Three-year-old boy killed in Gaza Strip
A three-year-old boy was killed and nine other people wounded in the northern Gaza Strip today when rockets fired by militants misfired and landed in Palestinian areas, rescue workers said.
Witnesses said militants fired three rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot where thousands of opponents of the planned Israeli withdrawal had gathered in a demonstration.
Two of the rockets fell in Palestinian areas and the third fell in an open field near Sderot.
Among the wounded were five children, aged four to 11, including four children of Hisham Abdel Razek, a senior official in the ruling Fatah party and a former Palestinian Cabinet minister. Abdel Razek’s wife was also wounded.
The dead boy was identified as Yasser Adnan Ashkar. His brother Ali (aged 11) was in a critical condition, hospital officials said.
One of the stray rockets fell on the Ashkar house in the Beit Hanoun area, north east of Gaza City. Abdel Razek’s wife and children were visiting her brother at the time, witnesses said. The house was severely damaged.
Minutes before the rockets were launched, Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli convoy travelling to the isolated Israeli settlement of Netzarim today, settlers and the army said. There were no reports of injuries.
Palestinian residents nearby said the explosion, just south of Gaza City, was followed by gunfire. The army said it was carrying out searches in the area.
The violent Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy.
Militant attacks against Israelis had dropped off after a February truce between Israel and the Palestinians. But in recent weeks, as the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza approaches, militants have sepped up attacks in an attempt to portray the Israeli pull-out as a military victory for then Palestinians.
Israel has threatened to launch a major military offensive into Gaza if militants attack troops during the pull-out set to begin on August 17. Israel plans to evacuate all 21 Gaza settlements and four more in the West Bank.
