Israel kills 23 in Gaza, targets Hamas commanders
GAZA, July 12 (Reuters) – Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including nine members of one family[seven of them children] in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders were meeting.
Wednesday’s death toll, which Palestinian medics said included 14 civilians, was the highest in a single day since Israel on June 28 launched a Gaza offensive to force militants to free an abducted soldier and halt rocket fire.
It was also the highest number of Palestinian deaths in one day since September 2004.
A series of deadly Israel air raids coincided with an armoured sweep into the central Gaza.
The army said the strike on the three-storey house near Gaza City wounded Mohammad Deif, overall leader of the governing Hamas movement’s armed wing and Israel’s most wanted man.
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Israel hits Beirut targets after two soldiers are taken
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded in southern Lebanon with warplanes, tanks and gunboats, and said seven of its soldiers had been killed in the violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the soldiers’ capture “an act of war,” and his Cabinet prepared to approve more military action in Lebanon – a second front in the fight against Islamic militants by Israel, which already is waging an operation to free a captured soldier in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said three soldiers were killed in the initial raid, and four others were killed when their tank went over a land mine in southern Lebanon.
Olmert said he held the Lebanese government responsible for the two soldiers’ safety, vowing that the Israeli response “will be restrained, but very, very, very painful.”
Israeli use of poisonous material alleged
GAZA, July 10 (UPI) — The Palestinian health ministry accused Israel of using a new type of banned explosives containing poisonous material.
A ministry report released Monday said testimonies from surgeons in Palestinian hospitals indicated that “all 249 casualties inflicted by the Israeli war machine during the operation on Gaza which started on June 27 resulted from shrapnel of new and developed shells and explosives which cause amputation of limbs and burning of all the injured parts.”
The ministry called on the international community and human rights organization “to send medical committees to examine the wounded and verify the existence of poisonous material in their bodies caused by Israeli weapons.”
It also urged international organization to put pressure on Israel to stop using internationally banned arms against inoffensive and unarmed civilians.
UN impotence laid bare as Gaza suffers
Abbas threatens to resign
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to resign, dismantle the Authority and leave the Territories, the London-based A Sharq al Awsat reported Wednesday.
Abbas made the statements during a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who requested that he use his authority to help free Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Abbas responded that he no longer had any authority.
Abbas had accused Israel Tuesday of military escalation in the Gaza Strip, saying Israeli forces were targeting civilians and worsening Palestinian hardship.
“The situation is extremely difficult,” he told reporters in Amman following talks with Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit.
“The Israelis are continuously escalating. They are targeting civilians on the one side and the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority on the other,” said Abbas.