Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 15 Palestinians, including a militant group chief, medics said yesterday, in the deadliest 24 hours in the border area in more than three years.
Thousands of mourners chanted for revenge and fired automatic weapons into the air
A Palestinian riding a motorcycle was killed and two others were wounded in an Israeli air raid close to the southern town of Rafah near the border with Egypt yesterday afternoon, Palestinian medics said.
Two men also on a motorbike were killed earlier the same day in another raid on the town of Khan Yunis, medics said.
After that report the Israeli military said an aircraft had attacked “a terrorist squad” planning to fire rockets.
The raids came as Palestinian militants fired more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel since Friday morning, the army said.
The Palestinian barrage wounded four people, one of them seriously, Israeli military sources said. Israeli media said three of those wounded were Thai labourers working on a farm near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Residents interviewed on radio and television said they had been told to stay close to bomb shelters and that large public gatherings had been banned, leading to the cancellation of several football matches yesterday.
An army statement said earlier that the air force had attacked a range of targets in Gaza since Friday, while Palestinian medics said a total of 15 Palestinians were killed.
One of the strikes killed the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, Zohair al-Qaisi, and fellow member Mahmud Hanani, the ultra-hardline militant group said.
The PRC threatened reprisals for Qaisi’s death, while Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said the air strikes also killed 10 of its members.
It was the most deadly 24-hour period on the Gaza-Israel border since a devastating Israeli assault in December 2008-January 2009 aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.
Thousands of mourners, many chanting calls for revenge and firing automatic weapons into the air, buried the 12 Palestinians killed earlier at funerals across Gaza yesterday.
Palestinian security officials said that at one funeral, east of Gaza City and close to the Israeli border fence, Israeli troops opened fire at a crowd of mourners, wounding four people, one in the head. The army had no immediate comment.
About 1,000 took part in Qaisi’s funeral in Rafah.
The Israeli military said its air raids were “in direct response to the rocket fire at Israeli communities in southern Israel”.
“Aircraft targeted a terrorist in the central Gaza Strip and six additional terrorist squads who were in the final stages of preparing to fire rockets at Israel from separate locations in the northern and the central Gaza Strip.”
The PRC and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement, said they fired rockets into Israel on Friday.
The Palestinian WAFA news agency quoted a statement by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority condemning Israel’s retaliation, saying it would “escalate the circle of violence in the region”.
Gaza tensions since January 2011
After relative calm since Israel and Hamas entered a tacit truce last August, a new round of tit-for-tat fighting erupted last Friday after militants fired rockets into the Jewish state and the Israelis responded with an air strike that killed a militant chief.
Here are the main developments in tensions between Israel and the Palestinians since the beginning of last year:
January 2011
- 5: Israeli troops kill one Palestinian and wound another, saying they were trying to cross the border fence.
- 7: Militants wound four Israeli soldiers with gunshots and mortar fire.
- 11: Israeli warplanes kill one man and injure another in Gaza.
- 13: Hamas orders its security forces to ensure militant groups observe a truce on firing rockets at Israel a day after the factions agreed to comply.
- 17: A rocket hits southern Israel despite the promised truce.
- 18: A teenager is killed and two other people wounded as Israeli tanks carry out an operation in northern Gaza.
- 22: Israeli artillery fire kills a Palestinian and wounds two, Palestinian medics say in statements denied by the army.
February 2011
- 17: Three Palestinians are shot dead during clashes with the Israeli army.
- 23: Israeli tank fire kills one Palestinian fighter and wounds 10 other people in clashes, as militants fire the first rocket at the southern Israeli city of Beersheva since the Operation Cast Lead offensive against Gaza.
- 24: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns Gaza militants not to “test” Israel, as fighter jets pounded targets across the coastal enclave.
- 27: A Palestinian is killed when an Israeli tank opens fire on a group of militants.
- 28: Israeli troops kill a Palestinian who was collecting gravel in what Israel says was an off-limits border zone.
March 2011
- 16: An Israeli air strike kills two militants from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, after a mortar shell lands in Israel.
- 19: The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which had been observing a de facto truce since the end of Cast Lead, fire some 50 mortar rounds at Israel to avenge the deaths three days earlier.
- 20: Two Palestinian teenagers are shot dead near the security barrier as they were trying to sneak into Israel to find work, relatives say.
- 22: In what was the bloodiest day since the January 2009 end of Cast Lead, air strikes and tank attacks kill eight Palestinians – four members of the military wing of Islamic Jihad, and four civilians who were playing football, including two children. Netanyahu expresses his regrets at the civilian deaths.
- 23: Gaza rocket and mortar fire on Israel continues, with the Al-Quds Brigades firing three Grad rockets and vowing to strike deep into Israel.
A package bomb explodes in Jerusalem, the first such attack since 2004, killing one person and wounding more than 30. No one claims responsibility.
Netanyahu promises to defend Israel with a “will of iron”.
Hamas says it is determined to restore calm in Gaza.
- 24: Four Palestinians, including one militant, are wounded by air strikes on a day in which fire from Gaza continues to hit Israel.
- 26: Palestinian militant factions announce that they are committed to calming tensions if the Jewish state reciprocates.
- 27: Israeli air strike kills two militants from Islamic Jihad, which vows revenge for their deaths.
Israel deploys a first battery of its “Iron Dome” anti-missile system in Beersheva to defend the city against rocket attacks.
April 2011
- 7: An anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hits a school bus in Israel, fatally wounding a youngster. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak orders the army to “react swiftly with all necessary means”. In the ensuing three-day wave of Israeli reprisals and Palestinian counter-strikes 19 Palestinians were killed and 66 wounded.
- 10: Israel and Hamas halt hostilities.
August 2011
- 18: Gunmen ambush Israeli buses and cars on Route 12, which runs along the Egyptian border, 20 kilometres north of the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing eight Israelis and wounding more than 25. Israel blames the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees militant group, which denies responsibility.
- 18-19: Israeli aerial reprisals on Gaza kill 15 Palestinians, including members and leaders of armed groups.
- 18-21: About 100 rockets and mortar rounds are fired into southern Israel, killing one Israeli.
- 21: Hamas announces that the main militant groups agree to an informal truce on condition that Israel stops attacking the Gaza Strip.
- 26: The truce finally takes hold after 26 Palestinians and one Israeli are killed.
October 2011
- 29-30: Israeli air strike kills five Palestinians about to fire rockets. Ten Palestinians and an Israeli are killed in 24 hours. After Egyptian intervention Gaza Palestinian factions agree to resume the truce.
December 2011
- 9: The death of two Palestinian fighters in an Israeli air strike sparks another flare-up of rocket fire and aerial retaliation in which two Palestinian civilians are killed.
March 2012
- 9-10: Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill 14 Palestinians, including the Popular Resistance Committees chief, and wound 20. Militants fire at least 90 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel.