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7/22/2002 (21:57) |
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12 killed in attack on militant
From Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and AFP
July 23, 2002
AN Israeli warplane has blown up the house of a leading Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 12 people, Palestinian officials have said.
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Witnesses said one of the dead was a baby, while doctors said those killed included four children.
One report said militant Sheik Salah Shehada, who headed the Ezzedin al-Qassam armed wing of Hamas and was on Israel's 'most wanted' list, was also killed.
Hospital officials said more than 100 people were wounded.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The Hamas military wing has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against Israelis during nearly two years of fighting, including many suicide bomb attacks.
Spokesman Ismail Haniyeh said Shehada was the target, but could not confirm he was among the casualties.
'Not only will Hamas take revenge for the martyrs, all the Palestinian people will unify to revenge for the blood of the martyrs,' he told reporters at Gaza's Shifa hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken.
Witnesses said five houses and a hangar were either damaged or destroyed in the strike by an air-to-ground missile fired by an Israeli F-16 warplane.
Medical sources said more victims could be trapped in the rubble.
In recent days, Israeli forces have struck twice at Gaza City, targeting metal workshops where the Israelis say Palestinians were manufacturing mortar shells and rockets.
Witnesses said two Israeli F-16 warplanes circled over Gaza before one of them fired a single missile this morning.
Jamal Halaby, a Palestinian police officer who lives nearby, said he saw the missile streaking across the sky, and then he heard a huge explosion.
'I fell out of my bed and I found myself a minute later covered in dust and stones, and the sounds of my children screaming and crying.'
The air strike came as Israel and the Palestinians trade ideas about reducing tension in the West Bank and easing Israeli restrictions.
Last month Israel sent troops into West Bank cities and towns for the second time since March, following Palestinian suicide bomb attacks.
Officials on both sides said Israel might pull its forces out of two of the towns if the Palestinians can maintain security.
Some Israelis have suggested Gaza could be used as a test case, because the territory, separated from the West Bank by Israeli land, has not been targeted by Israeli ground forces and Palestinian security is intact.
However, others say militant groups have a free hand in the city, and blame the Palestinian Authority for failing to stop attacks on Jewish settlements.
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