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Israeli Air Attack: 3 Palestinian children dead in botched IAF strike in Gaza |
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Tuesday, 20 June 2006Jerusalem Post
Three Palestinian children were killed Tuesday night during a botched IAF missile strike on a car driving in the crowded Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. An additional 13 Palestinians were wounded in the missile strike, which the IDF said had targeted an Aksa Martyrs Brigades terror cell.
The dead were identified as five-year-old Muhammad Roka and two girls aged seven and 16, said Dr. Jumma Fatah of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
A high-ranking IAF officer said that, while the military regretted the harm caused to innocent civilians, Israel was at war and would continue to target terror cells even in populated areas. "The Palestinians launch rockets from urban areas, and therefore we need to hit them there," the officer said.
He said that the air force had invested a great deal of resources and effort in minimizing collateral damage during air strikes, even to the extent of cancelling targeted assassinations at the last minute after fears arose that innocent civilians might be hurt. Last Tuesday the IAF killed eight civilians alongside three Islamic Jihad terrorists in an air strike in Gaza City.
In Tuesday night's air strike, the officer said, the targeted car was driving down an empty road and the air force did not foresee any civilian casualties when it launched the two missiles.
One of the wounded was senior Aksa Martyrs Brigades terrorist Amad Abu Hamed. According to the IDF, Abu Hamed was in charge of the terrorist organization's relations with Hizbullah, and was in the midst of planning terrorist attacks at the Karni crossing. He was behind the smuggling of large amounts of weaponry into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Abu Hamed served in the past as an officer in the PA police, and was also recently involved in trying to establish an infrastructure to kidnap Israelis to be used as bargaining chips for Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails.
Among the wounded were also five children, including a seven-year-old boy in serious condition. The car exploded on a narrow street in the crowded refugee camp. The front of the car was badly damaged, but the back remained intact.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered around the vehicle, shouting slogans. Khalil Roka, a cousin of the dead boy, said he was sitting in front of his car repair shop while the children played in front of the house nearby. He said he saw a red flash as the car exploded, and the children were hit.
On Tuesday, six rockets were fired at Israeli targets in the western Negev. Security officials said that Defense Minister Amir Peretz intended to give a green light to the IDF in the coming days to launch a massive air operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
"The operation will happen," one official in Peretz's office said. "We do not care if there are 30 Kassams or six Kassams a day since our goal is to completely stop the rocket fire altogether." The IDF operation, sources said, would probably not include a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip but would mostly be carried out by the IAF in continuous air strikes.
Speaking at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted at Israel's intention to escalate military operations on the Gaza front. Expressing his empathy for the residents of Sderot and the Negev, Olmert said: "No one knows the pain, the fear, and the uncertainty that you're feeling more than I do."
"I know it is difficult and painful," he continued. "I feel for the father who sends his child to school without knowing where the next Kassam might fall."
Olmert promised that Israel would take harsher measures than ever against any parties responsible for launching Kassams. "No one has immunity, no matter what he does or what group he's associated with."
IDF sources said that the Aksa terror cell targeted Tuesday night was in the midst of planning several different terror attacks against Israel and was involved in Kassam rocket fire on the western Negev. The IDF expressed regret for the harm caused to innocent civilians but stressed that it would continue targeting terror cells in the Gaza Strip.
"Responsibility for the continued rocket fire against Israel lies on the shoulders of the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government," the IDF said. "We are determined to continue targeting terror cells without considering with which group the terrorists are associated."
Earlier Tuesday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas called on armed Palestinian groups to stop firing rockets against Israel, warning that they would be responsible for any Israeli retaliation, an official said.
"Chairman Abbas called on all military groups in Gaza to stop launching rockets at Israel and to fully comply with the truce with Israel," said Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh. "Chairman Abbas holds any group and any faction that violates the truce fully responsible for the destruction and demolitions and victims that will result because of any Israeli imminent aggression."
Also Tuesday, operations at the Gaza Strip's border crossing with Egypt were suspended briefly in response to a security alert in the area. European monitors at the Rafah crossing asked the Palestinians operating the passage to stop operations until the security alert was lifted, said Julio De La Guardia, a spokesman for the European monitors.
The alert was withdrawn within 30 minutes, De La Guardia said. Receiving the same terror alert, the IDF closed the Kerem Shalom crossing into the Gaza Strip.
Gil Hoffman and AP contributed to the report.ÔÇó
20 June 2006 |
Tuesday, 20 June 2006
Jerusalem Post
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