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Week Two of Israeli blitz on Gaza with no end in sight

Concern rose over the humanitarian situation in one of the world's most densely populated and impoverished places where the vast majority of the population depends on foreign aid.

With international efforts to reach a ceasefire stalled, anger in the Muslim world has spiralled and protests against one of Israel's deadliest ever assaults on Gaza have mushroomed around the globe.

The United States gave its close ally free rein to press ahead with a threatened ground offensive into Gaza , saying the key to a truce was Israel's demand that Hamas permanently stop firing rockets.

"I think any steps they are taking, whether it's from the air or on the ground or anything of that nature, are part and parcel of the same operation," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

"Those will be decisions made by the Israelis."

Hamas's Syria-based chief Khaled Meshaal told Israel that "if you commit the stupidity of launching a ground offensive then a black destiny awaits you.

"You will soon find out that Gaza is the wrath of God," he said in pre-taped remarks broadcast on Al-Jazeera television late on Friday.

President George W. Bush, meanwhile, urged all able parties to press Hamas to stop firing at Israel to facilitate a lasting ceasefire.

"The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful ceasefire that is fully respected," Bush said in his weekly Saturday radio address, the text of which was released late on Friday.

"I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror, and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace."

Bush blamed Hamas for the latest violence and rejected a unilateral ceasefire that would allow the Islamists to continue targeting Israel with rocket and mortar fire.

On the ground, Israeli tanks and troops stood ready along the 60-kilometre (37-mile) border with Gaza, waiting for the green light from the government to advance.

Since unleashing "Operation Cast Lead" in retaliation for consistent rocket fire from Gaza on December 27, at least 436 Palestinians have been killed and 2,290 wounded in some 750 strikes carried out by air and sea, Israeli officials said.

At least 75 of those killed have been children, according to emergency services inside Gaza.

The strikes have demolished Hamas government buildings, the homes of senior Islamist officials, mosques alleged to have stored weapons, roads and tunnels used to smuggle arms and supplies into the territory that Israel has virtually kept sealed since Hamas seized power there in June 2007.

But the offensive has failed to halt rocket fire from the territory, with militants firing some 500 rocke ts and mortar rounds at Israel over the past week, killing four people and wounding several dozen others.

In the latest 25 raids carried out overnight and early on Saturday, missiles demolished a school in northern Gaza, killing a guard in a strike the army said targeted "a college used as a base for firing a large number of rockets."

Missiles also slammed into Gaza City port and a strike killed Mohammad al-Jammal, 40, who sources in Gaza said was a local commander of Hamas's armed wing.

The Israeli military said Jammal was responsible "for the entire rocket launching enterprise in all of Gaza City."

Militants responded overnight with seven rockets and mortar rounds without causing any casualties, the army said.

The Israeli bombardment has demolished dozens of houses as it destroyed Hamas infrastructure amid heightened concern over the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza, where most of the 1.5 million residents depend on foreign aid.

"By any definition this is a humanitarian crisis and more," said Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Israel on Monday for ceasefire talks, a day after the arrival of foreign ministers from current European Union president the Czech Republic, Sweden and France.

-Yahoo.

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Three people are now believed to have died when a light aircraft crashed into overhead power lines on the West Coast Main Line in Staffordshire.

The plane came down near the village of Little Haywood, causing disruption for thousands of rail passengers.

The aircraft was registered to the pilot of the plane, Alan Matthews, 59, from Walsall, who died in the crash.

The line is expected to be closed until Monday, affecting travel between London Euston, the North West and Scotland.

The remains of the aircraft will be removed from the scene on Saturday as investigations into the cause of the crash continue, British Transport Police said.

Inspectors from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch have been examining the scene.

Trains delayed

Mr Matthews' wife Jenny confirmed the 59-year-old was piloting the light aircraft that crashed shortly before 1200 GMT on Friday.

Mr Matthews is registered as company director of Sittles Farm Flying Club, near Lichfield in Staffordshire.
His wife said he had 19 years flying experience and it was thought he had arranged to go flying with a work colleague and possibly another person.

Police said that two people died in the crash but they believed a third person had also been on board. British Transport Police said a pathologist was expected to confirm this on Saturday.

Local resident Derek Higgott, who lives close to the crash scene, said: "I heard the plane, I looked up, and suddenly it just turned and went straight down like a stunt plane.

"There was a huge thud and black smoke. You could feel the vibration from it and a huge flock of birds all took off."
Police said it was expected post-mortem examinations would be carried out on Sunday.

All rail services on the West Coast Mainline between Rugby and Stafford remained suspended.

A Network Rail spokesman said engineers had been unable to get onto the site because of the investigation, but were hoping to start work on Saturday afternoon.

"It's probably about a day's work and we hope to finish by Sunday evening. It should be clear for Monday morning commuters," he said.

There will be a reduced service and delays of up to 60 minutes on Virgin Trains services between London and north-west England which are being diverted via Coventry and will not call at stations between Nuneaton and Stafford.

On local services run by London Midland there is a replacement bus service calling at stations between Stafford and Rugby, with up to an extra hour added to journey times.

BBC

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The funerals of two of the three teenage boys killed in a car crash near Nenagh, Co Tipperary on New Year's Eve have taken place.

The funeral of the third teenager killed in the crash, 16-year-old Paraic Bourke, will take place later this afternoon.

The three teenagers were killed when the car in which they were travelling left the road and hit a tree at Kilboy on the Nenagh to Dolla road.
14-year-old Stuart Donnellan's funeral took place at St Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh this morning.

300 mourners attending the mass heard that Stuart was a good friend who was greatly loved by all who knew him.

The mourners heard how Stuart was easygoing and fun to be with and a great fan of Liverpool Football Club.

Fr Anthony McMahon said the events of the last few days had shocked everyone in Nenagh and neighbouring parishes. He said it was every parent's worst nightmare when the knock came at the door.

The private funeral of 17-year-old Adrian O'Brien took place at Youghlara Church in Newtown.

A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl injured in the accident are said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

RTE

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[OMEN]

Gardaí in Dublin are appealing for information in connection with the death of a 27-year-old man who drowned in the River Liffey on Monday.

The man went into the water near Aston Quay at around 2am.

Gardaí are keen to speak to several people who were standing at the taxi rank on Aston Quay at the time.
Anyone with information is asked to contact gardaí.

RTE

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Cardinal Sean Brady has made his first public comments on the handling of child sex abuse allegations by the Diocese of Cloyne.

In a statement yesterday, Cardinal Brady acknowledged 'the extent to which people feel let down, angry and bewildered by recent events.' (Read the full statement)

He was responding to a report published last month by the Catholic Church's child protection body, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, which found that practices in the Cloyne diocese were 'inadequate and in some respects dangerous'.
The report found that church authorities in the Diocese of Cloyne broke their own rules on reporting allegations.

A schoolgirl's allegation, as well as four similar allegations, was not reported by the diocese to the gardaí.

In his statement Cardinal Brady says the findings have 'brought further anxiety to victims of abuse'.

Cardinal Brady says the Board would seek a written commitment from church leaders that they would implement fully, existing statutory guidelines on the issue.

He also says that he had suggested that it might also consider reviewing current practice in every Diocese.

Cardinal Brady said the Board should prioritise the publication of its first annual report.

'This will provide the first public overview and assessment of the standard of implementation of statutory guidelines on reporting and on a one-Church policy throughout the Church in Ireland,' he said.

Victims' support organisation One in Four, which gives support to victims of sexual abuse, said it welcomed the statement by Cardinal Brady, but said his response was 'too little too late'.

The group continued its call for the resignation of the Bishop of Cloyne.

RTE

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President Bush has blamed the violence in Gaza and southern Israel firmly on Hamas, after a week of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket attacks.

Mr Bush, who has just weeks left in office, said Hamas was a terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel.

Earlier the Hamas leader-in-exile, Khaled Meshaal, warned Israel of a "black destiny" if it began a threatened ground offensive on Gaza.

Hamas said one of its military leaders died in an overnight strike.
Abu Zakaria al-Jamal died of his wounds after a raid.

Israel has now carried out more than 700 strikes on Gaza since launching the offensive a week ago, AFP news agency said.

The UN warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The UN said it believed 25% of more than 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli action so far were civilians.

'Monitoring mechanisms'

In his weekly radio address President George W Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected any unilateral ceasefire that he said would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel.

He added that no peace deal would be acceptable without tougher action to prevent Hamas and other groups from receiving weapons
"There must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure the smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end," he said.

"I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace," Mr Bush added.

Resistance 'intact'

Israeli air strikes on Gaza continued early on Saturday, with 35 reported. One person was killed as large parts of the American school in north-west Gaza were destroyed.

Israel has threatened to launch a ground offensive. It has called up army reservists, and tanks and troops are massed on the Gaza frontier.

BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen says a week of bombardment has not been able to stop militant rocket attacks, and Israel now has to decide whether to send in ground troops.

But in a pre-recorded statement broadcast on al-Jazeera TV, Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal said Israel would be making a "foolish mistake" if it sent tanks into Gaza.

Speaking publicly for the first time since Israeli air strikes started a week ago, he said Hamas resistance and infrastructure were intact.

"We will not break, we will not surrender or give in to your conditions," Mr Meshaal said in a speech aimed at the Israelis, the Palestinians and the wider Muslim world.
Al-Jazeera reaches millions of people across the Arabic-speaking world in the Middle East and beyond.

To them, Mr Meshaal said this was not a battle against Hamas alone, but against the entire umma, or nation.

Analysts say this was an apparent reference to a populist Islamist idea that the Palestinians are defending the Muslim world against a modern form of Crusades.

The UN said the Israeli military escalated its offensive against the Hamas leadership in Gaza on Friday, targeting the homes of more than 20 Hamas officials in its latest air strikes.

In response, Palestinian militants fired on Israel, their missiles injuring four people in the southern city of Ashkelon. More than 20 more missiles were fired on Saturday morning.

Four Israelis have been killed so far by militant rocket fire.

Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a Supreme Court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.

The UN says the week-long assault has worsened the crisis in Gaza, despite an increase in humanitarian shipments.

Israel tightened its control of what gets in and out of the crowded coastal Strip after Hamas, the elected power, seized control of the area from rival Fatah forces 18 months ago.

Since then, the UN says there has been a significant deterioration in infrastructure and basic services, with 80% of the 1.4m population unable to support themselves.

BBC

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A couple with two children who married last summer were among the three victims of a plane crash which closed one of the country's busiest rail routes, it emerged.

British Transport Police (BTP) said Nick O'Brien, 35, and his 29-year-old wife Emma, from Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, were passengers on board the light aircraft when it crashed at Little Haywood, near Stafford, at about noon on Friday.

A BTP spokeswoman said the couple had two sons, Callum, aged 10, and 18-month-old Joel.

It is understood that the pilot of the plane, Alan Matthews, knew Mr O'Brien through his work with a Birmingham-based demolition firm.

Mr Matthews, a member of a flying club based near Lichfield, Staffordshire, was said by friends to be a well-liked and proficient pilot who had almost two decades of flying experience, often making trips to France and Spain.

His wife Jenny Matthews, from Walsall Wood, West Midlands, issued a short statement through BTP paying tribute to her husband as a "loving, caring" man who would help anybody and loved flying.

The BTP spokeswoman said: "Nick and Emma O'Brien married in August 2008 and leave behind two children. The families of all the victims ask the media to leave them to grieve in private at this time."

Meanwhile, work was continuing at the crash site on Saturday to gather evidence and recover the wreckage of the aircraft.

"The line is not expected to be fully restored this weekend and passengers are asked to check with their train operator before travelling," the BTP spokeswoman said.

The aircraft is believed to have been a Piper Cherokee based at the Sittles Flying Club, which operates from an airfield near the village of Fradley.

-Nova

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Israeli troops backed by helicopters have advanced into Gaza, a Palestinian witness and the Israeli army said, in the first ground action of an eight-day offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

The small column of military vehicles crossed the boundary fence into the northern Gaza Strip under darkness, said the witness, a resident of Beit Lahiya.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the incursion and said the aim was to seize areas from where Hamas was launching rocket attacks on southern Israel.
'The objective is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations,' Major Avital Leibovitch said.

Israel has also ordered the call-up of tens of thousands of military reservists as part of a ground offensive launched in Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said in a statement.

It said that, in accordance with a secret cabinet discussion yesterday, the government ordered the armed forces 'to draft the necessary reservists, on a scale of tens of thousands of troops'.

Earlier, in the bloodiest incident of the day, an air strike on a mosque killed 11 Palestinian civilians, including children, and wounded dozens as they prayed, Hamas officials said.

An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.

Israel has targeted mosques previously saying that Hamas had used them as command posts and fire bases.

Hamas kept up its rocket attacks on southern Israel in defiance of international calls for it to halt such actions.

As the Israeli offensive entered its second week, prospects of a ceasefire any time soon looked dim.

'I hope the results of this operation will bring about quiet in the long term. The moment they fire, we will respond with great force,' Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Israeli TV.

The Palestinian death toll has risen to at least 446, with about 2,050 wounded, in the worst sustained bloodshed in decades of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Four Israelis have been killed in cross-border rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

Israeli air strikes targeted Gaza from early morning and naval vessels also shelled the area from the Mediterranean, witnesses said.

One strike killed Abu Zakaria al-Jamal, a senior commander of Hamas's armed wing, Hamas said. He was the second Hamas leader killed in three days.

Israeli war planes also hit a private Palestinian college called the American School, killing a guard.

Israel launched the campaign, called Operation Cast Lead, on 27 December saying it wanted to stop Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Israeli flag burned after protest

Protestors against the air attacks on Gaza have burnt an Israeli flag outside the Dáil.

Around 1,000 people attended the demonstration organised by the Ireland Palestine solidarity campaign.

The organisers say protests will take place as long as the Israeli bombardment continues and they called on the Government to boycott Israeli goods and businesses.

Afterwards around 80 protestors knelt on Kildare Street to pray.

Bush says Hamas is responsible

Amid growing concern for the humanitarian condition in the densely-populated territory, the US gave its close ally free rein to push on with a ground offensive, insisting that the key to a ceasefire is Israel's demand for Hamas to permanently halt rocket fire.

US President George W Bush urged all able parties to press Hamas to stop firing on Israel to facilitate a lasting ceasefire.

'The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful ceasefire that is fully respected,' Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address to be broadcast today, the text of which was released late yesterday.

'I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror, and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace.'

Mr Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected a unilateral ceasefire that would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel.

'This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas - a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction,' Mr Bush said.

Hamas's Syrian-based chief Khaled Meshaal, meanwhile, told Israel that 'if you commit the stupidity of launching a ground offensive then a black destiny awaits you.

'You will soon find out that Gaza is the wrath of God,' Mr Meshaal said in pre-taped remarks as the death toll rose from bombing and concerns grew about the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory.

RTE