Israeli air raid levels home of Palestinian MP Farahat

October 11, 2006

Gaza - An American-made Israeli F-16 warplane leveled the three-story home of the renowned Palestinian MP Mariam Farahat in Shujaia suburb in Gaza city in a pre-dawn missile raid Wednesday.

Local sources said that the shelling, the second in three years, flattened the house and partially destroyed the nearby home of the MP's son Nidal, who was martyred at the hands of IOF forces, other than inflicting damage to scores of buildings in the neighborhood.

No casualties were reported in the powerful explosion, except spreading panic in lines of women and children.

The son of the MP Momen Farahat, 32, said that an Israeli intelligence officer told him over the phone that their home would be shelled only half an hour before the raid. Neighbors to the lawmaker's home received similar phone calls warning them of the shelling and asking them to leave their houses.

Civil defense squads rushed to the scene immediately after the raid and put off the resultant fire as hundreds of citizens headed to offer help.

The lawmaker's home was the target of Israeli artillery fire three years ago inflicting severe damage. Mariam Farahat, who lost three of her children as martyrs in the Aqsa intifada, is renowned for her patience in receiving news of their martyrdom and for encouraging them to resist Israeli occupation.