Thursday 18 December 2008

Zionazis attack Civilians at Night

A 53-year-old Palestinian man was killed and three others injured by an Israeli artillery attack on a house in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night.

The shelling was the only fatality in a night of Israeli attacks in Gaza that included at least three separate airstrikes less than 24 hours before a six-month-old ceasefire is due to expire.

Palestinian fighters continued to fire homemade projectiles into Israel throughout the evening. By the count of one Israeli newspaper more than 40 homemade rockets have been fired into Israel since Tuesday.

By Wednesday evening, three Israelis had suffered minor shrapnel injuries and nine were treated for shock, according to Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.

One of Wednesday night's Israeli military strikes saw a ground-to-ground missile launched at the home of Salah Abu Owal in Tal Az-Za'atar in the northern Gaza Strip.

Locals identified the slain man as 53-year-old Salah Abu Oqal, who witnesses say was "cut into pieces" following a direct hit by the Israeli missile.

Witnesses also claimed that Oqal was not affiliated with any armed group, although the Israeli military's press office reported the assault was in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health's Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services Dr Mu'awiyah Hassanein said the three injured men were taken to Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital with moderate wounds. He identified one of the men as the son of Oqal, the home’s owner.

The missile damaged Oqal’s home in addition to several other buildings in the area.

Early on Thursday morning, Israeli F16 fighter jets fired missiles at a car in the Ma’en area in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The car belonged to Iyad Jabbour. No one was injured.

Later, Israeli warplanes struck a car parked next to the Hussein Abu An-Nasser house in Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza, causing no injuries.

Also on Wednesday evening, witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired at least two missiles at farmland in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed an airstrike in the area.

Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades have claimed responsibility for the bulk of the projectile attacks on Israeli towns. The group said it was responding to Israel's assassination of an Islamic Jihad fighter in the West Bank city of Jenin on the previous day.

At least two Palestinian armed groups claimed to have fired more projectiles in response to Wednesday night's Israeli assaults.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), claimed to have launched three projectiles at the western Negev desert and a landing strip, east of the Gaza Strip town of Juhr Ad-Dik, on Wednesday at midnight.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said this attack was in response to Israel's deadly shelling earlier in northern Gaza.

The Al-Buraq Army, a branch of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, claimed to have fired two projectiles at the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon on Thursday at dawn.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34042

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