Israeli airstrike on Hamas kills 14 in Gaza

www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-07 15:52:51

GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 14 Palestinians were killed and about 30 were injured at Monday midnight in an airstrike carried out by Israeli Apache helicopters in eastern Gaza City, Palestinian medics at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City reported.

Palestinian witnesses and security sources said Israeli Apache helicopters hovered over the Gaza City and fired at least five missiles at a summer training camp belonging to Islamic resistance movement Hamas in the eastern neighborhood of Tufah in the city.

"Allaho Akbar (God is great)," shouted dozens of people who rushed to the scene, where they were searching remains of victims and carrying wounded young men from the area.

Ambulances and firefighters arrived at the camp, where hundreds of people carried bodies and survivors on their shoulders, putting them into ambulances and local cars which took them to the hospital.

Palestinian security officials said it was not clear if the missiles had been fired from Apache helicopters or surface to surface rockets had been fired from eastern Gaza.

Baker Abu Safeya, chief of emergency at the hospital, said 14 were killed and 25 injured, at least nine of them are in critical conditions.

The witnesses said the camp was established two months ago by Hamas on a playground named "Ahmed Yassin" who was the spiritual leader of the movement and assassinated by Israel in Gaza on April22.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) condemned on Tuesday morning the strike. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said it is "unjustified" and Israel is using an available action to block any progress aimed at reviving the peace process.

Hamas vowed Tuesday an immediate revenge after the strike. Musheer al Masri, a spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza City said the war between Israel and the movement is continued and opened."They hit us and we hit them, and the blood of the killed would remain a fire in the face of the enemy and would encourage Hamas not to stop fighting," he said.

Mohamed al Hindi, one the Jihad movement (Holy War) leaders in Gaza, told reporters that the strike is not a reaction to the suicide bombing carried out by two Hamas militants in Beer Sheva in Israel last week, which killed 16 Israelis.

"The strike has nothing to do with the double attacks in Beer Sheva, it is an obvious severe Israeli army escalation against thePalestinian people," said al Hindi.

He described it as an "awful massacre", adding it coincides withthe visit of an Egyptian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Gheit and intelligence security chief Omer Suleiman tothe Palestinian territories.

The Egyptian delegation met on Monday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and presented a security plan to prepare for the expected Israeli evacuation of the Gaza Strip.

Al Hindi said this escalation is an Israeli message to the Egyptians, saying that Israel does not care about any political effort and wants to use the current world circumstances to eliminate the Palestinian cause.

He said Israel will be totally mistaken if it believes that shelling and assassinations will end the Palestinian armed resistance, stressing that these attacks are empowering the armed resistance against the occupation.

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