generalspeaking

Standing Alongside The People

Israeli raids destroy Hamas’s Cabinet headquarters

The cabinet headquarters of Gaza’s Hamas government was hit on Saturday by four Israeli air strikes, according to Al Arabiya’s correspondent.

“The cabinet headquarters was targeted with four strikes and the government stresses that it remains committed to its positions and its stand alongside the people,” the Hamas government said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses and Hamas officials said the building located in the Nasser neighborhood of Gaza City was virtually leveled in the strike.

“The headquarters was completely destroyed and neighboring houses were damaged as a result of the barbaric Israeli bombing,” a Hamas official told AFP.

In the northern Jabalia camp, another strike on Saturday left at least 35 people injured, according to emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya, who said the raid targeted the home of interior ministry official Ibrahim Salah.

The attack destroyed Salah's three-storey house and search was underway for additional victims, according to Al Arabiya’s correspondent.

The attack on Salah’s home follows the assassination of a senior Hamas official on Friday, after an Israeli raid on another refugee camp killed Hamas’s military wing commander Ahmed Abu Jalal, reported Al Arabiya.

Meanwhile, Israel’s cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists late on Friday, preparing the ground for a possible Gaza invasion after Hamas fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.

Hamas claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session with a clutch of senior ministers in Tel Aviv on widening the military campaign, while other cabinet members were polled by telephone on raising the mobilization level.

Israeli political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, according to Reuters. The move did not necessarily mean all would be called into service, the agency reported.

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed, with over 280 wounded, among them children and women, since Israel began its air strikes on Gaza. On the other hand, three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday and 16 others were wounded.

Labels: Conflict, Culture, Defence, Gaza, Hamas, Israel

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, November 17, 2012