- Title: GAZA: Israeli airstrikes hit Palestinian training camps in Gaza
- Date: 1st July 2006
- Summary: (W5) GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (JUNE 30, 2006) (REUTERS) WIDE OF CITY AS ISRAELI JET STRIKES TRAINING CAMP FIRE FIGHTERS RUSHING TO BURNING STRUCTURE FIRE FIGHTER EXTINGUISHING FIRE VARIOUS OF DEBRIS DAMAGED STRUCTURE AT TRAINING CAMP MEN HOLDING MISSILE PART FIRE FIGHTERS, RESIDENTS AT SITE FIRE TRUCK / PAN TO SITE
- Embargoed: 16th July 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVA33XGG2UOMNJ7T6YOXYDEE79JB
- Story Text: The Israeli airforce targeted two training camps for militants in the Gaza Strip on Friday (June 30) on the third day of a military operation aimed at bringing home an abducted Israeli soldier.
Earlier on Friday two militants were killed in air attacks the army said were aimed at squads firing rockets into Israel.
The attacks marked the first casualties since troops pushed into south Gaza in their first raid into the Strip since Israel pulled out of it last year.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh demanded Israel halt a Gaza offensive if it wanted to free the captured soldier.
Israel has launched more than a dozen missile attacks in the past 24 hours, some of which set ablaze several buildings, including the Interior Ministry.
The crisis has sent Israeli-Palestinian relations to new lows and piled more pressure on the Hamas Islamist government, already straining under a U.S.-led aid embargo to get it to renounce violence and drop its vow to destroy Israel.
Israeli officials have said the Jewish state would not bargain for the release of corporal Gilad Shalit. Militants from the Palestinian Resistance Committees, who claimed the abduction, have refused to say whether the 19-year-old gunner was alive.
Israel has also rejected a demand by militants to free Palestinian prisoners for information on Shalit's fate.
Troops raided a part of south Gaza earlier in the week and have massed near northern Gaza ahead of an expected raid. Diplomatic sources have said Israel had stood down an offensive into the territory to allow for mediation efforts to continue.
Israel is under international pressure to avoid civilian casualties that could result from a larger assault into densely populated Gaza, home to
4 million Palestinians. Attacks against gunmen in early June killed more than a dozen civilians.
Missile attacks earlier in the week knocked out bridges, water systems and a power substation, causing blackouts.
Palestinian officials say a shortage in supplies and food may worsen conditions in already-impoverished Gaza. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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