Hamas nearing victory in Gaza conflict: PM Haniya 

GAZA CITY: Hamas is nearing victory in its war against Israel, Ismail Haniya, the head of the Islamist movement's government in the Gaza Strip, said on Monday. 

"We are approaching victory," he said in a televised address.

"The blood which has flowed will not have flowed in vain as it will bring us victory, thanks be to God," Haniya added on the 17th day of Israel's offensive which has so far killed more than 900 Palestinians.

Israel is Washington's 'murder arm': Chavez

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday accused Israel of being the ‘murder arm’ of the United States and said the solution to the Gaza crisis was in the hands of Barack Obama when he becomes US president in 10 days. 

On announcing Venezuela's first humanitarian aid shipment for Gaza's embattled Palestinians, Chavez said he was not surprised Israel ignored the United Nation's call Thursday for a ceasefire in Gaza because, he said, "behind Israel lurks the United States." 

"It doesn't surprise me in the least.... The Israeli government doesn't comply because it is the United States. Unfortunately, Israel has become the murder arm of the United States," he added.

Chavez, Latin America's most prominent leftist leader and staunch foe of outgoing US President George W. Bush, said the solution to the Gaza conflict was squarely in the hands of Bush's successor Obama, who is to be inaugurated January 20. "Let's wait and see what Obama will do when he takes power as president... and head of the empire," Chavez said, using his pet name for the United States. "Because if anybody can stop that massacre it's the US president, because it was a US president who ordered it" in the first place, he said. 

He slammed the international community for not doing enough to stop the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, which since December 27 has killed more than 850 people, according to Gaza emergency services.

"They're killing the Palestinian people in Gaza and the world sits there, arms crossed, drawing up (UN) resolutions. We should move on to more concrete actions. We went as far as we could and threw out the (Israeli) ambassador," Chavez said. Venezuela on Tuesday expelled Israel's ambassador to Caracas as calls mounted in Latin America for an end to the Jewish state's deadly assault on the Gaza Strip. The following day, Israel expelled Venezuela's charge d'affaires. 

Chavez said Venezuela's first air shipment of relief supplies for Gaza would be leaving Sunday for Egypt. Meanwhile in La Paz, Chavez ally and anti-American President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, said the United Nations was under Washington's thumb and he regretted that the world body was unable to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. 

"What I'm sorry about is that the United Nations is not for the people of the world, it's a United Nations for the US Empire, and we don't want that," Morales said Saturday.

Israel tanks advance in Gaza as toll climbs over 900

GAZA CITY: Israeli tanks punched their way towards the outskirts of Gaza City on Monday in some of the fiercest fighting on the ground of the conflict so far as the death toll from the war against Hamas passed 900.

Infantry units, bolstered by thousands of newly-deployed reservists, battled with Hamas gunmen across the region as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was achieving the objectives of Operation Cast Lead, now in its 17th day.

Residents said tank units had advanced several hundred metres (yards) in the neighbourhoods of Eijline, Tuffah and Zeitun on the southern edge of Gaza City where the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the morning.

Troops also staged an incursion into the southern town of Khan Yunis where witnesses said some 35 houses were destroyed.

Medics said 20 Palestinians were killed in the latest fighting, bringing the overall toll to 909 since the start of Operation Cast Lead on December 27, including 277 children and 95 women. A further 3,950 have been wounded.

HRW asks Israel not to use white phosphorus in Gaza

NEW YORK: A leading international human rights group has accused Israel of using white-phosphorus munitions during its offensive in the Gaza Strip and warned of the risk to civilians near the fighting.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that its researchers in Israel observed multiple airbursts on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 of artillery-fired white phosphorus near the city of Gaza and the Jabalya refugee camp.

The group said Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus to hide military operations, “a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law”. 

“However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza’s high population density, among the highest in the world,” Human Rights Watch said.

It called on Israel to stop the practice.

Palestinian medical workers said that more than 250 Palestinian children have been killed since Israel began its attacks. Gaza is an impoverished, densely populated strip of land that is home to 1.5 million people, and residents have no means to escape the violence as all the border points are closed.

Toll in Gaza fighting passes 900

GAZA CITY: Israeli infantry units battled with Hamas fighters across Gaza on Monday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped Egyptian peace efforts could bring about a swift end to the war.

At least 19 people were reported killed in Monday's clashes, medics said, pushing the overall toll past the 900 mark in a 17-day-old conflict which has also wounded nearly 4,000 people.

In Egypt, which has been spearheading Western-backed efforts to end the war that has sparked widespread protests across the world, talks were due to resume between Egyptian officials and Hamas.

But Israel's pointman for Gaza truce talks, Amos Gilad, delayed a planned visit in what Israeli radio speculated was meant as a pressure tactic on Hamas. 

The negotiations in Cairo are centering on a three-point plan that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak unveiled last week. The plan calls for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, talks on opening Gaza's border crossings and taking steps to prevent arms smuggling, and relaunching Palestinian reconciliation efforts. 

On Sunday, Cairo upped the pressure on Israel by summoning its ambassador to demand that the Jewish state comply with last week's UN Security Council resolution and open humanitarian corridors to relieve the besieged territory.

Both Israel and Hamas have waved off the resolution that called for an immediate end to the fighting.

Officials in Cairo said that the talks with Hamas had been positive, saying the Islamists agreed "on the importance of stopping the shedding of Palestinian blood as soon as possible."

Israeli aggression enters into 17th day

GAZA CITY: The death toll from Israel's 17-day-old operation in the Gaza Strip passed 900 on Monday, Palestinian medics said. 

Since Israel unleashed its Operation Cast Lead, at least 905 Palestinians have been killed and some 3,950 wounded, according to Muawiya Hassanein, the head of medical rescue services in Gaza. At least 277 children are among the dead, he said. 

