Israeli air forces struck Sunday evening a Palestinian house that belongs to a Hamas affiliated legislator, in the Gaza city, killing ten people, media sources and medics said.
Israeli missiles landed on the family house of Khalil Alhaiya in the Alzaytoun neighborhood in Gaza city, killing ten people, security sources and witnesses said.
The sources added that among those killed were members of the Al Hayya family including his brothers, while Alhaiya himself was not present at the time of the attack.
Eight of the residents who were killed in the Israeli air strike were identified as Sameh Farawna, 27, Nimir Ismail Al Hayya, 60, Bakri Al Hayya, 26, Jihad Abdul-Hamid Al Hayya, 17, Abdul-Hamid Al Hayya, 50, Ibrahim Al Hayya, 23, Ala’ A; Hayya, 22 and Mohammad Khalid Al Hayya 16.
Dr. Moa'wiya Abu Hasanain, chief of emergency depatment at the Palestinian health ministry, confirmed that 12 others have been injured, a number of whom are in critical conditions.
Al Hayya is one of the political leaders of the governing Hamas movement and member of the Palestinian parliament. In his initial response to the attack, Khalil Al Hayya confirmed ten people were killed and that the Israeli assassination attempts ‘would not prevent resistance and his group from keeping up’.
The Hamas leader’s wife, who escaped the strike, expected that nephews of her husband were among the dead. Palestinian information minister and spokesman of the Palestinian government, condemned the Israeli assassination attempt strongly.
Israeli cabinet decided Sunday it would take a series of actions against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group (holy war), including targeted-killing of these groups' leaders, creating a buffer zone in northern Gaza and upgrading anti-rockets technology.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of information. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi slammed the Israeli attacks that targeted Al Hayya family and considered it a serious Israeli military escalation that constitutes a war crime.
Al Barghouthi appealed the international community to stop the Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of information. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi slammed the Israeli attacks that targeted Al Hayya family and considered it a serious Israeli military escalation that constitutes a war crime.
Al Barghouthi appealed the international community to stop the Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people.
In a seperate attack, a 4-year old child was killed and three other children were injured in an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The child was identified as Adi Al Masry.
The child was killed after the army shelled the house of Amin Al Masry, one of the Hamas leaders.
The Palestinian govenrment and the legislative council slammed the Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, while the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, vowed fierce retaliation.
Israeli hardliner minister of ‘strategic threats’, Avigdor Liberman, had warned his government today of dissolving the current Israeli coalition unless Israel breaks up Hamas.
Zaiv Boim, an Israeli minister and head of the Israel Baitona party, demanded the government to target Hamas’s leaders including Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya himself. This military escalation on the ground has followed a barrage of homemade shells fire, Palestinian resistance factions, topped by Hamas, have launched at nearby Israeli targets since yesterday night.
On Sunday, Hamas’s spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, played down the Israeli threats earlier in the morning, saying his group would keep up homemade shells fire into Israel. “We don’t mind the Israeli threats for Israel has never stopped attacks on the Palestinian people”, Abu Zuhri told reporters in Gaza.
Earlier on Sunday morning, another Israeli air strike hit a car in Gaza city, killing three Palestinians, Israel claimed they were members of Hamas. Sunday’s killings brought to 30 the Palestinian death toll since the Israeli army has begun air strikes against Hamas targets and other spots in the Gaza Strip last Thursday.
Several home-made shells have recently landed on the Israeli nearby town of Sderot, wounding a number of residents and causing some damages to properties. No deaths at Sderot have been reported. In April, the Israeli army killed 9 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, threatening an already fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians, reached last November.
