Search For Body As Costa Concordia Refloated

The Man Who Raised Costa Concordia

Updated: 6:30am UK, Tuesday 17 September 2013

By Tom Kington, on Giglio

The man who raised the Costa Concordia was given a hero's welcome on Tuesday by colleagues and residents of the island of Giglio, where the cruise ship capsized 20 months ago.

After running a control room on a barge near the wrecked vessel, salvage master Nick Sloane was greeted by a cheering crowd in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday as he returned to Giglio port after the successful 19-hour operation to right the ship.

Around 100 members of the 500-strong salvage team toasted the 52-year-old South African salvage veteran with beer and prosecco outside a café on the quayside, shortly after the Costa Concordia was pulled upright onto undersea platforms with giant pulleys.

"This has been the most satisfying job of my life," said DJ Degraaff, 35, a Dutch salvage master. "It's been a hard job but now we are relaxed and satisfied. The ship is resting and that was the goal."

Mr Degraaff said his biggest concern as the ship was rolled upright was that her bilge tanks would collapse. "But we had reinforced them and they held," he said.

There would be no time off now, he said, since work must now start on adding flotation tanks to the starboard side of the ship before she can be refloated and towed away from Giglio.

But Denny Hoffschlag, 34, a Dutch diver, said there was a "lot of joy" among the salvage team after righting the ship. "This has given me goosebumps," he said.

Mr Sloane was accompanied on the quayside by Rich Habib, CEO of Titan Salvage, which won the contract to raise the Costa Concordia.

"The stakes were so high, but it went just the way we planned it," said Mr Habib. The so-called parbuckling did last longer than predicted, 19 hours compared to the 12 forecast, something Mr Habib put down to the need to use slightly more force in the pulleys than had been predicted.

"It needed more oomph," he said.

Habib also said that after inspecting the side of the ship he had seen that the two granite outcrops on which the boat had rested for 20 months had not pierced the hull of the ship. "The steel of the ship compacted on the rocks rather than being pierced by it," he said.

The care taken in raising the Costa Concordia without breaking it up had been done to respect the surrounding martime park, in contract to the common salvage practise of blowing up vessels said Habib. "It's a little bit easier to blow things up," he said.

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Israeli Troops Launch First Ground Raid On Gaza

Israeli troops have launched a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip, the first since the offensive against Hamas began, as Palestinian deaths continue to mount.

The navy commandos' brief incursion - which ignored a United Nations call for a ceasefire - targeted a rocket launcher site, according to Israeli public radio.

The armed branch of Hamas confirmed that Israeli troops had exchanged gunfire with Palestinian fighters.

Thousands of residents in northern Gaza have fled their homes, after a warning from Israel's military that they should leave "for their own safety".

Artillery flares illuminate the sky following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Leaflets have been dropped into the town of Beit Lahiya near Gaza's northern border which read: "Those who fail to comply with the instructions to leave immediately will endanger their lives and the lives of their families. Beware."

Israel says it plans to step up its offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza over the next 24 hours in an effort to stop missiles being fired into Israel.

It has been massing military hardware and troops close to the border with northern Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was hitting Hamas "with growing force," warning there was no end in sight. 

A picture tweeted by Israel claiming to target a militant rocket site

"We do not know when this operation will end," he told ministers.

In an interview on CBS's Face the Nation, he defended the offensive.

"When we began this interview we were under bomb alert and as the minutes passed now we're told people can go out into the open air again," he said.

"This is the kind of reality we're living in. And we'll do whatever is necessary to put an end to it."

Tel Aviv residents take cover during an air raid siren warning of an attack

Mr Netanyahu urged Americans to imagine US cities from the East Coast to Colorado, or 80% of the population, were under threat of rocket attack, with only 60 to 90 seconds to reach a bomb shelter.

"That's what we're experiencing right now, as we speak," he said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has phoned Mr Netanyahu to renew a US offer to help mediate a truce.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to ask the United Nations for international protection as the six-day offensive continues.

Israeli soldiers rest in the shade of trees near central Gaza

Israel began its offensive on Tuesday in response to weeks of rocket attacks from Hamas militants in Gaza, who are understood to have fired more than 600 missiles into the country.

