In a tactic that has become popular among Israeli forces in Gaza over
the last several months, a phone call placed to the owner of a home in
Khan Younis warned the man to "leave his house now", because Israeli
forces were "about to bomb it" on Friday night. The man, Sobhi Kollab,
was asleep at home when the call came, just five minutes before the two
missiles were dropped on his home, completely destroying it.
Israeli military officials claimed that the man was a resistance fighter with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, but no confirmation of that was made by the Brigades. The Qassam Brigades have held their end of a truce made with Israel in February 2005, while Israeli forces have killed over 500 Palestinians, many of them unarmed civilians.
The home was completely destroyed by the missiles.
Over 27,000 Palestinians have become homeless by Israeli home demolitions, either by missile or by bulldozer, since the current open conflict began six years ago on September 29th, 2006.
The Israeli military spokesperson confirmed that a phone call had been made to the family before the house was hit with precision laser-guided missiles.
