- Title: GAZA: ISRAELI MISSILES TARGET OFFICE OF ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER.
- Date: 15th May 2004
- Summary: (W1) GAZA CITY, GAZA (MAY 15, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. LV: ISRAELI PROJECTILE LANDING ON GAZA CITY 0.06 2. GV/MV: WRECKAGE OF CAR (2 SHOTS) 0.20 3. GV: DUMPSTER IN STREET, EXPLOSION GOES OFF (2 SHOTS) 0.35 4. GV: FIRE TRUCK DRIVING THROUGH STREET 0.40 5. GV: CROWDS IN FRONT OF AMBULANCE PARKED IN STREET 0.45 6. GV: FIRE BURNING IN BUILDING 0.50 7. GV: AMBULANCE DRIVING THROUGH STREET 1.01 8. GV/MV/PAN: WOUNDED ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL (2 SHOTS) 1.46 9. GV: EXPLOSION FROM ANOTHER ISRAELI PROJECTILE 1.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 30th May 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GAZA CITY, GAZA
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVADH4HZLPJP36TS0Q0XMW5BUPMR
- Story Text: Israel fires missiles at Gaza overnight, targeting
Islamic Jihad leader's office
Israeli missiles struck the Gaza office and home of
Islamic Jihad's top leader early on Saturday (May 15) in a
failed bid to assassinate him, apparently in retalation for
the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers this week.
Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired eight missiles
at the targets, wounding at least eight Palestinians, but
officials of the militant group said Mohammed al-Hindi had
safely fled the area.
The attempt on al-Hindi's life followed Israel's
assassinations of the two senior Hamas leaders in the Gaza
Strip in recent weeks.
The missile barrage came hours after two Israeli
soldiers were killed by Hamas militants in a refugee camp
in the southern Gaza Strip in the latest in a series of
ambushes that has dealt the Middle East's mightiest army
its worst blow in two years.
Helicopters first fired three missiles into an Islamic
studies centre housing al-Hindi's office and then targeted
his home in another part of the densely populated city with
five missiles, witnesses said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Islamic groups sworn to
Israel's destruction, are the driving force behind a
campaign of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of
Israelis during three and a half years of conflict.
Hamas claimed responsibility for killing six soldiers
in a troop carrier on Tuesday during a raid in Gaza City,
and Islamic Jihad said it was behind a similar bombing that
killed five servicemen on Wednesday.
Polls showed deepening support in Israel for Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan, now stalled by
hardliners in his own rightist party, as this week's losses
reminded Israelis of the high cost of the hard-to-defend
Gaza settlements.
The Gaza violence has also raised concern among Israeli
military planners that Palestinians have adopted the
tactics of Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas that eventually
ended Israel's occupation of south Lebanon in 2000.
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