Two more rockets shot from Gaza were destroyed over the Tel Aviv area by the Iron Dome missile defence system on Sunday, several hours after another two rockets were intercepted over Lod, close to the country's main airport.

Hamas has denied being behind a rocket attack on Israel from Lebanon on Saturday evening.

A rocket fired from Syria hit the Golan Heights, falling on open ground and causing no casualties, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Israeli soldiers walk across a field near central Gaza strip

Earlier that day an Israeli warplane bombed the home of Gaza's police chief and damaged a nearby mosque, killing at least 18 people and wounding 50.

It was the deadliest single attack during the five-day conflict, which has now claimed 165 Palestinian lives and left more than 1,000 injured.

No Israelis have died so far in the latest conflict, and many of the rockets fired into the country have been intercepted by Iron Dome.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) defended its military campaign via social media.

"To warn civilians of an impending strike, the IDF drops leaflets, makes personalized phone calls & sends SMSes. How many militaries do that?" it tweeted.

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Gaza Residents Told To Leave 'For Own Safety'

The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate "for their own safety".

Chief military spokesman Brigadier General Motti Almoz said Israel planned to step-up its offensive against militants and hit the area with heavy force in the next 24 hours.

Officials say the area has been used to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.

Artillery flares illuminate the sky following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Israel has been massing military hardware and personnel to the border with northern Gaza and says it will send messages to residents overnight telling them to leave.

Sky's Alex Rossi counted at least 100 armoured personnel carriers and tanks a few miles from the border though an Israeli Defence Force spokesman told Sky News a ground invasion was not imminent.

Four Israeli ground troops were hurt after they raided a rocket launching site in Gaza, according to the AP news agency.

A picture tweeted by Israel claiming to target a militant rocket site

Israel began its offensive on Tuesday in response to weeks of rocket attacks from Hamas militants in Gaza, who are understood to have fired some 600 missiles into the country.

On Saturday evening an Israeli warplane bombed the home of Gaza's police chief and damaged a nearby mosque, killing at least 18 people and wounding 50.

It was the deadliest single attack during the five-day conflict, which has now claimed more than 140 lives.

Injured Palestinians were rushed to al Shifa hospital in Gaza City as the bombardment continued.

Tel Aviv residents take cover during an air raid siren warning of an attack

Samah Al-Masri, the aunt of a 4-year-old girl injured in the strikes said: "As humans, you fear for your son and if you fear for your child or hear the sound of a rocket you will naturally want to hold them.

"When the child comes to hide in my arms and I find the entire house falling on top of us what do I do then?"

Dr. Ayman Al-Sahabany, Director of Emergency ward at al Shifa Hospital, said: "Women and children are more than half of the casualties. And children form a third of the total casualties."

No Israelis have died so far, and many of the rockets fired into the country have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system.

Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit the Nahariya region in northern Israel late on Saturday, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Israeli soldiers rest in the shade of trees near central Gaza

The Israeli military said it responded with artillery fire toward "the source of fire", according to AP.

Hamas unleashed a barrage of rocket fire on Saturday after warning it planned to target Tel Aviv.

Three rockets apparently targeting the Jerusalem area fell short, hitting Hebron and Bethlehem, according to the Israeli army and Palestinian security sources.

The army said four rockets were fired at Tel Aviv. Three were intercepted above the city and the other hit open ground south of it.

Israeli soldiers walk across a field near central Gaza strip

Israel has been criticised for the civilian casualties that have resulted from its offensive on one of the most densely populated territories in the world.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a majority of those killed so far are civilians.

Israel says it is acting in self-defence and accuses Hamas of using Gaza's civilians as human shields by firing rockets from there.

It said Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Gaza militant groups use religious sites to conceal weapons and establish underground tunnel networks, deliberately endangering civilians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not end the campaign until he achieves his goal of stopping the rocket attacks from a "terrorist organisation which calls for our destruction".

Former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya said: "(Israel) is the one that started this aggression and it must stop, because we are (simply) defending ourselves."

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Middle East: Complex Web Of Friends And Foes

Rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel at dawn. The opening of a new front for Israel already engaged in an escalating air campaign in the Gaza Strip? No.

Neither the Israelis nor Hezbollah, which has an arsenal of 100,000 rockets and controls southern Lebanon, are that stupid.

