MID: US urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza
28 Dec 2008 12:48 AM
WACO, Texas, Dec 27 AFP - The United States urged Israel on Saturday to avoid civilian casualties as it pounded Hamas targets in Gaza, but warned that the Islamist movement must halt its rocket attacks "if the violence is to stop".
"The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Waco, as US President George W Bush closed out 2008 on his Texas ranch.
"Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people," Johndroe said in a brief statement.
Israel blitzed Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday with a wave of air strikes that killed at least 155 people in the besieged enclave in retaliation for ongoing rocket fire, officials said.
An Israeli man died as Hamas swiftly responded to the air raids by firing rockets into the Jewish state.
As Israel warned that the bombardment was "just the beginning", Hamas told Israelis living near their Gaza stronghold to "prepare the funeral shrouds".
In Gaza, thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky and mangled, bloody, charred corpses littered the pavement around Hamas security structures in the coastal strip where the bombardment sowed panic in the streets, television images showed.
The deadly attacks came after days of escalating violence around the besieged coastal strip that the Islamist Hamas movement has run since June 2007, with militants firing rockets and Israel vowing a fiery response.
