Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

    GAZA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two Palestinians were killed and three others injured early Wednesday after an Israeli F-16 warplane fired several air-to-ground rockets at a four-storey building in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, medics and witnesses said.

    Witnesses said that an Israeli F-16 warplane flew over the area and fired several rockets at a building, adding that four families managed to flee the building shortly before it was hit.

    They said that they heard several explosions amid scream of people including women and children, adding that ambulances evacuated several casualties.

    Medics at Nasser Hospital in the town said that two Palestinians were killed and three others injured in the airstrike,adding that one was in serious condition.

    Local residents said that the building belonged to a prominent militant of the al-Aqsa Brigades, the Fatah movement's armed wing.

    They said that Hassan Shaath, owner of the building, told his neighbors that he was asked by the Israeli army over his mobile phone to evacuate just half an hour before the air raid. Enditem