GAZA: Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza overnight

Israel struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early on Saturday (May 19). Three civilians - a man, a woman and a child were injured in the attack on a building in Gaza City. This attack was immediately followed by another one in the same area on a metal warehouse that Israel alleges was used as for building Qassam rockets. There were no injuries in this attack. The Israeli military on Thursday (May 18) said it attacked a rocket crew in northern Gaza and that 10 missiles had struck Israel. One hit a house in the town of Sderot. Medics said there were only minor injuries. Hours later, Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas-owned van in Gaza City. Two militants were killed, hospital officials said. Five other air strikes wounded four Palestinians, two of them Hamas men and the others civilians, hospital officials said. Fatah and Hamas forces, locked in fighting for the past week, battled again in Gaza City. Truces agreed by the Islamist Hamas and the more secular Fatah over the past week have collapsed swiftly. Nearly 50 people have died in the deadliest internal violence since the two rival groups formed a unity government in March. In Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign ambassadors the government might decide on further action within days and noted the cabinet would meet as usual on Sunday. Israeli forces have recently completed training for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, from which they and Israeli settlers withdrew in 2005. At least 11 Hamas fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes since early on Thursday. Militants from Gaza have fired about 100 rockets at the town of Sderot and its surroundings in the past week, causing several injuries but no deaths.

ITN Source | May 19, 2007

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