One woman killed and forty injured in an Israeli air strike on Gaza city

Friday January 18, 2008 17:49 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Israeli jet fighters attacked the Palestinian Ministry of Interior building located in Gaza city; one woman and ten other civilians had been reportedly killed in the attack that took place on Friday afternoon.

Israeli army helicopter - File 2008

Eyewitnesses said that the building collapsed completely, sending a huge fire blaze into the air, flying shrapnel and smoke to the surrounding houses, killing a woman and injuring forty civilians.

Medics said that among those injured were children, adding that the number of killed may rise in the coming few hours since several injures were rated as severe.

Among those injured was a boy, Jacob Nikil, who is 8 years old. He, along with family and friends, was celebrating a wedding just 150m away from the attack. The father of the boy reported that one moment they were dancing at the wedding then they heard a bomb and his son was hit by schrapnel in the lower half of his body. They then found themselves in the hospital and are waiting to hear about the severity of the boys injuries.

Earlier on Friday morning one Palestinian, said to be a fighter, has been reportedly killed and two others wounded, when an Israeli warplane fired a missile on a group of people in northern Gaza Strip.

This latest air strike brings the death toll in Gaza since Monday to 35. Throughout the week, victims of air strikes happened to be civilians, either walking in streets or driving their cars.

In Gaza, the Palestinian resistance groups vowed retaliation to the Israeli killings as several homemade shells have been reportedly fired onto nearby Israeli towns, leaving slight damage to public property. Israeli officials warned Thursday of stepped up attacks on the Gaza Strip, within what Israel claims is "a bid to stop such homemade shell fire".

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