ISRAEL - BREAKING - Israeli helicopters rocket Gaza

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread

BBC Tuesday, 3 April, 2001, 18:23 GMT 19:23 UK

Israeli helicopters 'rocket Gaza'

Israeli helicopter gunships have attacked Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

The attack comes hours after a Palestinian mortar bomb attack wounded a 10-month-old boy in a Jewish settlement near the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli army spokesman was quoted as saying.

Witnesses said the helicopters fired missiles near Gaza City, the town of Khan Younis and at a security compound near Rafah.

Hospital sources said at least 22 people have been injured in the attack.

The Associated Press news agency quoted an army spokesman as saying security forces were attacking targets involved in "terrorism after the barbaric and unbearable attack against the baby today by mortar."

Details are still coming in.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001

Answers

Thanks for the heads up. I've just turned on CNN.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001

I feel rather lost without the usual ME updates. For instance, WHAT 10-month old boy? Sounds like Sharon is prepared to strike each time. Too much going on right now.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/093/world/Palestinian_mortars_hit_Jewi sh:.shtml

Palestinian mortars hit Jewish settlement, injuring baby: Israeli army

By Mark Lavie, Associated Press, 4/3/2001 11:56

JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinian militants fired mortars at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, seriously wounding a 10- month-old Israeli boy, the army and a hospital said. An Israeli woman suffered lesser injuries in the attack.

The attackers fired three mortars at the Gush Katif settlement in southern Gaza. The army said the shots were believed to have come from the nearby Rafah area, where a Palestinian militant was killed a day earlier by Israeli helicopters.

The injured baby was rushed to a hospital in Beersheba, in southern Israel, where he was in serious condition, said Dr. Emmanuel Katz. An Israeli woman was also being treated at the hospital, he added.

The mortar attack came eight days after a 10-month-old Israeli girl was shot and killed by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank city of Hebron, provoking outrage among Israelis.

The first mortar shot ''wasn't so close, but before we could get the women and children into the shelters we heard another then another,'' a Jewish settler, identified only as Yaacov, told Israeli radio.

About 6,500 Jewish settlers reside in small, heavily guarded enclaves in Gaza, where more than 1 million Palestinians live. The settlers have been targeted for attack throughout the Palestinian uprising, which erupted more than six months ago.

Despite a U.S. plea for calm, Israelis and Palestinians traded fire overnight in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with each side blaming the other for the surge of violence in recent days.

Neither side expressed optimism Tuesday that the more than six months of fighting would end soon.

''It seems the Palestinian Authority not only instigates terror, but members of its security forces are actually participating,'' said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. ''Violence is going to lead them nowhere.''

But a top Palestinian security official, Muhammad Dahlan, said Sharon's government was carrying out a military offensive to undermine the Palestinian leadership.

''The Israelis make the Palestinian security forces a target simply because they represent the Palestinian Authority, even if these forces do not take part in the clashes,'' Dahlan told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

In a pair of lethal attacks Monday, an Israeli soldier was shot dead during an intense firefight in the biblical town of Bethlehem, and a Palestinian militant was killed in a helicopter rocket assault as he drove his pickup truck in the southern Gaza Strip.

The shooting carried on into the night, with Palestinians firing two mortars at an Israeli industrial area on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, the army said Tuesday. Israeli troops came under fire in three additional locations in Gaza and the West Bank, and returned fire, the army added.

Using a tow truck, Jewish settlers from the West Bank delivered a car riddled with bullets to the street outside the residence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official residence in central Jerusalem.

The settlers, who have come under frequent attack by Palestinian gunmen, say they are angry that the prime minister has not used greater military force in an attempt to end the Mideast violence.

''Ariel Sharon hasn't kept his promise to change in a dramatic way the handling of terrorists. Each day of restraint costs Jewish blood,'' said Bentzi Lieberman, a settler leader.

No peace talks have taken place since shortly before Sharon was elected two months ago, and there is no prospect for their revival at present.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sharon on Monday with an appeal for calm in the region. Sharon told Powell that Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority was responsible for escalating violence, and that Israel must take steps to protect its citizens, according to an official in Sharon's office, who requested anonymity.

Powell also called Arafat, and the Palestinian leader asked for help in ending what he called Israeli aggression, said Arafat's spokesman, Nabil Aburdeneh.

Since the fighting began in September, 458 people have been killed, including 375 Palestinians, 64 Israeli Jews and 19 others.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