The missile attack on Israel's north was an attempt by Sunni militants to spark a confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel that both know would be a zero sum.

Why would Sunnis, in all probability descendants of Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel, want to do that?

It's Hezbollah, a Shia movement, after all, that has been a major conduit of experts, funding and modern rockets to Hamas, a Sunni organisation, in Gaza. Hamas and Hezbollah are allies.

Hamas has condemned the Hezbollah-backed regime of Bashar al Assad

But only when it comes to fighting Israel.

In Syria, Hamas has condemned the Assad regime, which like Hezbollah is backed by Iran.

Sunnis of Palestinian descent are among volunteers who have joined rebel groups fighting Damascus, while Hezbollah has sent thousands of its best fighters to the frontlines to defend the regime of Bashar al Assad.

There is a logic at work here.

If Sunni groups in south Lebanon can sucker the Israelis into a war with Hezbollah they could enjoy the double whammy of reduced pressure on Gaza, and the use of Israel's devastating air power against Hezbollah, the Sunni's enemies in Syria.

No better example of an attempt to kill two birds with one stone.

It won't happen because both Hezbollah and Israel, foes who have the greatest respect for one another, saw through the plot some time back. It's not the first time it has been tried.

But it does signal just how the Middle East's tectonic plates of conflict have shifted and can overlap.

The explosion of sectarian Muslim war between Sunni and Shia in Syria, which has spread into Iraq and has destabilised Lebanon, has become the defining clash in a new age of chaos.

Rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran use proxies to vie for influence and control.

The Saudis have become increasingly nervous of the spread of a Shia crescent from Tehran through Baghdad to Damascus and south Lebanon.

But Tehran has also used enemy forces to bolster the positions of its allies.

According to intelligence sources Muhsin al Fadhli, once a senior al Qaeda figure based in Iraq has taken up an operational roles inside Syria - at the instigation of the Iranian government.

Why would Tehran release someone to fight a key client an ally in Damascus?

Because radical groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have fought harder against fellow rebel groups than they have against the Assad regime.

Tehran has split the rebels.

But now ISIS threatens Iran's client government in Baghdad showing that an enemy's enemy may be a friend from time to time, but will remain an enemy.

This may be complicated but there is no excuse for stupidity in the Middle East. Failure to comprehend this can be fatal.

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Ukraine Rights Abuses Flagged Up By Amnesty

By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

Hundreds of people have been abducted and subjected to horrific beatings in the troubled eastern region of Ukraine, according to campaign group Amnesty International.

After the collapse of the pro-Russian government of President Yanukovych in February this year, Russia seized control of Crimea and separatists in the east of the country have been fighting Ukrainian government forces, prompting the biggest east-west showdown since the Cold War.

Amnesty International's report has gathered information on abductions and attacks such as beatings and torture meted out to activists, protesters and journalists as Kiev lost its hold over the region.

A soldier looking out from an armoured vehicle in eastern Ukraine

"With hundreds abducted over the last three months, the time has come to take stock of what has happened, and stop this abhorrent ongoing practice," said Amnesty's Denis Krivosheev.

There are no comprehensive or reliable figures for the number of abductions - Ukraine itself says there were nearly 500 cases between April and June 2014 but the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission for Ukraine says it recorded 222 cases of abductions in the last three months.

Amnesty says most are being carried out by armed separatists, with the victims often subjected to beatings and torture. But it says there is also evidence of a smaller number of abuses by pro-Kiev forces.

A pro-Russian separatist in the eastern town of Donetsk

It says abductions have taken place across eastern Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"Now that pro-Kiev forces are re-establishing control over Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and various other places in eastern Ukraine, new captives are being released almost daily with an increasing number of disturbing cases emerging," said Mr Krivosheev..

"It is time that these are meticulously documented with perpetrators brought to justice with victims awarded compensation."

Hanna, a pro-Ukrainian activist, told Amnesty International how she was abducted by armed men in the eastern city of Donetsk on May 27.

Ukraine troops took control of Slavyansk

She said she was held for six days before being released in a prisoner exchange. She described how she was violently interrogated.

"My face was smashed, he punched me in the face with his fist, he was trying to beat me everywhere, I was covering myself with my hands … I was huddled in the corner, curled up in a ball with my hands around my knees. He was angry that I was trying to protect myself. He went out and came back with a knife."

Hanna showed scars on her neck, arms and legs where she says she was sliced with the blade: there is a stab wound in her knee, her right index finger is still heavily bandaged in a plastic splint.

The eastern town was badly shelled last week

She also described how her interrogator made her write a separatist slogan on the wall, in her own blood.

While most abductions appear to have a "political" motivation, there is clear evidence that abduction and torture is being used by armed groups to exert fear and control over local populations. People have also being abducted for ransom.

Sasha, a 19-year-old pro-Ukrainian activist, fled to Kiev after he was abducted by separatists at gunpoint in Luhansk. He said he was beaten repeatedly for 24 hours.

President Poroshenko was elected in May

"They beat me with their fists, a chair, anything they could find. They stubbed out cigarettes on my leg and electrocuted me. It went on for so long, I couldn't feel anything anymore, I just passed out," he said.

He was finally released after his father paid a $60,000 ransom (£35,010).

There are allegations of atrocities on both sides.

One local government official in Mariupol, who wished to remain anonymous, told Amnesty International how they heard a captive separatist fighter wailing in pain at the hands of pro-Kiev forces who were seemingly trying to extract information about the separatists.

The report was published as Ukrainian officials said a missile attack in by pro-separatist fighters may have killed at least 30 soldiers and border guards, with final figures possibly even higher.

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'Omar The Chechen' Should Come Home, Says Dad

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent, in Pankisi, Georgia

The father of ISIS commander Omar al Shishani has told Sky News his son felt rejected by his country when he left to fight jihad.

With his distinctive red beard, al Shishani has become one of the most recognisable faces of a group now notorious for extreme brutality in its pursuit of an Islamic state across large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

But his father remembers a young man who was never particularly religious, but who always wanted to be a soldier.

Born in the remote Pankisi Gorge in Northern Georgia, an area once seen as a stronghold for Chechen militants, his real name is Tarkhan Batirashvili.

When he was younger, he worked as a shepherd boy in the hills above the gorge, where he reportedly first met Chechen fighters, crossing the Caucasus mountains to fight Russian forces across the border.

Al Shishani was 'tormented' when he was not allowed back in the army

"He was a very good boy, very well behaved," Timur Batirashvili remembers.

"Always very intelligent, very nice, he hated when people lied.

"Do you know what I think now? I didn't know my son. I didn't know him at all."

Tarkhan joined the Georgian army and served in the Russia-Georgia war in 2008. His father said he seemed happy, that he had found his place in the world.

Mr Batirashvili says he son told him to convert to Islam and hung up on him

He was due to be promoted to become an officer, and told his father their lives were about to change, that he was going to earn so much more money.

But then he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and admitted to hospital, after which he was discharged from the army on medical grounds.

He tried and failed to get back in - Mr Batirashvili said he was "tormented" - sent from office to office to no avail.

'Omar the Chechen' comes from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge

A few months later he was arrested and sent to prison for possession of illegal weapons.

"When he came back from prison he was really thin," Mr Batirashvili said.

"He lost his colour in prison, and he told me, 'Father, this means that this country doesn't need me.'

"I haven't seen him ever since. He felt really bad, he was really angry.

"He made a pact that if he left the prison alive he would start a holy war for God.

"'I will start a holy war in the name of God', he said, and that's what he's doing right now."

He reappeared in Syria last year under a new name, Omar al Shishani - which translates as Omar the Chechen - and became the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired group, The Army of Emigrants and Partisans, before pledging his allegiance to ISIS.

Mr Batirashvili said his son phoned him once, asking whether everything was okay, and whether he was praying to God.

When he replied that he was praying to Saint George, a Christian saint, al Shishani told him he should convert to Islam and hung up.

We asked him what he would say to his son if he could speak to him now.

He said: "Come back home. I am an old man. I need to be taken care of, I need to be looked after. Come home."

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Aunt Of Young Gaza Victim: 'Enough Is Enough'

By Tom Rayner, Middle East Reporter, Gaza City

Shayma was walking with her family in the Bait Hanoun neighbourhood of northern Gaza on Wednesday when an airstrike hit a house near them.

