Day of protest over Gaza – as Israeli invasion plan finalised

Published on Friday 2 January 2009 21:57

THE threat of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza appeared to be growing last night as thousands of people prepared to take to the streets across Britain today in protest against the Jewish state's week of air strikes on the Palestinian territory.

Three children – two brothers and a cousin playing in the street in southern Gaza – were among the latest fatalities of Israeli bombing raids.

Madth Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor at Gaza's Shifa hospital, said of a boy who had both feet blown off: "These injuries are not survivable injuries. This is a murder. This is a child."

Meanwhile, calls grew for Barack Obama, the US president-elect, to speak out against the Israeli bombardment.

Bianca Jagger, a former model and long-time human rights activist, called for Mr Obama to intervene, while the Scots singer and campaigner Annie Lennox accused western leaders of failing to unite in condemning Israel.

About 430 people are believed to have been killed in Gaza in the air raids. More than 60 were civilians, half of them children, according to the United Nations.

Today will see at least 17 protests against the Israeli action in the UK.

In Edinburgh, protesters will gather at the foot of the Mound in Princes Street. In Glasgow, a demonstration will gather at Blythswood Square. Thousands of people are expected at a march in London.

The US government yesterday demanded a "durable and sustainable ceasefire".

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, added his voice to demands for a halt to attacks to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

In London, Lennox and Jagger were joined by Ken Livingstone, the former mayor, and comedian Alexei Sayle to call for an end to the violence.

Jagger said: "I would like to make an appeal to president-elect Obama to speak up.

"People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."

Lennox said she had been driven to speak publicly after being horrified by TV pictures.

She said: "Over the Christmas holidays, I saw (on the TV] images of the columns of smoke rising from the buildings in Gaza. It filled me with a terrible sense of not only sadness but of horror.

"My first thought was. 'It's in everyone's interest in the long term to have peace'. I'm not talking as a political expert or claiming to be one. But, from a humanitarian point of view, if the Israelis go in to wage this so-called ground-war campaign, I think it will be a point of no return."

She claimed there had been a failure of western leaders to unite in condemnation of Israel and said the situation would have been different if missiles were landing on New York.

She added: "I'm not condoning Hamas rockets going into Israel. But this is not going to result in peace. I would say there needs to be an immediate and absolute ceasefire or we will get into a completely irreversible situation.

"There needs to be an immediate and absolute ceasefire. The alternative is total carnage. It will spread not only to the immediate Middle East; terrorism will multiply across the world."

An Israeli military spokesman said yesterday that preparations were complete for a ground assault, with tanks at the border waiting the order to invade.

Last night, however, the exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, said the group was ready to resist any Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip and might abduct more soldiers.

He said: "We are ready for the challenge, this battle was imposed on us and we are confident we will achieve victory because we have made our preparations."

Last night, Israel allowed several hundred Palestinians with foreign passports to flee Gaza across its border.

The US president, George Bush, described the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel as an "act of terror" and said he would not accept another "one-way" cease-fire in Gaza that permitted more violence from Hamas.