Israel hits Hamas government buildings, reservists mobilized

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the prime minister's office, after Israel's cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing for a possible ground invasion.

Israeli planes shattered the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck the Interior Ministry.

Loud explosions regularly rocked the densely populated Palestinian territory, sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. The occasional hiss of outgoing rocket fire showed Islamist militants were pursuing their defiance of the assault.

Despite the violence, Tunisia's foreign minister arrived in the coastal enclave on Saturday in a show of solidarity, denouncing the Israeli attacks as illegitimate and unacceptable.

Officials in Gaza said 41 Palestinians, among them 20 civilians including eight children and a pregnant woman, had been killed in Gaza since Israel began operations four days ago. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel's military said its air force had hit at least 180 targets since midnight, including a police headquarters, government buildings, rocket launching squads and a Hamas training facility in the impoverished territory.

A three-storey house belonging to Hamas official Abu Hassan Salah was also hit and completely destroyed early on Saturday. Rescuers said at least 30 people were pulled from the rubble.

"What Israel is doing is not legitimate and is not acceptable at all," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he visited Haniyeh's wrecked headquarters. "It does not have total immunity and is not above international law."

Israel launched a massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border rocket salvoes that have plagued southern Israel for years.

The Palestinians have fired hundreds of rockets out of Gaza, including one at Jerusalem and three at Tel Aviv - Israel's commercial centre. Jerusalem had not been targeted in such a way since 1970, and Tel Aviv since 1991.

Although there were no reports of casualties or damage in either city, the long-range attacks came as a shock and advanced the prospect of an Israeli ground invasion into Gaza

"This will last as long as is needed; we have not limited ourselves in means or in time," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Channel One television on Saturday.

Hamas says it is committed to continued confrontation with Israel and is eager not to seem any less resolute than smaller, more radical groups that have emerged in Gaza in recent years.

The Islamist Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007. Israel pulled settlers out of Gaza in 2005 but has maintained a blockade of the territory.

EGYPTIAN PEACE EFFORTS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session late on Friday with a clutch of senior ministers on widening the military campaign, while other cabinet members were polled by telephone on increasing mobilization.

Political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000. It did not necessarily mean all would be called up.

Three soldiers were lightly hurt by fire from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the army said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil paid a high-profile visit to Gaza on Friday, denouncing what he described as Israeli aggression and saying Cairo was prepared to mediate a ceasefire.

Egypt's Islamist government, which took power after free elections following an uprising that ousted veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak, is allied with Hamas but also party to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

"Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce," Kandil said.

A Palestinian official with knowledge of Cairo's mediation efforts said on Saturday that Egypt was pursuing a truce.

"Egyptian mediators are continuing their mediation efforts and these will intensify in the coming hours," he told Reuters.

In a further sign Netanyahu might be clearing the way for a ground operation, Israel's armed forces decreed a highway leading to the territory and two roads bordering the enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians off-limits to civilian traffic.

Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the sandy border zone on Saturday, and around 16,000 reservists have already been called to active duty.

The Israeli military said some 367 rockets fired from Gaza had hit Israel since Wednesday and at least 222 more were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Four Iron Domes were deployed initially and a fifth was rushed into action on Saturday, weeks ahead of schedule. The army said it was placed in the Tel Aviv area, showing Israel's concern for the safety of its heavily populated coastline.

Netanyahu is favored to win a January election, but further rocket strikes against Tel Aviv, a free-wheeling city Israelis equate with New York, and Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its capital, could be political poison for the conservative leader.

OBAMA REGRET

U.S. President Barack Obama commended Egypt's efforts to help calm the Gaza violence in a call to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Friday, the White House said, and underscored his hope of restoring stability.

In a call with Netanyahu, Obama discussed options for "de-escalating" the situation, the White House added.

Obama "reiterated U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself, and expressed regret over the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives," a statement on the call said.

Israel Radio's military affairs correspondent said the army's Homefront Command had told municipal officials to make civil defense preparations for the possibility that fighting could drag on for seven weeks. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

The Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolutions and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread across borders.

"Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Tunisia's Abdesslem told reporters in Gaza.

It is the stiffest challenge yet for Mursi, a veteran politician from the Muslim Brotherhood who was elected this year after protests ended Mubarak's 30-year rule in 2011.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood are spiritual mentors of Hamas, yet Mursi has also pledged to respect Cairo's peace accord with Israel, which is seen in the West as the foundation of regional security. Egypt and Israel both receive billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to underwrite their treaty.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-2009, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. By contrast, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules in the nearby West Bank, does recognize Israel, but peace talks between the two sides have been frozen since 2010.

Abbas' supporters say they will push ahead with a plan to have Palestine declared an "observer state" rather than a mere "entity", at the United Nations later this month.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Writing by Crispian Balmer and Jeffrey Heller; Editing by)

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ASEAN leaders can expect positive discussions

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: ASEAN leaders can expect their discussions in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to be positive when they kick off their meetings on Sunday.

Foreign affairs and trade ministers have decided that ASEAN focuses on the challenges it faces and not let other issues sidetrack the grouping.

Top on the agenda of ASEAN's challenges is its economic community target of 2015 and Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said the grouping is progressing steadily and monitoring the progress.

Mr Lim said that the 2015 target is still on though it may not be realistic to assume that everything in the roadmap would be completed by then.

He believes achieving about 85 per cent of the targets would be good.

Mr Lim said: "We have prioritised all the actions and at the same time we have looked at new items that need to be done, because as we implement the plans, some gaps have been identified.

"We have introduced them into the plan. We are generally happy. We have decided that now that we have brought tariffs down to zero, businesses are facing non-tariff measures and non-tariff barriers. So they are now making a concerted effort to address some of these hurdles and obstacles."

