FACTBOX: Developments in Gaza fighting, Jan 9

Fri Jan 9, 2009 5:26pm EST
 
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(Reuters) - Following are developments in the fighting in the Gaza Strip as of 2200 GMT:

(* Denotes new or updated items)

* GAZA - Israel carries out a series of air strikes throughout the Gaza Strip after nightfall. Hamas said one of its militants was killed and four others were wounded. Medical officials said a local journalist and his mother were killed and 10 civilians were also wounded in the strikes.

Israel said it carried out 70 air strikes throughout the day, hitting 20 militants and targeting rocket launching areas and weapons storage facilities.

* DEATH TOLLS - The Palestinian death toll reached at least 788, according to medical officials. U.N. officials say many of these were civilians.

The Israeli death toll reached 13: Nine soldiers killed in combat in Gaza, and three civilians and a soldier who were killed by militant rocket fire into Israel.

GAZA - An Israeli air strike in the city of Gaza damaged a building that housed production and transmission facilities for a number of television stations, most of them Arabic, journalists said. At least two people were wounded.

Israel said the building was not targeted, but may have sustained collateral damaged.

TEL AVIV - Israel's security cabinet, citing Palestinian rocket fire and a need to guarantee an end to arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip, decided to press on with military operations in the Hamas-ruled territory despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

TEL AVIV - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the Security Council resolution as "unworkable."

TEL AVIV - Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said: "Israel has acted, is acting and will act only according to its considerations, the security needs of its citizens and its right to self defense." Her statement made no direct reference to how Israel would treat the call for a ceasefire.

JERUSALEM - Israeli security forces deployed in large numbers in anticipation of demonstrations against Israel's offensive turning violent after Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's old city and at other locations.

NEW YORK - U.N. Security Council passes resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, followed by full Israeli withdrawal. Resolution calls for arrangements to stop smuggling of weapons into Gaza and to reopen its borders for aid.

BEIT LAHIYA - An Israeli tank shell hits a house in Beit Lahiya killing six people from the same family, Palestinian ambulance workers said.

KHAN YOUNIS - Israeli tanks pull back from areas near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. Two Palestinian dead found after the withdrawal.

GAZA - Shelling from the sea and clashes to the north and east of the main city of Gaza continue through the night.

(Jerusalem Newsroom)

 
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