ISRAEL: Wounded are rushed to hospital after a rocket strikes a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, close to the Gaza Strip

Record ID: 396845

  • Title: ISRAEL: Wounded are rushed to hospital after a rocket strikes a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, close to the Gaza Strip
  • Date: 15th May 2008
  • Summary: AMBULANCES PARKED IN A LINE SECURITY SERVICES AMBULANCES PARKED OUTSIDE MALL MAN LIFTING STRETCHER OUT OF AMBULANCE AT HOSPITAL WOMAN ON STRETCHER WHEELED INTO HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVADMEIGSSE9V1FNE4EAKJJGY9CJ
  • Story Text: A rocket struck a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, close to the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday (May 14) and wounded several people, the Israeli army and emergency service officials said.
    The blast came as U.S. President George W. Bush met Israeli leaders in Jerusalem to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of their state -- an event Palestinians commemorate as the "Nakba", or catastrophe, for their people.
    The main ambulance service said 11 people were wounded, three of them seriously, including a six-year-old girl.
    Witnesses told Reuters at the scene that the rocket had struck a clinic on the top floor of the three-storey mall.
    After meeting Bush, and before word of the latest attack came in, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was working for peace, including for a truce with Hamas, but warned Gaza militants that Israel could hit hard if rocket fire continued.
    Palestinians fire rockets on a near daily basis into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza. Ashkelon, 10 km (six miles) north of the coastal enclave, has generally been out of range but some more powerful missiles have struck the city this year.
    Hamas and its fellow Islamists say they fire rockets as part of a campaign to destroy Israel and take the land from where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out when Israel was established as a state on May 14, 1948.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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