One major project highlighted in the ASEAN economic roadmap, the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP), will be launched by the leaders.

Ten ASEAN members, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and their six dialogue partners namely Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand created RCEP at last year's ASEAN+6 meeting in Bali.

Mr Lim said: "The RCEP is a very major enterprise and the objective is to seek deeper regional integration and together it is a major enterprise.

"I mean if you look at the population, the 16 countries constitute almost 45 percent of world population. If you look at GDP, the 16 countries constitute nearly a third of global GDP, it's a major effort to bring all 16 countries together into a regional free trade agreement."

ASEAN's foreign ministers also had their round of meetings to finalise topics for the summit.

Singapore's Foreign Minister K Shanmugam reiterated that ASEAN does not want the South China Sea issue to become the predominant subject of discussions and everybody understood that.

He said: "It was a relatively muted discussion and I think everyone understands the need to be restrained, to make sure that we don't make the situation tense and try and talk about the issue and resolve it between the claimants."

ASEAN leaders will also endorse the grouping's Human Rights Declaration document, something which the respective country representatives have worked hard to put together.

In July, when ASEAN's foreign ministers met for their annual meeting, the grouping had taken a hit to its credibility after failing to issue a communique.

Mr Shanmugam said the current summit meetings are in a very business-like environment, with the political leaders working to take ASEAN forward.

- CNA/ir

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I am not Dhritharashtra, Bal Thackeray during Raj face-off

MUMBAI: "Even if I wear black goggles I am not Dhritharashtra."

This was how Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who died today, had responded after he was called Dhritharashtra during the intense faction fights in his party which had led to his nephew Raj Thackeray leaving the party and floating his own outfit Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

During the course of an interview to Sena mouthpiece "Saamna" during which he spoke his mind after Raj's departure from the party, a question - "In this entire episode you are being called Dhritharashtra" - was posed to him.

"Even if I wear black goggles, I am not Dhritarashtra of Mahabharat", replied Thackeray, who often wears dark glasses. Dhritharashtra is the fabled blind king and father of the Kauravas in the Mahabharat epic.

After Raj left the party, the Sena boss had asserted that he was not saddened by his exit. But a day later he said those who have left the party should return.

"Ya chimnyno parat phira re.... Gharakade apulya (little sparrows should return to their nest)," he said, quoting a popular Marathi folk song.

"I was shocked and hurt. I did not expect this from Raj. I did not even think that Raj would do such a thing even in my dreams," he had said.

"Whatever Raj wanted, I and Uddhav had agreed to. But I can not tell which 'guru' advised and poisoned his mind," he added.

Thackeray also had said it was he who runs the Shiv Sena. "I told Raj that he and Uddhav should sit together and discuss."

"My writ still runs in the party," he added.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Israel Targets Hamas Headquarters

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Israel's Air Force reduced the headquarters of the militant group Hamas to rubble. It was one of several Hamas buildings and homes targeted, part of Israel's continuing effort to destroy the group's command and control structure as speculation mounts over an Israeli ground invasion.

The Israel Defense Forces released aerial drone video of the attack on the government building, the seat of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hanniyeh. Israeli warplanes have also struck the main police station, the interior ministry and the homes of top Hamas leaders.

As of Saturday morning, almost 900 "terror sites" had been targeted by Israel, including weapons caches and rocket launching sites. Around 600 rockets have been fired into Israel by Hamas and other militant groups, around a third of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, according to the Israeli military.

The loud thud of Israeli missiles hitting Gaza and the buzz of drones overhead were consistent on Saturday, as Israeli tanks and troops massed on the border in preparation of a ground invasion. Israeli media also reported that 20,000 reservists have been called up.

PHOTOS: Airstrikes and Rocket Attacks Continue

"We are preparing for any possibility, a ground invasion is a possibility although it hasn't been decided at this point," said IDF spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Liebovich. "We are ready to continue this operation "Pillar of Defense "until the peace and quiet and normality will return."

Israel Showdown: Tel Aviv Braces for More Rocket Attacks Watch Video

On Friday, Jerusalem was targeted for the first time in this escalation by militants in Gaza. A rocket landed around ten miles south near the West Bank Israeli settlements of Gush Etzion. And for the second day, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv as a rocket landed off the coast.

Three Israelis were killed Thursday by a rocket attack in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi. As of Saturday morning 39 Palestinians had been killed, among them more than half were civilians, according to Gaza health officials.

"Up until now we can say the situation is stable," Dr. Ayman al-Sahbani, the head of the emergency unit at Gaza's main al-Shifa hospital, said on Friday. "If it continues, we can't [cope]. Of course we can't. We hope to stop the [Israeli] aggression."

Israel's Iron Dome Proves Effective

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil visited the strip for three hours Friday morning, raising hope a ceasefire would be brokered. Qandil and the Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, are both from the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot. They have the delicate task of trying to coordinate between Hamas, Israel and the United States.

"What I am witnessing in Gaza is a disaster and I can't keep quiet," Qandil said, "The Israeli aggression must stop."
Israel says this operation, dubbed "Pillar of Defense," is the result of the rockets that regularly fly into southern Israel from Gaza. This operation started when Israel assassinated the top commander of Hamas' military wing, Ahmed Jabari.

"As long as Israel keeps killing us, we will keep defending ourselves by any means possible," the spokesman of Islamic Jihad, Daoud Shahab said in an interview. "If Israel stops its aggression, we are ready to stop firing the rockets."

In Washington, the Obama administration reiterated its view that Israel has the right to defend itself.

"It's a matter of the international community and particularly regional states with influence to do what they can to make clear to Hamas that this is not benefiting the cause of the Palestinian people, and it's certainly not benefiting the cause of regional stability," said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

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