Days of intense violence. Inside gaza, it looks every bit as if palestinians are feeling the full force of Israeli Military power. Israel says hamas is responsible for the suffering of gazas civilians. And its retaliation for the hamas attack is only just begun. Hamas has threatened to start killing its israeli hostages. The air strikes rolled on, hour after hour. Palestinian armed groups, undeterred, kept up their own barrage of israel. 0ur bbc team was in ashkelon in southern israel, not far from the gaza border when a salvo came in. Ashkelon is so close to gaza that there is no more than a ten second warning. Israel is moving in more fire power. The next stage of the offensive against hamas looks certain to be a Ground Offensive, much bigger than other incursions since hamas took over in gaza in 2007. Lines of cars outside a Military Base on the road to gaza were parked by reservists as they reported for duty, getting ready, saying their goodbyes. Parents came to the base for a few
The Houston Rockets didn’t care that they beat an Oklahoma City squad that was missing its best player, All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Rockets celebrated loudly in the locker room after escaping with a win at one of the toughest venues in the league. Jalen Green scored 37 points and Houston won its 10th straight game, defeating the Thunder 132-126 in overtime on Wednesday night.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, Jalen Williams had 11 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter and the Oklahoma City Thunder snapped the Utah Jazz’s six-game winning streak with a 134-129 victory Thursday night. “We’re not feeling 100% and yet really competed for 48 minutes together on both ends against the hottest team in the league coming in,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. Williams, who shot 11 of 14, made four 3-pointers and has scored at least 25 points in three consecutive games.
Many of the expected contenders indeed look like contenders: Boston has the best record in the NBA, defending champion Denver has been predictably excellent, Milwaukee and Philadelphia are near the top of the East and the Los Angeles Clippers have a better record than anybody over the last six weeks or so. “They take the challenge, and they like to guard, particularly against these heavyweight teams,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said of his club.