GAZA/JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants including Hamas gunmen launch major raid on an Israeli army post

Record ID: 354237

  • Title: GAZA/JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants including Hamas gunmen launch major raid on an Israeli army post
  • Date: 25th June 2006
  • Summary: (W2) JERUSALEM (JUNE 25, 2006) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD OLMERT ARRIVING AT CABINET MEETING FOREIGN MINISTER TZIPI LIVNI ENTERING MEETING
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAA97CXEHRGE4JNKQ5WN0EBKAGD
  • Story Text: Palestinian militants including Hamas gunmen launched a major raid on an Israeli army post near the Gaza Strip border on Sunday (June 25) in an attack that left casualties on both sides, Israeli media and other sources said.
    Israeli radio stations said there were several Israeli casualties in the attack, in which militants fired rockets and automatic weapons. Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government, said it killed several Israelis. The army had no immediate comment on the claim.
    An Israeli army spokeswoman said there were four Israeli casualties in the attack, but she declined to comment further. Israel Radio quoted medics as saying that four people wounded in the incident were taken to hospital.
    At least three militants were killed in the raid near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, an Israeli rescue service and Palestinian sources said.
    Israeli wounded soldiers were rushed to the hospital in Be'ersheva.
    The Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of militant groups behind a more than 5-year-old Palestinian uprising, claimed responsibility for the predawn raid. Gunmen from Hamas, the Islamic group now in charge of the Palestinian government, were among the attackers.
    "The operation that was carried out this morning at the crossing of Karem Abu-Salem. This retaliation is normal due to the Israeli's continuous killing of children and woman and Palestinian civilians," Hamas spokesperson, Sami Abu Suhri said.
    "This is to retaliate on the killing of the two leaders Al-Kuka and Abu-Samhadana and also its an assurance by the Hamas movement on its firmness towards the program of resistance and in facing the continuos attacks by the Israeli's against our Palestinian people," he added.
    Israeli air strikes, amid daily cross-border rocket launchings from Gaza, have killed 20 Palestinians in the past two weeks, 14 of them civilians.
    Hamas, which heads the Palestinian government, ended a 16-month-old truce with Israel on June 9 after seven members of one Palestinian family were killed on a Gaza beach during a day of heavy Israeli shelling.
    Hamas has blamed Israel for those deaths. Israel has denied responsibility.
    "I don't think its a surprise. There have been a lot of preparations of the different organisations in the Palestinian Authority to attack Israel. They try all the time. This time they time they succeeded, I am sorry that they have succeeded," said Israeli Housing Minister Meir Sheetrit.
    "I am absolutely sure that our security services and our defence services will bring justice to those people who are responsible for this activity," he added.
    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opened a weekly cabinet meeting by condemning a Palestinian attack on a Gaza army post on Sunday (June 25) which resulted in both Palestinian and Israeli casualties.
    Olmert said Israel held Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the attack.
    Israel completed a withdrawal of Jewish settlers and soldiers from Gaza in September after 38 years of occupation. No Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since then.
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