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Israel Launches Deadly Strikes In Gaza
BEIT LAHIA, Gaza Strip, April 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel rocketed Palestinian security targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing a policeman and injuring 20 people, hours after Palestinians fired two mortar shells at a Jewish settlement, the Washington Post reports.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, secretary to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, condemned the anti-tank missile strikes on Gaza as an act of all-out "declared war" and renewed Palestinian demands for international protection.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that despite the flare-up, ceasefire talks would resume Tuesday. However, Abdel Rahim said no decision has been made to attend such a meeting, according to the Post.
Israeli forces have struck several times against Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since late March, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to adopt a "gloves-off" policy after a string of deadly Palestinian retaliatory attacks.
The army said it targeted the Palestinian naval headquarters and a military police post and a national security border post in response to mortar attacks by Palestinians on Jewish settlements illegally built inside the Gaza Strip.
"The Israeli army will not permit attacks against our citizens or our soldiers and will take the necessary measures to ensure security and peace," it said.
Wail Khuweita, 30, who held the rank of lieutenant, was killed when a ground-to-ground missile fired from inside Israel hit the medical clinic inside the naval headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
Six others were also injured including two other doctors and a number of naval officers.
A military ambulance parked near the building was burnt out in the attack that reduced parts of the clinic and an administrative building to rubble and left pools of blood on the ground.
"It's the blood of a martyr," cried one officer who survived the attack after bathing his hands in the bloody mess and displaying them in the air.
Khuweita's death brought the number of those killed in the six-month-old Palestinian uprising to 471, among them 386 Palestinians, 13 Arab Israelis, 71 other Israelis, and one German.
Further south, at a central Gaza Strip military police position near Deir al-Balah, another 12 people were wounded including the commander of the position, Major Hani Abu Hani, when an Israeli missile struck the building setting it on fire, Palestinian intelligence sources said.
Three of the wounded were taken to hospital in a moderate to serious condition after the attack that gutted the second floor of the building, medical sources said.
"It's useless," military intelligence officer Mohammed Issa told AFP at the scene, brandishing a Kalashnikov rifle. "We need ground-to-air and anti-tank missiles to respond to their attacks."
Later, Palestinians fired two mortars at the Jewish settlement of Nisanit near Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, in apparent retaliation for the Israeli bombardment, followed by Israeli tank shelling of a nearby Palestinian national security border post.
No one was reported injured in those attacks, but Palestinian security said their position was completely destroyed.
Sharon visited an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza Strip just before the first round of Israeli strikes, saying Israel had a "clear plan" to restore security in the area.
"We know exactly what we are doing," he said in remarks broadcast on public radio during the tour of the Nahal Oz kibbutz, an illegal Israeli settlement, with Defense Secretary Binyamin Ben Eliezer and army head Shaul Mofaz.
Sharon's spokesman said after the first bombardment that Israel would strike without warning against Palestinians deemed to be involved in the "flagrant escalation" of violence.
"We are not going to announce every time we are going to respond, neither are we going to say what will be the response," Raanan Gissin told AFP, adding that Palestinians have fired over 50 mortar bombs against Israeli targets over the past several days.
The uprising against Israel's 34-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has developed into an escalating cycle of strike and counter-strike, with each side accusing the other of responsibility.
Abdel Rahim said Israel's attacks were aimed at "every Palestinian citizen" as well as the Palestinian Authority and vowed that they would continue to defend themselves "as long as the occupation fights us on our land."
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