Israeli warplanes pounded the homes of Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and ground troops edged closer to the territory's densely populated urban center Monday.

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27, bombarding Gaza with dozens of airstrikes before sending in ground forces a week later. 

In new fighting Monday, at least six Palestinians were killed in new airstrikes or died from their wounds. One of the dead was a militant killed in a northern Gaza battle. From downtown Gaza City black smoke could be seen rising over the eastern suburbs, where the two sides skirmished throughout the night. 

Late Sunday, dense plumes of smoke from explosions rose over Gaza City and heavy gunfire was heard just south of the city. Early Monday, Israeli navy gunboats fired more than 25 shells at Gaza City, setting fires and shaking office buildings.

Israeli shells kill 5 Palestinians in Gaza: medics

GAZA: Israeli tank fire killed five Palestinians, at least four of them civilians, in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, medical workers said.

They identified the dead from the incident in Beit Lahiya as four women and a man from two different families.

UN chief calls China about Gaza ceasefire: state media 

BEIJING: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to China's foreign minister Sunday, as part of an effort to bring about the ceasefire in Gaza called for in last week's UN Security Council resolution, state media reported.

Yang Jiechi said China, a permanent member of the council, would continue its efforts to help resolve the conflict and push for ceasefire talks, the official Xinhua news agency reported, adding Ban had initiated the telephone conversation.

A Chinese envoy will visit Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories in the next few days to join international efforts to end the Gaza conflict, the foreign ministry has said. 

The UN chief told Yang that he planned to visit Gaza shortly in hopes of ensuring the security council resolution that was passed on Thursday is put into effect, Xinhua reported.

The two men exchanged views on other international and regional issues, including the situation in Myanmar and the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, the report said. 

Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled on Sunday, ignoring world pleas to stop the 16-day-old war that has killed more than 850 people. Egypt is trying to broker a truce in Israel's deadliest ever assault on the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Some 20,000 Indonesian Muslims urge end to Israeli strikes 

JAKARTA: At least 20,000 Indonesian Muslims staged a peaceful rally Sunday in the capital to call for an end to Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Protesters from the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) gathered at the national monument in Jakarta and marched through the streets. The demonstrators, accompanied by their families and children, waved Palestinian flags and carried banners reading "Save Palestine," "Israel, back off from Palestine territories!" and "Boycott Israel's products and Free Palestine."

At the national monument, parliamentary chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid, who is a senior PKS member, urged the United Nations Security Council to press Israel to end its strikes. 

"This is a serious human tragedy. We urge the UN Security Council to put more pressure on Israel for an immediate halt of its strikes on the Gaza Strip," Nur Wahid said in a speech during the rally.

One demonstrator, who came with his wife and two young daughters, said all Indonesians should take to the streets to condemn the "barbaric" Israeli attacks. "We are witnessing everyday through television and papers a massacre of Palestinian people by Israel. Indonesian people have to stand together to stop these barbaric attacks," Budi told. 

Protesters stepped on a large Israeli flag before burning it. As a show of support, protest organisers also collected money to help the Palestinian people. Similar protests were reported in several major cities across the country. 

In East Java province, hundreds of protesters from the country's largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, urged the United Nations to bring Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the international war crimes tribunal, state news agency Antara reported. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation of 234 million people, is a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause and does not recognise Israel. Israel pressed ahead with its air and ground assault in Gaza on Sunday as the death toll in the 16-day-old war passed 850 and Hamas vowed it would never negotiate a ceasefire while "under fire."

Combatants ignore truce calls in Gaza 

GAZA: Israeli tanks advanced on Gaza and Hamas militants fired rockets at Israel on Saturday, as both sides ignored international calls to stop the conflict and Israel warned it would escalate its assault.

An Israeli tank shell killed eight Palestinians in Jabalya, a refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, and an air strike killed a woman in nearby Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said.

All of those killed in Jabalya were believed to be men from the same family. The Israeli army denied carrying out any attacks in the area.

The deaths, including those of several Palestinian gunmen, raised the Palestinian toll to at least 821, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Thirteen Israelis have been killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit in rocket fire. The fighting continued even during a three-hour ceasefire window Israel has established in recent days to allow aid into Gaza to sustain the 1.5 million people living there.

As Israeli tanks advanced in northern Gaza and aircraft hit targets across the coastal strip, Hamas rockets hit Ashkelon, 20km north of Gaza, wounding three Israelis. The Israeli military also dropped leaflets on southern Gaza, around the town of Rafah, warning residents to stay away from militants, weapons storage facilities and tunnels as it was about to escalate its bombing throughout the coastal territory.

“In the coming period, the Israeli army will continue to attack tunnels, weapons caches, and terrorists with escalating force all over the Gaza Strip,” the leaflets read.

Concerned about the deepening humanitarian impact of the war, with more than half Gaza’s population dependent on the UN food assistance, the United Nations said it hoped to resume full aid distribution after receiving Israeli assurances that its staff would not be harmed. 

A UN driver was killed on Thursday. Israel has pressed on with its offensive despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and Egyptian-European efforts at mediation, saying it is intent on stopping Hamas rocket fire. Hamas, too, has ignored calls for a halt to hostilities, firing eight rockets at Israel on Saturday.

A phalanx of Israeli tanks advanced from the north towards the city of Gaza, creeping in on the large refugee camp of Jabalya, home to around 100,000 people.

In an attempt to breathe life into a faltering Egyptian-led mediation effort, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for talks in Cairo.

They discussed the possible deployment of international forces along the Gaza-Egypt border under any ceasefire deal, but Abbas said they should be in Gaza itself, not along the border.