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Palestinians inspect the destroyed car after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike Saturday. (Reuters) |
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip — In what was called by Washington as "self-defense," Israel continued on Saturday, November 4, its campaign of deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip, killing four more Palestinians, taking to 39 those killed since its latest operation began four days ago.
Early Saturday an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car traveling through Gaza City carrying a local official in the military wing of the resistance movement Hamas Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, killing him and wounding four others, a medical source told Agence France-Presse (AFP ).
In nearby Jabaliya, five members of Qassam Brigades were wounded by artillery fire. One of them, Raed Siam, 30, then died of his wounds in hospital.
Two people were also killed in the northern town of Beit Hanun, which has borne the brunt of the Israeli operation since it began on Wednesday morning, November 1.
Nineteen Palestinians were killed Friday, November 3, in the deadliest day in the Gaza Strip for months, as Israel stepped up the Autumn Clouds offensive to stop missiles launched by Palestinian fighters at its territory.
The raids came just hours after resistance fighters escaped a besieged mosque in a daring rescue bid mounted by hundreds of mothers and wives in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, which Israeli troops have been occupying since Wednesday.
Four protestors, including two women, were killed ahead of the rescue of the resistance fighters who had been besieged in the Al-Nasr mosque, seeking protection from one of the biggest Israeli operations of recent months.
Braving Israeli gunfire and tanks, around 200 women marched on and entered the mosque to collect the gunmen, before walking out, shielding them in the midst of their heavily veiled ranks, protecting them from Israeli gunfire.
Self-Defense
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| "Israel has taken steps to defend itself," said McCormack. |
While Britain and France called for restraint and avoiding further civilian casualties, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack put the blame squarely for the violence on Palestinian fighters and said Israel was defending itself.
"It is a true tragedy that innocent life has been lost ..." McCormack said. "But let us remember, the situation originally developed because you have people -- terrorists -- continuing to launch rockets into Israel," he said.
"Israel has taken steps to defend itself."
More than 80 people have been wounded and around 100 detained in the latest Gaza operation.
Businesses in the West Bank went on strike on Saturday in protest at the open-ended Israeli incursion.
Iron shutters remained closed over shopfronts in Ramallah after fighters from Fatah's armed wing Al-Aqsa Brigades, called over loudspeakers for the strike.
The violence has scuttled hopes of any resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians
Saturday's deaths raised to 5,506 the number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP count.
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