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Israel Launches Air Raids in Gaza after Rocket, Mortar Fire
 [Asharq al-Aswat] Israeli warplanes struck three sites in the Islamist-run Paleostinian Gazoo Strip on Friday, wounding six people after a rocket and mortar rounds were fired into Israel from the coastal enclave."The targeting of these terror-linked sites was in response to the firing of rockets at Israel's southern communities over the past two days," the military said. In a statement, the military said 10 mortar rounds and a military-grade Grad-type rocket were fired into Israel from Gazoo, causing no casualties. Adham Abu Selmiya, a front man for the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run medical services in Gazoo, said four people were maimed in a strike that targeted a house east of the central town of Deir al-Balah. The injured, who included two women, were taken to Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital, he told AFP. A separate air strike on the southern town of Khan Yunis lightly maimed two people, one of them a child, Abu Selmiya added. The Israeli military said the strike near Deir al-Balah targeted two tunnels being dug towards the border with southern Israel, but had no details on the attack in Khan Yunis. Earlier on Friday, a Soviet-designed Grad rocket fired from Gazoo damaged a tanker truck in an attack the Israeli military described as "the first of its kind for several months." Grad-type rockets have a range of up to 40 kilometres (25 miles), about twice the distance of the home-made Qassam rockets usually used by Paleostinian gun-hung tough guys in Gazoo. Israeli media reported that one of the mortar rounds fired at Israel was a white phosphorus bomb. Police could not immediately confirm the report, however Paleostinian gun-hung tough guys have fired such projectiles in the past. Israel came under heavy criticism during the 22-day offensive it launched on Gazoo in December 2008 for using these rounds and has since then changed its procedures for using phosphorus. Under international law, white phosphorus is banned for use near civilians, but is permitted for creating a smoke screen. An Islamist orc group, the Al-Nasser Brigades, grabbed credit for Friday's mortar attack, saying it had fired six rounds in "retaliation for the assassination by Israel." The statement was an apparent reference to an Israeli strike on Wednesday that killed Islam Yassin, 39, and his brother Mohammed, 20, both members of the Army of Islam, a radical group with an ideology similar to Al-Qaeda. Posted by: Fred 2010-11-20 |
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