the Gaza Strip left at least 11 Palestinians dead and over 30 others wounded.
Israel’s government defended the attack saying it was in response to massive rocket attacks against the Jewish state launched by Palestinian militants. However Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the air strike as "state terror" and accused Israel of trying to "wipe out the Palestinian people." Later in published remarks, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed his regrets that civilians had been killed, BosNewsLife monitored.
Witnesses in Gaza City told reporters that a yellow van traveling on a busy highway in northern Gaza was struck about midday by Israeli fire. The Voice of America (VOA) network quoted Captain Noa Meir, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Defense Forces, as saying that the controversial operation was targeted at Islamic Jihad militants who were planning on launching Katyusha rockets against targets in Israel.
"This is actually the third incident in the past two months of terrorists launching the more advanced Katyusha rocket," Meir said. "This rocket has a range of 20 kilometers and has proved deadly in the past."
MAJOR SETBACK
It came as a major setback for Palestinians as Israeli officials suspended large scale air strikes against targets in Gaza following the deaths of eight Palestinians, including seven members of one family, who were killed in an explosion on a beach in the Gaza Strip last Friday, June 9.
But the Israeli military said its inquiry showed the blast was caused by an explosive buried in the sand on the beach, and not by Israeli artillery or by Israeli Navy vessels firing from offshore.
Speaking on Israeli radio, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said, because Palestinians had not stopped rocket attacks against Israel, air strikes are being resumed. It came shortly after militant group Hamas ended its 16-month cease-fire with Israel.
"CATASTROPHIC BREAKDOWN"
There is concern among Christians supporting Israel that renewed fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, coupled with a US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, could give more ammunition to Islamic militants who argue that Christians and Jews are waging a war against Islam. Some analysts have warned of a "catastrophic breakdown."
"The combination is an unusual and unique one," said Rob Malley, a Middle East peace negotiator for President Clinton who’s now the Middle East director of the International Crisis Group told reporters. "Certainly all of the omens are bad and none of the restraints that existed in the past that might have been created by the current situation are operating."
The violence came as gunmen loyal to Abbas’ Fatah Party reportedly attacked the West Bank offices of the Palestinian prime minister and the building housing the Palestinian parliament. Both institutions are controlled by Hamas.
Tensions between Hamas and Fatah have accelerated since President Abbas’ decision to schedule a referendum asking Palestinians to vote on a proposal that calls for a Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel, VOA reported. (With reports from Israel).
