Netanyahu鈥檚 retaliation vow to Gaza strikes
Print Edition
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday to continue 鈥渕assive strikes鈥 in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip as a deadly escalation entered a second day, sparking fears of wider violence.
A Palestinian militant commander was killed in an Israeli retaliatory strike in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Gazan officials said, in response to rocket barrages fired from the enclave. He was the fifth Palestinian reported killed yesterday in Israeli strikes.
Gazan authorities reported six Palestinians killed, including at least two militants, by Israeli strikes in the latest round of fighting that began on Saturday as militants fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. But Israel disputed their account of the deaths of a pregnant mother and her baby, blaming errant Hamas fire.
One 58-year-old Israeli man was killed overnight by a rocket strike on the city of Ashkelon near the Gaza border, Israeli police and medics said.
鈥淚 instructed the (military) this morning to continue its massive strikes on terror elements in the Gaza Strip,鈥 Netanyahu said.
He said he had also ordered 鈥渢anks, artillery and infantry forces鈥 to reinforce troops already deployed near Gaza.
The flare-up came as Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the blockaded enclave, sought further concessions from Israel under a fragile months-old ceasefire.
Israel said its strikes were in response to Hamas and Islamic Jihad firing 450 rockets or mortars across the border since Saturday, with Israeli air defences intercepting more than 150.
In addition to the Israeli man killed, an 80-year-old woman was seriously injured in a rocket strike on the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat.
A man was also hospitalized in Ashkelon, said police, citing other injuries without providing details. A house near Ashkelon was damaged and other rockets hit open areas.
The Israeli army said its tanks and planes hit 220 militant targets in Gaza in response.
They included an Islamic Jihad attack tunnel that stretched from southern Gaza into Israeli territory.
Two multi-story buildings in Gaza City were also destroyed.
Israel said one of the buildings included Hamas military intelligence and security offices. And the other building housed Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices.
Turkey said its state news agency Anadolu had an office in the buildingand strongly denounced the strike.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes killed a 14-month-old baby and her pregnant mother, 37, as well as four Palestinian men.
But Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said, 鈥渨e are now confident鈥 the deaths of the mother and baby were not due to an Israeli strike.
鈥淭heir unfortunate death was not a result of (Israeli) weaponry but a Hamas rocket that was fired and exploded not where it was supposed to,鈥 he said.
Islamic Jihad identified two of the dead men as its militants. The ministry said 47 other people were wounded. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Saturday for at least some of the rocket fire and said it was prepared for more.
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