Israeli Defense Forces struck the Palestinian area in Gaza on April 1, 2010.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
07:03 Mecca time, 04:03 GMT
Israel pounds Gaza with missiles
Hamas said that Israeli missiles hit two caravans, a cheese factory and a metal foundry
Three children have been reported injured in eastern Gaza City after Israeli aircraft carried out a series of missile attacks across the Palestinian territory.
Palestinian hospital officials said the children were injured by flying debris after the air raids that came in the early hours of Friday.
Al Jazeera's Casey Kauffman, reporting from Gaza, said there were attacks in at least six locations.
He said that work on tunnels, which are often used for smuggling goods into the blockaded territory, had stopped for fear of the strikes and the Hamas government had also ordered police stations across Gaza to be evacuated.
Witnesses and Hamas officials said that Israeli missiles hit two caravans near the town of Khan Younis and a cheese factory, while helicopters attacked a metal foundry in the Nusseirat refugee camp.
'Rocket fire response'
The Israeli military said it had targeted weapons manufacturing and storage facilities in the central Gaza Strip, in Gaza City in the north and the southern Gaza Strip, all in response to rockets fired from the territory.
"Nearly 20 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip during March, killing one man in the community of Netiv Ha'Asara and doubling the number of rockets fired this year," a statement from the Israeli army said.
"The IDF [Israeli military] will not tolerate any attempt to harm the citizens of the State of Israel and will continue to operate firmly against anyone who uses terror against it. The IDF holds Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Jerusalem, said the rocket attack came despite a warning earlier in the day by the Israeli military that it would "respond harshly against any attempt to disrupt the calm in Israel's southern communities".
There was no claim of responsibility for Thursday's lone rocket, which caused no casualties, but the Israeli army had said in its earlier statement that it held Hamas, the Palestinian faction which controls Gaza, "solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in and around" the territory.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera that Hamas held the Israeli government led by Binyamin Netanyahu responsible for the "escalation", but said the air raids had been expected because of threats by Ehud Barak, the defence minister, and other ministers.
He also blamed "the international community and the Arabs" for failing "to do anything about the situation in Gaza".
"The absence of the international community and the Arabs has allowed the Israelis to escalate the situation," he said.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Multiple Israeli strikes hit Gaza
Israeli planes have carried out 13 air strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources have told the BBC.
Four of the strikes took place near the town of Khan Younis, where two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Palestinian fighters last week.
The Israeli military has told the BBC the operation was targeting four weapons factories.
The strikes are the most serious for more than a year, says the BBC's Jon Donnison from Jerusalem.
The director of ambulance and emergency in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr Muawiya Hassanein, said that three children including an infant were slightly injured by flying debris.
Witnesses and Hamas officials said the Israeli raids targeted metal workshops, farms, a milk factory and small sites belonging to the military wing of Hamas.
'Retaliation'
"Israel will not tolerate terroristic activity inside Gaza that threatens Israeli citizens," the Israeli military said in a statement released to the BBC.
Palestinian news agencies reported that Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over parts of Gaza on Thursday warning residents of retaliation for last Friday's killings of the soldiers in Khan Younis.
They were the first Israeli soldiers to be killed in hostile fire in Gaza in over a year. The military wing of Hamas claim responsibility for those attacks.
Hamas said police stations and training facilities were among the targets of Israel's overnight raids.
Tensions in the region are running high after a recent Israeli government announcement of plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish people in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as a capital of a future state.
Militants in the Gaza Strip have recently stepped up rocket fire directed at Israel.
On Wednesday, they fired a rocket into an empty field in southern Israel, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, military sources said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8600285.stm
Published: 2010/04/02 00:49:51 GMT
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