Israel’s air force launched three attacks on Gaza on Monday. The first was carried out in the north Gaza neighborhood Saga’iyya. Israel says the target was a Hamas workshop for explosives. The fact that prominent Islamic Jihad leader ‘Abdalla A’Shami lives some 50 meters from the building that was attacked, has raised Palestinian speculation that he was in fact the real target. As a result of the attack, at least 15 were injured, including women and children.
Three hours later, the air force struck again, this time in Al-Jala Street in the center of Gaza. According to eye-witnesses, Apache helicopters fired missiles at a pick-up truck, which blew up. Palestinian TV reported that three men were killed, two of them – Iyad Al-Hilou and Khalid Al-Ma’sri – were Hamas militants sitting inside the car, and the third, Marwan Al-Khatib, was a bystander.
Palestinian sources and the Israeli army said the two Hamas militants were trying to transfer weapons and ammunition from the lab that was bombed earlier.
The third strike occurred again in Saga’iyya. Eye-witnesses say a car was bombed from the air, but the people inside it managed to escape. It is not yet known who those people were, and why they were targeted.
In total more than 20 people, most of them bystanders were injured in today’s attacks.