legionista1
11.02.02, 16:25
STOP WEZEL PRZYJAZNI POMIEDZY USA I
NEOFASZYSTOWSKIM, BANDYCKIM ISRAELEM.
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Israelis Rocket Gaza City;
U.N. Envoy Protests
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes and
helicopter gunships attacked the Palestinian security
headquarters in Gaza City on Monday, in retaliation for
unprecedented Palestinian rocket fire and a shooting
attack on Israeli civilians.
More than 30 people were injured by shrapnel in the
second air strike in Gaza City in two days. The Israeli
military warned that it "will not tolerate the continued
firing of rockets" at Israel and at Jewish settlements.
The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility
for firing a homemade Qassam-2 rocket toward an Israeli
communal farm on Sunday — a first in 16 months of
fighting. The Qassam-2 has a range of three to five
miles, enough to hit Israeli towns from the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. In the past, Hamas has fired several
shorter-range Qassam-1 rockets that caused no damage.
In Monday's air strike, six missiles hit the large
walled Saraya compound in downtown Gaza City, setting
buildings ablaze and sending black smoke into the sky.
Doctors said the injured included three Palestinian
journalists and news photographer George Kochaniec, a
photographer for Denver's Rocky Mountain News. Kochaniec
was treated for a hand injury.
The attack came at a time of changeover between morning
and afternoon shifts at nearby schools, and streets were
crowded with youngsters who ran away from the
explosions, some screaming in panic.
Electricity in Gaza City was cut after the air strike.
The missiles were fired several minutes apart, and one
hit the compound while firefighters were in the area
trying to douse the flames.
Hundreds of Palestinians ran to the compound demanding
that suspected Islamic militants held there be released
immediately. Some threw stones at officers who fired in
the air to keep back the crowd. Palestinian police said
all prisoners were moved from the compound shortly after
the Israeli attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened senior
Cabinet ministers and security officials late Sunday at
his farm in southern Israeli to decide on a response to
the firing of the Qassam-2 rockets, which fell in an
open field and caused no damage. "This constitutes a
very serious escalation," government spokesman Avi
Pazner said of the rocket fire.
Israeli media reports said Sharon and his advisers
decided on a new type of retaliation, but did not
specify. Commentators suggested Israel might reoccupy
Palestinian areas close to Israel for an extended period
to push rockets out of range.
"Sharon must take into consideration the clear American
interest in preventing a total conflagration between
Israel and the Palestinians, at a time when Washington
is constructing its campaign against Iraq," wrote Hemi
Shalev in the Maariv daily.
Hamas said it was not intimidated by Israel's warnings.
"Hamas will not change its strategy and we will go ahead
... until the final liberation of our Holy Land," a
Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said Monday.
Arafat aide Ahmed Abdel Rahman accused Israel of
exaggerating the threat posed by the rockets in order to
escalate strikes against the Palestinians.
There was no claim of responsibility for Sunday's
shooting attack in the southern Israeli town of
Beersheba.
In the attack, two Palestinians sprayed automatic fire
at Israelis sitting in a cafe and a nearby restaurant
outside a military base, killing two women soldiers and
seriously wounding five people before being shot dead by
troops.
"Suddenly someone from outside opened the blinds and
began to spray the restaurant with gunfire," Liza Cohen,
65, one of the diners at the "End of the Road"
restaurant, told the Yediot Ahronot daily.
"We all panicked. People lay on top of each other. It
was horrible," said another customer, Morris Levy.
In response, Israeli F-16 warplanes fired bombs and
missiles at a Gaza City security compound Sunday night.
The explosions shattered windows in a nearby U.N.
compound and the Palestinian Planning Ministry, and 37
people were injured, most only slightly.
Israeli military commanders later apologized to Terje
Roed-Larsen, the U.N. envoy to the Middle East.
"I fully accept that, but on the other hand, it's
totally unacceptable to use that kind of weaponry which
puts civilian lives and U.N. personnel at peril,"
Roed-Larsen told Israel Army Radio. "Several of my
colleagues were there [in the building] and some of them
were simply knocked over."
Israeli helicopter gunships also fired missiles at a
metal workshop in the nearby Jebaliya refugee camp where
the military said mortar shells and rockets were being
made. Sunday night's attack shattered windows and
brought down the roof at a nearby kindergarten.
In Israel, Sharon was coming under pressure from his
political camp to topple Arafat and the Palestinian
Authority. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
seen as a strong challenger to Sharon and a fellow
member of the Likud Party, demanded that Arafat be
removed.
"There can only be a military solution," Netanyahu said
on Israel TV's Channel Two. "If you get rid of this
[Arafat's] regime, you are telling the person who comes
next, 'watch out.'"
