An Israeli air strike on central Gaza leaves two deaths

Monday December 24, 2007 11:48 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC&Agencies

Israeli war planes launched early on Monday morning an air strike on central Gaza Strip, leaving two people dead.

illustration photo

Palestinian medical sources announced that Attallah aL-Awawda and Jom'a Abu Hjayer, were admitted to the Shuhada aL-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza Strip, as dismembered corpses and that many burns appeared all over their bodies.

Witnesses said that early on Monday dawn, an Israeli warplane fired at least one missile on the said Palestinian residents in the Buraij refugee camp

Israeli army troops swept last Thursday into the nearby Maghazi refugee camp, n central Gaza Strip, killing at least 9 Palestinians, mostly resistance fighters and wounding about 25 others, including civilians.

In the meantime, Israeli gunboats opened fire earlier in the day on Palestinian fishing boats on northern Gaza shores, forcing fishermen to flee and leaving no causalities.

Also in northern Gaza, Israeli tanks, stationed to the east of Abraj aL-Nadda neighborhood in Beit Lahya town, opened heavy random fire, causing a state of panic to the civilian population, witnesses said.

The Israeli army attacks on Palestinians have been intensified over the past few weeks, as Israeli military threatened of carrying out attrition war against infrastructure of Palestinian resistance groups.

In September, Israel declared Gaza a 'hostile entity' and imposed in October a series of 'apparently' punitive measures, including fuel supplies cut and further restricting a 6-month-old siege.

Israeli military says its actions are meant to stop homemade shells fire from Gaza onto nearby Israeli towns. Human rights groups branded the actions 'collective punishment', as United Nations Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon, urged Israel to reconsider them.

Over the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian violence or since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in September2000, more than 5.500 people have been killed, majority of them have been Palestinians.

gaza strip | israeli attacks | news report rami at imemc dot org