Reuter's reports with it's usual biased spin...
GAZA, May 21 (Reuters) - Israel pounded Gaza with a series of air strikes on Monday, hours after killing nine Palestinians in an assault on the home of a senior Hamas politician, and in a separate raid on a suspected rocket manufacturing facility.
Israel's cabinet decided on Sunday to ratchet up military measures in Gaza in response to an increase in rocket attacks on Israel in the past week, though stopping short of waging an all out offensive in the coastal territory its troops quit in 2005. The latest Israeli air strike targeted the Zaitoun neighbourhood, an Islamic stronghold in Gaza City, shortly after an attack late on Sunday killed a man at what Palestinians said was a stone mason's workshop, and Israel called a rocket manufacturing plant.
Palestinian medics said a Hamas member had been shot and wounded from an Israeli aircraft while riding a bicycle early on Monday. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In a second strike on Monday, a missile fired from an Israeli attack helicopter knocked out electricity for about 50,000 people in Nozeirat and a nearby refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. There were no casualties. Eight Palestinians died in an Israeli air raid on Sunday that punched out the porch of the home of prominent Gaza lawmaker Khalil al-Hayya of Hamas. Israel said it had targeted Hamas gunmen involved in rocket attacks, killing five.
That attack was the first time in many months Israel had struck at a key figure of the Islamist militant group that rose to power a year ago but has been shunned by the West for refusing to recognise the Jewish state.
Hayya was not home and was unharmed by the raid which also wounded a dozen other people.
Hamas said two of those killed were gunmen and vowed "an earthquake" of a response against Israel, which had struck out at the home of a Hamas official for the first time in many months.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's top aide condemned Israel for the strike at Hayya's home which was Israel's deadliest in Gaza in about a year.
Full Story - Reuters
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment