Israeli air strikes kill Hamas leader

An Israeli air strike on a home in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a senior Hamas political leader, Hamas security sources said.

Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas leader to be killed by Israel in a six-day-old Gaza air offensive, was an outspoken advocate of renewing suicide bombings against the Jewish state.

Rayyan, who was considered a hardliner within the Islamist group, was killed with at least ten other people in the house that he shared with one of his four wives in Jabaliya in the north of the territory, the medics said.

In the minutes following the strike, dozens of people rushed to the scene, pulling bodies from the rubble.

A few months after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Rayyan vowed at a Gaza City rally that the Islamists would also seize control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank which is still administered by Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

New Year

The New Year in Gaza began Thursday with air strikes as Israeli jets pounded Hamas targets for a sixth day, while the Islamists' vow to fight to the end materialized as Qassam rockets were fired in response to this morning's blitz, amid the continued mobilization of Israeli forces along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes carried out some 20 strikes in the battered enclave overnight, the army said, after the Jewish state's security cabinet rejected international proposals of a truce in one of its deadliest-ever offensives on Gaza.

Hamas rockets

Jets pounded Hamas government buildings, rocket launching sites and tunnels used to smuggle in weapons and supplies into the territory that Israel has kept virtually sealed since the Islamists assumed power there in June 2007.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, fired five rockets in response to Israel's renewed blitz, hitting for the first time the Israeli air base Ansrim - the largest air base in southern region.

The Israeli army said no casualties were caused.

The death toll from "Operation Cast Lead," unleashed by Israel on Saturday in retaliation for ongoing rocket fire from the enclave, exceeded 412 with over 2,000 people wounded, the head of Gaza emergency services Moawiya Hassanein said.

The United Nations said that at least 25 percent of those killed have been civilians.

Until the last breath

Hamas vowed to fight "until the last breath" if Israel made good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza.

The Jewish state has been amassing tanks and personnel on the border of the territory, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak repeatedly warning of a ground assault to accompany the air raids.

Despite international appeals for the bloodshed to end, Israel's security cabinet rejected proposals for a ceasefire on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert saying conditions were not yet ripe for a truce.

Attempting to find a solution

World leaders and diplomats continued to scramble to find a way to stop the operation that has sent anger spiraling in the Muslim world.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency session but adjourned without a vote after Arab countries pushed for a demand for an immediate ceasefire. Western delegates described the Arab-drafted resolution as unbalanced and said negotiations would continue to reach an agreed text.

The draft resolution "strongly condemns all military attacks and the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by Israel, the occupying power, which have led to the death and injury of scores of innocent Palestinian civilians, including women and children."

It calls for "an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides."

Despite the Palestinian envoy to the U.N. Rijad Mansour's demand for a binding resolution to secure an immediate ceasefire, the U.S. ambassador at the U.N. said that it was up to both Hamas and Israel to agree to a ceasefire without involving the U.N.

France said it would host Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday and that President Nicolas Sarkozy would travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank on Monday. In a New Year's message, Sarkozy said he will visit the Middle East in a bid to "find a roadmap towards peace."

Hamas said it would consider ceasefire proposals that include an end to the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza since the Islamists seized power.

In an official televised address on Wednesday Hamas leader Ismail Haniya vowed to defeat Israel.

"Our people will defeat those tanks and soliders," he continued, "If the aggression is halted unconditionally and the blockade is lifed and the border passages are opened, we can then discuss all other issues in a positive manner," he said.

Our people will defeat those tanks and soliders. If the aggression is halted unconditionally and the blockade is lifed and the border passages are opened, we can then discuss all other issues in a positive manner,

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya

Israelis in favor of offensive

Since the start of the offensive, Israel has hit more than 450 sites in Gaza, an overcrowded territory home to 1.5 million people sandwiched between the Jewish state and Egypt. 25 percent of those killed are civilians according to the latest U.N. report.

Gaza militants have fired more than 250 rockets -- including some that have reached deeper than ever inside Israel – killing three civilians and one soldier and wounding several dozen people.

The bombardment has raised concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a tiny, aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million people that has been crippled by Israel's blockade.

Since the beginning of the operation, Israel has allowed the transfer of some 6,500 tons of aid into Gaza, according to the defense ministry. It was not immediately clear whether aid would be allowed in on Thursday.

A poll in Israel’s Haaretz daily showed a majority of Israelis, 52 percent, favored pursuing the attacks in Gaza, with just 20 percent backing calls for a ceasefire, and 19 percent favoring the launch of a ground offensive into Gaza.

Olmert told his security cabinet that if a diplomatic solution could be found that ensured better security for southern Israel, the government would consider it.