GAZA CITY, 21 July 2006 — Israel yesterday pressed on with its air, sea and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, where nearly 100 people have been killed in two weeks, and warned civilians that homes storing weaponry were now targets.
Three Palestinians were killed and 17 others were wounded as Israeli forces attacked the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip yesterday for the second day, raising the death toll in the camp to 13.
Israeli warplanes also dropped leaflets on northern and southern Gaza Strip warning that homes hiding weapons would be attacked.
A Palestinian was killed and six others were wounded when an Israeli drone fired a missile on a group of Palestinians in the camp. Witnesses and medical sources said Yasser Abu Lebda, 21, was instantly killed in the attack. Three of the six wounded are in a serious condition, medical sources said.
Earlier, Mohammed Mohra, 17, was killed by Israeli Army fire in the camp and a 13-year-old Palestinian girl died after being wounded in an airstrike on Wednesday.
Ignoring international calls for restraint, Israel has continued its assault launched to free a captured soldier and stop rocket attacks. “The life of all those who are holding military equipment and ammunition in their homes is in danger and they should leave the premises for their safety and that of their families,” warned Israeli leaflets dropped on Gaza. “The Israeli defense force will strike and destroy all sites and buildings housing ammunition and military materiel.”
Seven of the injured Palestinians were fighters from the armed wing of the governing Hamas that claimed joint responsibility for the June 25 capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
Horrific scenes of bloodied children with severe shrapnel wounds being rushed to casualty in the neighboring Deir Al-Balah refugee camp were witnessed by an AFP photographer after an Israeli shelling on Mughazi.
Although similar leaflets have been dropped on Gaza before, it was the most explicit warning that civilians’ homes could be directly targeted. A spokeswoman said the army had “specific information that some houses are storing weapons” in Gaza. “Palestinian terrorist organizations have been using the civilian population as human shields,” she said.
“We’re warning the civilian population because we don’t want them to get hurt... to stay away from such houses and stay away from terrorists,” she said.
In the latest in a string of air attacks targeting gunmen and tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip, a pilotless drone fired a missile into a group of Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades fighters, wounding seven of them. A military spokesman confirmed an airstrike on an “anti-tank missile cell” in Mughazi where troops “identified hitting more than 10 armed gunmen.”
A car from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Force 17 protection unit came under heavy fire from Israeli warships stationed off the coast, wounding one security officer, medical sources said. The military confirmed ships had fired artillery on the Gaza Strip.
Despite the latest push in an offensive designed to end rocket attacks, Palestinians still managed to fire two rockets into Israel’s southern desert town of Sderot, causing some damage but no casualties, the army said.
— With input from agencies
