Israel braced for Hamas response

Israel is tightening security ahead of demonstrations called by Palestinian militant group Hamas in protest at Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas leaders have urged Palestinians to observe a "day of wrath", after seven days of violence in Gaza.

Early on Friday, Israel bombed more targets in Gaza, including a mosque, a day after a senior Hamas leader and his family were killed in an air strike.

Palestinian militants have also fired more rockets into Israel, Israel says.

Both sides have ignored international calls for a ceasefire.

Israel says its air campaign, designed to prevent Palestinian militant rocket attacks, has been going according to plan.

It has struck sites linked to Hamas, which controls Gaza, including smuggling tunnels under the border to Egypt, government buildings and security compounds.

Israel described the mosque it bombed in Jabaliya on Friday as a "terror hub" and said it was used to store weapons.

BBC staff in Gaza say at least 10 houses belonging to Hamas members were also hit, as well as a poultry farm and industrial workshop. Medical sources say two people were killed in Jabaliya.

More than 400 people have died in the Israeli bombardment since it began last Saturday. The UN says at least 100 of them were civilians.

Four Israelis have been killed by rockets fired into Israel from Gaza, which have hit towns up to 25 miles (40km) from the narrow coastal strip.

Restricted movement

In response to Hamas' call for protests, Israeli police have been stationed throughout East Jerusalem.

Movement for Palestinians in the West Bank has been severely restricted.

Protests have been held across the world. More than 2,000 Australian Muslims gathered in a Sydney park for Friday prayers using a symbolic coffin. Up to five 5,000 gathered in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Israel says it has completed preparations for a possible ground offensive, and large numbers of troops and tanks are massed on the Gaza border.

Many Palestinian families have moved away from the border area, and on Friday the Israeli army began allowing foreigners living in Gaza to leave.

Israel is refusing entry to Gaza for international journalists and has declared the area around it a "closed military zone".

The main UN agency operating in Gaza, Unwra, resumed food deliveries to Gaza on Thursday, but warned of a dire humanitarian situation in the territory.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Thursday there was no need for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds as more lorries containing aid were entering Gaza.

Speaking in Paris after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, she said Hamas had used the previous six-month truce, which ended in mid-December, to re-arm.

Hamas has said Israel must stop bombarding Gaza and lift its blockade of the territory before it will consider a ceasefire.

A draft UN resolution put forward by Egypt and Libya failed after the US and UK complained that it made no mention of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel.

Before it ends its campaign, Israel needs to show that it has stopped the rocket fire, says BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen.

But if Hamas can still resist, its leaders will feel they can claim victory.

Hamas believes its fighters who are launching rockets into Israel are taking part in legitimate resistance against an occupier, he adds.
source:news.bbc.co.uk