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Middle East
2 Israel Air Strikes in Gaza (update)
2003-10-20
New strike and update on the earlier post
Palestinian medical sources say two Palestinians have been killed and five others wounded in an Israeli air-strike on a car in Gaza City.
Hmmm... Not as many casualties as you get with the average bus bombing. Guess they have to work on that...
Few details are available from the later attack. But it came just hours after an Israeli warplane bombed a building near the home of an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza in a strike Israel says targeted a Hamas weapons factory. Palestinians say 12 people in the area were wounded in the earlier attack, which hit a two-story building under construction near the home of Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah al-Shami. Israel says the targeted building was used by Hamas to store and make weapons, including Qassam rockets that Palestinian militants fire at Israelis. In interviews after the attack, Mr. Shami denied the building was a weapons factory.
"No, no! Certainly not! It was... ummm... a baby duck nursery!"
He also says the air-strike damaged a number of homes in the area. The air strike came a day after a number of Qassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. There were no reports of casualties in the rockets attacks on Israel.
typical paleo shoot and run - cannons propped up on rocks, rubble
In another incident Sunday, Palestinian gunmen staged an ambush near the West Bank town of Ramallah, killing three Israeli soldiers and wounded a fourth.
posted yesterday
The Palestinian militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the ambush and vowed to continue such attacks until Israel leaves Palestinian land. The group is an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
Until Israel leaves Paleo land doesn’t leave any room for peace then, does it
Hamas typically describes them as "the armed wing" of Fatah. I assume they know what they're talking about...
Meanwhile, three Fatah officials headed to Washington Sunday to meet with U.S. lawmakers about possible new ideas to advance stalled peace efforts.
Presumably they're from the unarmed wing of Fatah...
There is no indication the delegation will meet with Bush administration officials.
Bet it’s the Bonior/McDermott/Pelosi crowd they’re meeting with. Any discussions beyond: "live up to promises or die" is too much.
Posted by:Frank G

#6  ABC:"The tit-for-tat violence deals a severe new setback to a stalled US-backed peace plan and has touched off new vows of revenge by the Palestinians."

Idiotas. The "roadmap" is as dead as the baby ducks.
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-10-20 9:59:30 PM  

#5  And a fifth strike this evening...
Posted by: Fred   2003-10-20 9:46:10 PM  

#4  Another strike on a car - car hit, bystanders did the car swarm, and another missile hit.... Fox says another strike by F16's is ongoing@ 1:45 PST
Posted by: Frank G   2003-10-20 4:43:45 PM  

#3  ... a baby duck nursery

It's a baby duck hatchery.

Of course, one could use the same word to describe the counseling sessions for future splodydopes.
Posted by: Steve White   2003-10-20 11:08:04 AM  

#2  Meanwhile, three Fatah officials headed to Washington Sunday to meet with U.S. lawmakers about possible new ideas to advance stalled peace efforts.

Should read:

Meanwhile, three Fatah officials headed to Washington Sunday to meet with U.S. lawmakers about possible new ideas to stall advanced peace efforts.
Posted by: badanov   2003-10-20 8:13:37 AM  

#1  oops - update - a third strike - Israelis are in a mood...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A team of Israeli helicopters launched an air strike in a Gaza City neighbourhood Monday, the third such attack in the Gaza Strip in four hours.

The third attack, which came just after noon, hit the same neighbourhood that was hit earlier in the day, according to witnesses. Smoke was billowing from the scene of the strike.

Several hours earlier, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at a pickup truck in Gaza City, killing two Hamas members and a bystander. An earlier strike destroyed a suspected rocket factory run by the Islamic militant group, army officials said.

At least 23 people, including four children and a 70-year-old woman, were wounded in the first two attacks, Palestinian hospital officials said. It was unclear if anyone was wounded in the third attack.

The air strikes came a day after Palestinian militants fired a barrage of homemade rockets into southern Israel from Gaza. Also Sunday, a Palestinian ambush in the West Bank killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded a fourth.

The Hamas members, targeted in the second attack, were travelling in a white pickup truck that was hit by two missiles fired by Israeli helicopters. Witnesses said the truck was spotted earlier in the day near the alleged weapons workshop targeted in the first air strike in the Sajaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The pickup had stopped at a traffic light near a gas station, on a busy street crowded with school children, when the missiles hit the front of the vehicle. A kindergarten and an elementary school had just let out students for the day.

A Palestinian motorist was also killed in the attack. Palestinian hospital officials said 12 bystanders were wounded, four of them in serious condition.

The third air strike also hit near the Sajaiya neighbourhood, close to an area where mortar shells are often fired into Israel.

In the last three years of fighting, Israel has killed dozens of Palestinian militants in targeted attacks, including helicopter missile strikes.

Less than three hours earlier, Israeli warplanes attacked a house under construction where the army said Hamas was making small rockets. After the air strike, two masked men were seen loading belongings into the white pickup that was then targeted in the second air strike.

The alleged weapons workshop was just 200 metres from the home of Islamic Jihad leader Abdullah Shami, who was not hurt.

Posted by: Frank G   2003-10-20 7:40:55 AM  

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