- Title: GAZA: Israel fires missile into Gaza Strip
- Date: 2nd January 2006
- Summary: VARIOUS INTERIOR HIT BY MISSILE/ CLEAR UP OF MISSILE DEBRIS (11 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 17th January 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVAA6J24AOZMYAP6YPTZYRNKFIX7
- Story Text: Israeli aircraft fired a missile on Monday (January 2) into a building in the southern Gaza Strip that is often used by members of the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas, residents said.
The Israeli army said that it had "targeted a building used by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror organisation". The Brigades are part of Fatah. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The armed Palestinian group has been behind much of the firing of makeshift rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel that has prompted the Israeli declaration of a "no-go zone" in the northern Gaza Strip last week.
Violence has been on the increase since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last September after 38 years of occupation.
Militant groups have said that as of Jan. 1 they are no longer abiding by a promise they made to Abbas last year to follow a "period of calm". They say rocket attacks are a response to Israeli military actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Abbas has appealed to the factions to continue their de facto truce.
Israel rules out talks on Palestinian statehood until the groups are disarmed, a process that is meant to start under a U.S.-backed peace road map. Israel has failed to meet its own promise under the plan to freeze West Bank settlement building. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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