A Palestinian man kneels by his wounded daughter at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Jan. 18.

Gaza CITY,
Occupied Palestine, Jan. 20--Israel’s complete closure of the Gaza Strip began to take its toll on residents on Saturday as the army kept up its strikes on the Hamas-ruled territory, killing two militants in a pre-dawn raid.
Israel announced on Thursday it would close all crossings into and out of Gaza for several days to all but essential humanitarian aid, intensifying its almost two-year siege of the territory aimed at stemming sporadic rocket fire, AFP said.
In the Shaata refugee camp in Gaza City the already weary residents, most of whom survive on UN food aid, braced for even more hardship.
“I have eight children, and me and my wife make 10. We will die of hunger. There is no work, nothing,“ says Hamidu, 40, a mechanic in the camp who declined to give his last name.
“Every week since Hamas took over the situation has gotten worse. But the blockade is not against Fatah or Hamas, it is against the entire Palestinian people.“
Israel kept up its assault on Saturday, killing at least two Hamas militants in an air strike north of Gaza City and launching a second strike that left no casualties.
Israel has escalated operations in Gaza since Tuesday, killing at least 36 militants in the biggest flare-up of violence since Hamas took power in June, while Hamas militants have launched some 200 rockets into southern Israel.
An Israeli army spokesman said four Hamas militants were captured overnight Friday in Jabaliya camp, north of Gaza City.
Sources close to Hamas confirmed the report and said the militants were among 10 people arrested.
The Israeli army also reported that eight rockets were fired at Israel on Saturday, but said only three hit the Jewish state causing no casualties.

MOSCOW, Jan. 20--Russia’s military chief of staff said that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies.
Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky’s comment did not mark a policy shift, military analysts said. Amid disputes with the West over security issues, it may have been meant as a warning that Russia is prepared to use its nuclear might, reported AP.
“We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand ... that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively with the use of nuclear weapons,“ Baluyevsky said at a military conference in a remark broadcast on state-run cable channel Vesti-24.
According to the state-run news agency RIA-Novosti, Baluyevsky added that Russia would use nuclear weapons and carry out preventive strikes only in accordance with Russia’s military doctrine.
The military doctrine adopted in 2000 says Russia may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that poses a critical risk to Russia’s security.
Retired Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, formerly a top arms control expert with the Russian Defense Ministry, said he saw “nothing new“ in Baluyevsky’s statement. “He was restating the doctrine in his own words,“ Dvorkin said.
Moscow-based military analyst Alexander Golts said that when Russia broke with stated Soviet-era policy in the 2000 doctrine and declared it could use nuclear weapons first against an aggressor, it reflected the decline of Russia’s conventional forces in the decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20--South Carolina is seen as significant because, since 1980, every Republican candidate who has won in South Carolina has gone on to win the party’s nomination.
In Saturday’s other contest, Mitt Romney won Nevada’s Republican caucus, taking 52% of the vote with 99% of the returns counted, reported BBC.
Ron Paul, the only other Republican seriously to campaign in the state, came second with 14%, ahead of McCain with 13%.
The caucus was largely overshadowed by South Carolina’s primary, where most of the candidates focused their efforts.
Addressing cheering supporters, a smiling McCain said: “We have a way to go, my friends, and we have some difficult contests to go--starting tomorrow in the state of Florida, where we are going to win.
“We are well on the way tonight and I feel very good about our challenges.“
He said he was running to keep the US “safe, prosperous and proud“ and promised to restore the trust of the American people in their government.
The Arizona senator also referred wryly to his defeat in the state by George W Bush in 2000, saying: “You know, it’s taken us a while--but what’s eight years among friends?“
Huckabee, conceding defeat, praised his rival for running a “decent and civil“ campaign and told his supporters: “The path to the White House is not ending here tonight.“
With 96% of the vote counted, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, who focused heavily on South Carolina, was in third place with 16% of the vote, just ahead of Romney.
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, who has made little headway in the race, announced he was dropping out before the votes were counted in South Carolina.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has virtually ignored the early races to concentrate on the bigger prize of Florida at the end of the month.

BELGRADE, Serbia, Jan. 20--Serbs voted on Sunday in a close presidential election that could decide future ties with the West after the expected loss of its breakaway Kosovo province.
Opinion polls ahead of the first round ballot gave hard-line challenger Tomislac Nikolic of the Radical party a slim lead over pro-Western President Boris Tadic, but not enough for outright victory, Reuters reported.
“I voted for a better future, for Nikolic,“ said 47-year old Nada Bilandzic, an early voter in a Belgrade suburb. “I am convinced his is the only party that can open factories and restore the economy.“
Polls suggest Nikolic will win 33 percent of the first-round vote and Tadic around 30 percent.
To win the February 3 run-off, the two candidates will try to attract third party votes with promises of higher living standards, jobs and the defense of Kosovo, which is heading for independence with Western backing within months.
Tadic opposes independence for Kosovo, regarded by Serbs as their historic heartland, but favors signing a first-level agreement with the European Union even if the bloc takes over Kosovo’s supervision as a prelude to recognizing the territory.
Nikolic’s Radical Party supported the policies of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in the war-torn 1990s and puts his trust in Russia.
“There’s a risk of the return of the old guard that led Serbia into conflicts and isolation in the 1990s and led people into turmoil and uncertainty,“ Tadic said of a Nikolic victory.
“But I am certain the people will not allow this, they will vote for stability and economic progress, for a better life for their families,“ he added.