Air strike on Gaza cars kills four Hamas members

[barb162]

Air strike on Gaza cars kills four Hamas members

By Nir Hasson and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed it carried out an air strike on two vehicles driving in Gaza City on Saturday. Four Hamas members were killed and nine other people were wounded, Palestinian doctors and Hamas officials said.

Witnesses and relatives in the morgue identified two of the four dead men as Hamas members Rawad Farhat, 17, and Nafez abu Hussein, 29.

The IDF said one of the vehicles was carrying weapons and the other was carrying Hamas members. The air strike came in response to a barrage of Palestinian Qassam rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, the first such attacks since Israel pulled out of Gaza two weeks ago.


The air strike occurred on a dirt road in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Construction worker Ziad Salim said he was working on a nearby house when the missiles struck.

snip

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/628573.html

[bemildred]

1. Admirable precision. nt

[barb162]

2. "Meanwhile,

Palestinians continued to launch Qassams at Israel on Saturday afternoon after the air stike. Three rockets landed in Sderot, the shrapnel wounding one person lightly."

[bemildred]

3. Not likely to be very effective in stopping the Qassams, no.

But at least the dead were Hamas only, by the report,
no random bystanders were rubbed out. That's good, when
you hit what you aim at and the "collateral damage" is
"minimal". That is unlike the Qassam shooters for example,
who have no clue whatsoever as to what they will hit, if
anything.

[barb162]

6. Yes, "no clue whatsoever as to what they will hit"

maybe a hospital, maybe a school, maybe an open field, who knows?

[bemildred]

4. Israel's 'crushing response'

Gee, who could have predicted this? It will be intesting to see
if they actually shell the strip with artillery. That should look
really great on TV.

Gaza Strip - Israel killed four Hamas militants in a missile strike on Saturday and moved artillery cannons to the Gaza border, part of a what it said would be a "crushing" response to the first major Hamas rocket barrage on Israeli towns since Israel's pull-out from Gaza two weeks earlier.

Israel also sealed the West Bank and Gaza, barring all Palestinians from its territory.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened a Saturday evening meeting of his Security Cabinet to approve the military response, expected to last for several days, though a large-scale ground operation appeared unlikely. The timing of the Cabinet meeting suggested a sense of urgency.

The Cabinet session came as Sharon faced a major leadership challenge in his Likud Party this week over the Gaza pull-out. Sharon's challenger, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned the withdrawal will endanger Israel. The barrage of 39 rockets, with five Israelis hurt, could give Netanyahu a boost against Sharon.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1805823,00.html

[Violet_Crumble]

7. More on the 'crushing response'...

Shortly after the Security Cabinet’s meeting, Israeli aircraft struck two suspected weapons-storage facilities in southern Gaza and a school in a crowded Gaza City neighborhood. Medical officials said 17 people, including women and children, were lightly wounded.

The Gaza City attack hit the Al-Arkam school, established by Hamas’ founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was killed in an air strike last year. Five nearby homes were also damaged. The army said the school was used by Hamas to raise funds, recruit militants and assist families of suicide bombers.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9453473/

[bemildred]

8. More drivel.

"two suspected weapons-storage facilities"

Suspected by whom, when, and why? The statement mixes these
up with a school in Gaza City. Then we have:

"The army said the school was used by Hamas to raise funds, recruit militants and assist families of suicide bombers."

Does this mean we can ignore the fact it's a school? Are the
children supposed to fight off the Hamas fellows on pain of
bombardment? I mean assuming one accepts the idea that that assertion
is not butt-covering bullshit in the first place. Were we not just
talking about the Qassams hitting schools and how tacky that was?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. No, apparently it's okay to bomb Palestinian schools...

And I've got no idea why my original post saying just that was deleted, considering I'm being told by someone in another thread exactly that same thing...

Violet...

[bemildred]

11. LOL. Shame upon you Violet. nt

[bemildred]

5. Hamas vows attacks in Israel to avenge deadly Gaza air strike

Hamas vowed revenge for a deadly Israel Air Force strike Saturday that killed four of its members, calling on its people to strike Israel "in every spot of our occupied land."

The group's military wing issued a statement declaring a state of alert in the West Bank and Gaza and urging its members to "take extreme caution and security measures."

The statement called on all "cells to respond to the crimes of the enemy and hit them in every spot of our occupied land ... to avenge the blood of our martyrs and teach a lesson."

Haaretz