those who are calling for calm should tell the Zionist enemy to end the aggression", Abu Marzouk told Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV from the Syrian capital of Damascus. Egyptian police fired in the air near the Gaza border town of Rafah to prevent Palestinians entering Egypt after Israel launched airstrikes to destroy tunnels along the tense frontier. "Dozens of civilians tried to break through the Barahma crossing after Israel launched airstrikes along the Gaza-Egypt border. They were repelled by Egyptian police firing in the air", the official said. Some Palestinians managed to climb over the border wall into Egypt. Tensions on the border crossing, Gaza's only one to bypass Israel, had risen during the day, with Egypt blaming Hamas for not letting wounded Palestinians through and Hamas asking for medical aid to be handed over. Hamas said it was drawing up lists of the wounded but it was proving difficult to transport them to the border because of the seriousness of their injuries and ongoing Israeli strikes. Several truckloads of aid are also waiting to be allowed into the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said.