- Title: GAZA/ISRAEL: Israel steps up attacks on Gaza as Likud MP warns Hamas leaders
- Date: 21st May 2007
- Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERING AROUND BURNING VEHICLE PEOPLE PICKING UP PARTS OF BURNT-OUT VEHICLE VARIOUS OF BURNT-OUT VEHICLE MORE OF BURNT-OUT VEHICLE VARIOUS OF VEHICLE WRECKAGE VARIOUS OF PALESTINIANS AT SITE OF BURNING VEHICLE
- Embargoed: 5th June 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVAA540QF5CDV77GOUFTM6VU4LUF
- Story Text: Israel steps up air attacks in the Gaza Strip, killing at least five Palestinians, and a member of the right-wing Likud party says Hamas leaders involved in cross-border rocket fire could be targeted. Israel stepped up air attacks in Gaza on Monday (May 21), killing at least five Palestinians, as Israeli leaders said all Hamas leaders involved in cross-border rocket fire could be targeted.
Israeli aircraft carried out a series of attacks in Gaza in which at least four Islamic Jihad members were killed in an air strike that destroyed their car near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, the militant group said.
One man was killed in an earlier attack on what Israel called a rocket manufacturing facility and what Palestinians described as a stone mason's shop.
The air strikes also cut the power supply to about 50,000 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert chaired a meeting of his Kadima political party in Jerusalem, but while Olmert and his security cabinet agreed Sunday (May 20) to intensify air attacks, some members of Israel's Knesset (parliament), called for wider military action.
"If you would like to put an end to the fact the Hamas is launching and firing rockets toward Israel, we should do it not only by the air, but by the ground as well," said Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister and a member of the right-wing Likud party.
Thousands of Hamas supporters joined Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at a funeral service for eight Hamas members killed in an Israeli air strike on the home of Hamas politician Khalil al-Hayya Sunday night (May 20).
Hamas said only two of the eight killed in Sunday's attack were militants. Hayya was not injured, although he lost seven family members in the strike.
"You are targeted because you represent the project of resistance. You are a project of life. You are the project of resistance and blessed Jihad on the land of Palestine," Haniyeh told the hundreds gathered at the funeral.
After the ceremony Haniyeh, al-Hayya and hundreds of supporters spilled into Gaza City's streets to carry the bodies to their burial site.
Despite the Israeli air attacks, militants continued to launch rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Although the rockets have not killed anybody in Israel in recent weeks, they have landed in a variety of populated locations. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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