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Israel-Palestine
Israel kills 5 Hamas gunmen
2005-07-16
GAZA - Israel killed five Hamas gunmen in air strikes on Friday in retaliation for a deadly Palestinian rocket barrage, resuming its assassination policy against militants as a five-month-old truce appeared to be unravelling. Hamas said the back-to-back missile strikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would “open the doors of hell” on Israel, and said it was reconsidering its commitment to the ceasefire.

The flare-up of violence, one of the worst since Israel and the Palestinian Authority declared an end to hostilities in February, raised the prospect of disruptions to Israel’s planned pullout of settlers from occupied Gaza next month.

The Israeli strikes followed the killing of a young Israeli woman in a rocket attack on Thursday that sparked the fiercest internal fighting in years between militants and Palestinian police, who confronted them trying to stop further salvoes.
Of course it's the Jooos' fault.
Two bystanders were killed and 26 people wounded in the gunbattles, which raised Palestinian fears of civil war, and the Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency in Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas, struggling to salvage the truce and keep control in the face of a growing Hamas challenge, ordered police to act amid Israeli threats of harsh reprisals.

Israel launched a series of air raids against Hamas targets in Gaza before dawn on Friday, causing no casualties. Hours later, one terrorist militant was killed in a helicopter strike on a mountain hideout near the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian security sources said. They originally reported three Hamas terrorists men were killed but later said the other two were either wounded or had escaped.

Within minutes, helicopters over Gaza launched a missile into a car, tearing it apart and killing four terrorists militants inside, hospital officials said. Hamas officials said the car was carrying a cache of makeshift Qassam rockets. The Israel army said it targeted “wanted terrorists” in the West Bank strike and that the Hamas cell hit in Gaza was on the way to carry out rocket attacks.

Israel resumes whack terrorists assassination policy

Israel had reaffirmed its intention to resume what it calls “targeted killings” of top terrorists militants following an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing that killed five Israelis on Tuesday. It had suspended the internationally condemned policy under the truce.

Defying Israel’s army and Palestinian police, Hamas kept up rocket volleys into southern Israel and mortar fire on Gaza settlements, causing damage but no casualties. Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, wants to give the impression the Israelis are being chased out. “The calm is blowing away in the wind, and the Zionist enemy is responsible for that,” Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri said.

But Israeli army chief Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said Hamas had ”removed itself from maintaining the rules of the ceasefire.”
Start looking up, boys.
Palestinian officials and Hamas leaders exchanged recriminations over the internal strife but also began talks. The police action suggested a possible shift in policy by Abbas, who until now had been reluctant to crack down on militants despite demands from Israel and the United States. Hamas militants fought Palestinian police who raided rocket launching sites trying to stop further attacks.
Posted by:Steve White

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