Last update - 00:00 12/09/2006
Witnesses: IAF air strike destroys Hamas official's Gaza home
By Reuters and Haaretz Service
An Israel Air Force air strike early Tuesday destroyed the Gaza home of a senior Palestinian security official, witnesses said.
Witnesses said that an IAF aircraft circled over the city before firing a heavy missile at the house in the Sabra neighborhood, where the two-story building was destroyed.
Rescue teams and paramedics rushed to the scene. There were no reports of casualties at the house, which belongs to a activist in the Islamic movement Hamas
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said the house was targeted because it was being used to store weapons.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said that an IAF missile had missed a group of wanted Islamic Jihad militants in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. No injuries were reported in the Rafah air strike.
The Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip were carried out as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leaders agreed on a Palestinian national coalition government to ends their ongoing conflict.