ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/VIOLENCE-UPDATE Israeli air strikes leave destruction on Gaza's coast
Record ID:
165424
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/VIOLENCE-UPDATE Israeli air strikes leave destruction on Gaza's coast
- Title: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/VIOLENCE-UPDATE Israeli air strikes leave destruction on Gaza's coast
- Date: 27th May 2015
- Summary: BEIT LAHIYA, GAZA (MAY 27, 2015) (REUTERS) VIEW OF BEACHFRONT ISLAMIC JIHAD TRAINING CAMP HIT IN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE ABANDONED STRUCTURE AT ISLAMIC JIHAD TRAINING CAMP ON BEACH ISLAMIC JIHAD FLAG CLOSE OF FLAG AT TRAINING CAMP RESIDENTS AND MEDIA TOURING SITE HIT IN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE VIEW OF CRATER PEOPLE EXPLORING AREA DEBRIS EZZE ELDEEN AL-DAHMON, HEAD OF BEIT LAHIYA MUNICIPALITY WALKING PASSED (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) EZZE ELDEEN AL-DAHMON, HEAD OF BEIT LAHIYA MUNICIPALITY, SAYING "This bombardment near the sewage basins that contain one million cubic metres of sewage and waste water could have caused grave danger. If these basins had been damaged, sewage could have drowned thousands of people as a result of this savage Zionist bombardment on the northern Gaza Strip". AL-DAHMON WALKING NEARBY POOL VIEW OF WATER POOLS HIT IN STRIKE BEACHFRONT TRAINING CAMP DEBRIS IN SAND ABANDONED STRUCTURE WITH ISLAMIC JIHAD FLAG ON TOP CHAIRS AND METAL PIECES ON BEACH VIEW OF ABANDONED BEACHFRONT TRAINING CAMP ISLAMIC JIHAD FLAGS DONKEY PASSING BY ENTRANCE TO CAMP
- Embargoed: 11th June 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Gaza
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA3A6FCTMZX315AJXJZDZIBOA3C
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Palestinians examined damage at an Islamic Jihad training camp on Gaza's northern beachfront struck by Israeli aircraft early on Wednesday (May 27) after a rocket that Palestinian militants fired from the enclave landed near the Israeli port city of Ashdod.
The Israeli military said it struck four "terror infrastructures" in the southern Gaza Strip and that hits were confirmed. There were no reports of any casualties or damage.
Gaza residents said missiles struck several locations throughout the Gaza Strip, including places used as training camps by Islamic Jihad militants on sites that had been Israeli settlements before Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The strikes also hit water pools that could have potentially caused severe damage, according to the head of the Beit Lahiya municipal council Izz Eldeen Al-Dahnoun.
"This bombardment near the sewage basins that contain one million cubic metres of sewage and waste water could have caused grave danger. If these basins had been damaged, sewage could have drowned thousands of people as a result of this savage Zionist bombardment on the northern Gaza Strip," said Al-Dahnoun.
Tuesday's (May 26) rocket landed near Ashdod some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the Gaza border and security forces were searching for remnants. It was the longest-range militant rocket strike since a truce that ended the 50-day war last year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility in Gaza for the rocket launching.
"These strikes are a direct response to Hamas and the aggression against Israeli civilians originating from the Gaza Strip," military spokesman Lieutenant-Coloner Peter Lerner said in a statement. "The reality that Hamas' territory is used as a staging ground to attack Israel is unacceptable and intolerable and will bear consequences."
Last year, militants in Gaza launched thousands of rockets and mortar bombs into Israel during a July-August war in which Israeli shelling and air strikes battered the small, coastal Palestinian enclave.
The region has been largely quiet since the August ceasefire.
Israeli media speculated that infighting among Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza Strip may have precipitated the rocket firing without the permission of Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers.
Rival militant factions in Gaza are angry that months after the end of the war, no progress has been made to improve the isolated enclave's plight and pledges for funding to reconstruct buildings devastated during the war have not been honored.
Reconciliation efforts between Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas have faltered, adding to hardships and hampering foreign aid donations and the import of building materials.
Israel maintains a partial blockade on the territory and Egypt largely keeps the Rafah border crossing closed. Hamas has imposed a "solidarity tax" and salaries for workers not aligned with the Palestinian Authority are not being paid in full. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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