Top militant hit in Gaza strike

2006-07-12 09:14

Jerusalem - Mohammed Deif, the Palestinian militant who has topped Israel's wanted list for a decade, was wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City early on Wednesday, the military said.

Military sources said they did not know how badly Deif was injured.

Abu Obeideh, a spokesperson for the military wing of the Hamas group, which runs the Palestinian government, said Deif was "in good health and in a good place." He offered no further details.

At least six people were killed in the airstrike, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Responsible for suicide bombings

Deif, a master bomb maker, has been targeted several times in Israeli assassination attempts and in the past has been reported to have been seriously wounded.

Israel holds him responsible for many suicide bombing attacks in Israel over the past decade.

Israel said it launched the airstrike on a two-story house in the Sheik Radwan neighbourhood, a Hamas stronghold, because Hamas commanders there were planning more attacks on Israel.

Hours after the airstrike, rescue workers were still digging through the rubble left from the strike, which destroyed the house.

'Regret this Nazi crime'

Abu Obeideh, spokesperson for the military wing of Hamas, issued an unusually strong condemnation, using language employed only when Israel has assassinated top Hamas leaders.

"We will make the leaders of the Zionist regime regret this Nazi crime," said part of his long statement.

But Hamas officials said they did not know who was killed.

Palestinian rescue teams dodged broken water pipes and electricity wires searching the rubble with bulldozers, shovels and their hands and to get to injured people screaming for help.

- AP