Hamas calls for revenge as Israel hits Gaza again
Source: Reuters
Palestinian Islamists vowed revenge on Israel on Friday for killing a senior Hamas leader and his family, and said all options including suicide bombs were now open to “strike at Zionist interests everywhere.”
There was no sign of a ceasefire on the seventh day of the conflict, in which at least 424 Palestinians have been killed and 2,000 wounded. Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets.
Israel pressed on relentlessly with more than 30 air strikes, one of which killed three Palestinian children aged between eight and 12 as they played on a street near the town of Khan Yunis in the south of the Strip. One was decapitated.
“These injuries are not survivable injuries,” said Madth Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor at Gaza’s Shifa hospital who could not save another boy who had both feet blown off. “This is a murder. This is a child,” he said.
Islamist fighters fired rockets at Israel’s port of Ashkelon one of which blew out windows in an apartment building.
In Gaza City, a lucky few hundred foreign passport holders boarded buses in the pre-dawn murk to quit the Strip, with the help of the International Committee off the Red Cross, their governments and Israeli compliance.
“The situation is very bad. We are afraid for our children,” said Ilona Hamdiya, a woman from Moldova married to a Palestinian. “We are very grateful to our embassy.”
They left behind 1.5 million Palestinians unable to escape the conflict, a city facing another day of bombs, missiles, flickering electricity, queues for bread, taped-up windows and streets littered with broken glass and debris.
“We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity,” said Hamas leader Fathi Hammad at the funeral of Nizar Rayyan, who was killed along with four wives and 11 children by an Israeli missile which hit his house on Thursday.
Spokesman Ismail Rudwan said that “following this crime, all options are now open including martyrdom operations to deter the aggression and to strike Zionist interests everywhere.”
Technorati Tags: Palestine, Hamas, Gaza
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