She ran.

Then another strike hit.

She cannot tell this story for herself. She is four-years-old, and is still unconscious after shrapnel from the second blast tore into her stomach.

She does not yet know that her mother, father and sister were killed in that moment.

Instead her aunt, now her closest living family member and carer, tells this story for her.

Sameh Fayeg Al Masri sits next to her bed in the Al Shiffa hospital in Gaza City, stroking the child's forehead.

She watches her chest raise and fall fitfully - the only sign this otherwise pale, still, shredded body is alive.

Doctors believe she has a chance to recover, but she has a long way to go.

For now Shayma will lie in the children's ward.

Her aunt Sameh, holding back tears with an emotional strength that is as common in Gaza as emotional trauma, tells me enough is enough.

"We have to stop shooting rockets, and they have to stop shooting at us," she said.

"Only innocent children are paying the price. What did this child do to deserve this?"

For some in Gaza such words would be seen as surrender.

But for Sameh, staring at the child lying in front of her, it is the only answer.

"Only God knows if she is going to live or die," she said.

"Pieces of bomb are still inside her. These things should stop. From both sides. It is forbidden to do this."

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Funerals In Gaza As Hamas And Israel Trade Fire

The Calculus Of Conflict For Hamas

Updated: 3:54pm UK, Wednesday 09 July 2014

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor

In the morbid calculus of conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants, both sides are drawing satisfaction from the recent bout of violence.

Hamas and its allies will be delighted to know that some 3.5 million Israelis have been added to their potential target list with the launching of long-range rockets which have landed close to Haifa, over 100 miles north.

The Israelis have mobilised 40,000 troops and are systematically smashing Hamas' military infrastructure with scores of air raids and naval bombardments every day.

It's clear this is now seen as the opportunity for Israel to rid the region of Hamas.

Mark Regev, the Israeli spokesman, told Sky News: "Our strategic goal is ultimately defensive. We want to end rocket attacks not just on southern Israel (as) rockets hit further north."

He added: "Over the last few years, Hamas has built up, in Gaza, a formidable terrorist machine. We're now acting to dismantle that machine".

Mr Regev went on to confirm there were no realistic diplomatic avenues to explore and that Israel was escalating its military operations to "once and for all" destroy Hamas' military capabilities.

Hamas will take a nihilistic satisfaction from this explicit threat.

It is opposed to the existence of the Jewish State.

It recently agreed to form a technocratic government with the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, which includes no Hamas members but is a 'technocratic administration'.

Facing declining popularity and economic ruin in Gaza, Hamas will now claim that an attack on it is an attack on all Palestinians.

So a ground invasion is just what a movement, which specialises in suicide attacks, most relishes.

It would be an opportunity for volunteers to ascend to paradise while taking enemy soldiers to "hell".

Israel must know that a ground assault might offer it the opportunity to destroy Hamas, blow up its honeycomb of tunnels beneath Gaza and blow up the vast stockpiles of missiles the militant group is believed to have.

But there is a risk of counter attack from the rear.

The West Bank is already close to a third uprising against Israel.

There were already fears that Israel's mass arrests, house demolitions and the killings of several Palestinians following the murder of three Jewish settler youths near Hebron would trigger a new intifada.

So far, the Palestinian Authority has managed to keep a lid on a wider insurrection but at the cost of being seen as collaborating with Israel in an occupation which shows no sign of ending after the collapse of peace talks earlier this year.

If Israel makes good on its threat to "dismantle" Hamas, Palestinians on the West Bank may rise up.

Or, less likely but now conceivable, the Palestinian Authority may seize a moment of Israeli distraction to dissolve itself, forcing Israel to effectively re-occupy the cities handed over to Palestinian control and turn the clock back over 20 years of largely fruitless negotiation.

A move like that would be a gamble and appear a fatal blow to long-term peace.

It could also be seen as the drastic measure needed to focus the calculations of both sides beyond narrow equations in the conflict.

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Iraq PM Claims Kurds Harbouring ISIS Militants

Iraq's Prime Minister has accused the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region of being a haven for the Islamic extremists and other Sunni militants.

