One Martyred, 8 Others Injured in Israeli Strikes; Hamas Vows Revenge
31/07/2010 09:29:17 AM GMT
A series of Israeli air strikes bombed the Gaza Strip Friday night killing one Palestinian and injured 8 others, Palestinian witnesses reported.
Al-Jazeera reported that among the targets bombed were Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and the Ansar compound, both in Gaza City, as well as targets in Rafah and Deir al-Balah.
The Hamas military group announced that one of its field leaders, 40-year-old Issa Abdul-Hadi Al-Batran, was martyred by one of the strikes near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, the resistance movement vowed revenge for the Israeli aggression.
The military wing of Hamas said in a statement, "These new Zionist crimes will not pass without answer."
In a statement on Saturday, the military wing of Hamas identified the man as Issa Al-Batran, 40, and said he was a senior field commander. "These new Zionist crimes will not pass without answer," the statement said.
Eight others were injured in a second strike targeting the Ansar Security Compound, formerly the presidential compound in Gaza City, which caused massive damages to the buildings and nearby homes, officials said.
Palestinian sources described the strikes on Gaza as the heaviest since Israel's two-week aggression against the Strip a year and a half ago which killed more than 1400 Palestinians, including 420 children and injured over 5300 others.
The Israeli occupation army confirmed the air-strike, and claimed it targeted a Hamas-linked site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons-manufacturing warehouse in the central Gaza Strip and a weapons-smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
A strike on the Al-Muntada area injured a young girl and an elderly man, both were evacuated to the Ash-Shifa Hospital where medics said they were being treated for moderate wounds.
Witnesses said sites were targeted by both air and artillery fire, saying tanks were used in the northern district.
Earlier Friday, Israel lodged a complaint to the United Nations about rocket and mortar attacks launched from the Gaza Strip into southern occupied territories.
"These recent attacks on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip seriously violate international law and should be adequately addressed and condemned by the international community," Israel's ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev wrote in a letter to UN chief Ban ki-Moon. "In response to the escalating threat of terrorism, Israel will exercise its right of self-defense and will continue to take all necessary measures to protect its citizens."
A rocket fired from Gaza on Friday slammed into southern of Ashkelon, causing no casualties but some damage.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it "holds Hamas solely responsible for terror emanating from the Gaza Strip." ¬