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Israeli missile hit gaza after suicide bombing Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4580068§ion=newshttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4580068§ion=news
Israeli Missiles Hit Gaza After Suicide Bombing
Tue Mar 16, 2004 12:44 PM ET
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed two Palestinians in an air strike into Gaza City Tuesday, launching what it said would be relentless military action against militants after a suicide bombing at a strategic port, witnesses and medics said.
They said 14 people, including three children, were wounded as well when three helicopter missiles plowed into a one-story house which an Israeli army statement said was a "structure in which Islamic Jihad terrorists involved in attacks on Israelis were present."
Palestinian security sources and medics said one of the dead was a passerby. The identity of the second was unknown. Both bodies were badly burned, witnesses at the local morgue said.
Israel launched the air raid soon after its security cabinet decided on military retaliation for a double suicide bombing that killed 10 people in Ashdod port Sunday.
Israel and Palestinian militants have made clear their intention to bloody one another as much as possible so that each can claim victory after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Sunday's double bombing at Ashdod, 25 km (16 miles) north of Gaza, shook Israel's sense of security because the attackers managed to sneak out of fenced-in Gaza for the first time in more than three years of conflict.
"This is part of a sustained, targeted and effective operation against terrorists who are continuing their attacks against Israel. I am speaking mainly of Hamas and Islamic Jihad...," a senior Israeli security source said.
"We will likely be seeing more such operations in the coming days. No one will be exonerated. There will be no immunity."
Just before the air strike, Israeli soldiers mounted machineguns on tanks and prepared armored personnel carriers near an entry point to Gaza, paving the way for a possible thrust into the northern part of the territory.
PALESTINIANS SAY ISRAELI MOVES COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE
Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel's new military strikes would only perpetuate a cycle of violence.
"At the same time that Sharon freezes negotiations, he unleashes missiles and tanks still believing that the problem can be solved through military solutions," he told Reuters.
"We call on him to return to negotiations, because only this will lead to an end to the cycle of violence."
Sharon reiterated before parliament Monday that he saw no chance for peace talks with the Palestinians as long as militants kept up attacks. He broke off contacts to arrange a summit with his Palestinian counterpart after the Ashdod attack.
Hamas, the main Islamic group, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of the mainstream Palestinian movement Fatah, claimed joint responsibility for the port bombing. They called it revenge for Israel's recent killings of Palestinians.
Violence has mushroomed since Sharon disclosed plans to evacuate settlers as part of go-it-alone moves in the face of an impasse in peacemaking that would also mean Palestinians losing swathes of land in the West Bank that they want for a state.
In their last major raid into Gaza, on March 7, Israeli troops killed 14 Palestinians during fighting in two central Gaza refugee camps known as havens for militants.
Militant leaders said any reprisals for Sunday's bombing would bring its own counter-strike.
"They long believed the Gaza Strip was a prison. We have shown up from that prison to tell them no walls and no security measures will protect them," said Abu Qusai of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. "No strategic place will be immune."
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Wafa Amr)
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