- Title: GAZA: Israel hits Gaza with more strikes, seven wounded
- Date: 23rd May 2007
- Summary: CLOSE OF RED FLASHING LIGHT ON AMBULANCE AMBULANCES OUTSIDE HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 7th June 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA8F9MZVXFVKGGA0UVWCW820AA7
- Story Text: Early morning Israeli air strikes wound seven people in Gaza as tension mounts following days of attacks. Israel launched more air strikes on suspected Gaza militants on Wednesday (May 23) which wounded seven people, hospital officials and residents of the northern part of the coastal strip said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said an aircraft had fired missiles into a building used to store munitions and that secondary explosions were observed.
Television pictures showed a building levelled to the ground at the site where an Israeli missile hit in Jabalya. Neighbours and paramedics searched the debris for survivors.
An earlier attack on Tuesday (May 22) also wounded four farmers in Gaza City.
Israel said on Tuesday it could target Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and that a Gaza ground offensive was an option unless world pressure was brought on the Islamist group to halt rocket fire.
The threat caused the delay of a meeting between Haniyeh and President Mahmoud Abbas who arrived in Gaza on Tuesday to discuss maintaining law and order and perhaps resuming a Gaza truce with Israel.
The Israeli army said about 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza in a week in which Hamas, which had been battling Abbas's Fatah faction, turned to attacks against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of aiding its rival.
A woman was killed on Monday (May 21) in the Israeli town of Sderot, the first fatality in a Palestinian rocket attack since November.
Israeli air strikes over the past week have killed at least 34 Palestinians, medical officials said in Gaza. Militant groups said 23 of the dead were fighters. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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