GAZA: Israeli airstrikes kill two Palestinians and wound eight others near Rafah south of the Gaza strip

Record ID: 340260

  • Title: GAZA: Israeli airstrikes kill two Palestinians and wound eight others near Rafah south of the Gaza strip
  • Date: 21st April 2008
  • Summary: (W5) NEAR RAFAH, GAZA (APRIL 20, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE OF AMBULANCE ENTERING HOSPITAL GATES CARRYING WOUNDED AND DEAD BODY OF A PALESTINIAN KILLED DURING AN AIRSTRIKE ON A HOUSE IN SOUTH OF THE GAZA STRIP VARIOUS OF PEOPLE STANDING NEAR AMBULANCE PARKED IN FRONT OF HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 6th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAEV7OO96NS12C4JE3G93NI0AJJ
  • Story Text: Israeli air strikes killed two Palestinians, at least one of them a Hamas militant and wounded eight others on Sunday (April 20) in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and medical staff said.
    The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out air strikes and said militants had been targeted.
    One man was killed and three others wounded when a missile hit a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, medics and Hamas officials.
    An Israeli army spokeswoman said that a number of armed men had been targeted, Hamas said they were civilians.
    A Hamas gunman was killed in a strike earlier on Sunday and it brought to six the number of militants killed in Israeli air strikes since militants from the group drove bomb-laden vehicles into an Israeli border crossing on Saturday.
    Two Palestinian teenagers also died on Sunday of wounds sustained in an apparent Israeli attack that killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana in the Gaza Strip last week, raising the total death toll in that incident to six, hospital staff said.
    Almost 20 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed in last Wednesday's attack in intense violence in the Hamas-controlled enclave, after militants killed three Israeli soldiers earlier that day.
    Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, regularly launches raids which it says are aimed at militants responsible for cross-border rocket fire.
    Three Hamas militants were killed and 13 Israeli soldiers wounded in Saturday's bombing attack at Kerem Shalom in the southern Gaza Strip, the third major Palestinian assault on border crossing points in less than two weeks.
    Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, and opposes his U.S.-brokered peace negotiations with Israel. The Jewish state has tightened its cordon around Gaza since the takeover.
    Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met Hamas leaders in the region last week and proposed the group stop firing rockets while he pursues efforts with the Jewish state and the West to lift a blockade on the Gaza Strip, politicIans familiar with the talks said. Hamas said it was still studying the proposal.
    Carter was due back in Israel on Sunday. Israeli leaders have shunned the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Washington criticised him for his contacts with Hamas, which both the United States and Israel regard as a terrorist group.
    Separately, dozens of Palestinian journalists marched through the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday in protest at Shana's killing.
    Carrying his portrait, they called for an independent investigation into his death.
    Gaza doctors said darts sprayed from a controversial munition used by Israel killed Shana.
    The Israeli military said on Sunday night that it is investigating the circumstances of the Shana's death.
    In the final seconds of his surviving video, Shana filmed an Israeli tank firing a shell that apparently delivered the fatal round.
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