Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

A wounded Palestinian boy lies on a hospital bed after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza February 27, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    GAZA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The deposed Hamas government in Gaza on Thursday said the goal of the Israeli operations was to strike the resistance and destroy the Hamas administration.

    "The goal of this wild campaign is double; striking the program of resistance and firmness and the second goal is to strike the government which protects and supports these factions," said Taheral-Nounou, spokesman for the sacked Hamas government.

Palestinians react after their relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza February 27, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    He said it is clear that the Israeli occupation forces and the Israeli government "reached a phase of hysteria and struck randomly against the Palestinian people."

    Al-Nounou urged the Arab countries "to stick to their duties toward the Palestinian people" who lost 18 lives in 24 hours in the series of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian woman reacts after her son was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza February 27, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    The Israeli army killed within the last 24 hours 18 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an unprecedented escalation of violence in retaliation for the killing of one Israeli citizen on Wednesday in a homemade rocket attack by Palestinian militants, Palestinian medics said Thursday.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deposed Hamas government in last June when Hamas routed his security forces and took over the Gaza Strip.