Israeli warplanes pounded militant targets including a mosque in Gaza on Friday as angry protests unfurled in many parts of the Muslim world on Hamas's “day of wrath” against the blistering assault that has killed more than 420 people. Thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and rock-throwing youths faced off with Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem after Hamas called for marches to follow Friday prayers. “We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for Gaza,” chanted the demonstrators.Hamas called for the protests after an Israeli air strike killed Nizar Rayan, a firebrand hardliner, and several of his wives and children. At least 422 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's seven-day-old blitz, with at least 25 percent of them civilians, according to a UN count. “After the last crime, all options are open to counter this aggression, including martyr operations against Zionist targets everywhere,” Hamas official Ismail Radwan vowed after the attack. With Israeli tanks and troops massed around Gaza for a threatened ground offensive and no ceasefire in sight, the army allowed foreigners to leave the battered enclave. The Israeli military pounded the densely populated territory for a seventh day, carrying out some 20 strikes overnight, bombing rocket launching sites and Hamas buildings, the army said. Among the targets was a mosque in the northern town of Jabaliya that the military said was a “terror hub,” used to stockpile weapons and as a Hamas operations center. The Israeli offensive has sparked angry protests in the Muslim world. In the latest protests, tens of thousands took to the streets of Jakarta, thousands demonstrated in Afghanistan, more than 4,000 Muslims demonstrated in Sydney and hundreds of Muslims burnt Israeli flags in Indian-administered Kashmir. There were also protests by Muslims in Tehran, Cairo, Amman, Damascus, Nairobi and Moscow. In Tehran, a crowd of about 6,000 stretching for a kilometer marched from prayers at Tehran University to Palestine Square, chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” and burning Israeli flags. They also carried banners reading: “Don't kill Children” and “Real Holocaust is happening in Gaza.” Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran's most powerful politician-clerics, said in a sermon to several thousand worshippers that an Israeli military defeat in Gaza would be a “scandal” for its government and that, even if the Hamas government there collapses, Palestinian “resistance” will only expand. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned Israel that entering Gaza “by land will be the biggest mistake of the Zionist regime.” He vowed Israel would be “defeated” in a ground attack. Iran is a major backer of Hamas, giving it millions of dollars.
