GAZA: Israeli missile hits vehicle in northern Gaza, as violence escalates

Record ID: 340505

  • Title: GAZA: Israeli missile hits vehicle in northern Gaza, as violence escalates
  • Date: 17th April 2008
  • Summary: (W3) BEIT LAHIYA, GAZA (APRIL 16, 2008) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN FIREFIGHTERS ARRIVING AT BURNING VEHICLE STRUCK BY ISRAELI MISSILE VARIOUS OF FIREFIGHTERS USING HOSE TO PUT OUT FIRE CLOSE OF PARTS OF BURNING VEHICLE CLOSE OF SHRAPNEL AMBULANCE RUSHING TO HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA46BEY8MOCHCCADQG3NHDK7UI0
  • Story Text: An Israeli missile killed one Palestinian and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday (April 16) as violence escalated.
    Palestinian witnesses and army sources said an Israeli missile hit a vehicle in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, setting the vehicle ablaze.
    Palestinian firefighters rushed to the scene to put out the burning vehicle.
    At least one Palestinian died in the airstrike, according to Palestinian medical sources. The body and wounded were taken to a nearby hospital.
    The attack came hours after three Israeli soldiers and four Hamas gunmen were killed in clashes in the central Gaza Strip.
    Hamas said Israeli soldiers, backed by helicopters, killed four militants from the Islamist group during fighting east of Gaza City, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Nahal Oz border terminal used to supply fuel to the coastal territory.
    An Israeli army spokeswoman said three soldiers were killed and Israeli forces had shot several Palestinian gunmen during the fighting.
    Meanwhile, Hamas travelled to Egypt to meet former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in further defiance of Israeli leaders, who have shunned him over his contacts with the Islamist group.
    Senior leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Saeed Seyam travelled through the Rafah terminal to Cairo for talks with Carter, who began a Middle East visit on Sunday (April 13).

    "President Carter was able to break all the Israeli restrictions which tried to stop him from meeting Hamas. Therefore, he insisted on meeting our brothers in Damascus and he insisted, after not being allowed into Gaza, that we go and meet with him in Cairo. This is the first point. President Carter reaffirmed Hamas's legitimacy as a national liberation movement -- even if he did not say that in meetings -- that it is not a terrorist organisation," al-Zahar said before passing through the terminal.
    Speaking earlier at a peace forum in a hotel in Arab East Jerusalem, Carter said that to have Hamas completely excluded from talks was counterproductive.
    Carter had wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, which is governed by Hamas, but Israel rejected his request.
    Carter has angered the Israeli government with plans to meet Hamas's top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and by describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as "a system of apartheid" in a 2006 book.
    Carter, a broker of Israel's 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, met Israel's ceremonial president Shimon Peres on Sunday but was shunned by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other policymakers.
    Israel and Washington have sought to isolate Hamas and bolster Abbas, who has entered U.S.-backed peace talks with Olmert.
    Like Israel, the Bush administration opposes Carter's planned meeting with Meshaal.
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