statism watch

Rory McCarthy, Mark Tran, The Guardian
January 8, 2009

Hezbollah minister denies militant group launched four Katyusha missiles as Israeli forces return fire

A minister in the Lebanese cabinet has denied Hezbollah was responsible for the firing of rockets into Israel earlier today, which led to the Israeli army returning fire and raised fears that the conflict in Gaza could spread.

The Hezbollah Labour minister, Mohammed Fneish, told the Associated Press the militant group was not aware of the rockets being fired.

At least three Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, landing near the town of Nahariya and injuring two people.

The Israeli military fired back at the point from which the rockets were launched.

Two years ago, Israel fought a heavy, month-long war in Lebanon that claimed hundreds of lives.

The Lebanese president, Fuad Saniora, condemned the rocket fire, saying it did not serve Lebanese, Palestinian or Arab interests and that Lebanese authorities were cooperating with UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon in investigating the incident.

Radical Palestinian factions have a presence in Lebanon, and the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine general command previously warned it could open other fronts against Israel if the attack on Gaza continued.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.

Lebanese security forces said they believed the rockets were probably fired by a Palestinian group inspired by Hezbollah.

According to an aide, the Lebanese information minister, Tareq Mitri, said he did not believe Hezbollah was behind the incident.

“Hezbollah assured the Lebanese government that it remains engaged in preserving the stability in Lebanon,” the official quoted the minister as saying.

The exchanges came as Israeli air strikes destroyed several houses in the town of Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border, today after what Palestinians said was one of the heaviest nights of bombing since the conflict began 13 days ago.

Intense artillery strikes and waves of aerial bombardment were reported across the Gaza Strip.

Israeli tanks were seen moving in southern Gaza and leaflets were dropped near the border with Egypt, warning residents to leave the area “because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons”.

Around 5,000 Palestinians fled their homes and took refuge in two UN schools that had been set up as shelters.

UNWRA, the UN relief agency that works with Palestinian refugees, said it had suspended operations in Gaza because of the growing risk.

“UNWRA decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel,” Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the organisation, said. He did not say how long the suspension would last.

About 40 people died when Israeli shells hit a UN school in Jabaliya, Gaza, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have arrived in Cairo for talks on a ceasefire proposal as UN diplomats met for a second day in an attempt to bridge differences on an international response.

As the negotiations continued, the death toll among Palestinians rose to at least 688, with around 3,000 injured.

Palestinian health officials were reported as saying that around one-third of the dead were civilians, with 219 children and 89 women killed. Ten Israelis, three of them civilians, have died.

Heavy fighting was reported near Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, and in Jabaliya, to the north, earlier today. At least one person was killed and 10 injured.

Despite days of intensive Israeli attacks, Palestinian militants were still able to fire rockets, hitting the city of Be’er Sheva overnight and Ashkelon and Ashdod this morning.

The Israeli military said it had captured 120 suspected Hamas fighters and had bombed the houses of two Hamas militants, in Rafah and Khan Yunis, overnight.

A total of around 60 sites were hit in the strikes, including what the military said was a mosque used to store weapons, 15 smuggling tunnels in the south, several rocket-launching areas and other buildings storing weapons. It said several gunmen were also hit.

The UN security council has yet to reach an agreement on a ceasefire resolution, although the US has supported an initial deal outlined by France and Egypt.

Although the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said both Israel and the Palestinian Authority – which is based in the occupied West Bank and is run by Hamas’s rival, Fatah – had accepted the deal, Israel said there was agreement on broad principles but there had yet to be an agreed plan for practical action.

Israel wants Hamas to stop all rockets being fired into southern Israel and has called for an international arms embargo on the Islamist movement.

Hamas, which did not seem to be part of the French deal, wants an end to Israel’s months-long economic blockade of Gaza.

The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, who was at the UN in New York, said: “I have seen the first glimmerings of the possibility of a ceasefire … it’s far too early to say we can get a breakthrough.”

Yesterday the Israeli cabinet agreed to continue with the fighting at the same time as it considered the ceasefire proposals.

Military planners have prepared for even more intense operations in Gaza in which Israeli soldiers would push deep into the crowded urban areas of the Strip to attack Hamas gunmen.

Thousands of Israeli reservists had been called up and would be ready by Friday, Israeli defence officials said.

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