"Israel" Resumes Attacks on Gaza, Assassinates Four Senior Palestinians

Source: Agencies, 13-03-2008
AL-QUDS--'Israeli' planes on Thursday hit northern Gaza Strip effectively ending a lull in the violence since March 8, the occupying regime's armed forces announced.
An army spokesman claimed: "The 'Israeli' air force raid targeted a rocket launch that was ready to fire in the Beit Hanun area in the northern Gaza Strip."
"Twelve rockets were fired from Gaza towards southern 'Israel' overnight," he added. "Two of the rockets exploded at Sderot, damaging a building, but without injuring anybody."
On the other hand, Palestinian hospital officials said no one was hurt in the Beit Hanoun air raid.
The 'Israeli' regime and the Palestinians had respected a tacit truce since March 8 which led to a drop in violence.
Zionist undercover Arabists (Special Forces) on Wednesday martyred four Palestinians, including two senior leaders of the Islamic Jihad, in the West Bank town of Beit Lahm.
The West Bank casualties included Mohammed Shahada, 48, a top leader in the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, and Ahmed al-Balbul, 48, a senior official in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely tied to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party.
The other two men were identified as Imad al-Kamel and Eissa Marzuk, both resistance fighters in the Islamic Jihad.
A security official, who asked not to be named, said the occupying forces attacked the four as they drove through Beit Lahm, shower the car with a barrage of gunfire and grenades.
In Retaliation, the Islamic Jihad on Thursday said it fired at least 15 rockets into the western Negev by early morning, in what it called an "initial" response to deadly 'Israeli' raids in the West Bank. A dozen rockets and two mortars were fired late Wednesday and early Thursday, 'Israeli' occupation security forces said. Two rockets struck a warehouse and soccer stadium in the rocket-weary 'Israeli' town of Sderot. 'Israeli' aircraft struck a loaded rocket launcher early Thursday, but no Palestinian injuries were reported.
At least 351 people, most of them Gazans, have been killed since the occupying regime and the Palestinians formally relaunched peace talks at a US conference in late November, according to media count.
Wednesday's deaths also brought to 6,314 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
Islamic Jihad leader Nafez Azzam in Gaza denounced the 'Israeli' raid. "This new crime reflects the true face of the occupation," he said. "Killing still continues while they are talking about the possibility of bringing calm, but if they think that calm means Palestinian surrender, they are mistaken."
The latest spiral of fighting began just hours after Hamas' prime minister in Gaza called for a period of calm with 'Israel' after laying out conditions.
The offer by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had come amid growing signs that the 'Israeli' regime and Hamas were moving closer toward an Egyptian-brokered truce deal that has killed more than 120 people, nearly all of them Palestinians.
The crux of the deal would be the deployment of officers loyal to Hamas' political rival, Mahmoud Abbas, at Gaza's crossings with 'Israel' and Egypt.
In a speech at Gaza City's Islamic University, Haniyeh demanded an end to 'Israeli' military activity in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a lifting of economic sanctions and the opening of Gaza's borders.
The impoverished area with more than 1.4 million residents has been sealed since last June.