GAZA CITY, 19 December 2007 — A wave of Israel airstrikes killed 13 Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip. In the worst deadly strikes in many months, Israeli warplanes bombed a Hamas naval base in the northern city of Rafah.
This new airstrike on the Gaza Strip yesterday was the fourth since Monday night. During the first two airstrikes six members of the Islamic Jihad were killed including senior commander Majed Al-Harazin.
In the third attack, three other members of the Islamic Jihad movement were also killed when the warplanes hit their car with two missiles following the departure of Al-Tawaba Mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of the Gaza Strip, after performing dawn prayers. Islamic Jihad and medical sources identified the three martyrs as Hosam Abu Habel, Mohammed Altaramis and Osama Yassin.
In Gaza, several Palestinian military groups threatened to retaliate for the assassination of ten Islamic Jihad activists on Monday night and yesterday morning. Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades and the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades claimed responsibility for firing homemade projectiles and mortar shells at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and at a military base near Nahal ‘Oz, east of Gaza City.
The military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the National Resistance Brigades, and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades said yesterday that their fighters also launched two homemade projectiles at Nahal ‘Oz.
Separately, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades claimed responsibility for firing a homemade projectile at the Israeli town of Sderot.
Israel has not been hit by a suicide bombing in 11 months, a respite that helped pave the way for renewed peace efforts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who opposes such attacks.
“I hope these successes will continue,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, referring to the airstrikes, told reporters in Tel Aviv. “Having said that, we must take all precautions against possible retaliation from the other side.”
In Paris, where he attended an international donors meeting that followed last month’s Annapolis peace conference, Abbas called on Israel to stop construction in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. He described the building work as “an obstacle that hampers negotiations.”
In the southern Gaza Strip, an air strike killed two Hamas security men. The Israeli army said the attack was in response to mortar bombs fired earlier at southern Israel. It said gunmen also launched five rockets. No one was hurt on the Israeli side.
At a funeral for the Islamic Jihad fighters, gunmen fired in the air, accidentally severing a high-voltage power line. It fell on the crowd, killing one of the mourners and wounding seven others, medical officials said.
Palestinian officials said Majed, one of the Islamic Jihad dead, was the most senior militant commander to be killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in more than a year.
