Gazans take to streets for protests against deadly onslaught by Zionist state

Source: AFP, 01-03-2008
GAZA CITY: Tens of thousands of Gazans on Friday protested against "Israeli" raids that have killed more than 30 Palestinians, as Israel mulled a major ground operation to stop rocket fire from the Hamas-run territory. The demonstrators poured into the streets throughout the impoverished and isolated territory in response to Hamas calls to denounce "Israel's" air strikes, whose victims include several children.
"They've killed my right to childhood," read a sign held by a child, who was clad in a red-stained white funeral shroud and attended a large rally in the northern town of Jabaliya.
Among the protesters in Gaza City was Khalil al-Hayyah, a Hamas leader who lost a 25-year-old son in an Israeli air strike on Thursday.
"We will never recognize Israel, even if it assassinates all our leaders and kills our children," he shouted to the crowd.
A senior Hamas official earlier told worshippers at a Gaza City mosque that the coastal strip which the Islamists have ruled for more than eight months was faced with war.
"Gaza today faces a real war, a crazy war led by the enemy against our people," said Ismail Haniyya, the premier in a Hamas-led government which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deposed after the group seized control of Gaza.
Haniyya lashed out at the US administration, which he claimed backs the "Israeli" attacks by portraying them as "legitimate self-defense." He also accused the Arab world of "encouraging the Israeli aggression" through its silence.
However, the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Gulf Cooperation Council later Friday condemned the Israeli raids and urged the UN to rein in "Israel".