Israeli strike kills two more Gaza militants

GAZA CITY, Saturday (AFP) - A pre-dawn Israeli air strike north of Gaza City killed at least two militants from the Islamist Hamas movement today, medics said, amid escalating hostilities in the territory. The two militants were in their 20s and members of the Ezzadine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, which has ruled the increasingly isolated territory since seizing power seven months ago, medics said.

A second strike on a car in Gaza City left no casualties. An army spokeswoman said Israeli aircraft carried out two strikes in northern Gaza on Saturday targeting rocket launchers, but would not specify where they took place. A third Hamas militant died Saturday from wounds suffered in an air strike on Thursday.

The deaths brought to 6,088 the number of Israelis and Palestinians killed since the latest Palestinian uprising began in 2000, according to an AFP count. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses reported a limited Israeli incursion involving around a dozen tanks in eastern Gaza, where fighting between Israel and the Islamist group has intensified in recent days.

The strikes came one day after a massive Israeli airstrike on an abandoned government building in the heart of Gaza City killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded dozens of people, including several children. Eyewitnesses said at least 30 of the victims were attending a wedding near the building that used to house the interior ministry and that the woman who died was the aunt of the groom, who was among the wounded.

“I could not believe what happened. We were sitting in front of our house, talking and joking,” Mohammed Abdel Jawad, 20, the groom said. “Suddenly there was this big explosion and a huge cloud of smoke. No one could see anything, we just heard crying,” he said. A second strike hit a Hamas police building in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, wounding four people. A third strike on a Hamas building in the north of the territory left no casualties, medics said.

The army confirmed it carried out the raids and said it attacked the interior ministry building because it was a “Hamas headquarters.””We attacked the building and nothing else,” an army spokeswoman said. “We do not plan on hurting any civilians.”In recent days Israel has escalated its operations in Gaza, killing at least 36 militants since Tuesday in the biggest flare-up of violence since Hamas took power in June.

In the same period Hamas militants have fired some 200 rockets and mortars at Israeli towns and fields near the Gaza border, lightly wounding more than 10 people. On Thursday Israel announced it would close all crossings into and out of Gaza for several days to all but essential humanitarian aid, intensifying a nearly two year siege of the territory aimed at stemming rocket fire.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed concern over Israel's decision to tighten the closures as he renewed his appeal for an immediate end to the escalating violence in the region.“Of particular concern today, in addition to the upsurge in violence, is the decision by Israel to close the crossing points in between Gaza and Israel used for the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” his press office said.