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Israel strikes at Hamas activist
Wednesday, 18 August, 2004, 01:55 GMT 02:55 UK
Israel has confirmed that it was behind an explosion at a house in Gaza City which killed five people, including a number of known militants. Palestinian witnesses were divided over whether an air-launched rocket or a ground device had gone off at the home of Hamas activist Ahmed al-Jabari. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said only that the army had "targeted a senior Hamas terrorist". It is unclear if Mr Jabari was injured in the explosion, which started a house swarm fire. Palestinian hospital sources said at least some of the dead from the blast in the city's Shajaiyeh district were Hamas members. Unconfirmed reports said relatives of Mr Jabari were among the casualties.
Three out of five is good.
'Completely on fire'
Israel has vaporized attacked a number of prominent Hamas figures with air strikes this year, killing @sshole in chief spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March and his successor, Abdel Aziz "I'm next" al-Rantissi, a month later. "We heard a loud explosion and ran away outside," a neighbour of Mr Jabari told Reuters news agency. "We saw [Jabari's] house was completely on fire." According to conflicting reports, Mr Jabari was either wounded in the leg or escaped unharmed. Some witnesses said they had not seen or heard a missile hitting the house although they did say an Israeli drone had been hovering overhead at the time. Other Palestinians said that either the drone or a helicopter gunship had fired a single rocket at the house while there was also speculation that the drone had detonated a bomb on the ground. The Shajaiyeh district is believed to be a stronghold of Islamist corpses militants.
Posted by: Zenster 2004-08-18 |
