A bloody day in Gaza: Israeli military adds 3 children to list of dead

27 February 2008

Gaza-Ma'an- Three Palestinian children were killed and six injured in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday evening, in the Al Taw'am area close to the Khazandar gas station, north of Gaza City.

The total number of Palestinians injured was 17, including the six children.

Dr. Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry, said that ambulances transported the injured and dead children, including the headless body of a child, to the Shifa' and Kamal hospital.

He added that five children were rushed to the intensive care unit and the operating room, with one clinically dead.

Witnesses said that those involved were passing by a local-made missile launcher that was struck by the Israeli forces.

Earlier in the day, two Palestinians were killed and two others injured when Israeli artillery targeted an orange grove in the Ash-Shuja'iyya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

Hassanain said that one of the dead was identified as 27-year-old Minwir Abu Mandeel, who worked as a guard at the grove. The second victim's identity remains unknown as the corpse arrived at the Kamal Udwan Hospital so badly damaged that it was not possible to identify the victim.

On Wednesday morning, five Al-Qassam Brigades activists were killed, and several bystanders were injured, after Israeli helicopters launched two missiles at a car in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that the car was targeted near Al-Aqsa University.

In another Israeli raid on Wednesday morning an Islamic Jihad activist was killed and two others injured when an Israeli unmanned drone targeted two sites east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

A spokesperson of the the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said that the victim was Zaky Abu Zaid. The wounded were evacuated to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital for treatment.

On Tuesday evening, Palestinian medical sources announced the death of a Palestinian farmer, 35-year-old Hasan Abu Sabt from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The sources said he received a gunshot to the pelvis from the Israeli forces stationed at the Kissufim military post, east of Khan Younis.

Israeli warplanes also launched two air raids on eastern Khan Younis and eastern Gaza City on Wednesday afternoon.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that the Israeli warplanes targeted a group of Palestinian activists in eastern Gaza City. Hassanain emphasized that noone was injured in those attacks.