Israel hammers Hamas in Gaza

TEL AVIV | Israel launched a massive air assault on Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a spate of rocket attacks, killing at least 230 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more in the deadliest day of fighting in decades.

The surprise onslaught - dubbed “Cast Lead” by the army - produced scenes of carnage in Gaza, hitting security sites ranging from a police graduation ceremony to a Hamas intelligence headquarters to a training base in an abandoned Jewish settlement. Israeli officials said Saturday the barrage was just the beginning.

Most of the casualties were security forces, but Palestinian officials said at least 15 civilians were among the dead. More than 400 people were wounded.

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In Gaza City’s main security compound, bodies of more than a dozen uniformed Hamas police lay on the ground. Civilians rushed wounded people in cars and vans to hospitals because there weren’t enough ambulances to transport all the dead and wounded, the Associated Press reported.

The unprecedented assault sparked protests and condemnations throughout the Arab world, and many of Israel’s Western allies urged restraint, though the U.S. blamed Hamas for the fighting.

The U.N. Security Council went into emergency consultations late Saturday to discuss a Libyan call for an immediate halt to the Israeli air strikes.

“Our main objective is an immediate cease-fire,” said Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the U.N., whose country is the lone Arab member of the council. “We intend to get a [nonbinding] presidential statement [from the 15-member council],” Mr. Dabbashi told Agence France-Presse. “There has to be a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible.”

Ryad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, echoed that view, describing the Israeli strikes as “a threat to international peace and security … that needs to be stopped immediately.”

But in a letter to the current president of the Security Council, Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica, Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev argued that her country was acting in self-defense.

“No country would allow continuous rocketing of its civilian population without taking the necessary actions to stop it. Israel expects the understanding and support of the international community to its actions,” she added.

The United States, Israel’s main ally and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, agreed.

“If Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, then Israel would not have a need for strikes in Gaza,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters. “What we’ve got to see is Hamas stop firing rockets into Israel.”

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