GAZA: Israeli air strikes kill three Hamas members and three civilians, as cross-border violence continues for a second day

Record ID: 339329

  • Title: GAZA: Israeli air strikes kill three Hamas members and three civilians, as cross-border violence continues for a second day
  • Date: 9th April 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERED
  • Embargoed: 24th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gaza, Gaza
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3VGGRMUJK3YQ6IESKJKLEISS6
  • Story Text: Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed three militants from the Islamist group Hamas and three Palestinian civilians on Friday (April 8) in a second day of cross-border violence.
    The Israeli military said it hit Hamas militants from the ground and air. A later strike near the coast killed a third militant and wounded another, Gaza emergency medical sources said.
    An elderly Palestinian and two women died earlier when their house in Khan Younis was hit and three other women were wounded, according to hospital sources.
    At least 15 rockets have been fired into Israel since dawn, causing damage but no injuries, said a police spokesman. Police were restricting traffic near the border area and there appeared to be no early end in sight to operations.
    General Tal Russo, head of Israel forces Southern Command, told reporters that Hamas had been hit hard, and the operation was not over yet.
    Two years of low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when the Islamist Hamas group which rules Gaza fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, triggering a surge of fighting which killed 16 Palestinians.
    That spurt of violence subsided, but fighting flared again on Thursday when Hamas gunmen fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus, wounding two. Israel retaliated with planes and armoured forces, killing five Palestinians.
    Gaza militants on Thursday fired 45 rockets and mortars into Israel. Israeli forces struck targets throughout the densely populated territory, including Hamas positions, smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt and Gaza's derelict airport.
    Five Palestinians were killed and 30 others were injured.
    Hamas has again said it was interested in restoring "calm" to the front and was trying to get smaller militant groups to halt attacks.
    During Thursday's barrage, Israel used for the first time its short-range Iron Dome interceptor. Its missiles destroyed in mid-flight a rocket heading for the city of Ashkelon.
    Hamas, which does not recognise Israel's right to exist, seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The two wings of the Palestinian national movement remain enemies.
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