Nouri al Maliki said the Kurdish capital of Arbil was being used as a headquarters for ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), the group that overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad last month.

He also claimed Iraqi Kurdistan was being used as a base for al Qaeda and the group that used to run the country when Saddam Hussein was in power, the Baaths.

Mr al Maliki's comments came as the bodies of 53 men were found near the central Iraqi province of Babil, near the city of Hilla.

Several attacks took place in Babil during the offensive by ISIS but the area where the bodies were found was not close to sites of recent violence and it is not known who killed the men.

Thousands of refugees from northern Iraq have fled to Iraqi Kurdistan

His claims are likely to inflame an already unstable situation in Iraq as Kurdish security forces are among those who have been battling ISIS fighters.

The Prime Minister did not elaborate on his allegations or provide any evidence to back them up.

In his weekly TV address, he said: "Honestly, we cannot be silent over this and we cannot be silent over Arbil being a headquarters for Daash, Baath, al Qaeda and terrorist operations."

"They (militant groups) will lose and so will their hosts because they failed to provide an example of patriotic partnership," he added.

Daash is the former Arabic acronym for ISIS, which is now referring to itself in English as Islamic State.

Kurds have held protests calling for independence

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have fled to Kurdish-controlled areas to escape the militant onslaught.

Mr al Maliki's comments are thought to have been prompted by a Kurdish announcement last week that plans were being sped up to hold a referendum on self-determination.

Kurdish forces have recently moved into areas on the edge of their autonomous region that have been disputed by both sides.

As ISIS fighters swept east and south from Mosul, the Kurds took control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, creating a buffer zone against the militants.

Observers have claimed the developments of the past month have brought the break-up of the country nearer.

Although Iraqi Kurdistan is considered a sovereign part of Iraq, it has its own government and is not protected by Iraq's internal security forces.

However, it is not officially responsible for dealing with international affairs.

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Israel Airstrike On Gaza 'Kills Five Children'

An Israeli airstrike into Gaza has killed seven civilians, including 5 children, according to Palestinian authorities who say it was the deadliest single bombing so far.

Residents claim two houses were hit in the attack in a densely populated area near Khan Younis.

According to Palestinian officials another 16 people were injured in the attack.

It comes as Prime Minister David Cameron voiced his support for Israel and its response to what he calls "appalling" rocket strikes from Hamas militants.

Locals search through rubble after the attack

The Israeli army has stepped up its offensive on the Gaza Strip in an effort to hit Hamas targets, as militants continue to fire rockets at Israeli cities.

Mr Cameron phoned Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to offer his support.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "(He) spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this evening about the situation in Israel.

"The Prime Minister strongly condemned the appalling attacks being carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians.

"The Prime Minister reiterated the UK's staunch support for Israel in the face of such attacks, and underlined Israel's right to defend itself from them."

In response to the escalating conflict, the United Nations Security Council is set to convene in New York on Thursday.

"Gaza is on a knife-edge," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

"The deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral which could quickly get out of control. The risk of violence expanding further still is real."

The exchange of fire marks the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas since an eight-day battle in November 2012.

More than 3 million Israeli citizens are under threat of rocket attack

The IDF launched the major air campaign above Gaza on Tuesday, targeting the homes of suspected militants and concealed rocket launch locations.

More than 400 airstrikes have taken place, with 50 people killed in Gaza.

Israel said it had hit more than 300 targets and Hamas positions throughout Gaza.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said "at least 82 rockets hit Israel" on Wednesday, and 21 were intercepted.

Hamas said it fired three rockets on Wednesday at Dimona, targeting what Israel claimed was its highly secure nuclear reactor site.

Israel has launched repeated airstrikes to thwart militants in Gaza

There have been no Israeli deaths, but the barrages have paralysed business in southern communities.

Mr Netanyahu has warned Hamas that it will pay a "heavy price" for the rocket attacks, many of which have targeted populated areas of Israel.

The Israeli cabinet has said it may also send in ground troops and has authorised the call-up of as many as 40,000 reservists.

Israel has started to amass troops around the Gaza Strip

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of committing atrocities in Gaza.

Mr Abbas said: "It's genocide - the killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people."

The US State Department said it has called for all sides to deescalate, but reiterated Israel's right of self-defence.

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