ISRAEL: Israel unleashed a ferocious aerial assault on the Gaza Strip yesterday, launching five separate strikes in which 10 people were killed, including Hamas militants and civilians, and close to 60 people were injured.
In the most devastating of the strikes, carried out last night, helicopter gunships fired missiles at a car travelling near the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing seven people. According to initial reports, Hamas militants, including a senior member of its military wing, were among the dead. Witnesses said several bystanders were killed and dozens injured when one of the missiles went astray and hit a crowd of people standing nearby.
Hundreds of Nusseirat residents, who rushed to the scene, carried charred pieces of the vehicle aloft and chanted, "revenge, revenge". The aerial blitz came a day after militants fired eight makeshift rockets from Gaza at towns inside Israel - there were no injuries - and after three Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian gunmen who ambushed them in the West Bank.
Speaking to parliament yesterday, the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, said the army would "continue to act to foil terror attacks, capture murderers and liquidate terror organisations". Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Ahmed Korei said Israel's actions undermined efforts to forge a ceasefire. "The world should wake up to this aggression," he said in Ramallah.
In the first attack, early yesterday morning, a fighter jet bombed a two-storey building in the Sajayieh neighbourhood of Gaza City, some 200 metres from the home of senior Islamic Jihad official Mr Abdullah Shami. This initially fuelled speculation that he had been the target. The army later insisted he had not, saying the bombed building housed a Hamas weapons workshop.
But Palestinians insisted it was a residential structure and reported 14 people injured in the strike, including two children aged two and three. Doctors said the injuries were all light to moderate. A neighbour, Mr Rawda al-Jamal, who ran outside carrying his wounded one-year-old son, said the blast "was like an earthquake". In the second morning strike, a helicopter fired missiles at a Peugeot van carrying two Hamas militants as it stopped at a traffic light near a petrol station in Gaza City. Both men were killed. Medics said a third man, in a nearby car, was also killed by the blast, and that at least 12 bystanders were injured.
Israeli military sources said the van was loaded with weaponry.
In the third assault, just after midday, Israeli aircraft hit another structure which the army said was being used by Hamas to store weapons. There were no casualties. Palestinians reported a fifth strike late last night.
Addressing the opening of the winter parliament session, Mr Sharon called Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat "the greatest obstacle to peace" and said Israel "is determined to bring about his removal from the political arena". The use of the words "political arena" appeared to indicate a shift in the government's policy towards the Palestinian leader. Last month, the security cabinet decided to "remove" Mr Arafat, raising speculation that Israel might expel him or try to assassinate him. But stiff US opposition appears to have deterred Mr Sharon.