“Israeli” air raid kills six in Gaza including women & children

Source: Aljazeera, 12-7-2006
Six people, including women and children, have been killed in an "Israeli" air raid on the house of a Hamas member, as "Israeli" tanks and troops pushed into the central Gaza Strip.
"Israel" has vowed to continue the operation, which has already cost the lives of over 60 Palestinians, until the resistance fighters free an abducted soldier and stop launching makeshift rockets over the border.
Dozens of armoured vehicles trundled into central Gaza overnight on Wednesday, effectively cutting the main road down the territory from which "Israel" withdrew less than a year ago after a 38-year occupation.
"Israel" has rejected calls from the governing Hamas Islamic movement for negotiations on a prisoner swap. Hamas accuses "Israel" of using the offensive to try to topple its elected government.
Hamas commander unhurt
In an attempt to kill senior commanders of Hamas` armed wing, an "Israeli" air raid brought down a three-storey building on the northern edge of Gaza City.
At least six people, including two women and two children, were killed in the attack that turned the house into a tangle of twisted metal, broken concrete, blood and dust.
But the blast and air strike on a nearby car hurt only one Hamas leader, fighters said. Abu Anas al-Ghandour, commander in northern Gaza, was not in a life-threatening condition.
The wreckage of the building recalled "Israel's" assassination of a Hamas military commander, Salah Shehadeh, in 2002 by dropping a one-tonne bomb on his home. The death of 14 other people in that attack drew a wave of international criticism.
Mangled bodies
Palestinians medics and officials accused "Israel" meanwhile of using new weapons in its latest offensive, speculating that they might be chemical or radioactive.
Bassem Naim, the health minister, said the weapons were causing severe wounds which physicians were unable to treat while dead bodies reaching hospitals in Gaza were charred and mutilated.
In Gaza City's Shifa hospital, Dr al-Saqqa supported the claims.
"Even bodies of the injured have been almost completely burnt. They have been deformed in a very ugly way that we have never seen before," he told Aljazeera channel.
Al-Saqaa, who heads the hospital`s emergency service, said relatives had been unable to identify the dead victims.
"When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of the shrapnel that hit the person killed," he said, adding that the bodies seemed to have been chemically burnt.
"We are sure that "Israel" is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in the new operation. More than 25% of the injured are children, aged under 16."