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Israeli Helicopter Fires Missile at Gaza Camp
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2004
By Shahdi al-Kashif
GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a two-storey building in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) early Thursday, witnesses said.
The Israeli army said the target was a weapons workshop at the Khan Younis refugee camp operated by the Islamic militant Hamas group.
It said the missile strike, launched shortly after midnight, was followed by a "series of explosions indicating there was a large amount of explosives inside."
The raid came a day after a crude Qassam rocket attack launched from Gaza damaged a home in southern Israel, but caused no injuries. Israel has vowed to put an end to such attacks.
Witnesses said the Israeli missile hit a house and a metal foundry in the building which swiftly burst into flames, damaging at least three other neighboring homes.
Dozens of neighbors gathered at the scene of the blast, some of them trying to extinguish the blaze, while others combed through the rubble in search of casualties.
Medics said one person was treated at the scene for minor glass cuts while another was treated for shock. It was not immediately clear whether the family that lived in the top floor of the building was there when the missile struck, medics said.
Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, is one of the main groups behind a series of suicide bomb attacks that have killed some 450 Israelis in the past four years.
More than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since an uprising began in September 2000.
Thursday's air strike came as Gaza coped with a wave of internal strife over demands for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) to reform his security apparatus and delegate wider powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, who has offered his resignation.
The unrest was seen in part as a power struggle that has erupted among Palestinian factions jockeying for control of the seaside area, in anticipation of Israel's planned evacuation of Gaza in 2005.
SOURCE
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