Sunday, 4 January 2009
Bethlehem/Gaza - Ma’an - Two Israeli soldiers are said to be dead after suffering critical injuries Saturday night as troops began a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Earlier reports from Israel of two critically injured soldiers moved to Israeli hospitals at Soroka, Barzilai and Tal Hashomar with 28 other injured Israelis seem to corroborate the story.
According to an Israeli military spokesperson Sunday evening one soldier was killed by a mortar shell in Beit Lahiya and another seriously wounded in Jabaliya
According to an Al-Arabiya reporter four more Israeli soldiers were injured near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The reporter said one soldier was critically injured.
Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV reported fighters kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, but later Hamas officials refused to confirm or deny the report.
Factions continue to fire projectiles
Palestinian military groups resumed the firing of homemade projectiles at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning.
Since dawn at least a dozen projectiles have landed near Israeli targets. One projectile hit a home in Sderot. Israeli media sources said five were “treated for shock.”
The “Israeli Home Front” ordered southern Israel residents to stay in shelters despite the opening of a ground war in Gaza, warning that projectiles could be expected to increase. Schools in the area are also closed.
Hamas’ military wing claimed to have launched two homemade projectiles at the Israeli town of Mefalsim near Beit Hanoun, and at Israeli soldiers stationed near the Camera military post, as well as two more at the Zekeim military post, one at the town of Yad Murdakhai, one Grad at Ashdod city and three mortar shells at Nahal Oz.
Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades said they fired three mortar shells at Nahal Oz and one homemade projectile at Sderot.
Islamic Jihad’s military wing the Al-Quds Brigades said their fighters detonated an explosive near an Israeli tank in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. They said the tank was completely destroyed and its ruins aflame. They said the soldiers in the tank were either dead or seriously injured.
The Brigades said they fired at least one projectile at an Israeli target and clashed with Israeli troops in the northern Strip.
The military wing affiliated to the Popular Resistance Committees, the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades said they fired two projectiles at Kfar Azza where they said two Israeli soldiers were injured.
Spokesperson of the brigades Abu Mujahed said “the resistance fighters are causing injuries among the Israeli soldiers during the clashes but they [the Israelis] do not admit their losses."
