GAZA: Misslle kills four militants in early morning air strikes

Record ID: 338801

  • Title: GAZA: Misslle kills four militants in early morning air strikes
  • Date: 3rd November 2006
  • Summary: (W1) BEIT HANOUN, GAZA (NOVEMBER 3, 2006) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SCENES) WIDE OF PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND SITE WHERE AN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE TARGETED A MILITANT'S CAR PALESTINIANS STANDING AROUND REMAINS OF CAR LOOKING AT WRECKAGE VARIOUS OF CHILDREN LOOKING AT SITE VARIOUS OF DAMAGE MORE OF CHILDREN BY CAR VARIOUS OF INTERIOR OF CAR WIDE OF AREA
  • Embargoed: 18th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA18Z3QJ88YGEA8WHD0UQ7YI4N1
  • Story Text: An Israeli air strike killed four Palestinian militants in Gaza on Friday (November 3) ratcheting up violence further as the army pushed ahead with one of its biggest offensives in the strip in months.
    Hamas sources said a vehicle carrying four members belonging to an elite unit of the group's armed wing was targeted by a missile in Gaza City.
    An Israeli military source confirmed an "aerial attack on a vehicle carrying terrorists".
    Ammar Mushtaha, a Hamas commander who had survived previous assassination attempts, was among the four killed as well as bodyguard for one of the ministers in the Hamas-led government.
    With the latest attack, 20 Palestinians have been killed, more than half of them militants, since Israeli troops entered the northern Gazan town of Beit Hanoun on Wednesday (November 1) . One Israeli soldier has been killed in the operation.
    The offensive has further weakened any chance of resuming peace talks, already minimal since Hamas took office in March after winning elections. Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction.
    In further violence, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian militant in the West Bank and critically wounded his 15-year-old brother, Palestinian sources said.
    Israeli troops exchanged fire on Friday with 60 Palestinian gunmen holed up in inside a mosque in the centre of Beit Hanoun.
    Witnesses said earlier Israeli bulldozers had demolished a wall of the mosque, adding troops fired stun grenades and teargas in the area of the mosque to try to force the gunmen to surrender.
    The Israeli military source said some militants had given themselves up. The gunmen included militants involved in rocket attacks against Israel, the source said.
    Residents said Beit Hanoun, a town of 30,000 people, was effectively under an army curfew and in its control.
    Hospital officials said a four-year-old Palestinian boy from the town was declared dead on Friday after being wounded on Thursday by a tank shell. Another child was critically wounded.
    Separately Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said an air strike east of neighbouring Jabalya had critically wounded two militants.
    A military spokesman said an aerial attack had targeted armed gunmen planting explosives they intended to detonate against Israeli troops.
    Witnesses said Israeli tanks and bulldozers were spotted on the outskirts of Jabalya. The Israeli military said it was not aware of such a deployment in that area.
    The operation is aimed partly at halting rocket fire at the Jewish state from the area. Militants in other parts of Gaza still managed to launch six homemade missiles at the Israeli border town of Sderot on Thursday, wounding at least two people, medical officials said.
    On Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet agreed to continue Gaza operations and step up pressure on Hamas, a government statement said. It did not elaborate.
    In a separate development, Palestinian officials said Hamas and Fatah had agreed in principle to form a new government.
    Details were expected to be finalised soon. Some sources said the deal could see the formation of a government of "technocrats" without direct affiliation to either faction.
    Hamas has said the bloodshed could also complicate Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at arranging a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for an Israeli soldier abducted by militants in a cross-border raid in June.
    The Gaza assault is one of the biggest in the Palestinian territories since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza to try to force the release of the soldier and halt rocket fire.
    More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the four-month-old offensive, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed.
    Israel withdrew its army and Jewish settlers from Gaza last year after a 38-year occupation, but tension increased along the frontier when Hamas took office and rebuffed Western demands that it recognise Israel and renounce violence.
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