Special report: Israel launches Gaza
assault
GAZA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Several fresh and successive
Israeli airstrikes killed nine Palestinians on Friday evening in northern and
southern Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said.
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The body of a Hamas
militant, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike, is carried for
burial in Gaza City, Nov. 3, 2006. (Xinhua/Rueters
Photo)
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The
death toll of the still ongoing Israeli operations hit to 37 Palestinians killed
in recent three days, added the sources.
According to the sources, in southern Gaza Strip city
of Rafah, a Hamas militant was killed and six others, including children
bystanders, were wounded in an Israeli air strike at her car.
The rest of the raids were in northern Gaza Strip
close to the border towns of Biet Hanoun and Beit Lahia where the Israeli army
has been operating since Wednesday.
A Palestinian militant linked to President Mahmoud
Abbas' Fatah party was also killed when Israeli helicopters fired a rocket at a
car traveling in northern Gaza Strip, security sources said.
Hospital sources confirmed that Basel Ashour arrived
dead to the hospital along with a seriously wounded colleague.
Shortly after the first air raid, the Israeli Apache
helicopters targeted another car carrying militants in the north. There were no
reports on casualties in the second raid.
Less than few minutes, the helicopter gunships
launched a third missile on a car, killing Iyad Abu Jedian who is a member of
the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement. Another one was also
wounded in this attack, said security sources and paramedics.
And shortly after this airstrike, another one was
carried out and left six more people killed, including a Palestinian ambulance
driver.
Earlier, Palestinian Health Ministry sources reported
that 28 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in its operation of
"Autumn Clouds". With the death of the nine people on Friday night, the number
of Palestinians killed hit to 37 people.
Israel launched the operation last Wednesday by
sending its troops to Biet Hanoun town in the biggest offensive since four
months.
Muaweia Abu Hassanin, director of the emergency
department at the Health Ministry, added that 150 were wounded in the operation,
23 of them mortally.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the Israeli army killed
a Palestinian boy in Nablus city during a raid that was designated to arrest his
brother who is a member of Fatah's armed wing, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Another boy aged 17 was also shot dead in Bethlehem
city after the Israeli military vehicles rolled into the holy city.
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