Hamas vows retaliation after "Israeli" attacks kill nine in Gaza

Source: AFP, 06-02-2008
GAZA CITY: "Israeli" strikes on the Gaza Strip killed nine members of Hamas on Tuesday as the Zionist state went on high alert a day after the first martyrdom bombing on its soil by Palestinian militants in a year. An "Israeli" air raid hit a police station near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis hours after an early morning incursion by soldiers in the nearby border town of Rafah left two Hamas men dead.
Medics said seven militants from the Islamic movement were killed in the late afternoon air strike and another two were wounded.
"The men were in afternoon prayers inside the police station when the missile struck," said a security official for Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since seizing it in June.
An "Israeli" Army spokesman claimed the attack targeted a Hamas military position "in response to the Qassam [rocket] launchings that hit [the southern 'Israeli' town of] Sderot this morning."
Shortly after the strike, Hamas militants fired another four rockets at Sderot, wounding two "Israelis", as the movement vowed to avenge Tuesday's strikes.
"This blood will not be shed in vain; this crime will not go unanswered and the 'Israeli' occupation will pay a heavy price," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP shortly after the air strike.
"Israel" was already on high alert after a suicide bombing on Monday in the southern town of Dimona - home to the country's illegal nuclear program - killed a woman and wounded nearly a dozen other people, in the first such attack since January 2007.
Following the air strike, Hamas' armed wing claimed full responsibility for the Dimona attack, the first time it has claimed a self-sacrifice bombing since August 2004. According to a Hamas statement, the two bombers, Mohammad al-Hirbawi and Shadi al-Zaghair, came from the Occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil.
The "Israeli" Army arrested several male relatives of Hirbawi and Zaghair on Monday.
"Hamas has never said that it has stopped or will stop any form of resistance, including martyrdom operations," Abu Zuhri said. "The Palestinian people have the right to use all means to defend themselves."
The attack was previously claimed by three groups, including Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is tied to the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the attack.
The bombing came just two months after "Israel" and the Palestinians revived peace talks, raising fears that the already troubled discussions could be further bogged down.
Since the "Israelis" and the Palestinians formally returned to the negotiating table in November at least 159 people have been killed the majority of whom are Gaza civilians and militants.
Since the 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising 6,120 people have been killed, most of them Palestinians, according to an AFP count.
"Our forces have been placed on a heightened state of alert as we fear a wave of (so-called) terrorist attacks after Monday's attack in Dimona," Bertie Ohayon, a senior "Israeli" police officer, told public radio earlier on Tuesday.