GAZA: Two Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza, followed by another two airstrikes on Jabalya

Record ID: 338909

  • Title: GAZA: Two Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza, followed by another two airstrikes on Jabalya
  • Date: 26th May 2007
  • Summary: CLOSE OF WOUND IN MAN'S LEG
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAMKCEPUBBS699EASDUJR00IUE
  • Story Text: Israeli missiles pounded Gaza on Friday (May 25), killing two Hamas militants, as Palestinian factions argued among themselves about whether to stop firing rockets into Israel.
    Israel's air force destroyed a vehicle in Gaza City, killing two Hamas militants, witnesses said.
    The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the air strike in Gaza City's Sejaiya neighbourhood, an Islamist stronghold.
    The Israeli air force later pounded the Gaza Strip early on Saturday (May 26) even as the Islamist group and other militants signalled softer terms for ending cross-border rocket salvoes.
    Helicopter gunships fired missiles at a variety of Hamas assets, including a wood shop, militia posts, and a guardhouse outside the home of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. At least three people, all passers-by, were hurt, doctors said.
    The new barrage came hours after Hamas's armed wing and other militant factions said they were considering a proposal by moderate President Mahmoud Abbas for a ceasefire in Gaza.
    Previously, militants had demanded that in order to revive a Gaza truce declared in November, Israel must also agree to ceasing hostilities in the occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood. Israel rebuffed that demand.
    But after crisis talks with Abbas's Fatah faction, militants said they could accept a new, mutual ceasefire in Gaza alone. According to Fatah, they gave Israel until Sunday to respond.
    Israeli officials confirmed the airstrikes and said it belonged to Hamas forces.
    Since violence surged earlier this month, Israel has rejected calls for a ceasefire, instead lobbying foreign powers to pressure the Hamas-led government to back down. There has also been talk of deploying international peacekeepers in Gaza.
    The new Palestinian truce efforts underscore the precariousness of a power-sharing deal between Hamas and Fatah, which only recently stemmed a spate of street battles between their rival gunmen.
    Abbas wants calm in hope of reviving peace negotiations with Israel, circumventing Hamas. But he can not afford to appear the stooge of a state whom many Palestinians see as the real enemy.
    Hamas has diehard hostility to the Jewish state. But it is aware that the fighting has deepened Palestinian rancour at the government, already crippled by a Western aid embargo imposed over Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
    Haniyeh issued a statement from an undisclosed location calling Israel's air strikes a reflection of "moral bankruptcy" which would fail "because of the steadfastness of our people".
    The November truce did not apply to the West Bank, where Israel has mounted frequent and often bloody raids. It has said the operations were needed to thwart planned militant attacks. Israel's air strikes have killed at least 38 people, of which militant groups say 25 were fighters. Israeli troops also arrested the Palestinian education minister, who is from Hamas, and 32 other officials in the West Bank on Thursday -- a move that raised concerns in Washington and at the United Nations.
    More than 150 rockets have been fired in the past two weeks, ending six months of relative calm. One killed an Israeli woman this week in the town of Sderot. On Friday, three Sderot residents were wounded by a rocket salvo claimed by Hamas.
    Representatives of Fatah and Hamas may also meet Egyptian mediators separately in Cairo in the coming days, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said.
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