MIDEAST-GAZA-AIRSTRIKE/REAX Hamas warns Israeli retaliation likely to escalate conflict
Record ID:
341895
MIDEAST-GAZA-AIRSTRIKE/REAX Hamas warns Israeli retaliation likely to escalate conflict
- Title: MIDEAST-GAZA-AIRSTRIKE/REAX Hamas warns Israeli retaliation likely to escalate conflict
- Date: 20th December 2014
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (DECEMBER 20, 2014) (REUTERS) HAMAS SPOKESMAN IN GAZA, SAMI ABU ZUHRI, AT HIS OFFICE HAMAS FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS SPOKESMAN IN GAZA, SAMI ABU ZUHRI, SAYING: "The Israeli attack yesterday night on a Gaza site is a severe escalation. Hamas has warned Israel against the repetition of such irresponsible actions and calls on international community to prevent acts like the last Israeli aggression on Gaza." STREET IN GAZA CITY PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET HAMAS FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IMAD MUHSIN, RESIDENT OF GAZA, SAYING: "This escalation came when people were hoping to reconstruct what was destroyed in the last war and not see even more destruction brought to the Gaza Strip."
- Embargoed: 4th January 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA6JSJZTK5RJE9D3FACVE8O8LYF
- Story Text: Israeli aircraft bomb a Hamas militant base in the Gaza Strip on Friday (December 19) for the first time since the end of a war in the territory, in response to a rocket that militants launched earlier in the day.
Hamas said on Saturday (December 20) Israeli retaliation is likely to result in further escalation of violence.
"The Israeli attack yesterday night on a Gaza site is a severe escalation. Hamas has warned Israel against the repetition of such irresponsible actions and calls on international community to prevent acts like the last Israeli aggression on Gaza," Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said.
Israeli bombs struck in the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip. Local hospital officials said there were no casualties. The militant rocket fired earlier landed in a field in southern Israel and did not cause casualties.
Two previous cases of militant rockets landing in Israel have been recorded but there was no retaliation to them.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8 with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas. The fighting was ended by an Egyptian-brokered truce on August 26.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in seven weeks of fighting, according to the Gaza health ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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