Sun describes Israeli towns as 'Jewish settlements'

The journalist describes the pre-1967 Israeli towns and villages fired upon from Gaza as ‘Jewish settlements’. This is inaccurate as they do not share the same controversial status as communities in the West Bank.

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'Bloodiest yet'

The Sun, by Nick Parker, 29 December 2008

Israel stepped up its bloodiest attacks in history on Islamist strongholds in Gaza yesterday as the Palestinian death toll hit 307.

Fears grew of a bloody ground attack as Israel called up 6,500 reservists.

Hundreds more reinforcements were last night amassing on the Gaza border. The escalation came after Israeli jets blasted targets including the Islamic University – a potent Hamas symbol.

F16 warplanes and Apache choppers rained more than 100 tons of bombs and rockets on militants during a weekend of devastation.

Israel’s hi-tech war machine zeroed in on key security installations. The main Gaza police HQ was among them.

Most of the dead and 800 wounded were Hamas fanatics behind 300 rocket attacks on Israel in the past week.

But the timing of some of the airstrikes – as schools broke for lunch – meant at least 20 children and nine women died.

Morgues overflowed, leaving piles of mutilated bodies lying on streets.

Wailing relatives searched the grim heaps for loved ones, while rescuers clawed smoking rubble for survivors.

Hamas fired a revenge salvo of at least 110 rockets deep into enemy territory, killing a civilian.

Israel’s leaders vowed to keep bombing until Iran-backed Hamas halted its offensive.

The onslaught – weeks before elections – followed public clamour for action after rockets traumatised Jewish settlements.

But last night Israel was braced for a wave of suicide bombings. Hamas urged Palestinian groups to use “all means including martyrdom”.

The air assault began eight days after a six-month ceasefire ended. Militants fired 3,000 rockets at Israel during the “truce”.

Nine Israelis have been killed by rockets since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

In the same period, Israeli operations have killed 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza.