Israeli Missile
Attack Kills 12, Wounds 140 in Gaza City
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A
baby terrorist killed by U.S.-made F-16.
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GAZA
CITY, July 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Putting a damper on
a new round of diplomacy, an Israeli F-16 warplane bombed a
neighborhood in central Gaza City late Monday, killing at least 12
people, half of them children and women, and wounding more than 140
others.
Israel
claimed the missile attack, around midnight, targeted Salah Shehadeh,
chief of the military wing of the resistance group Hamas. Shehadeh was
later confirmed dead, along with his wife and one of his daughters,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Five
or six children died in the Israeli strike, according to Palestinian
hospital sources. They said 15 of the wounded were in critical
condition and more people could be trapped in the rubble.
Hospital
sources said a total of 12 people were killed and some 140 wounded in
the attack that plunged Israel and the Palestinians into a new round
of recriminations after a day of conciliatory gestures that appeared
to ease tensions.
Palestinian
witnesses told AFP that the Israeli F-16 swooped in just before
midnight and fired a missile which destroyed or damaged five
multi-story buildings that were home to dozens of families, as well as
a warehouse.
Rescuers
had difficulty getting to the rubble to search for survivors as the
neighborhood was plunged into darkness. Crowds of frantic Palestinians
carried bloodied victims away from the rubble and into ambulances.
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| Israel
claims it wants peace to prevail. |
There
were frantic scenes as Palestinians hoisted the blood-spattered
wounded over their shoulders and bundled them into waiting cars. Jamal
Halaby, a local police officer, said he saw the missile cross the sky,
then heard the sound of a large explosion.
"I
fell out of my bed and I found myself a minute later covered in dust
and stones, and the sounds of my children screaming and crying,"
he said, reported British daily The Independent.
The
Israeli raid came only hours after Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheikh
Ahmad Yassin, said the resistance group would consider stopping
attacks on Israelis if the Israeli army withdrew from West Bank towns
it reoccupied.
For
their part, Palestinian leaders expressed outrage at what they called
a "war crime" and hundreds of angry Palestinians took to the
streets across the Gaza Strip in protest. At least 10 were wounded in
clashes with Israeli forces.
Chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat denounced the raid as a
"despicable and cowardly act" just at a time when the two
sides were beginning to rekindle a dialogue on humanitarian and
security issues.
"We
need to break this vicious cycle by giving efforts to put the peace
process back on track the chance it deserves," Erakat told CNN.
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They
were about to sleep in peace.
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UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan deplored the Israeli air attack, calling
on Israel to respect the international humanitarian laws, UN spokesman
Fred Eckhard said late Monday.
"Israel
has the legal and moral responsibility to take all measures to avoid
the loss of innocent life. It clearly failed to do so in using a
missile against an apartment building," Eckhard said in a
statement.
Eckhard
said Annan is calling on the government of Israel to halt such actions
and "to conduct itself in a manner that is fully consistent with
international humanitarian law."
"The
secretary general is deeply concerned about the possible consequences
of this attack, and urges the government of Israel and the Palestinian
Authority to do all in their power to restore safety and security for
the civilian population on both sides," he said.
Gideon
Meir, an Israeli spokesman, claimed the Jewish state was committed to
the peace process but defended the operation to kill Shehadeh.
"In order for peace to prevail we must eradicate terrorism,"
he said on CNN.
Israel
insists that the Palestinians legal right to resist occupation is
terrorism, whereas its use of lethal weapons against people under
occupation is an act of self-defense.
Israel
carried out nearly 100 assassinations of Palestinian resistance
activists, unmindful of the fact that the strategy came under
fire from the international community.
Hamas
vowed to avenge the assassination of Shehadeh, whom Israel claimed
ranked first on their most wanted list.
Hamas
spokesman Ismail Haniyeh vowed that the movement would "take
revenge for the martyrs. All the Palestinian people will unify to take
revenge for the blood of the martyrs," he told reporters at Gaza
hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken.
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