A rchive Date
[ 05-02-2006 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Israel ]
|
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/02/04/1426194-ap.html
Israeli launches air strike against militants
February 4, 2006
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli aircraft fired three missiles at a facility of the Palestinian militant Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza City early Sunday, killing three people and wounding five, hospital officials said. The three dead were senior field operatives of Al Aqsa, the hospital said. Field operatives plan and carry out rocket attacks and other assaults on Israeli targets.
Some of the dead and wounded were pulling away in a car from the targeted building when a missile struck, leaving their vehicle an unrecognizable heap of charred and twisted metal. Four of the wounded were security personnel guarding Preventive Security headquarters near the Al Aqsa facility, the hospital said.
The Israeli military said the strike was meant to deter rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, such as one that wounded an Israeli baby and two adults in a kibbutz in southern Israel on Friday. After that attack, claimed by Islamic Jihad militants, and another one Friday in which rockets landed near the city Ashkelon, Israel also fired dozens of artillery rounds at northern Gaza and eastern Gaza City.
The Israeli military said the air strike targeted a training camp for Al Aqsa operatives and a rocket-and mortar-launching site. Palestinians said the facility was an Al Aqsa sports club and sports training camp.
The car was travelling on a small street between the Al Aqsa facility and Palestinian Preventive Security offices.
Dozens of Al Aqsa members and supporters of the affiliated Fatah party gathered outside the hospital after the air strike, some firing rifles in the air outside the morgue. One Al Aqsa member, who identified himself as Abu Mujahed, accused Israel of carrying out a targeted killing of group operatives but the Israeli military denied that.
"God willing, our rockets, our self-sacrificing martyrs and all the means of resistance will chase out the Zionists from every corner of our occupied land," Abu Mujahed said.
"God willing, our revenge will come by deeds and not by words."
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
World Fact Book (CIA)]
|