Israel kills Hamas military prompting emergency UN talks

Israel's killing of a Hamas military chief and seven others in air strikes on the Gaza Strip prompted the UN Security Council to call an emergency meeting as Islamic militants said the Jewish state had opened "the gates of hell." Egypt recalled its ambassador over Israel's hit on a car in Gaza City on Wednesday that killed Ahmed Jaabari and his bodyguard, followed by some 60 strikes in Gaza that killed another six people and wounded 90 more, according to the Hamas health and interior ministries. The Israeli navy fired at Hamas targets along the Gaza coast a military statement said. The UN Security Council was preparing to meet in closed session in New York from 9:00 pm (0200 GMT Thursday) with representatives from the Israeli and Palestinian missions, diplomats said. The meeting was hastily arranged after a call by Egypt for an emergency session. The Israeli military said that rockets continued to fall in southern Israel overnight, while reporting no injuries. Palestinians said that Israeli aircraft hit open ground and abandoned Hamas training sites. Israel earlier warned that its operation targeting militant groups in Gaza, which comes as the Jewish state prepares for general elections in January, was only beginning. "If it becomes necessary, we are prepared to expand the operation," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address on Wednesday evening, after consulting his security cabinet. Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the operation was to strengthen Israel's deterrence, damage militant groups' rocket-firing capabilities and stamp out attacks on Israel. "We are at the beginning, not end of this action," he warned, adding: "It won't be a quick fix." At the security cabinet meeting "it was decided... to permit the IDF (Israeli army), according to need and with the approval of the defence minister, to call up reservists," a cabinet statement said. An army spokesman told AFP that some notices had been issued to specific personnel but that so far there was no general call-up of army reservists. Washington backed Israel's right to defend itself and condemned recent Palestinian attacks. Netanyahu's office said that he called President Barack Obama and expressed "his deep appreciation" for the support. The air strikes capped five days of rising tension in and around Gaza, which saw Israel kill seven Palestinians and militants fire more than 120 rockets over the border, injuring eight. Jaabari's death sparked fury in Gaza City, with hundreds of members of Hamas and its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, chanting for revenge in and around Shifa hospital, where Jaabari's body was taken. Israel said it had also targeted "a significant number of long-range rocket sites" and was prepared to launch a ground operation if necessary in order to stamp out rocket fire. Police said that 83 rockets had been fired at Israel from Gaza in the aftermath of the Jaabari strike. A military spokeswoman told AFP that the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted 27 of the rockets. The Israeli strikes prompted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to recall Cairo's envoy to Israel and summon Israel's ambassador, his spokesman said. --'Gates of hell' -- Gaza's Hamas government welcomed the Egyptian move in a statement which also urged Arab leaders to push Israel to end its campaign. And at Morsi's request, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said top Arab diplomats were to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the violence. UN chief Ban Ki-moon held telephone talks with Netanyahu and Morsi and urged the Israeli leader "not to provoke a new cycle of bloodshed." Britain urged restraint and Russia said it was "very concerned." The Qassam Brigades, in a furious statement, said Israel had "opened the gates of hell on itself", while Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the strike was tantamount to a "declaration of war". Israel's last major operation in Gaza began at the end of December 2008, six weeks shy of general elections, when troops embarked on a 22-day campaign which killed 1,400 Palestinians -- half of them civilians -- and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.