GAZA CITY — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed nine Hamas members yesterday as the Jewish state went on high alert a day after the first suicide bombing on its soil by Palestinians in a year. An Israeli air raid hit a police station near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis hours after an early morning incursion by soldiers in the nearby border town of Rafah left two Hamas men dead.
Medics said seven members from the movement were killed in the late afternoon airstrike and another two were wounded. “The men were in afternoon prayers inside the police station when the missile struck,” said a security official for Hamas.
An Israeli Army spokesman said the attack targeted a Hamas military position “in response to the Qassam (rocket) launchings that hit (the southern Israeli town of) Sderot.” Shortly after the strike, Hamas members fired another four rockets at the town, wounding two Israelis, as the movement vowed to avenge yesterday’s strikes. “This blood will not be shed in vain; this crime will not go unanswered and the Israeli occupation will pay a heavy price,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP shortly after the airstrike.
Israel was already on high alert after a suicide bombing on Monday in the southern desert town of Dimona killed a woman and wounded nearly a dozen other people, in the first such attack since January 2007.
Following the airstrike, Hamas’ armed wing claimed full responsibility for the Dimona attack, the first time it has claimed a suicide bombing since August 2004. According to a Hamas statement, the two bombers, Mohammed Al-Hirbawi and Shadi Al-Zaghair, came from the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The attack was previously claimed by three groups, including Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. It is loosely linked to the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the attack.
The bombing came just two months after Israel and the Palestinians revived peace talks, raising fears that the already troubled discussions could be further bogged down.
Bertie Ohayon, a senior Israeli police officer, told public radio earlier yesterday: “Our forces have been placed on a heightened state of alert as we fear a wave of attacks after Monday’s attack in Dimona.” The bombing came after a nearly two-week breach of the Gaza-Egypt border.
As Cairo yesterday urged Hamas to allow EU observers to return to the Rafah crossing so that it could be legally reopened, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said his country would not allow its border to be breached again.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is to recommend at a meeting today that Egypt double its forces to 1,500 along the Gaza border, a senior Israeli official told AFP.
