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Palestinians
try to extricate bodies from a wrecked car targeted by Israeli
helicopters
(AFP)
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GAZA
CITY, December 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli
occupation forces gunned down Thursday, December 25, five Palestinians,
including the leader of a resistance group, in Gaza City, while three
Israelis died in an explosion at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv.
Moqbel
Hamid, the leader of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza, was killed in a
missile attack by Israeli helicopter gunships at his car, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Four
more Palestinians, including at least one other Jihad activist, were also
killed and 13 wounded, Palestinian sources said.
Palestinian
medical sources and witnesses said the gunships fired two missiles at a car
on Al-Jalah Street, in a northern district of the city.
The
identities of the other fatalities were not immediately known, but one was a
15-year-old boy.
Senior
Islamic Jihad official Khaled el-Batsh told AFP Israel had "committed a
new crime ... that will not go unpunished".
He
accused Israel of trying to "sabotage the Egyptian efforts to bring
about a ceasefire which would spare civilians".
Palestinian
negotiator minister Saeb Erakat said the killings would add new hurdles to
the peace process.
"The
assassinations and raids in densely populated areas are aimed at further
complicating a situation which is already complicated," he told AFP.
Tel
Aviv Blast
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Israeli
forensic experts check the scene of the bombing in Tel Aviv
(AFP)
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In
another development, an explosion rocked a bus stop outside Tel Aviv,
leaving three Israelis, including two soldiers, killed.
Israeli
sources said the explosion was caused by a "suicide" bombing,
asserting the bomber was also killed in the blast.
The
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility
for the attack, describing it as the first in a series of retaliations for
Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
Immediately
after the attack, Israeli occupation forces clamped down a "total
closure" on the Palestinian territories.
"Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz has issued a new order this evening for a total closure
of the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip," an Israeli Defense
Ministry source told AFP.
In
Ramallah, Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei condemned both the Israeli air
strike and the Tel Aviv attack.
We
condemned the "cycle of violence and counter-violence, of which the
latest episode is the murder of five citizens in Gaza by Israeli helicopters
and an attack on a bus stop that has left people dead and wounded tonight in
Tel Aviv," said a Palestinian cabinet statement.
"Regretting
the continuation of the cycle of assassinations, liquidations and attacks
against civilians on both sides, the prime minister calls for a stop to this
bloody circle and the conclusion of a reciprocal cease fire," it added.
Qorei
called for an "immediate resumption of applying the roadmap," the
internationally-backed peace plan.
