GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A Hamas militant leader who has topped Israel's
most-wanted list for a decade was badly wounded and underwent four hours of
spinal surgery Wednesday after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike, security
officials said.
Palestinians search
through the rubble of a house destroyed in an explosion in Gaza City,
early Wednesday, July 12, 2006. Israeli aircraft blasted the house and
killed seven people in Gaza City early Wednesday, during a high-level
meeting of Hamas commanders, Palestinians and the military said, as
Israeli forces expanded their offensive in the southern Gaza Strip.
[AP] |
The top fugitive, Mohammed Deif, could end up paralyzed, Palestinian security
officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
discuss his condition. Wednesday's blast marked the army's fourth attempt to
kill Deif, held responsible for suicide bombings in Israel. In a 2002 missile
strike, he lost an eye.
At least 23 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Wednesday. And an Israeli
airstrike early Thursday destroyed the building housing the Hamas-controlled
Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
Nine members of one family were killed in Wednesday's airstrike, with an
Israeli F-16 warplane dropping a quarter-ton bomb on a home in a crowded Gaza
City neighborhood. The strike was by far the deadliest in Israel's 15-day
military campaign in Gaza, launched after Hamas-allied militants kidnapped an
Israeli soldier.
Israel's air force targeted the two-story house of Nabil Abu Salmiyeh, a
Hamas activist and university lecturer, after getting intelligence information
that the leaders of Hamas' military wing, responsible for the abduction of the
soldier, were meeting there. Palestinian security officials said seven or eight
top Hamas officials were present.
The blast wounded 37 people, three critically, said Health Minister Bassem
Naim. Hospital officials said Raed Saad, a top Hamas operative, was among the
wounded, but details of his condition weren't released.
Abu Salmiyeh, his wife, and seven of his nine children, ages 4-18, all died.
"I heard a really loud explosion and then I felt the ceiling fall on top of
me. I was buried under the rubble," said Awad Abu Salmiyeh, 19, who along with
an older brother was the only family member to survive.
The bombardment brought down the house and buried residents under the rubble.
Rescue workers pulled out the body of a 4-year-old clad in a red T-shirt, whose
head was blown open and whose lower body was torn off.
Hamas initially said its leaders had emerged safely from the 2:30 a.m.
attack, but Palestinian security officials later said Deif and several other
leading militants were hurt.
Hamas militants took over the intensive care unit at Gaza's Shifa Hospital on
Wednesday. Several people were being treated, including some in critical
condition, medical officials said. Black-uniformed Hamas gunmen stood guard. A
large bearded man blocked people from entering, permitting only a team of
doctors and top Hamas officials such as Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar to pass.
The guard angrily declined to say who was being treated.
Israeli officials accused the militants of using civilians as a shield by
meeting in a private home.
"Israel is compelled to take action against those planning to unleash lethal
terror attacks against Israeli citizens," said David Baker, an official in the
office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Palestinian terrorist leaders
continue to take refuge among and hide behind their own civilians."
Israel launched its military campaign after Palestinian militants captured
the Israeli soldier June 25. Israel has rejected demands that it release
hundreds of prisoners in exchange for the soldier and has instead stepped up its
offensive in Gaza.
As the fighting entered its third week Wednesday, Israeli troops killed at
least 14 other Palestinians in four separate incidents, including Israeli tank
fire and a gunfight in the central Gaza Strip.
More than 60 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, most of them
gunmen, but about a dozen have been civilians. One Israeli soldier also has
died, shot by fellow troops.
Acting on behalf of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft U.N.
Security Council resolution Wednesday demanding that Israel end its offensive in
the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.
The draft, amended to overcome concerns from the United States and France,
now includes a direct demand for the release of the captured Israeli soldier and
urges the Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel.
The Security Council has struggled for almost two weeks on how to respond to
Israel's offensive in Gaza. An earlier draft from Qatar was rejected because
several members of the council said it was too biased against Israel.
