Israel claims it has killed more than 550 Palestinian fighters since the operation began on Dec. 27. Army spokesman Jacob Dallal declined to confirm the number but said "several hundred" fighters, most of them from Hamas, had been killed. "There is no question that the military ability of Hamas has been diminished," he said. But Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, speaking from exile in Syria, said Israel was making no headway as he accused Tel Aviv of a holocaust in Gaza. "I can say with full confidence that on the military level the enemy has totally failed; it has not achieved anything," Meshaal said in pre-recorded remarks broadcast on Al Arabiya TV and other Arabic satellite stations. "Has it stopped the rockets?" he asked of Israel's declared aim in launching the offensive.
Meshaal is not the first to label what is happening in Gaza a holocaustl; last week Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, used the same term to describe the crisis. Since Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead' began the death toll has rapidly climbed as is quickly approaching one thousand deaths with at least 3,490 injured, prompting protests worldwide against the huge number of civilian casualties.