Seven Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes (3rd Roundup)

Middle East News

May 17, 2007, 18:03 GMT

Gaza City - Three children were among seven Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Thursday, while four more four died in internal factional fighting. The children were in their father's car, which belongs to the Rafah municipality, when it was struck by a missile in the latest attack of the day, witnesses said. The father was outside the vehicle and escaped unharmed. Two bystanders were seriously wounded. The Israeli military said the attack was aimed at Palestinian militants firing rockets into Israel. About a dozen such rockets landed in southern Israel Thursday, injuring at least one high school student. The strike came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved additional attacks on Gaza targets, according to a Channel 10 report. Haaretz newspaper reported tank movement at two points several hundred metres within the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Hamas movement has threatened to respond to the Israeli airstrikes. 'We are ready to send more violent messages' in addition to the rocket attacks, a spokesman for the group said. An Israeli airstrike two hours earlier killed a bodyguard of Khaled Abu Hilal, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, in Gaza City. At least two Hamas militants were killed in an earlier Israeli airstrike Thursday as the six-month-old Israeli-Palestinian truce in the Gaza Strip continued to disintegrate. The two men were killed when their car travelling towards Gaza City was hit. A third man, reported to be a high-ranking Hamas military leader, was seriously injured, a Hamas source said. Israeli F-16 warplanes also attacked a Hamas security compound in central Gaza City earlier Thursday, retaliating against an escalation in Palestinian rocket fire. At least one Hamas militant was killed and 32 people were injured, first aid officials confirmed, in the first airstrike on Gaza City since Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared the ceasefire on November 25. At least four Palestinians were also killed Thursday, as sporadic factional clashes between the rival Palestinian Hamas and Fatah persisted Thursday throughout the Strip despite a new internal truce taking effect at 8 pm (1700) the previous evening. Two others died of wounds, raising the total deaths in the worst- ever wave of Hamas-Fatah clashes since Sunday to at least 51. The three-story building served as the Gaza City headquarters of the Hamas-established Executive Security Force. It was completely destroyed. The dead and four of the injured were members of the force, while the rest were civilian bystanders, many of them women and children, hospital officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the airstrike, calling the target a Hamas military command and saying it was chosen because Hamas' military wing had claimed responsibility for firing most of more than 70 Gaza-made Qassam rockets launched at Israel since late Monday. The ruling Hamas movement had established the Executive Force shortly after it took office one year ago after winning parliamentary elections, and it consists mostly of members of its military wing. But while Hamas' military wing is behind the rocket fire, the Executive Force plays a central role in the fighting against Fatah- dominated security forces answering to Abbas. Olmert, after consultations with his defence minister and military achieve late Wednesday, announced an end to its policy of 'restraint' of the past six months, and said it would renew its targeted airstrikes against militant commanders who order the rocket fire and against the militant factions' 'infrastructure.' But it has also said that it will not be 'dragged' into the internal Palestinian power struggle. Since Hamas, which does not recognize the Jewish state and opposes a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, won the January 2006 parliamentary elections, Israel has nevertheless adopted an open policy of strengthening the moderate Abbas against Hamas. In the ongoing infighting, two Hamas members were killed in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah when a funeral for Hamas fighters came under fire. Hamas accused the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security of targeting the funeral. A 22-year-old woman was also killed. 'She caught in crossfire the followed the killing of the two participants at the funeral,' said Mua'wia Hassanin of the Red Crescent ambulance service. And Hamas accused Fatah of kidnapping one of its militants and executing him 'in cold blood' inside the Preventive Security headquarters in Gaza city. Abbas, of Fatah, cancelled a plan to travel to Gaza Thursday for a meeting with Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, to discuss boosting the ceasefire. Israel has accused Hamas of intensifying it rocket fire from Gaza in the past days to divert attention from the internal Palestinian fighting and funnel the wrath of armed factions in the Strip against it, rather than each other. Some one dozen Qassam rockets were launched against Israel Thursday. One of them struck an empty classroom of a high school in the Israeli town of Sderot, located immediately north-east to the Strip. One pupil was lightly injured by shrapnel. Hamas' military wing, but also a Fatah off-shoot and the Islamic Jihad faction, claimed responsibility for firing Thursday's rockets. Several Israeli tanks meanwhile also crossed several dozen metres over the border into the northern Gaza Strip for 'observation purposes,' military sources said. The military said the force consisted of a 'very small' number of tanks which stopped very close to the border fence. She called the incursion 'routine' and stressed it was not the start of a ground offensive in Gaza. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Talkback

Add your comment (no registration required)

page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

MikeMay 17th, 2007 - 18:55:12

The Dirty Jews are at it again. Rally against the Jews and Kick them out of all finance and government institutes before they start ww3.

