- Title: VARIOUS: Israel mounts new strikes hours after Hamas ends attacks.
- Date: 26th September 2005
- Summary: (W4) GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (SEPTEMBER 25, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) HAMAS LEADER MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 11th October 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVAA3BO2GU8V6ETSITDLJ1RZYAG3
- Story Text: Israel launched multiple missile attacks in Gaza on Monday (September 26), hours after the main Palestinian militant group said it would stop attacking the Jewish state.
Israeli aircraft attacked at least five targets, including a metal workshop and buildings used by militants.
In Gaza city, the Israeli airforce fired a missile at what an army spokesperson claimed was a 'structure used by Hamas to manufacture weaponry'.
The building went up in flames and Palestinian residents in the area helped firefighters put out the flames.
In Rafah - a city located at the southern end of the Gaza Strip - the target was a structure used by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a weaponry storage facility, according to the army. The building was severely damaged.
A man and a woman were slightly wounded in Khan Younis, where the Israeli airforce hit another building that the army claims was used by Hamas to manufacture weaponry. The pair were treated at the local hospital.
One woman was lightly wounded by shrapnel in a strike on Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, where the army's attack was aimed at what it said is a road used by militants firing rockets.
The worst surge of violence since Israel's pullout from Gaza on September 12 after 38 years of occupation put pressure on a shaky ceasefire and on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the weekend.
Hamas -- the most powerful Palestinian militant group -- said it was halting attacks, although not all militant factions have followed suit.
Hamas's most senior leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, announced his group's decision shortly after Israel killed an Islamic Jihad leader in an air strike in a resumption of its policy of targeting militants for assassination.
"We are calling our militant group to stop their activities against Israeli occupation outside Gaza Strip," al-Zahar, announced at a news conference he convened in Gaza.
Zahar said the decision to end attacks from Gaza was due to "Hamas's interest to protect the Palestinian people from the oppression of the Zionists and to preserve the atmosphere of celebrations at the defeat of the occupation."
Zahar said Hamas, which is sworn to Israel' destruction, would continue to abide by a truce that militant groups declared in March and said they would honour until the end of the year by request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
An Israeli missile strike killed two Islamic Jihad militants earlier on Sunday, including a top commander. Last week, similar attacks killed two Hamas leaders in Gaza and destroyed several buildings Israel said the group had used to store and make weapons.
Hamas's power in Gaza has grown in wake of the pullout and a 4 1/2-year Palestinian uprising. The Islamic group plans to challenge Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group in legislative elections next year for the first time.
Militants in Gaza from the Popular Resistance Committees and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group, fired several rockets into Israel hours after Sunday's Likud session and after Zahar made his comments. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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