World

Israeli airstrike kills four

by LotusFlower | November 16, 2008 at 12:24 am

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The five month old truce between Hamas and Israel is even further in tatters with this attack in retaliation for attacks from within the Gaza Strip being just one of a number of attacks and counter attacks over the last 12 days.

The Middle East situation is one that Barrack Obama will have to address quickly as the transition from Bush to his own administration takes place. Action from the US and other world powers cannot wait until January when Obama formally takes over. Some joint working between outgoing and incoming administrations will have to take place.

Despite the violence both Hamas and Israel have not formally declared the ceasefire over.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian militants launching mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, just hours after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack.

The violence was the latest in a surge of spiraling clashes that have rocked a 5-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers. Both sides have said they would like to preserve the truce, which is due to expire next month, but events over the past 12 days signal the opposite is happening.

The militants killed in the airstrike were from a small Hamas-allied group known as the Popular Resistance Committees. A spokesman for the group calling himself Abu Attaya said the four were firing mortars into Israel when they were killed.

The Israeli military said the airstrike targeted a rocket squad in northern Gaza.

Palestinians launched two rockets earlier in the day into Israel, hitting near a community on the Israel-Gaza border. No one was hurt, the military said.

GAZA, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli drone killed four Palestinian militants in eastern Gaza city on Sunday morning as Israel extended closure of crossing points for the 12th day in a row, witnesses and medical sources said.

    The witnesses said an Israeli drone fired a missile towards the group of fighters who apparently were preparing to launch a home-made rocket into Israel.

    Medical sources said the bodies of the four arrived at al-Shifa hospital and were cut into pieces with burns.

    The group belongs to the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a military group loyal to Islamic Hamas movement which controls Gaza Strip and observes a ceasefire with Israel.

    The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which took effect in June, was left near collapse since a wave of violence erupted on November 4.The latest air strike brings to 14 the number of Palestinians killed in the violence in addition to 2 others who died when a rocket exploded before they launch it into Israel.

An Israeli air strike killed four Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and two rockets fired from the Hamas-controlled territory hit Israel as a five-month-old ceasefire continued to unravel. Israel's cabinet was to consider at its weekly meeting later in the day whether to open Gaza border crossings it closed after violence flared nearly two weeks ago and allow humanitarian supplies into the impoverished enclave. The Israeli military said the air strike targeted a group of gunmen preparing to fire rockets. The Popular Resistance Committees militant group said the four men killed in the attack were members of its military wing. Earlier, two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into an open field in southern Israel, causing no casualties.