12 killed as Israel raids Gaza
Middle East Desk Report

GAZA CITY (Gaza Strip)—Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing 12 Palestinians — including four youths — in a fresh upsurge in fighting that threatened to provoke even harsher Israeli action.
The Israeli attacks stepped up the pressure on Hamas, a day after a rocket fired by the Islamic militant group from Gaza killed an Israeli man.
However, Palestinian rocket fire continued throughout the day, lightly wounding two people and in one case, forcing a top Israeli security official to scurry for cover. Police said two rockets reached Ashkelon, a major city about 12 miles north of Gaza.
Thursday’s violence raised the death toll in two days of fighting to 23 Palestinians and threatened to worsen the ongoing bloodshed in the area, which involves near-daily Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza and harsh Israeli reprisals.
The latest wave of violence began on Wednesday when an Israeli air strike killed five Hamas militants traveling in a van. Israeli officials said that among the five were an unstated number who received weapons and explosives training in Iran, and local media reports quoted anonymous officials as saying the men were planning a large attack against Israel.
Hamas retaliated by firing more than 40 rockets into Israel, one of the heaviest barrages in months. One rocket landed on an Israeli college campus in the southern town of Sderot, killing a 47-year-old father of four. It was the first fatal rocket attack since last May.
On Thursday, Israel carried out at least 10 airstrikes in northern and central Gaza, Palestinians said. The army said it was targeting rocket-launching areas. Officials said at least 12 people were killed. Five of the dead were civilians, including four youths under the age of 16 struck in the northern town of Jebaliya, said Dr. Moaia Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli army has U.S.-made F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters, as well as locally developed pilotless drones, in its arsenal. Palestinian witnesses said all three types of aircraft were used in the recent attacks. The army did not immediately comment.
“We will reach out for the terrorists and we will attack and we will try to stop them,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a press conference in Tokyo, where he is winding up an official visit.
He also rejected calls to loosen an economic embargo on Gaza. The blockade has come under growing international criticism because of the hardship it has caused in Gaza.
“The only requirement we have of the Palestinians is stop killing innocent Israelis like they did last night,” he said. “It’s hard to do business when you have to bury your population as the result of the atrocities and the terror committed by the Palestinians.”
Despite the Israeli attacks, Palestinian militants fired at least 10 homemade rockets into Israel, police said. Two people were lightly wounded, including a bodyguard of Public Security Minister Avi Dichter.
Dichter was not in Sderot at the time. But after he arrived, Dichter was forced to cut short a news conference when an air-raid siren went off and his guards rushed him into a concrete shelter.
Police said four foreign-made Katyusha rockets reached Ashkelon, a city of 109,000, causing no casualties. Israel has long feared that Ashkelon could soon face regular rocket attacks.
In Gaza, Hamza al-Haya, the son of hardline Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, was among those killed Thursday, Hamas said. The group said he had commanded a rocket-launching squad in northern Gaza.