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Israel warns Gaza militants
11/09/2007 16:38 - (SA)
Zikim - Israel issued a warning to Gaza militants on Tuesday after a rocket smashed into an army base, wounding dozens of sleeping conscripts and heightening pressure on the government to hit the Hamas-run territory.
At least 69 soldiers sleeping in tents were wounded in when the homemade rocket crashed in the dead of night into the Zikim base in southern Israel not far from the border with Gaza, an army spokesperson and medics said.
It was the bloodiest Palestinian rocket strike from Gaza in months and came ahead of the start of the Jewish New Year, increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet to take action to stop the fire.
The premier met senior ministers and military chiefs to decide on a response to the attack which Hamas - a group sworn to Israel's destruction - said was an act of "legitimate resistance".
"Those who carry out these types of attacks, as well as those who support them should know that they are not safe," Israeli government spokesperson Miri Eisin said.
No formal announcement was made after the meeting, but Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that "we have not only military tools that we can use in the face of what's happening in Gaza".
It appeared to be an allusion to earlier calls by ministers for Israel to cut electricity, fuel and water supplies into Gaza, measures that Olmert had rejected up to now.
Many of the wounded troops were young conscripts due to complete their basic training on Tuesday. The vast majority of the troops received only light injuries, one was wounded critically and four seriously, the army said.
'Liberate our holy places'
The military wing of the radical Islamic Jihad - which is behind the majority of rocket firings into Israel - claimed the attack that it dubbed "The Dawn of Victory".
"The resistance is the only alternative to recover our rights and liberate our holy places," senior Jihad official Abu Hamzeh told a press conference.
Hamas, which seized control of the territory nearly three months ago after a week of bloody battles with the rival Fatah faction of president Mahmoud Abbas, praised the strike.
Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said it was "legitimate resistance in the face of Israeli aggression and the legitimate defence in the face of Israeli crimes".
Hours after the attack, a Palestinian man and three of his children were wounded when an Israeli tank shell landed on their house in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanun, medics said.
- AFP
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