GAZA: Three Palestian bystandards killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip

Record ID: 341270

  • Title: GAZA: Three Palestian bystandards killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip
  • Date: 21st June 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FATHER OF DEAD CHILD, JAMAL ABU ABDALLAH SAYING: "Children playing in the streets and we have missiles falling on them and in front of the house children, what does this mean? 5-years-old the boy. I was sitting at home and the child is playing in front of me he is playing I could see him from the balcony he was playing with his cousins. His uncle is in
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA3YYK2GF1876K4MDHUJ7ACOSR2
  • Story Text: Israel killed three Palestinian children, two of them siblings, in an air strike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday (June 20) after its defence minister pledged to step up military actions against cross-border rockets salvoes.
    Witnesses said aircraft fired at least one missile at a car carrying al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants in Gaza City. The occupants managed to leap free but a 7-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother nearby were killed, as was a youth, 16.
    "Children playing in the streets and we have missiles falling on them and in front of the house children, what does this mean? 5-years-old the boy. I was sitting at home and the child is playing in front of me he is playing I could see him from the balcony he was playing with his cousins. His uncle is injured his cousins are injured and they are small children playing, God help us," Jamal Abu Abdallah, father of dead children told Reuters.
    Another nine bystanders, most of them minors, were wounded.
    Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, under pressure from residents of border towns that have been targeted by Gazan rocket crews, on Monday promised new military counter-measures "within a matter of dozens of hours" but did not elaborate.
    Israel Radio, quoting witnesses, reported armoured units massing outside northern Gaza. There have been no major Israeli ground operations in Gaza since Israel quit the strip last year after 38 years of occupation in a bid to defuse conflict.
    Tuesday's air strike came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, scrambling to salvage peacemaking with Israel despite opposition from the new Islamic Hamas government with which he shares power, urged an end to the rocket fire.
    An Israeli army spokesman said the air strike had targeted militants wanted for attacks on Israel. The spokesman expressed regret over any civilian casualties but said responsibility lay with the Palestinians for failing to stop the rocket salvoes.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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