Successive Deadly Air Raids on Gaza 9 more dead

Successive Deadly Air Raids on Gaza Render 9 Palestinians Killed
Arafat, Abbas Condemn ‘Terrorists Attacks’ in Jerusalem, Gaza

Nine Palestinians were killed and dozens others were wounded, in two separate Israeli air raids on the densely-populated al-Shujaiya and al-Zaitoun neighborhoods in Gaza City on Wednesday.

In an assassination attempt, Israeli attack gunships attacked a crowded market in central Gaza, killing as many as seven Palestinians and injuring scores others.

Eyewitnesses said two Israeli helicopters fired several missiles at a civilian car passing through the market in al-Shujaiya neighborhood, killing two people who were inside and five bystanders, including two women.

Sources at Gaza’s Shifa hospital said the death toll of the missile attack was likely to rise as some of the injured were in critical condition

According to Palestinian hospital sources, two of those killed in the extra-judicial assassination attack were Hamas activists Tito Massoud and Zuhair Abu-Nahel and five other civilian bystanders.

Two sisters, identified as Samya and Majda Daloul were among Wednesday’s attack on al-Shujaiya neighborhood, Palestinian medical sources confirmed.

The attack followed a suicide bombing in west Jerusalem, which rendered 16 Israelis dead and scores others injured.

Hamas declared responsibility for the bombing saying it came in retaliation for the assassination attempt by Israel yesterday on the life of the political leader of Hamas Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi.

Rantisi escaped the attack with moderate wounds while two Palestinians, including a 50-year-old woman, were killed and as many as thirty others were wounded.

Arafat, Abbas Condemn ‘Terror Attacks’ in Jerusalem, Gaza

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas condemned the suicide bombing as well as al-Shujaiya air raid, describing both of them as “terror attacks”.

“I strongly condemn this terrorist attack that targeted Israeli civilians today in Jerusalem,” Arafat said in a televised address. “I also condemn the [Israeli] operations that took place in Gaza, and other operations in which Palestinian civilians were killed and wounded.”

Abbas called on both parties “to immediately move into a serious implementation of the road map”.

The Jerusalem bombing came following a day after the Israeli government scrambled to justify the attempted assassination of Rantissi in face of stiff criticism from its American ally.

When pressed about the timing of the attack, Israeli officials tried to persuade the Americans that Rantissi posed an immediate threat, by saying he is “a bomb factory.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a local newspaper that he had nothing to apologize for.

“I told Bush and Abu Mazen that I am willing to walk a long path of compromise-making for the sake of a settlement, but on one issue there will be no compromises - harm to Israelis,” he said.

Israel Carries On with Assassinations

The Israeli attacks continued just after midnight, when Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car in the al-Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza city, witnesses said.

Mohamed Dughmush and Rawi Abu Kmeil, both Hamas activists, were killed in the assassination attack.

A third Palestinian was wounded in the attack, medics said.

Also in the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation army’s bulldozers demolished ten houses belonging to Palestinian families in the southern town of Rafah, Palestinian security sources said.

The demolished houses were located in Block “J” area and belonged to the Awaja, Abu al-Najar and al-Jazar families, witnesses said.

Palestinian medical sources also said that two Palestinians were wounded when Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at Palestinians’ houses in the area.

© Scoop Media