JERUSALEM: An Israeli official says Hamas has been involved in launching rockets on Israel and warns it to stop

Record ID: 398235

  • Title: JERUSALEM: An Israeli official says Hamas has been involved in launching rockets on Israel and warns it to stop
  • Date: 10th June 2006
  • Summary: (BN15) JERUSALEM (JUNE 9, 2006) (REUTERS) ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY'S SPOKESMAN MARK REGEV TALKING TO JOURNALIST
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PY4Z89DLCVUFJJO80MXM1PXP
  • Story Text: An Israeli official said on Friday (June 9) that Hamas has been involved in launching of rockets on Israel and the militant group's announcement to renew its attacks on the Jewish state 'came late'.
    "Hamas has been involved in a very direct way in the launching of rockets that have targeted our cities, targeted our civilians, our communities and this just has to stop," a spokesman of the Israeli foreign ministry, Mark Regev, said after the militant group vowed to renew attacks on Israel.
    Hamas's announcement came after Israeli attacks in Gaza were reported to have killed 10 Palestinian civilians. Three Palestinians have been killed in an airstrike against their car in northern Gaza. Seven civilians have been killed by an artillery shelling on a Gaza beach, which Palestinian sources said Israel had initiated.
    Regev said that Israel's Ministry of Defence had initiated an investigation into the reports on civilians killed by Israeli forces.
    "We have ruled out the reports that it was from a naval gunfire, we also ruled out the reports that it was from aircraft. We are looking into the fact that it could have been one of our shells that went astray. From Israel's point of view it is totally unacceptable that innocent civilians have been targeted or killed by our forces and we will get to the bottom of this," Regev told Reuters Television in Jerusalem.
    Israel said it had on Friday launched several air strikes and artillery shells against militants who fired rockets into the Jewish state. The violence marked the largest number of Palestinians killed by Israel since December 2004.
    Hamas, which won a parliamentary election in January and now heads the Palestinian government, had been largely abiding by a truce for more than a year.
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