IDF kills nine Hamas men in Gaza, Qassams rain on Sderot - Haaretz

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Thu., February 07, 2008 Adar1 1, 5768

Israel Time: 02:08 (EST+7)

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IDF kills nine Hamas men in Gaza, Qassams rain on Sderot

By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies

Tags: hamas, israel, iaf, gaza

The conflict in Gaza heated up again yesterday after a few days of relative quiet, in response to the suicide bombing perpetrated by Hamas in Dimona on Monday. Israel killed nine Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip, while Palestinians fired heavy barrages of rockets at southern Israel that moderately wounded a 14-year-old girl and lightly wounded several other civilians.

Yesterday's rocket barrages were the heaviest since Hamas breached the border with Egypt two weeks ago. The Israel Defense Forces believes that should the escalation continue, a large-scale ground operation in Gaza will become more likely.

The fighting in Gaza began before dawn with a small-scale ground operation near Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border. IDF soldiers ran into a group of four armed Hamas operatives, two of whom were killed in the subsequent fire fight. Palestinians identified the dead men as Mahmoud Abu Teh and Bakker Abu Ghajal.

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Soon afterward, the first rocket barrage hit Sderot, but no one was hurt. The IDF believes that Hamas fired the rockets, though two other organizations - the Popular Resistance Committees and the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization - claimed responsibility.

At 4 P.M., an air force strike on a Hamas police station in Abassan, east of Khan Yunis, killed seven Hamas operatives and wounded several others. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said that some of the wounded were in critical condition. Palestinians identified the dead men as Rifat Kadih, Ahmed al-Masbah, Wafi Abu Yusef, Maataz Abu Shahala, Osama Abu Saada, Mohammed Abu Saada and Abed a-Nasser Abu Tir.

The strike caused Hamas to order all its forces to evacuate their buildings, lest Israel bomb others as well.

IDF sources said the attack was a response to that morning's rocket salvo. However, it appears that Israel also wanted to respond to Monday's bombing, for which Hamas claimed credit, though the terrorists came from the organization's Hebron wing rather than from Gaza.

Following the strike on the police station, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Israel would pay a high price for "these crimes," and the organization's initial response was not long in coming: It fired what it said were dozens of rockets and mortars at Sderot over the course of the next few hours, starting at about 5:30 P.M. Altogether, according to Israeli sources, 12 rockets and 13 mortars landed in Israel yesterday.

As a result of the evening's rocket attacks, seven people were taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment, and several others were treated for shock. One rocket scored a direct hit on a house, which was not reinforced against rockets, and caused heavy damage. The family was evacuated to a hotel in Ashkelon.

Another rocket hit a high-voltage wire, causing a power outage that lasted for hours.

President Shimon Peres was supposed to have visited Sderot at about 5:30 P.M. yesterday to attend the dedication of a Torah scroll at the house of a local resident. It was just at that hour that the rocket barrage began, and one rocket landed near the house where the president was supposed to have been. In fact, Peres had not yet left Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, where he was visiting those wounded in Monday's suicide bombing. However, he did arrive later, despite the rockets.

Another rocket landed near two kindergartens while the schools were holding a joint activity for parents and children. Neither kindergarten is fully reinforced against rocket attacks, but no one was hurt.

Later that evening, another rocket landed on the grounds of a high local school, but no one was there at the time.

Three rockets hit local factories, two in the Sderot industrial park and one in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, causing property damage but no casualties.

Later yesterday evening, air force helicopters raked areas in northern Gaza from which rockets are often launched with "deterrent fire," and Palestinian sources said that three civilians were wounded. The army said it had been targeting rocket-launching squads.

Also yesterday, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on farmers working in the fields of Kibbutz Nir Oz, near Gaza. No one was hurt, but some farm equipment was damaged.

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