Tuesday, 20 June 2006* An Israeli air strike on a car in the northern Gaza Strip has killed three Palestinian children and wounded 10 other people.
* Child toll rises in Israeli air attack
* The sources named one of the dead children as Mohammed Jamal Roqa, a five-year-old boy. A seven-year-old girl who died was not immediately identified.
GAZA - An Israeli air strike on a car in the Gaza Strip has killed three children.
The occupants of the car leapt out before the blast in a crowded street in the Jabaliya refugee camp, witnesses say. Fourteen people were wounded.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the strike on Tuesday, saying the car was carrying armed men from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with the Fatah movement of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
She had no immediate word on casualties, but medical sources at Shifa hospital in Gaza City said that among the 10 wounded were seven children.
Israel has repeatedly struck at targets Gaza in response to rocket attacks by militants, who have fired dozens of volleys into Israel in recent days.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered to protest at the scene of the latest explosion.
Those who died include a boy and a girl - both about five-years-old - and a 16-year-old girl, Palestinian medical sources say.
Khalil Roka, a cousin of one of the dead children, told the Associated Press news agency he saw a red flash as the car exploded amid a group of children playing.
Several of the injured are also said to be children.
The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says civilians are often killed when Israel targets militants in crowded areas.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said the attack had targeted members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group associated with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
Israel says such strikes are necessary to deter militants from firing crude rockets from Gaza.
People in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, frequently hit by Palestinian rockets, went on strike on Tuesday to protest that the government was not doing enough to protect them.
An Israeli strike on a van carrying militants in Gaza City last week left nine people dead, seven of them civilians.
Earlier this month, eight Palestinians - including seven members of one family - were killed in an explosion as they picnicked on Gaza's beach.
Israel denied Palestinian accusations that its shelling had caused the blast.
JTW Staff
News Agencies, Al Jazeera, BBC News, 20 June 2006 |
Tuesday, 20 June 2006
Israel Confirms the Attack
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