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Palestinian foreign ministry hit
13/07/2006 09:10 - (SA)
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| An armed Palestinian man stands beneath the foreign ministry building in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike. (David Guttenfelder, AP) |
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Gaza City - Israeli jets bombed the Palestinian foreign ministry in Gaza City on Thursday, causing heavy damage and wounding 10 children, increasing the pressure against the Hamas government over an abducted soldier.
Warplanes fired two missiles into the building, targeting foreign minister Mahmud al-Zahar's offices and causing serious damage to the recently renovated five-storey building, the neighbouring finance ministry and 15 other houses.
Beirut bombings
The attack came just hours before Israel bombed Beirut's international airport and killed at least 27 Lebanese, opening a new front in the Middle East crisis after Hezbollah captured another two soldiers on its northern border.
The F-16 strike in the dead of night was part of Israel's offensive to release a teenage soldier and end rocket attacks, and follows past bombings of the Gaza offices of premier Ismail Haniya and interior minister Siad Siam.
Israel confirmed the attack on the offices of Zahar, who an army spokesperson branded "one of the most extreme leaders of the Hamas terror organisation" directly responsible for planning "terrorist attacks".
Deadly strikes
The attack was ordered just one day after 23 Palestinians, including seven children from the same family, were killed in a series of Israeli air strikes on the deadliest day in the Gaza Strip since the assault began three weeks ago.
Ten children, including babies aged four and six months old, who lived in nearby homes badly damaged in the powerful blast, were wounded in the foreign ministry attack, witnesses and doctors at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital said.
Rescue workers battled to control the fire that raged after the air strike.
Seventy-five Palestinians have now been killed since Israel stepped up its ground offensive just over a week ago, moving troops into areas evacuated less than 10 months ago as part of an historic pullout from Gaza after 38 years.
Zahar 'responsible' for terrorist attacks
Zahar is one of the government's most prominent ministers and a long-time Hamas leader who has become the face abroad of the Palestinian administration, desperately trying to drum up funds abroad for his Western-boycotted cabinet.
Israeli army spokesperson captain Noa Meir confirmed the attack.
"The offices are headed by Mahmud al Zahar who is responsible for both planning and directing terrorist attacks," she told AFP.
"These offices serve one of the most extreme leaders of the Hamas terror organisation."
'Total aggression'
There was no immediate reaction from the Hamas government but Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday slammed Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza as "total aggression" which was "complicating matters".
He demanded that the US administration and Middle East quartet intervene immediately to ease the worst Israeli-Palestinian crisis in months, sparked by the June 25 abduction of corporal Gilad Shalit on the Gaza border.
- AFP
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