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Israeli air strike kills Hamas commander in Gaza

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Israel launches air strike on Gaza

Sat, Jul 31 2010

1 of 3. A Hamas policeman surveys the damage after Israeli air strikes in the central of Gaza Strip July 31, 2010. Israel carried out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon, witnesses said.

Credit: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA | Sat Jul 31, 2010 2:29pm EDT

GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike has killed a Hamas military commander and rocket-maker in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian territory said on Saturday.

Issa Batran, whose caravan was hit by a missile, was the first Hamas commander killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza since Israel wound up a three-week military offensive there in January 2009.

Hundreds of Hamas supporters attended his funeral.

The Israeli military said it launched air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza after a rocket fired from the enclave exploded in the city of Ashkelon.

The air strikes also hit a training camp used by Hamas and smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Several people were wounded by debris, Palestinian medics said.

Hamas said Batran was a rocket-maker and the head of its military wing in the central Gaza Strip. The militant group has a rocket arsenal of crude, homemade projectiles and longer-range rockets smuggled in through tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Batran escaped an Israeli attack on his house in January 2009 during a devastating military offensive aimed at stopping daily rocket fire from Gaza into Israeli cities. His wife and children were killed in the attack.

Israel carried out the air strikes on Friday after militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Ashkelon on Israel's Mediterranean coast, blowing out the windows of an apartment block and damaging parked cars in a residential area.

No one was injured by the blast, which police said was caused by a 122mm, Chinese-made Grad rocket. But the attack ended more than a year of calm for the Israeli city closest to Gaza.

It was the most serious attack on Ashkelon, which has a population of 125,000 and lies on the coast about 12 km (7 miles) north of the Gaza Strip, since Israel ended a three-week military offensive in Gaza in January 2009.

The offensive largely ended rocket fire into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Joseph Nasr, editing by Jon Hemming)
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Comments (13)
Joesmoe wrote:
Something to egg on Iran with.

Jul 31, 2010 5:36am EDT  --  Report as abuse
USAalltheway wrote:
Hooray! Good job Israel. Where is all the international pressure to bring peace between Hamass and the Palestinian Authority?

Jul 31, 2010 8:14am EDT  --  Report as abuse
Aries3 wrote:
When the terrorist flew the planes into the world trade center on 9/11. the news media showed Hamas and the palestinian people of Gaza dancing and cheering in the streets, and praising Allah for the great victory of Al Qeada against the Americans. Those people are NOT our friends. Good for you Israel!!!

Jul 31, 2010 8:30am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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