Gaza toll rises as "Israeli occupation army continues withdrawing

Source: alalam.ir, 04-03-2008
CAIRO- The "Israeli" occupying troops have withdrawn from northern Gaza after a wide scale incursion that left at least 125 Palestinians martyred, but the Zionist regime's authorities are warning that a broad offensive would continue.
"Israeli" occupying army withdrew its infantry and tanks from the Gaza town of Jebaliya early Monday after more than five days of fighting, leaving a swath of destruction.
Roads had been plowed up, cars crushed by tanks and electric poles toppled.
Late Monday, an "Israeli" missile struck the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, martyring one man, Palestinian officials said. A second strike in the same area caused no casualties, they said.
The "Israeli" military confirmed both strikes, claiming that the first hit a rocket launch squad and the second struck a donkey cart loaded with rockets.
Fighting in Gaza has martyred 125 Palestinians since Wednesday, one of the bloodiest spates of violence in more than seven years of clashes.
Palestinian medical officials and the "Israeli" human rights group B'Tselem said at least half the dead were civilians.
Despite the toll, Hamas claimed victory, and 20,000 supporters joined a celebration in Gaza City.
A symbolic contingent of 10 Hamas fighters marched with assault rifles and grenade launchers as the crowd waved green Hamas flags.
Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar threatened to strike even deeper into the occupied territories if the offensive resumed. "The battle and confrontation will continue and will expand even further than it has reached," he told the crowd.
Gaza fighters continued to fire rockets into southern occupied territories. Rescue workers said three rockets struck Ashkelon, with one hitting an apartment building. No casualties were reported.
"Israeli" occupying regime vowed on Monday to keep hitting Gaza even as troops pulled out of the territory.
"We are not prepared to show any tolerance, period. And we will respond. Our reaction is not limited to a specific operation or day," Olmert told a meeting of his Kadima party in Al-Quds.
In northern Gaza, residents ventured from their homes to pick through the rubble after the deadliest "Israeli" military blitz on the territory in years.
"My whole life I have never seen massacres like this," cried Aisha Abid Rabah, 82, raising her hands to the sky as she sat on a demolished door in the northern town of Jabaliya that bore the brunt of the "Israeli" strikes.
The bloody assault earned "Israeli" regime international condemnation and caused Palestinian Authority chief Mahmud Abbas to cut contacts with the "Israelis".
In Iran, thousands of students took to the streets in Tehran on Monday to protest against "Israeli" regime's offensive in Gaza.
The demonstration followed a call by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for Muslims to take action.
Chanting slogans, the students gathered near Tehran University in the afternoon and close to the United Nations building in the evening.
"'Israel's' regime must be afraid of the day when all Muslim youths will rise against 'Israel'," said one student.
"The regime of 'Israel' lost its reputation after Lebanon's Hizbullah defeated them and now this regime cannot restore its lost reputation by attacking very young, six-month-old children and unarmed men and women in Gaza."
A student at the UN building accused "Israel" of "committing homicide against Muslim children and women and above all, human beings."
"We are here to ask what the use of Security Council and the UN is," he said.