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'Gaza has not been broken and Gaza will not fall'
Israeli tanks punched their way toward the heart of Gaza City on Monday in some of the heaviest clashes of the war as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to hit Hamas with an "iron fist" unless it stopped firing rockets. A defiant Hamas meanwhile said it was closer than ever to victory after 17 days of conflict which have so far left more than 900 Palestinians dead but not halted the Islamists' targeting of southern Israel with makeshift missiles.Deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya, the head of the movement's government in the Gaza Strip, insisted Monday that Hamas is nearing victory. "We are approaching victory," he said in a televised address. "The blood which has flowed will not have flowed in vain as it will bring us victory, thanks be to God," Haniyya added on the 17th day of Israel's offensive. "I tell you that after 17 days of this foolish war, Gaza has not been broken and Gaza will not fall." Haniyya also said that the "blood of children" who have been killed in the conflict would serve as a "curse which will come back to haunt [US President George W.] Bush." Israeli infantry units, bolstered by thousands of newly deployed reservists, battled Hamas gunmen across the enclave as Olmert insisted Israel was achieving the objectives of "Operation Cast Lead." "We want to end the operation when the two conditions we have demanded are met: ending the rocket fire and stopping Hamas' rearmament. If these two conditions are met, we will end our operation in Gaza," he said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon. "Anything else will meet the iron fist of the Israeli people, who are no longer ready to tolerate the Qassams [rockets]." Posted by: Fred 2009-01-13 |
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