Violence grows in the war between Israel and Hamas. On the third day since the start of the clashes, the toll is heavier: on the Gaza Strip the air raids of the Jewish state have caused more than 80 deaths and 575 wounded, while Israel has faced a storm of 365 rockets, an average of one every 10 minutes , mostly directed to cities up to 150 km from Gaza and even in the vicinity of Israel's Dimona nuclear power plant.
"A truce is not on the agenda," Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said. In the meantime, after two days of refusal, Egypt has agreed to open a partial relief valve for the Palestinian population trapped in the Strip by reopening the Rafah crossing point, a measure which, however, has not yet found concrete evidence on the ground but which would allow the evacuation by ambulance of at least the seriously injured to hospitals in the Sinai.
Yesterday the words of Israeli President Shimon Peres sounded like an ultimatum: either the rocket launch from Gaza will stop, or a land operation, feared for days, will become inevitable. While the Palestinian president, Abu Mazen, replied by denouncing "a massacre, a genocide" in Gaza.
In the last 24 hours, and especially during the night, the Israeli military claims to have hit more than 320 targets in Gaza territory: targeting launch posts, tunnels, training bases, arms and ammunition depots, military leaders of Hamas or of other radical factions, destroyed the Palestinian side of the Eretz border crossing. This morning, the latest strike hit a car carrying 3 people in Jabalya, in the north of the Strip. Over 100 rockets of various ranges were launched in the same period, 21 of which were intercepted in flight and 82 which fell on Israeli territory.
