Gaza: Foreign Ministry Strike Update
July 12, 2006 23 25 GMT
News reports from Gaza indicate that the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building has not been destroyed, but was heavily damaged, by an Israeli airstrike. The attack was a symbolic strike, coming during the night when the offices of Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar were not likely to be occupied.
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Roundup: Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid in Gaza
An Israeli F-16 warplane demolished a three-storey house with a 250 kg bomb in northern Gaza City early Wednesday, killing nine members of a family and wounding 15 others, Palestinian medics and security sources said.
The targeted house in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood belongs to Nabil Abu Selmiya, a senior Hamas activist and a teacher at the Islamic University in Gaza City, sources said.
Selmiya was killed along with his wife and their seven children in the air strike, the sources added.
The medics at Gaza City's Shiffa Hospital confirmed that the hospital received nine bodies and 15 wounded people, three of them in critical conditions.
An Israeli army spokesman told Israel Radio that senior leaders of Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, armed wing of the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), were targeted.
Palestinian sources close to Hamas said that Mohamed al-Deif, top commander of al-Qassam Brigades, and his deputy Ahmed Ghandour, Ahmed Ja'bari and Ra'ed Sa'ed were in an adjacent house when the air raid happened.
The sources confirmed that Deif was injured in his two legs, but there was no danger to his life.
Meanwhile, al-Qassam Brigades' spokesman in Gaza Abu Obeida also confirmed that al-Deif and the other three leaders survived the airstrike.
"Al-Deif is fine. He is safe and not hurt," said Abu Obeida, "I doubt whether al-Deif was in the building that was hit."
Shortly before the F-16 jet struck the building, an Israeli pilotless drone fired a missile at a car with senior leaders of al- Qassam Brigades on board, security sources said.
But they managed to escape the airstrike on the car and entered a house before the second airstrike hit a nearby house.
Al-Deif has escaped several assassinations by Israel in the past few years.
Israel accused al-Deif of masterminding a series of bomb attacks against Israel.
Israel launched massive air and ground offensive into Gaza on June 28 to rescue an Israeli soldier, who was kidnapped by three Palestinian militant groups including the Hamas' armed wing.
Over 50 Palestinians including civilians have been killed in Israeli military operation dubbed "Summer Rain".
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