GAZA/WEST BANK: ISRAELI AIR STRIKES KILL HAMAS MILITANT AND WOUND 26 OTHER PALESTINIANS

Record ID: 342255

  • Title: GAZA/WEST BANK: ISRAELI AIR STRIKES KILL HAMAS MILITANT AND WOUND 26 OTHER PALESTINIANS
  • Date: 13th June 2003
  • Summary: (W7) GAZA CITY, GAZA (JUNE 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VIEW OVER CITY, SMOKE RISING FROM MISSILE STRIKE 00.21 (U6) GAZA CITY, GAZA (JUNE 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. PEOPLE RUSHING TO SCENE OF STRIKE 00.30 3. PEOPLE GATHERING AROUND SMOULDERING CAR WRECKAGE 00.57 4. HIGH VIEW OF PEOPLE RUNNING FROM SCENE, AMBULANCE AT SCENE 01.09 5. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND CAR SIFTING DEBRIS AND WRECKAGE 01.41 6. YOUTHS GATHERED AROUND WRECKED CAR, SHOUTING 02.05 7. WIDE PEOPLE GATHERED 02.11 (U6) GAZA CITY, GAZA (JUNE 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. VARIOUS OF INJURED BEING RUSHED INTO HOSPITAL/ AMBULANCES OUTSIDE 02.23 9. INJURED INCLUDING CHILDREN TAKEN INTO HOSPITAL EMERGENCY AREA 03.38 10. VARIOUS OF INJURED IN HOSPITAL 03.50 (U7) GAZA (JUNE 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 11. VARIOUS NIGHT VIEWS OF GAZA UNDER BOMBARDMENT 04.17 12. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AT THE SITE WHERE MISSILES HIT 04.39 (U7) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JUNE 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. EXTERIOR NIGHT VIEW OF PALESTINE AUTHORITY HEADQUARTERS WHERE PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT HAS BEEN HOLDING AN EMERGENCY SECURITY MEETING 04.45 14. PALESTINIAN MINISTER OF CABINET AFFAIRS YASSER ABED RABBO SPEAKING TO REPORTERS ABOUT THE STRIKES 04.48 15. SCU (SOUNDBITE) YASSER ABED RABBO SAYING: "This meeting tonight was the first meeting since a long time for the leaders of the security services in Gaza and the West Bank. This meeting was headed by Chairman Yasser Arafat. We discussed the security conditions in Gaza Strip, we confirmed the readiness of the Palestinian Authority to take its full responsibility on the security level in Gaza and in other parts in the West Bank on condition that Israel should stop completely the policy of assassinations, the policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people, the continuation of killing Palestinian civilians, the demolition of Palestinians towns and homes and the siege around Palestinan towns and cities. "The Palestinian security forces are ready, but they cannot practise their duties with the continuation of the Israeli aggression. There is a need to stop the aggression and there is a need for the withdrawal of Israeli military forces, in order to enable the Palestinian security forces to take their responsibility and control the security conditiosn in Gaza and in other parts in the West Bank." 06.25 16. EXTERIOR OF NIGHT VIEW OF PALESTINE AUTHORITY HEADQUARTERS 06.28 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA CITY, GAZA / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA36BVAWT6VC4WF0GSGNS8FJ2OQ
  • Story Text: Israeli air strikes killed a Hamas militant and wounded
    26 other Palestinians in Gaza City on Friday as the Jewish
    state vowed "war to the bitter end" on the Islamic group,
    despite U.S. calls for restraint.



    Two helicopter missile attacks in Gaza and the killing
    of an Israeli in the West Bank on Friday (June 13) piled
    pressure on Washington to rescue its "road map" peace effort
    from tit-for-tat violence, just a week after President George
    W. Bush launched it in Jordan.

    Palestinian Authority officials, who condemn the militant
    attacks, appealed for U.S. help in holding back Israel's
    troops.

    Witnesses said at least two rockets hit a car, killing
    26-year-old Fuad al-Lidawi in Gaza's Sabra district, within
    sight of the home of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed
    Yassin.

    Three hours later, two more missiles hit the nearby home
    of a well-known Hamas family, causing damage but no
    casualties. An Israeli military spokesman said that target was
    an arms arsenal.

    In the West Bank, an armed offshoot of Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction said its men shot and
    killed an Israeli in Jenin. Israeli military sources confirmed
    the death.

    Fearing the flare-up could reduce the Middle East peace
    "road map" to cinders, the Palestinian Authority gathered its
    security chiefs and pledged to rein in militants as mandated
    by the plan if Israel halted its track-and-kill operations.

    But Israel reserved the right to strike if the
    Palestinians failed to stop militants, such as a Hamas suicide
    bomber who killed 17 people on a Jerusalem bus on Wednesday
    (June 11).

    Since the bombing, five Israeli air strikes have killed
    five militants and at least 16 civilians in Gaza. Hamas was
    unmoved.

    Sworn to Israel's destruction, Hamas has spearheaded
    suicide bombings and other attacks during the uprising for
    independence which erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in
    September 2000.

    The group held short-lived truce talks with reformist
    Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas but called them off in anger at
    his conciliatory speech at last week's summit with Sharon
    which launched the "road map" to Palestinian statehood by
    2005.

    Israel says it reserves the right to act against militants
    as long as Abbas's government does not. But a poll in Israel's
    Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday found 67 per cent of
    Israelis wanted the "assassinations policy" to stop, at least
    temporarily, to give Abbas a chance to consolidate power.

    Following an emergency security meeting at the Palestinian
    Authority headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah
    chaired by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, the
    Palestinian Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Yasser Abed Rabbo
    said the Palestinian Authority had confirmed its readiness to
    take its full responsibility on the security level in Gaza
    other parts in the West Bank on condition that Israel changed
    its policy.

    "Israel should stop completely the policy of
    assassinations, the policy of collective punishment against
    the Palestinian people, the continuation of killing
    Palestinian civilians, the demolition of Palestinians towns
    and homes and the siege around Palestinan towns and cities,
    said Rabbo.

    "The Palestinian security forces are ready, but they
    cannot practise their duties with the continuation of the
    Israeli aggression. There is a need to stop the aggression and
    there is a need for the withdrawal of Israeli military forces,
    in order to enable the Palestinian security forces to take
    their responsibility, he added.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register