"Israel" Strikes Gaza: Palestinian Martyred, 2 Others Wounded

Two Palestinians were wounded in an "Israeli" air strike targeting a Palestinian motorcyclist in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, witnesses and medics said.
The Palestinian hit by the strike in the southern town of Khan Yunis was seriously wounded, they said. A passer-by was also wounded.

The raid came few minutes after occupation soldiers entered the Strip east of the southern city of Khan Yunis. The soldiers were seen opening fire with automatic rifles on open areas near the border, they said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The "Israeli" military had no immediate comment on the reports.

This comes after "Israeli" Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that "Israel" needed to respond immediately to the killing of an "Israeli" occupation soldier in a bomb blast on the Gaza border earlier in the day.

"If there is an incident on the border and someone shoots, there's a bomb there or the smuggling of arms, 'Israel' needs to respond immediately," said Livni.

In a bid to regain her plummeting popularity ahead of the elections on February 10, Livni
added: "'Israel' doesn't need to demonstrate restraint against terror in the Gaza Strip. This was true before the operation, and it is true after it."

Moreover, "Israeli" Defense (War) Minister Ehud Barak told military academy cadets on Tuesday that the incident "is serious, and it cannot be accepted and we will respond. There is no benefit in specifying [the response]."

Barak claimed that "Israel's" recent offensive in Gaza, code-named "Operation Cast Lead," was "a very hard blow for Hamas."

He said the campaign did not mean that Hamas would no longer be "Israel's" enemy, or that there would be no more attempted attacks along and inside the border, or no other incidents that "Israel" would have to respond to.