Gaza Strip death toll approaches 300 in two days of air-strikes

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Rafah refugee camp burns

A Palestinian family rushes from the scene of an Israeli missile strike on a building in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 28. Gazans cowered in their homes as Israeli warplanes pressing one of Israel's deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants unleashed missiles on weapons warehouses, a police station, the homes of militant field commanders and dozens of other targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Photo: Hatem Omar/MaanImages [3]

Israeli air-strikes continued on Gaza for a second day Dec. 28, bringing the death toll to 292, with more than 1,000 injured, 180 of them seriously. (Ma'an News Agency [4], Dec. 28) At the 36-hour point in Israel's "Operation Cast Lead," Israeli missiles hit some 40 smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border, killing two and injuring 22. Smuggled fuel being stored in the tunnels ignited, causing huge fires. The blasts prompted hundreds to race for new gaps in the border wall, but the refugees were met by Egyptian security forces, who used force to repel the crowds. (Ma'an News Agency [3], Dec. 28) Some 150 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the air-strikes began, killing one person and injuring about 12. (BBC News [5], Dec. 28)

See our last post on Gaza [6].

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