By Robert Berger

Jerusalem

28 April 2008

 

Five members of a Palestinian family and a passerby have been killed by Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem Bureau, the incident could torpedo efforts for a ceasefire.

 

Palestinian men carry the body of Rudina Abu Meatak, 6, at the morgue of the Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip,28 Apr 2008

 

An Israeli tank shell slammed into a Palestinian home in Gaza, killing four children, under six years old, and their mother. The family was eating breakfast when the explosion occurred.

 

The Israeli army said it used tanks and aircraft to target Palestinian gunmen in an area often used to fire rockets. A tank shell apparently went astray and struck the home.

 

The Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, promises revenge.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum is calling on all factions to launch attacks against Israel. The response came quickly, as militants in Gaza fired rockets across the border.

 

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blames Hamas for the incident, saying the army is operating in Gaza because of daily Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli border communities.

 

Barak says Israel will continue to strike at Hamas. He accuses the group of using civilians as human shields.

 

The incident occurred several days after Israel rejected an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire offer from Hamas. Israel says Hamas would use a truce to rearm for the next round of violence. And, now, Hamas says Israel will be responsible for the escalation resulting from what it describes as the "massacre" in Gaza.

Gaza violence mounts as talks on a truce with Israel continue

 

GAZA, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Violence in the Gaza Strip has mounted on Monday leaving seven people killed and more than ten injured as leaders of Gaza militant groups headed for talks in Egypt on a truce with Israel.

 

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian health ministry said that seven people were killed, including a mother and four of her children in an Israeli strike on northern Gaza Strip.

 

He told reporters that an Israeli army tank fired a shell that hit a house in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing a mother and four of her children, the oldest is seven years old and the youngest is one year old.

 

Palestinian security sources closed to ruling Hamas movement in Gaza said that several Israeli army tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers backed by helicopters stormed the town early on Monday morning.

 

Palestinian militant groups said in separate leaflets sent to reporters that they confronted the Israeli army forces with bombs and grenades, adding that Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants exchanged fire in the area.

 

Hassanein had later said on Monday that four Palestinian militants were injured, two seriously, in an Israeli airstrike on a group of militants near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia.

 

Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement's armed wing claimed responsibility for wounding four Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza Strip and for launching two homemade rockets from the area at southern Israel.

 

Hamas armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, had also said in a statement that its militants confronted the Israeli army forces in northern Gaza Strip, and had launched several mortar shells and homemade rockets at Israel.

 

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank and the deposed government of Hamas in the Gaza Strip condemned the killing of the mother and her four children.

 

The PNA said in a statement that the ongoing Israeli army escalation against the Gaza Strip "would harm the efforts to agree on a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians."

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the Gaza shelling, saying it would make peace negotiations with Israel even more difficult.

 

Following seven reported Palestinian deaths in an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) action on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Hamas is to blame for all the attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and the consequences of such attacks.

 

However, the deaths cast more shadow on Egypt's mediation efforts to forge a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant groups.

 

In the meantime, deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haneya said in a statement that "the current Israeli military escalation against Gaza is an evidence that Israel is not interested in the efforts to agree on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip."

 

While the Israeli army and the Palestinian militant groups were exchanging fire in northern Gaza Strip, representatives of those groups headed on Monday afternoon to Cairo to hold talks with Egyptian officials on a truce with Israel.

 

Egypt is mediating between Israel and the militant groups in the Gaza Strip to agree on a ceasefire, lift more than ten months of Israeli blockade and reopen the crossing points that Israel had closed down.

 

Israel imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip and closed down all crossing points of the enclave after Hamas movement took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June last year.

Moreover, Israeli officials have said the Jewish state would consider the truce deal if Hamas could restrain Islamic Jihad and other smaller militant groups from attacking Israel.

Israeli Operations in Gaza Kill 4 Children, Mother, 2 Gunmen

 

By Jonathan Ferziger and Saud Abu Ramadan

 

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Four children, their mother and two gunmen were killed in Israeli military operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the head of Palestinian emergency services said.

The five family members died after a tank shell hit a home in Beit Hanoun, and the armed men were killed nearby in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops that followed, said Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry. Twenty people were wounded, he said.

The Israeli army said its forces had carried out operations in the area, including two air raids. An army spokesman said an Israeli soldier was wounded and that the military didn't know the extent of Palestinian casualties.

Palestinian militants fired at least five unguided Qassam rockets into Israel after the Beit Hanoun deaths, without causing injuries, the army said.

Egyptian mediators have been trying to negotiate a cease- fire with representatives of Israel and Hamas, the militant Islamic movement that controls Gaza and is designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and European Union.

Israeli forces have carried out military raids to stop near- daily rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel. The Israeli government also has tightened an economic blockade of the territory.

From Al-Jazeera English