Report this comment

LRRP U.S.ARMYMay 17th, 2007 - 18:57:45

The pal's should not be so stupid as to let terrorists use them for human shelds,don't these terrorists know the world does not fall for there BS anymore.Israel needs to go into gaza in force and wipe as many terr'os as they can.

Report this comment

LRRP U.S.ARMYMay 17th, 2007 - 19:03:33

OH YEA WHY DON'T YOU TELL THE PUBLIC HOW MANY ISRAELS ARE KILLED OR HURT,WHY ARE YOU SO ONE SIDES,I THINK IF PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR THE REAL STORY THEY SHOULD GO TO ANOTHER SITE..........

Report this comment

ARYANMay 17th, 2007 - 19:04:52

LONG LIVE GERMANY LONG LIVE NATIONAL SOCIALISM

Report this comment

JSMay 17th, 2007 - 19:05:29

You're a jerk, Mike. The Jews are defending themselves, and have every right to do so. What are they supposed to do? Talking doesn't stop evil people from wanting to kill you.

Report this comment

MikeMay 17th, 2007 - 19:11:38

Im sure if there were so many Jews killed as you claim the Jewish controlled press would be all over it i mean look of what they made out of the Holocaust. What about the 50 million non Jew Russians that were killed in the years between the 1920's to the 1940's? Who were the Leaders? Lenin = Jew Trotsky = Jew Joseph Stalin = Jew

I dont see the Russians demanding money from Israel for the 50 million dead like Israel does for the so called 6 million killed under Germany. Germany built Israels entire infrastructure, from the water works to the electrics to the transport, not to mention the huge amounts of money and forced statues that are built. How many people of all countries died in that war and how many people demand money. ONLY THE JEWS. Jews are sick they mutilate there own children on the 8th day, they are a murdering criminal people.

Report this comment

KMay 17th, 2007 - 19:11:38

Israel is causing mischief in Gasa funding Fatah,
they do not want a peace settlement.
Just look what happened at the last peace settlement, the jews shot
there own leader.
Iran must progress with nukes. this will balance the power in the region.
US is getting kicked out of the middle east (after Britain tricked it into going to war)then Isreal will be (not wipped of the map) but will be replaced.

as someone said. it takes 3 generations
the first to learn, the second to fight and the third to win.

Report this comment

AfghanMay 17th, 2007 - 19:27:48

Guys, whenever you lose one of your close person like anyone from your family or anyone of your friends on such fights you will never support the word of WAR , I pray for all the world weighter they are Muslims, jews , christians or any kinds of religion supporters to be united and live in peace, when you kill someone for sure you will be killed , no one lives forever in this world everyone will go, and these lands will all remain but we will not.. remember that war is not the only solution, I say it cause I have experienced war, discrimination, ALLAH HAFFIZ

Report this comment

Anti-NaziMay 17th, 2007 - 19:31:59

Disgusting fascists on this site - GET LOST NAZIS.

There are plenty of Jewish people that absolutely detest the state of Israel and everything it stands for - whereas there certainly aren't plenty of Nazis who give a toss about anyone other than 'the master race' (ha ha - what a joke that is when these brain-dead bozos don't have 2 brain cells to rub together).

Nazis and other extremists are the problem not 'the Jews'. Tosser!

Report this comment

Jew BastardMay 17th, 2007 - 19:35:19

I am jew and I hate them

Report this comment

page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Add your comment (no registration required)

Middle East

Seven Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes (3rd Roundup)

Middle East News

Talkback

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in Middle East

Latest Articles on The Tech Herald

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print