Gaza cut off as rockets rain down on Israel

18/01/2008

All border crossings into the Gaza Strip have been closed following a salvo of rocket attacks aimed at Israel i towns.

Defence minister Ehud Barak authorised the lockdown late Thursday after Palestinian militants fired about 50 rockets into the Jewish state, causing jitters for nearby residents but resulting in no injuries.

The missile onslaught was the latest incident in a week of escalating violence that kicked off Tuesday when the IDF killed 19 Palestinians including the son of leading Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar.

Amid grief-stricken and chaotic scenes in a Gazan morgue, the hard-line figure vowed immediate and brutal retaliation to the incursion, which Israel claimed was necessary to flush out wanted terrorists.

That threat appears to have materialised in the form of yesterday's barrage, echoing similar scenes the day before when Qassam rockets rained down on the town of Sderot - that time causing two minor injuries and damaging homes and businesses.

"Gaza is completely shut down," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency told Reuters following an announcement that all aid convoys to the exclave were being turned away. "This will only add to an already dire situation."

The Middle East crisis has softened markedly since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, but tit-for-tat violence remains a daily occurrence and targeted killings have surged since Hamas took office last year.

Analysts now fear that a reprisal suicide bombing on Israeli soil - the likes of which has not been seen for almost a year - could plunge the region back into the throes of another full-blown war.

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