GAZA CITY, 21 June 2006 — Israel killed three Palestinian children, two of them siblings, in a missile attack on the Gaza Strip yesterday hours after its defense minister vowed to step up military action against Palestinians.
Witnesses said an aircraft fired at least one missile at a car carrying Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades activists in Gaza City. The occupants managed to leap free but a seven-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother nearby were killed, as was a 16-year-old.
Nine bystanders, most of them minors, were wounded.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, under pressure from residents of border towns that have been targeted by rockets fired from Gaza, had earlier promised new military countermeasures “within a matter of dozens of hours” but did not elaborate.
Israel Radio, quoting witnesses, reported armored units massing outside northern Gaza. There have been no major Israeli ground operations in Gaza since Israel quit the strip last year after 38 years of occupation in a bid to defuse conflict.
Yesterday’s airstrike came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, trying to salvage peacemaking with Israel despite opposition from the new Hamas government with which he shares power, urged an end to the rocket fire.
“The president holds any faction that violates the calm fully responsible for any sabotage, destruction and victims that befall our people as a result of the imminent Israeli aggression,” Abbas’ office said in a statement.
An Israeli Army spokesman said the airstrike had targeted people wanted for attacks on Israel. The spokesman expressed regret over any civilian casualties but said responsibility lay with the Palestinians for failing to stop the rocket salvos.
A senior member of Hamas, meanwhile, said the movement will not recognize Israel. “There will be no compromise on recognizing Israel. We will not,” said Mohammed Nazzal, a Syrian-based member of Hamas’ politburo during a conference in Cairo.
“They want us to recognize Israel, accept past peace deals and renounce violence,” said Nazzal. “Political logic says that a movement like Hamas cannot accept these conditions.” The late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, “recognized Israel and in the end he was under siege in Ramallah. What did he get in return,” Nazzal asked.
Hamas is deemed a terrorist organization by both the European Union and the United States, who froze aid to the Palestinian government, because Hamas has refused to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
But participants at cross-party talks in Gaza, including bitter rivals Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party, said Monday that Palestinian factions had made progress toward an agreement on a deal that could implicitly recognize Israel and end a political and fiscal crisis.
The focus of talks has been a statehood initiative that implicitly recognizes Israel’s right to exist by calling for a Palestinian state on land conquered in 1967, an end to attacks in Israel and a national unity government.
Unless the initiative is accepted by all factions, Abbas will put it to referendum — already set for July 26. That has roused the ire of Hamas which claims the unprecedented vote amounts to an attempt to overthrow its government.
— Additional input from agencies
