GAZA: Palestinians awake to scenes of destruction after series of Israeli strikes on Gaza

Palestinians awake to ruins after Israel pounded Gaza with a series of air strikes, hours after killing nine Palestinians in an assault on the home of a senior Hamas politician. Palestinians examined the damage at sunrise on Monday (May 21) the morning after Israel pounded Gaza with a series of air strikes, hours after killing nine Palestinians in an assault on the home of a senior Hamas politician, and in a separate raid on a rocket manufacturing facility. Israel's cabinet decided on Sunday (May 20) to ratchet up military measures in Gaza in response to an increase in rocket attacks on Israel in the past week, though stopping short of waging an all out offensive in the coastal territory its troops quit in 2005. Israel has moved an undisclosed number of tanks, armoured vehicles and ground forces into areas just inside the Gaza border, raising Palestinian fears of a wider offensive into the territory Israeli settlers and soldiers quit in 2005. The latest Israeli air strike targeted the Zaitoun neighbourhood, an Islamic stronghold in Gaza City, shortly after an attack late on Sunday killed a man at what Palestinians said was a stone mason's workshop, and Israel called a rocket manufacturing plant. Palestinian medics said a Hamas member had been shot and wounded from an Israeli aircraft while riding a bicycle early on Monday. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. In a second strike on Monday, a missile fired from an Israeli attack helicopter knocked out electricity for about 50,000 people in Nozeirat and a nearby refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. There were no casualties. Eight Palestinians died in an Israeli air raid on Sunday that punched out the porch of the home of prominent Gaza lawmaker Khalil al-Hayya of Hamas. Israel said it had targeted Hamas gunmen involved in rocket attacks, killing five. That attack was the first time in many months Israel had struck at a key figure of the Islamist militant group that rose to power a year ago but has been shunned by the West for refusing to recognise the Jewish state. About a dozen Israelis have been wounded by the rockets in the past week, prompting panic and leading Israel to partly evacuate the hardest hit town of Sderot at the weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday his security cabinet had decided to step up strikes against militant leaders involved in rocket attacks against southern Israel. FF

ITN Source | May 21, 2007

Tags:. .border. .dozen. .separate. .measures. .wounded