Green Energy
Gaza-Israel violence rages on as 4 militants killed
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed four Palestinian militants and wounded half a dozen others as it pursued air raids in Gaza for a third day on Saturday, responding to increased rocket fire out of the territory, local medics said.
Militants in the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamist Hamas, continued striking Israel's south with rockets, wounding five Israelis at around daybreak, according to Israeli media reports.
Israeli forces killed a local Hamas commander in the southern Gaza town of Rafah bordering Egypt, as well as two of his bodyguards, in a targeted strike on a vehicle, medics said. Israel blamed the slain commander for a rocket strike on its port of Eilat launched from Egyptian Sinai some months ago.
Five militants were wounded in a second air raid in northern Gaza. Another air strike at daybreak killed a further militant.
Cross-border violence has surged since Hamas militants fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli school bus on Thursday, wounding two people including a teenager, who was listed in critical condition.
Israel has said it wants to teach Hamas a lesson for that attack, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday amounted to "crossing a line," adding that "whoever tries to attack and murder children puts his life on the line."
At least 18 Palestinian militants and civilians, including an 11-year-old boy, have been killed in retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip since Thursday, and 36 since the latest round of bloodletting began in earnest on March 20.
70 ROCKETS FIRED AT ISRAEL
Gaza militants have fired over 70 rockets and mortars into Israel since Thursday, damaging a house, police said. Israeli media said half a dozen people have been wounded.
Some 50 rockets were fired on Friday, and Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system has intercepted seven since then.
Israeli security cabinet member Gideon Sa'ar said on Saturday that Israel's raids in Gaza, a tiny coastal territory under blockade by the Jewish state, would go on.
"We will not permit sporadic shootings or the disruption of life" inside Israel," Sa'ar told Israel Radio. "We will continue to operate, under full consideration, to implement a principle of defending our citizens."
A Hamas spokesman told Reuters afterwards that the militants would escalate rocket fire and aim for a broader range of targets unless Israel's aerial assaults were stopped.
"If the Israeli escalation continues, amid international silence and complicity, the reactions by resistance factions will broaden," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Fawzi Barhoum, another Hamas spokesman, urged the Arab League, now focused on unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, to convene urgently on Gaza.
"It is time for them to acknowledge Gaza and put the Palestinian struggle on their agenda," Barhoum said.
Two years of periodic, low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when Hamas showered rockets on Israel. Hamas had largely withheld fire since a Gaza war in late 2008 in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Political analysts in Gaza have explained the latest bloodshed as an effort by Hamas to divert attention from popular demands -- fueled by pro-democracy unrest elsewhere in the Arab world -- for an end to a split with its Western-backed Fatah movement rivals, who govern in the West Bank.
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Green Energy
Gaza-Israel violence rages on as 4 militants killed
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed four Palestinian militants and wounded half a dozen others as it pursued air raids in Gaza for a third day on Saturday, responding to increased rocket fire out of the territory, local medics said.
Militants in the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamist Hamas, continued striking Israel's south with rockets, wounding five Israelis at around daybreak, according to Israeli media reports.
Israeli forces killed a local Hamas commander in the southern Gaza town of Rafah bordering Egypt, as well as two of his bodyguards, in a targeted strike on a vehicle, medics said. Israel blamed the slain commander for a rocket strike on its port of Eilat launched from Egyptian Sinai some months ago.
Five militants were wounded in a second air raid in northern Gaza. Another air strike at daybreak killed a further militant.
Cross-border violence has surged since Hamas militants fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli school bus on Thursday, wounding two people including a teenager, who was listed in critical condition.
Israel has said it wants to teach Hamas a lesson for that attack, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday amounted to "crossing a line," adding that "whoever tries to attack and murder children puts his life on the line."
At least 18 Palestinian militants and civilians, including an 11-year-old boy, have been killed in retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip since Thursday, and 36 since the latest round of bloodletting began in earnest on March 20.
70 ROCKETS FIRED AT ISRAEL
Gaza militants have fired over 70 rockets and mortars into Israel since Thursday, damaging a house, police said. Israeli media said half a dozen people have been wounded.
Some 50 rockets were fired on Friday, and Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system has intercepted seven since then.
Israeli security cabinet member Gideon Sa'ar said on Saturday that Israel's raids in Gaza, a tiny coastal territory under blockade by the Jewish state, would go on.
"We will not permit sporadic shootings or the disruption of life" inside Israel," Sa'ar told Israel Radio. "We will continue to operate, under full consideration, to implement a principle of defending our citizens."
A Hamas spokesman told Reuters afterwards that the militants would escalate rocket fire and aim for a broader range of targets unless Israel's aerial assaults were stopped.
"If the Israeli escalation continues, amid international silence and complicity, the reactions by resistance factions will broaden," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Fawzi Barhoum, another Hamas spokesman, urged the Arab League, now focused on unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, to convene urgently on Gaza.
"It is time for them to acknowledge Gaza and put the Palestinian struggle on their agenda," Barhoum said.
Two years of periodic, low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when Hamas showered rockets on Israel. Hamas had largely withheld fire since a Gaza war in late 2008 in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Political analysts in Gaza have explained the latest bloodshed as an effort by Hamas to divert attention from popular demands -- fueled by pro-democracy unrest elsewhere in the Arab world -- for an end to a split with its Western-backed Fatah movement rivals, who govern in the West Bank.
- Rockets Over Ashkelon Again
The Hamas has resumed their attacks: A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza on Saturday night triggered air raid sirens in the Ashkelon and Hof Ashkelon regions. The projectile apparently exploded in an open area, and security forces said they had begun to...
- Israeli Airstrike Kills Leader Of Hamas Military Wing
Reuters reported:Israel killed the military commander of Hamas in an airstrike on the Gaza Strip Wednesday, bringing the two sides to the brink of a possible new war.The attack came despite signs that Egypt had managed to broker a truce between...
-
Yahoo: Israel braces for flare-up as Gazan rockets hit By Dan Williams Dan Williams – 2 hrs 54 mins ago JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian rockets struck two cities deep in Israel on Wednesday, wounding a resident and prompting Prime Minister Benjamin...
- It's Time To Expel Turkey From Nato
From the Astute Bloggers: ERDOGAN CALLED ISRAEL A THREAT TO WORLD PEACE: Until recently, Turkey had been a solid ally of Israel's from the Muslim world. However, Ankara has taken a stance against Israel over last year's war in the Gaza Strip,...
- Anti-tank Missiles Fired
Another act of Islamic aggression against Israeli forces: Two anti-tank missiles were fired at IDF soldiers near the Kissufim crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, early Friday morning in the first incident of its kind since the cease-fire between Israel...