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Outside the Interior Ministry in Gaza City (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff February 28, 2008 |
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| The Gazans interior ministry will need a new roof (Flash90) |
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Israeli security forces struck targets in the West Bank and Gaza Thursday, killing 18 Palestinians, including five children. The deaths come a day after IDF troops killed 12 Palestinians as an Israeli was killed in an one of the scores of Qassam rocket strikes. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, enroute from Japan, vowed a harsh response to the deadly barrages.
After nightfall Thursday, two Palestinians were killed in an Israel Air Force missile strike on a truck in Gaza City, near Shifa Hospital. Local witnesses said the vehicle was carrying canned beverages, but the Israel Defense Forces said that the targeted truck was laden with rockets ready for launching. The men pulled from the charred vehicle were wearing military uniforms, witnesses said.
Early Thursday evening, an IAF helicopter attacked a police roadblock 150 meters from the Gaza City home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Palestinian officials said one person was killed and four others wounded. Haniyeh, who has been in hiding for several weeks fearing Israeli assassination, was not believed to be in the neighborhood at the time of the strike.
The attack appeared to be aimed at "sending a message" to the Hamas leader, a day after the IAF targeted Haniyeh's empty office.
Four children -- all under the age of 16 and three from the same family -- were killed in an IAF strike in Jabalya, a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. Witnesses said the children were playing soccer when the missile struck. The IDF said the target was a rocket-launching pad.
Several other people were reportedly wounded in the attack. Other sources in the Strip said that "the Israelis realize their defeat and therefore they are starting to kill civilians.
Another IAF attack in northern Gaza a short while later killed a Hamas militant.
Earlier, IAF aircraft struck northern Gaza, killing another Hamas member and one other person. On Thursday morning, the IAF struck targets in carried out an air strike in Gaza City, killing two militants from the Popular Resistance Committees and another from Hamas.
In the West Bank, IDF troops conducting arrests of terror suspects shot and killed a militant from the PRC and a member of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the Balata refugee camp, on the outskirts of Nablus.
In the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun, an IAF strike killed two Hamas members, including son of senior Hamas lawmaker, Khalil al-Haya. The group said he had commanded a rocket-launching squad in northern Gaza. Al-Haya is one of Hamas' top figures in Gaza, and has escaped assassination attempts, including an IAF strike that killed his brother last year.
Visiting the morgue at Gaza City's Shifa hospital Thursday, Khalil al-Haya said he was proud that his son had lost his life: "I thank God for this gift, he said. This is the 10th member of my family to receive the honor of martyrdom."
Overnight, IAF jets blasted a government building in Gaza. Palestinian health officials said a 6-month-old baby was killed in the attack, and 30 people were wounded. But witnesses said the building was empty. The IDF said all targets that were attacked were centers of terrorist activity.
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